Darkwood – Concept document
Darkwood
– Concept Document
Executive Summary
Game
Darkwood is a first-person 3D multiplayer horror game. You are set free in a large forest at
night along with several other people, and the only thing you have is your flashlight. Can
you make it through the night without losing your sanity?
Story
A group of people –including you- responded to a flash mob ad on the internet to go into
Darkwood forest at night. You are not allowed to bring anything besides a flashlight, and
you have to stay in the forest until dawn.
Inbetween those two points, the rest of the story is created by the players themselves.
There is no linear story to follow, players are completely free to choose how they spend
their time in the forest. There are several interesting locations like a small castle, an
abandoned shed and a lake to explore or use to scare other players. You can make strange
noises, set traps, form alliances (and betray them); anything to make it through the night.
But beware - you are not alone in the forest. There might be some truth to the rumors of
ghosts and hauntings in Darkwood after all...
Setting
The game is set in modern times, and takes place in Darkwood, a large forest similar to for
instance Central Park, at an undisclosed location.
The game is presented in a realistic 3D style akin to games like Resident Evil or Alone in
the Dark. Everything is dark and dirty. The game should evoke that uneasy feeling of
walking through the forest at night. Audio also plays an important role to create the mood,
since it will be very hard to see anything beyond the reach of your flashlight.
USP (Unique Selling Points)
Darkwood is the first social horror game, where players can simulate the experience of
going into the woods at night with a group of friends. This is aided by a number of things:
The Fear meter
When scary things happen around you, your Fear meter will start to fill up. This will cause
you to imagine things that are not really there, increase the risk of you falling down when
you are running, and blur your vision. When it is full, you even run the risk of going
insane. This means you could have a heartattack, stumble and crack your head, or become
violent towards other players. Most often this results in virtual death. Finding a quiet, welllit spot to rest or scaring other people can decrease your Fear meter again.
© 2009 Tim Hengeveld
Page 1 of 13
Printdate: 13-jul-17
Darkwood – Concept document
Multifunctional flashlight
Your flashlight is your best friend. And also your worst enemy. It allows you to see in the
dark, but it also makes your location visible to other players. That, and the fact your
batteries can run out, force you to sometimes turn off your flashlight. This increases your
Fear, however, since the forest is very dense so it will be very dark.
You can also use your flashlight to scare other people, by pointing it up at your face for
instance. Or when you are sufficiently scared, you might also use it as a melee weapon.
Dynamic voice chat
Voice chat in games is very useful, but can also be just as annoying. To enhance realism,
Darkwood has a special voice chat system that accounts for the distance between the
players. So the further another player is away from you, the fainter his voice will be. So if
you scream for help, you better hope there is someone around to hear it...
Game goal
Make it through the night with your sanity intact.
Target audience
People who generally enjoy horror movies, psychological horror and mind games, who
enjoy LARPing or Role-Playing, who like to believe ghosts exist, and would like to have the
experience of being in the woods at night without the real physical danger.
Highlights
-
Hiding in a tree and whispering “I see you...”
Being followed by someone hiding in the dark
Setting up a trap with the help of another player
Your flashlight running out of batteries
Wondering whether the things you hear and see are real or not
Going insane when your fear meter is filled
© 2009 Tim Hengeveld
Page 2 of 13
Printdate: 13-jul-17
Darkwood – Concept document
Introduction
Darkwood is a multiplayer horror game designed during the two-week Narrative Game
Design seminar at the HKU school of Game Design and Development.
It attempts to simulate the experience of going into the woods at night with a group of
people and scaring eachother.
Many horror games rely on gore and monsters to scare the player. But once you present
fear as a target that you can defeat, you defuse it. When players realize they can eliminate
the source of their fear, they are no longer scared of it. This is why weapons are a big
moodkiller in many horror games.
The games that seem to scare people the most are games like Silent Hill and Penumbra,
that bank on a sense of dread, isolation and helplessness. These are strong factors in
creating a sense of uncomfort that is not rooted in anything explicitely scary. It’s the
possibility of it that gives you the creeps.
It is these factors that are the building blocks of Darkwood.
