Powell (Feminist Survival Horror Game)

Okay, going to take this post to answer people's questions and generally respond. Tomorrow I hope to have some content written up on some of the types of enemies observed throughout the game. :)

OSIC, I really do like your idea and could see it going somewhere great and productive. :) This thread is for mine, though. On post 19, I have two answers. Answer one: If less is more, just think how much more more would be. More seriously, answer two: That's the way to approach this from a literal angle. But if you're trying to approach it from a less literal angle, then more is more, because it heightens the intensity of the statement. Post 50? Well, Nicknacks and my response to Raidou basically have it covered.

Raidou, I like your thoughts on the robots, they will be the main topic of my upcoming post. :) As for the call to drop the "rich people angle", I don't really agree. I'm not making an economic or class statement, but money is perhaps the most basic material form of power, and power is certainly an important part of the theme here. Money allowed Stephen to build Powell, have Stephanie created, and live in the kind of luxury needed to allow her to slip through his fingers. So, yeah, the story doesn't really make sense without it. No, no multiple endings.

Nicknacks, yeah, that's a pretty good explanation of why the security is largely ineffective. :)

Arks, I like the idea of Stephen getting gradually more hostile over the course of the first chapter, rather than it being a sudden snap. :) As for combat, the main character isn't entirely defenseless, but is substantially more defenseless than that of any action adventure title. Meelee is just about entirely useless, doing no damage to most enemies, as you quickly discover if you attempt it. The tranquilizer gun you get late chapter one is even less useful, only downing organic enemies, which are quite rare. (The most common organic enemy is a Doberman; there are only a few in the game.) Midway through chapter three you get a shotgun, which, of course, destroys the robots, but even then they're bullet sponges. At the end of chapter four, of course, you lose all of your weapons; you don't get another shotgun until chapter seven, but you do get a pistol, an assault rifle, and best of all, a hack tool, in chapters five and six. (The hack tool isn't a game breaker because ammo is scarce and it only works on unaware robots.) By the end of the game, you can safely dispatch a swarm of robots, but it takes a long while to get there, and even then, every bullet counts. I'm not sure where you're getting the impression there are people in Powell besides those mentioned in the synopsis. Freddie will express behavior like what you describe as foreshadowing of his ultimate turn, but he absolutely will turn on you eventually. I have revised his arc to humanize him and make his betrayal more gradual, though. Finally, on the issue of player control, I'm taking the Bioshock Infinite route (thanks for pointing it out, Natasel!) wherein the protagonist character is differentiated from the player by a voice that comments sometimes on the situation and the occasional spur-of-the-moment cutscene action that is out of the player's control but thoroughly within the protagonist's. It doesn't kill immersion like you would assume it does, I swear.

Jakes, I agree with you in principle, but the idea that there should be no easy answer is silly. By mid-Chapter Two at the latest, it should be clear that Stephen is morally wrong and that escape from Powell is your best option. Stephen is a human too;he thinks what he's doing is okay,but that doesn't mean it's conceivable that he's right.

Atom, thank you! :)

Zeromaeus, I have gone into detail on combat in my answer to arks, if it helps. I understand where you're coming from on the motorboat, but I disagree. Thematically, swimming allows for Stephanie to truly leave the island alone, free of the constructs of Powell. I've given Stephanie a monologue for the end that makes it clear it's meant to be seen as ambiguous and not suicide. Also, though Freddie is a major antagonist, killing him does little to make Stephanie feel powerful, considering that he is an individual, mundane human who is not holding a weapon or expecting an attack, and who she is intimately physically close to.

Ah, Natasel. Hoo boy. Demonstrating a lack of understanding of a repeated "stop" does little to support your case that you have grown to a point where feminism is unnecessary. As for the ending, I've already talked about it in this post, but the phrase "was never seen again" is sort of going to wind up in the final game... but as part of the phrase "and Stephanie Powell was never seen again", at the end of Stephanie's final monologue, implying not that she dies or lives alone, but that she throws off her name, which she has grown to hate for obvious reasons. Stephen does not think of himself as evil, but I'm not sure I'd say he thinks of himself as good, either, at least not until the end, when he's going comparatively loopy. He's doing what he thinks he's entitled to do. The final boss is the battle with Stephen at Mount Powell, yeah. Your last post is rife with Unfortunate Implications that I'll try to chalk up to misunderstanding of the game's plot. I will admit that there's some plot points concerning Powell's (lack of) connection with the world at large that I haven't made clear. Powell is completely separated from the rest of the world. It's far enough from land that it's a sovereign nation, so nothing done there is illegal. Documents can be found in maintenance areas suggesting it's blurred out of government spy satellite footage, there are torpedoes everywhere on the edge of Powell ready to sink any unauthorized boats (the inconsistency of this with Freddie's story is the first hint he's not what he appears), and construction workers have apparently been killed for knowing too much. Stephen himself is considered an aloof eccentric outside Powell, but he regularly leaves his home and tours the world, visiting with friends and so on. There's an Internet connection in Powell, but it is shut down in chapter four. The only people who know about Stephanie's existence (and, by extension, the contents of the islands devoted to keeping her, which Stephen claims are his places of privacy and solitude) are Stephen, his closest male friends, and those he hired to create her). Even Stephen's wife learns about Stephanie during the game, as she was told that the westernmost islands were off limits to all but Stephen. The events of the game are temporarily hushed up by Benjamin, not wanting the attention and assuming it would be bad for Stephanie. When Stephanie makes her dive at the end, the most anyone outside is thinking is "huh, Stephen Powell and his wife and kids haven't come out lately, wonder what's going on".

Thank you, everyone, for your comments and dialogue! :) See you all later!

Stop it with the "Feminist Horror X" tags, Natasel. How many fucking times do you have to be thumped for them?

Natasel has earned himself a forum suspension after a number of warnings.

Seconding the "boat instead of swimming" suggestion. It makes the ending seem like less of a suicide maneuver. In fact, why not make a symbolic statement out of it? Stephanie finds a motorboat, it seems seaworthy enough...but then she notices the Powell Industries logo painted on the outboard motor, so in disgust, she turns off the motor, detaches it from the boat and lets it sink...and starts using the oars instead. You can maintain some ambiguity about whether she'll make it (Is she really strong enough to row to the next bit of inhabited land?) without making it seem as though she gave up. In fact, if anything it underscores her determination.

I'm back for a bit, but not long enough to say my full spiel, unfortunately.

My main problem with the protagonist shoving Freddie's mace into a motor blade is that it out and out makes her a murderer. Yeah, its justified self-defense, but as you noted he is unarmed at that point. It also seems to be the most gruesome death on the game, at least from its description. I know your character is fighting for her life and everything, but killing another person in that kind of way is a bit of a leap from what the player would have seen from the character up to that point. There are plenty of ways to reconcile that, even just as much as acknowledging the fact that it was seen as horrible but necessary.

Obviously you want Freddie defeated and out of the story at that point, and there's lots of ways to make that happen.

I admit, this mostly bothers me because the issue came up in D&D recently, where a member of my party accused another of going too far when he split a thief in half in an encounter. Defeat is one thing, killing can be another entirely.

EDIT: Also, swimming is effectively suicide. It would require a lucky streak the size of Australia for a new swimmer to go out into the ocean and make it anywhere. Close islands or not, unknown currents make such an attempt futile. Especially since, without anywhere to rest, wherever she goes has to be reached in a single run. The speedboat route itself is setting the odds against her. Swimming is guaranteed death.

EDIT²: I'll be back later for actual discussion... hopefully. Also, have you read a book called The House Of The Scorpion? Your story reminds me of it somewhat. Its not feminist or anything, but certain plot threads seem similar.

edited 24th Jun '13 1:14:47 PM by zeromaeus

Modified the ending per suggestions from this thread; took my own twist on it, trying to get as close to the original intent as possible while leaving Stephanie a better chance of survival. Probably going to keep Freddie's end as is, zeromaeus, though I'm interested in anything you have to say.

So, the enemies. As has already been established, the humanoid robots are the most common enemy type in the game. They come in three basic models - male, female, and child (the last is only rarely observed). They resemble crude mannequins with visibly mechanical joints and absent facial features. By default, the robots are The Blank, but just about all of them have eyes painted on, and most of them have mobile lower jaws attached to the head via screws, allowing for crude animation during speech. Female robots have red paint crudely applied around this area as "lipstick". The lower jaw is purely an accessory, and when attempting to take down a robot, it will generally be the first thing to become damaged and come off.