© 2009 Tim Hengeveld
Page 3 of 13
Printdate: 13-jul-17
Darkwood – Concept document
Index
1. Game Experience ..................................................................................................5
2. Setting ................................................................................................................7
2.1 Graphical Style ................................................................................................7
2.2 Audio Style......................................................................................................7
2.3 Setting ...........................................................................................................7
2.4 Characters ......................................................................................................8
2.5 Story ..............................................................................................................8
3. Game ..................................................................................................................8
3.1 Global Game Rules ...........................................................................................8
3.2 Camera ...........................................................................................................9
3.3 Character Control & Abilities ..............................................................................9
3.4 Core Gameplay ................................................................................................9
3.5 World .............................................................................................................9
3.6 Replay .......................................................................................................... 10
3.7 Menu ............................................................................................................ 10
4. Goals ................................................................................................................ 11
4.1 Goals ............................................................................................................ 11
4.2 Rewards........................................................................................................ 11
5. Levels ............................................................................................................... 11
5.1 Level design .................................................................................................. 11
5.2 Difficulty ....................................................................................................... 12
5.3 Saving .......................................................................................................... 12
6. Audience & Platform ............................................................................................ 12
6.1 Target Audience ............................................................................................. 12
6.2 Platform ........................................................................................................ 12
7. Opportunities & Threats ....................................................................................... 13
7.1 Opportunities................................................................................................. 13
7.2 Threats ......................................................................................................... 13
© 2009 Tim Hengeveld
Page 4 of 13
Printdate: 13-jul-17
Darkwood – Concept document
1. Game Experience
To illustrate the way Darkwood intends to achieve the aforementioned experience, the
following describes a possible gameplay scenario:
After entering the forest (more on this
in section 3.7 – Menu), you are
standing inside the gates of Darkwood
forest, in a little area lit by a
streetlight. The forest is a gaping
black void in front of you. You
activate your flashlight and step into
the darkness. Everything is eerily
quiet. All that you can hear is the
gentle rustling of the trees in the wind
and the sound of your own footsteps.
You walk for a while, and the forest
gets denser. Your flashlight can only
illuminate a small portion of your
view, and it casts eerie shadows. The
sound of twigs snapping. You start to
feel uneasy. Something is rustling
through the bushes to your right. You
turn in its direction, and suddenly a
black cat jumps into the lightbeam
and hisses at you, then runs off into
the darkness.
Your breathing becomes audible for a
second as you catch your breath. You
try to see where the cat went, but it
is too dark, so you turn back onto the
path you were walking on. In the
distance you can see a bit of light.
Probably another streetlamp. But
what is that shape over there? Is that
a person? Why is he standing there?
You call out to him, but there is no
response. As you steadily approach
he does not move. Then suddenly he
walks briskly into the bushes. You
stop. Why did he go there? What is he up to? Slowly you continue to the light, occasionally
pointing your flashlight at the spot in the treeline where the person disappeared to, but
there is no sign of him.
You arrive at a small clearing with a
streetlight and a bench. You sit down
on the bench for a second to calm
down. Then you notice you cannot
hear the trees rustling anymore. In
fact, you cannot hear anything
besides your own heartbeat. Your
anxiety starts to rise again.
© 2009 Tim Hengeveld
Page 5 of 13
Printdate: 13-jul-17
Darkwood – Concept document
Suddenly, a second shadow appears
behind you. You jump up and turn
around, looking right into the wideopen eyes of a hooded man with a
scarf wrapped around his face! In an
instant he pushes you over and runs
off.
Your fear shoots through the roof,
and your vision becomes grainy and
blurry as you crawl up from the
ground. The man has disappeared
again, but you’re not sticking around
to wait until he strikes again. You run
off in a random direction and cut into
the forest, zig-zagging through trees.
Your heart is pounding. Was that
another player? Or a crazy murderer?
The forest becomes denser and
darker, until everything is pitch-black
apart from the light of your flashlight.
You abruptly stop, turn it off and
crouch down behind a big tree. Your
vision starts returning to normal, and
your breathing slows. No sign of any
pursuers. But now you are all alone in
the middle of the dark forest...