All of the robots are designed to potentially act as security, (though a lot of them ostensibly have other functions), and therefore they all have guns built into them. Ammunition and fuel input is located at the navel in all cases. Robots fire from their palms. Robots lacking ammunition in lethal combat will resort to meelee and throwing things.

Although all robots were originally one of these three identical models, they ultimately have a reasonably wide variety in appearance, thanks to the various wigs, costumes, and eyes that have been attached to them. They only have three voices, one per model, but robots at different points in the game use different voice clips depending on who is controlling them for what end, and depending on what their "place" is in the island. (Robots generally used as direction pointers use different taunts when attacking, for example, than robots devoted to security full-time, and robots currently in the employ of Lillian Powell will use different taunts than robots currently being used by Stephen Powell.)

The robots were placed throughout the islands by Stephen only partially for utility. They were largely placed there to make Powell feel like a populated place, as his wife, Stephanie, and himself were the only permanent residents. The robot's quotes and assignments are quite loaded with gender roles; at first this was likely subconscious on Stephen's part, but eventually he probably started doing it on purpose to effect Stephanie's psychological development. Thanks to their function as "population filler", robots can often be heard having idle conversations when you have not been noticed; these reflect Stephen's worldview on how things should be. Sometimes they are used as elements of disturbing set pieces - on Eros, for example, robots are used by Stephen as a visual aid to demonstrate the functions of the various torture devices. The shotgun range where Stephanie finds her first decent weapon is littered with damaged, identical female robots, and it is implied that they are one of the target sequences. (This is particularly disturbing because it's in one of the common areas accessible to Stephen's family, implying that, unlike Stephen's actions, planned and completed, surrounding you, this is something that his family has always been aware of, and approves of, or even participates in.)

There are some modified robots throughout the game to further increase enemy variety, explained as projects Stephen has been tinkering around with, and has released either for his amusement or for further firepower as the game progresses. These include:

• Improvements, female robots that have been made vertically symmetrical by replacing their arms with backwards legs, removing their heads, and adding a second set of breasts around their pelvis. They walk on all fours, rather awkwardly, but are fast and attack strictly with meelee.
• Heroes, bulkier male robots that fire from their groin instead of their palms (tearing out their pants in the process). Their fire is automatic and heavy, leaving no way to survive its attack besides not getting hit.
• Harpies, miniature automated armed helicopters with female robot heads hanging upside down from their undersides; they set off an incredibly loud, obnoxious alarm when you are spotted that tends to attract other enemies.
• Peepers, male robots with their heads replaced with giant, antiquated-looking cameras. They are constantly using one of their arms to power their cameras with a hand crank at their hip. When they are tracking you they begin to slow down the cranking until it stops entirely, at which point they begin to fire.
• Payloads, child robots with explosives strapped to them, acting as suicide bombs.
• Orgies, enormous collections of robots and robot parts that have been crudely wired together. Not mobile at all, but just about impossible to damage, and can use tentacles made of merged arms and legs to attack from a surprising distance or around corners.

edited 25th Jun '13 1:38:28 AM by DAStudent

I have mixed feelings about some of the robot designs, particularly the "sex-themed" ones. I suspect you're trying to get more mileage out of the horror of being used for sex, but it does comes across a bit like you're trying to say sex itself is horrific.

If that is what you're trying to say...you're welcome to it, but I won't be much help in that area because I very strongly disagree.

That's certainly not what I'm trying to say, so I'd certainly appreciate help in getting my actual intentions across while avoiding giving off that impression.

Improvements were based on the premise of "if a misogynist got into God's drafting room, how would he redesign women", hence removing the parts that see, hear, speak, think, and interact, and replacing them with a second set of the sexual parts. Heroes are based on the common conflation of male sexuality and violence, hence weapons being viewed as phallic symbols and the entire notion of "conquest of women". Harpies are intended as a misogynist caricature of a hysterical woman in a position of authority. Peepers are a fairly pedestrian representation of voyeurism as bad. Payloads, essentially, indicate the notion of children as objects for parents to deploy into the world. And Orgies are supposed to be a visceral image of a dehumanizing collective.

A couple more things then:

With the "sex-themed" robots, make sure they don't come across like they're intended to be titillating for players.

Make sure you establish proper Watsonian reasons for the robots being designed the way they are. For some of them, Powell's own egotism will be good enough, but it's hard to imagine why he would want, for instance, the Harpies to be specifically the way they are.