Now what?
© 2009 Tim Hengeveld
Page 6 of 13
Printdate: 13-jul-17
Darkwood – Concept document
2. Setting
2.1 Graphical Style
The game is presented in a realistic 3D style akin to games like Resident Evil or Alone in
the Dark. Everything is dark and dirty. The game should evoke that uneasy feeling of
walking through the forest at night. Weather effects like fog will play an important part in
this. There is no traditional GUI or HUD, this is all done with audio and visual elements like
grainy vision and red flashes.
Concept art for Alone in the Dark 5: The New Nightmare
2.2 Audio Style
Audio plays an important role in creating the mood for this game, since it will be very hard
to see anything beyond the reach of your flashlight.
There will be no music (real life doesn’t have a soundtrack either after all), and the
majority of the time it will be very quiet apart from foley sounds like trees rustling and
water flowing, and the sound of your own footsteps. All other sounds will be generated by
the players themselves, either via voice chat or as a result of their ingame actions.
To enhance realism, Darkwood has a special voice communication system that accounts for
the distance between the players. So the further another player is away from you, the
fainter his voice will be.
You HUD is also mostly audio-based aswell. When your (ingame) anxiety rises, heavy
breathing will become audible, aswell as a pounding heartbeat to indicate you’re in danger.
This might also trigger hallucinations in the form of whispers and such.
2.3 Setting
The game is set in modern times, and takes place in Darkwood, a large forest similar to for
instance Central Park, at an undisclosed location.
Screenshot of Alone in the Dark 5: The New Nightmare
© 2009 Tim Hengeveld
Page 7 of 13
Printdate: 13-jul-17
Darkwood – Concept document
2.4 Characters
Players can choose from a number of preset male and female characters available in the
game. They can customize their outfit and physical traits to their liking and give their
character a name. These characters are basically an empty shell for the player. None of
the characters have any personalities or even lines of dialog. That is all content generated
by the players themselves.
There are no human NPC’s in the game, just a few animals like crows and stray cats. They
move around on their own routines, but you can scare them away, or pick them up and
put them down somewhere else. You can’t kill them.
2.5 Story
A group of people –including you- responded to a flash mob ad on the internet to go into
Darkwood forest at night. You are not allowed to bring anything besides a flashlight, and
you have to stay in the forest until dawn.
Inbetween those two points, the rest of the story is created by the players themselves.
There is no linear story to follow, players are completely free to choose how they spend
their time in the forest. There are several interesting locations like a small castle, an
abandoned shed and a lake to explore or use to scare other players. You can make strange
noises, set traps, form alliances (and betray them); anything to make it through the night.
3. Game
3.1 Global Game Rules
Players have to spend the entire night in the forest to ‘win’ the game. The duration of the
night can be set by the server host, varying from 30 minutes to several hours. If players
want to leave, they will have to find the exit of the forest first. If they simply close the
program they will remain idle for 15 minutes, before they are kicked from the server.
Those who have not died or gone insane by the end of the night win.
By default, the game randomly inserts strange occurences to enhance the creepy
atmosphere and incite players to stay on their toes. The intensity of these occurances can
also be set by the server host, in the range of natural – supernatural. Natural only includes
effects like fog or the wind slamming a door shut. Supernatural may contain whispers in
the dark, or a rare apparition. These occurances can also be disabled completely.
Each strange occurrence or scare decreases a certain amount of sanity from you sanity
meter. At 75%, your breathing or heartbeat becomes audible.
At 50%, your vision becomes a little blurry and you might catch a strange shadow out of
the corner of your eyes every now and then.
At 25%, your vision becomes a little more blurrier and grainy. You may start to hear
strange sounds, and the hallucinations become a little clearer. It also becomes harder for
you to walk in a straight line, and you risk tripping and falling down if you run. If you so
choose, you can also wield your flashlight as a melee weapon now. This slowly increases
your sanity back up to 50%, where you start to use it as a light source again.
If the fear meter goes down to 10%, your vision becomes red and starts pulsating. You’ll
have to run away and find a quiet spot before you pass out.
Once the meter hits 0%, you will pass out. By repeatedly hitting the forward and
backward button you can crawl up again and your sanity goes up to 10%, but you’ll have
to run away immediately or you will go insane.
If you go insane, your vision becomes clear but extremely sharpened. You’re faster than
normal, and you can use the flashlight as a melee weapon. The contrast of the enviroment
is raised and lights become a lot brighter, making it harder for you to discern your
enviroment. All other players appear as strange distorted creatures. You can attack them
with your flashlight, but doing this too often will eventually blow out your heart from
stress, and you’ll die - ingame ofcourse.
© 2009 Tim Hengeveld
Page 8 of 13
Printdate: 13-jul-17
Darkwood – Concept document
3.2 Camera
Players see the world in first-person, in order to give them the idea that they themselves
really are in that world, and are not just controlling someone else. Therefore, this firstperson perspective must never be broken. The player has full body awareness, meaning
that if they look down they can see the body of their ingame character.
3.3 Character Control & Abilities
Controls follow traditional FPS controls - WASD movement and mouselook (or dual analog
sticks for consoles). The default movement speed is walking, and by scrolling the
mousewheel (or pushing the left analog stick further up), you can move faster, all the way
up to running. Other than that, players can also jump and crouch with SPACE and
CONTROL (LT and RT on consoles). Objects in the game world can be manipulated with the
E button (or Y on consoles). The LMB (or X button on consoles) throws objects you picked
up or pushes objects / people when the player is near them. Once the fear meter is
sufficiently filled, players can also wield their flashlight as a melee weapon for a limited
time and strike using the LMB (or X button on consoles).
3.4 Core Gameplay
A strange occurrence can be an odd sound, or a glimpse of a dark shape in the shadows.
Investigating means trying to locate the source of the event.
This could turn up nothing, or you could stumble upon a scary event.
You can run away from it, but you can also choose to confront it, usually meaning trying to
hit it with the flashlight or throw some other object in the vicinity at it until it no longer
poses a threat. If the scary event was caused by another player, confronting them will
defuse the situation, because you’ll realize it was just a prank. But if the threat is of a
supernatural nature, confronting it will generally lead to even more fear, since
supernatural entities cannot be hurt.
3.5 World
The game world is presented in a realistic fashion, so it’s elements have to respond in a
realistic fashion aswell. This means you can pick up and move around any object that you
might also in real life. Leaves and branches on trees sway in the wind and bend or break
when you brush past them, trash cans can fall over, boxes can be stacked into a fort everything has proper physics applied to it.
When you open doors, you can choose at what speed to do this; open them slowly, or bash
them open right away. These are not just preset actions, they are dynamic based on the
amount of force you apply to the object. A similar system was used in Penumbra, greatly
enhancing realism and immersion.
© 2009 Tim Hengeveld
Page 9 of 13
Printdate: 13-jul-17
Darkwood – Concept document
The forest is large, but not endless. On one side, the forest is closed off with a large stone
wall with a few gates in it. On the back end, natural obstacles block the player. The forest
may get too dense to navigate, fallen trees might create a dam, or a little cliff that would
certainly result in death if you jump down. These obstacles have to be massive – the
player should be able to conclude clearly that he cannot overcome them. He should not
feel like he is walking into an invisible wall.
3.6 Replay
Because there is no linear story, the experience is different every time, which invites
players to replay it. The same principle applies to all multiplayer games really. The large
world and it’s unpredictable events invite further exploration.
Over time, the game will be extended with extra content. If you play it a lot, eventually
you will have seen the majority of scary occurences and locations. Periodic updates will
serve to keep the experience fresh. There might suddenly be little wooden dolls hanging
from certain trees (think Blair Witch), or a strange fog might settle around an old ruin.
Hallucinations and sounds could also be expanded / updated.
3.7 Menu
To integrate the menu system with the game world, the menu is represented in 3D as a
flyer posted on a messageboard. On the flyer is all the information you need to know to
understand the game. Options are kept very limited to improve the readability and the
speed with which players can navigate through it to get to the actual game.