Maybe Powell's issues with women are deeper-seated. Say, for example, that there's a portrait of his parents which we see relatively early on — and then when the Harpies are introduced they all have his mother's face on them.

That first issue shouldn't be a problem. I think all of my designs are more than creepy enough to offset any level of attraction people will have to them; any people who are still aroused are a lost cause in general.

Hmm... That gives me a really good idea for a backstory for how Stephen got as psychologically fucked up as he is, but I'm not sure about whether or not to use it. I don't want to feel like I'm giving him any kind of Freudian Excuse; he should be fully accountable for his actions and views.

Also, I'm roughly mapping out Powell; should have something presentable tomorrow.

I can't help feeling that Freudian Excuse is somewhat clumsily named. Just because you have a comprehensible reason for being fucked in the head doesn't mean you don't own any of your actions.

edited 27th Jun '13 5:42:20 AM by JakesBrain

Just a few suggestions:

First of all, DO NOT let your passion for the plot and the central theme overpower the necessity for good gameplay. Research the things that makes award-winning suvival horror games like Amnesia The Dark Descent good. Find out what makes people scared—Your horror needs to have more than the horror of what could happen to your protagonist if she hadn't done the things she done. Primal fears are wonderful for this. I also suggest that you might want to watch Yahtzee's review on Amnesia, which may give you some ideas about the Survival Horror genre in general.

I'm generally reluctant to thumbs up the idea about your protagonist being armed, especially with a gun. Firearms psychologically empower, and that kills the helplessness that horror brings along.

Also, your feminist themes. Make sure that they don't end up as a Double Standard. Nothing kills the power of your theme than the realization on the player's part that while your game might be feminist, it is instead sexist towards men.

I generally feel that your game's theme would also be empowered when you consider the existing sexist themes inherant within our own society rather than feminism in general. But becareful of this: You are making a theme about feminism, not criticizing our society in general. Don't go off topic, stick to your theme.

I hope this comes out to be something. Good luck.

Hmm. I'm certainly aiming for great horror gameplay here, and thematically relevant, too. As Karalora has successfully predicted, the gameplay does get more action-oriented as the game goes on, in keeping with the theme and narrative, hence the player becoming gradually more well-armed, but the oppressive horror element is never lost. I don't think that the player having combat ability inherently kills the horror; I just think that as a developer you must be careful to maintain the proper atmosphere whilst accounting for the player's capabilities.

Thank you! :)

Here, tell me how high or low this scare moment is. :P (Just fishing for feedback.) At one point late in the game, you must interact with a security terminal to unlock an area in Powell Central Control. This interaction is itself a puzzle, requiring you to sit at the terminal and navigate a directory maze. In any case, initiating the interaction starts a security feed running on the secondary monitor. It's easily ignorable, but paying attention makes apparent that the feed must be from a Peeper - and that Peeper is on a course heading directly for your security terminal. Eventually, it will turn up immediately behind you, and begin recording...

Sorry for the lack of a map, by the way. Unexpectedly had no access to my computer today, likely not tomorrow either. Typing this on a smartphone.

Alright, if you think this has died, I'm sorry. I just took a trip cross-country, and my computer got a virus that took a long time to remove, and I got a virus that gave me a cough and a fever and depression, and depression makes serious creative work difficult for me. I know it sounds like a forty-excuse-pileup, but it's all true.

I finally got around to finishing a map of Powell. It's not in as much detail as I would have liked, but later I'm going to come back and make much more detailed maps of individual sections of Powell, complete with things like tram routes, catapult routes, maps of locations of interest for the player, and so on. In the current, rough map, however, I have already indicated which locations are visited in which chapters, which should give you an idea of the general physical progression of the game, and I have also indicated which section of Powell Stephanie has been to prior to the events of the game. Enjoy, and fear not, for this project lives on yet.

http://tinypic.com/r/1q0n7r/5

edited 17th Jul '13 7:21:11 PM by DAStudent

Hey, um, if people who are interested in this have lost interest in the thread, I guess that's my fault for going so long without an update. But if I still have some fans around, could someone tell me which section of the game they would be most interested in seeing a more detailed map of? Thanks.