The first ‘page’ contains the backstory and a button to create an account or login. The
second page contains a list of playable characters that you can choose from. If you are a
returning player, this page displays your stats. From this page you can also reach two
other pages: a page with a list of servers, and a page where you can adjust game options.
© 2009 Tim Hengeveld
Page 10 of 13
Printdate: 13-jul-17
Darkwood – Concept document
4. Goals
4.1 Goals
Game goal: Make it through the night without losing your sanity.
That is the basic winning condition. However, the game invites players to create personal
goals, such as scaring other people or finding a safe hiding spot. Once they have
completed the game they are also encouraged to improve their rating.
4.2 Rewards
A wise man once said: “The journey is the reward.”
- The experience is by far the main payoff of this game.
- There is ofcourse also a social reward associated with multiplayer games.
- Scaring other players can be a very rewarding experience. If you scare them enough,
they might even drop some spare batteries you can put into your flashlight.
- If you survive the night, you are marked on a list of people who have completed the
challenge, along with a rating based on the % of sanity you had left at the end of the
night. This is similar to the system seen in Hitman or Metal Gear Solid, where players
are awarded a rank title based on their performance. Replaying the game allows them to
improve this rank.
5. Levels
5.1 Level design
The whole game is built as one big level – the forest. Its size is roughly equivalent to a
Central Park. It has denser, wilder area and more open, paved areas. The open areas are
generally better lit, and contain several buildings like a public toilet, a fast-food joint, a
museum, a botanical garden etc. These areas are usually safer. They are good places to
catch your breath or look for other players.
The more overgrown areas are a lot darker, since the leaves block out the moonlight. They
are littered with leaves and twigs that make noise when you walk on them, and there are
plenty of exposed roots and toppled trees laying around that you can trip over if you’re not
careful. These areas have different structures, like a small castle ruin, an abandoned
toolshed, a small lake etc. These are good places for ambushes or experiencing other scary
phenomena.
© 2009 Tim Hengeveld
Page 11 of 13
Printdate: 13-jul-17
Darkwood – Concept document
5.2 Difficulty
The difficulty depends largely on the personalities of the other players, so it is very
flexible. The amount of effort they put into the game determines how many challenges you
face. The supernatural apparitions are all randomly triggered, so they are never at the
same place twice, which means you cannot anticipate them.
5.3 Saving
The game saves your profile and stats, but since it is a multiplayer game, there is no
traditional gamesave function like in singeplayer games.
6. Audience & Platform
6.1 Target Audience
People who generally enjoy horror movies, psychological horror and mind games, who
enjoy LARPing or Role-Playing, who like to believe ghosts exist, and would like to have the
experience of being in the woods at night without the real physical danger.
Real-life playtesting group
6.2 Platform
Darkwood would work on any gaming platform (perhaps with the exception of handheld
systems), but would be most suitable for PC and Xbox 360. Their distribution system is
easy to use, and players from both platforms can play against eachother via Live.
© 2009 Tim Hengeveld
Page 12 of 13
Printdate: 13-jul-17
Darkwood – Concept document
A large percentage of Xbox 360 owners also owns a headset, and most PC’s these days
have a microphone built-in aswell, so that is definitely a plus for the voice chat system.
7. Opportunities & Threats
7.1 Opportunities
A big benefit to the marketeability of Darkwood is that it’s a largely unexplored area of the
horror genre. Several games come close, but they eventually turn into monster shooters.
Darkwood consistently immerses the player in an unnerving atmosphere with an unrivaled
first-person view system.
And the element of multiplayer adds extra appeal to it, because you can share the
experience with friends, and everytime you play it, the experience differs, because no
event occurs the same way twice.
7.2 Threats
Because of it’s experimental nature, Darkwood may not be suitable for all gamers.
Therefore the risk exists that there will be spoilsports who come in and break the mood.
So those who play it must have an open mind and a willingness to suspend disbelief. This
problem may be largely solveable by proper marketing.
© 2009 Tim Hengeveld
Page 13 of 13
Printdate: 13-jul-17