I would personally like to see what Stephanie's pen looks like.

http://tinypic.com/r/5yg9ah/5

Here's the section of Powell in which Stephanie grew up, and in which the first chapter and a half of the game take place. Later, each island will receive finer detail. Here are my notes for now:

Stephanie's home consists of seven islands: one medium-sized central island (Life Island), five larger islands surrounding it (Praise Island, Destiny Island, Joy Island, Now Island, and Best Island), and one smaller tangential island (Solipsist Point). Each has a distinct "theme" or "purpose". First and foremost is the central island, Life Island.

Life Island is where Stephanie's quarters are, as well as her most vital functions - food, water, and dedicated medical attention can all be found here. Stephanie actually lives in the Created Egg Complex, a large circular building that doubles as the central rail station for this section of Powell. Prior to Stephanie's birth, the rail system in this section of Powell connected with the rest of the chain, but Stephen demolished the rails leading in and out of this section when he started the "project" (as you can see in the map), justifying it to his wife as wanting a private section of Powell. The rails are the main way of getting about Powell, particularly Stephanie's section of it. However, there are plenty of walking trails on the islands, and between the islands, there are some pedestrian bridges, robot-piloted auto-boats, and catapults utilizing spherical pods to launch people between islands.

Praise Island is devoted to worship of Stephen and retelling the story of Stephanie's life. Destiny Island is similarly pseudo-religion-oriented, with its focus being preparing Stephanie spiritually for the change that will inevitably happen at a prescheduled time. Joy Island is for various sorts of recreation. Now Island is a large fake town of robots, going about their days in a very clearly non-sentient way, as a sort of art piece/clock. Best Island is centered around makeup, fashion, and "looking your best", and is, ironically, Stephanie's least favorite of her home islands. Solipsist Point is a small, empty, mountainous island for quiet reflection; however, it has aggressive robots and a prerecorded message hidden on it just in case of an incident like the one that occurs in the game.

More information later!

You know I get a very 60's feel from the sound of Stephanie's Islands. Not in the Patridge Family or Brady Bunch way either. Like, uh Retro 60's or a Modern rendition of the 60's. Y'know what? Look at Nomanisan Island from The Incredibles and focus on Syndrome's base to see what I mean. I do kinda find the idea of Stephanie, who was designed to be a glorified sex slave, having a place of quiet reflection and a place of worship (where Stephen isn't the subject) kinda strange.

Nomanisan was definitely an influence on Powell's design, though I can't recall if it was a conscious or subconscious influence. Also, consider that Solipsist Point was designed specifically to violently take away (along with everything else). I have it in my head that, prior to the existence of Stephanie, Stephen used it for reflection himself, and decided that, since he wanted Stephanie to be a female version of himself, it would make sense to give her some small piece of what he'd had... with the intent of taking it back away, of course. Some people have expressed that it's odd that Stephen's brainwashing hasn't been very successful, considering that he's had Stephanie for her entire life. Others have responded that this is because Stephanie is the only time that Stephen's done this, which I expressed agreement with, but, to be honest, that's only partially true. It'd be more accurate to say that Stephen has failed to brainwash Stephanie because he's conflicted on what to brainwash her to believe. On the one hand, Stephen does want to take advantage of his control of Stephanie to make her look forward to the change and see it as a good thing, but on the other hand, Stephen really doesn't want Stephanie's consent; as the nature of the messages on Eros suggests, he actually intends for Stephanie to feel, during the change, that she is being ripped out of her perfect life and forced into misery and oppression against her will; he's kind of a sadistic shit that way. He didn't anticipate that her negative feelings would lead to her actually exerting agency, though.

The game actually opens with Stephanie waking up and, in a crisis of faith in Stephen, taking the tram to Praise Island; the tram passes by a series of animatronics, prerecorded messages, and so on, on their way through Praise Island to the Praise Island Station. This provides the audience with some nice exposition. After Stephanie leaves Praise Island and does enough investigation that things turn sour, access to Praise Island is cut off completely; shortly thereafter, the tram system itself becomes hostile to Stephanie. The tracks themselves are dangerous thanks to electricity; Stephanie figures out that if she cuts off the power to the tracks, she can actually walk to Praise Island on the tram bridges. She manages to root around the Created Egg Complex's basement to accomplish this; leading her to uncover the secret catapult to Eros. (She's already determined that that's where she would be sent if she were sedated, so, seeing no better options, decides that if she went there conscious, she would learn more about her situation and get significantly closer to an escape. She is correct in thinking this, though she still has a long, long way to go.)