Video Game Storytelling: Into the Darkness Game Concept
- S. E. Presley
- Mar 30
- 4 min read
Working Title
“Into the Darkness”
Concept Statement
Are you willing to sign a private military contract to stop some of the world’s most despised criminals? If so, join Markum Consultants and make a difference!
Genre
First-person shooter with action-adventure RPG
Target Audience
Young to middle-aged adults, both male and female. Desired ESRB rating: M
Unique Selling Points
Tired of playing a combat game covering historical grounds, fantasy lands, or unrealistic environments? Play “Into the Darkness” and join a modern and real battleground that occurs in the shadows of civilization.
Player Experience and Game POV
The game player plays as Jordan Parker, a former Army Ranger who now works as a Team Leader for Markum Consultants, a private military contracting firm based in Houston, Texas. As the leader of the Dragonfly team, Jordan is part of a 6-person team specializing in covert operations in Africa and Asia.
The game is set in modern times (early 2020s) in an alternate timeline (no COVID) where there are US Government sanctions contracts to independent private military contractors to disrupt the global child trafficking trade. The purpose of these contracts is for the government to have plausible deniability if a mission fails and contractors are killed or captured.
As a team leader, you are a dedicated contractor whose primary concern is the welfare of your team. Your team consists of 6 extremely skilled personnel who each have their own reasons for taking on this job. Despite the others’ motivations, all other factors, including the mission itself, are secondary to your desire to keep your team safe and bring them all home.
The game is First Person POV. When beginning the game, you get to determine whether Jordan Parker is male or female. Both options have their unique skill sets with strengths and weaknesses. As the player, you will navigate through ten chapters with the specifics of your journey based on your decisions.
Visual and Audio Style
It is the rainy season in South Sudan during the game play, so everything is gloomy and wet. Visibility is poor because most of the operational play, in addition to the elements, occurs at night. Since the mission is almost over before it begins, there is immediate conflict in that four members of the team are killed immediately. The one other survivor is Hell-bent on finding and destroying the primary target. Faced with this opening, you must decide how to proceed with the mission. There is constant danger around the player, and each decision is potentially a life-or-death choice.
The music design represents the dangerous environment and pays homage to South Sudan. It will be recorded and specific to each chapter. Both Dinka cultural songs and Dinka-inspired progressive house inspire the songs.
Reference concept artwork included at the end of the document.
Game World Fiction
Your latest mission is to travel to South Sudan to capture or kill Naeem Zarouq, a notorious child trafficker, and rescue as many children as possible in his compound hidden deep within the northern edge of the Ez Zeraf Game Reserve.
After flying into the capital, Juba, your chartered helicopter is shot down by a Sudanese terrorist’s surface-to-air missile and crashes near the center of the game reserve. It is the rainy season so in addition to the elements of constant rain, flooded forests, soak grassy plains, you also have to keep your guard up against the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces, Sudanese terrorist members, Zaroug’s private army and the local wildlife that includes dangerous creatures such as lions, leopards, elephants, water buffalo, hippos and crocodiles.
Core Loops
The core loops in this game are: (1) Make decisions that are critical to mission success, including searching for necessary gear, food, shelter, and clues to the whereabouts of Zarouq (2) fight battles with enemies that would hinder or deny searches or result in death, and participate in side missions to help NPCs to (3) earn rewards such as enhanced gear, knowledge, and skills necessary to win the game.
Objectives and Progressions
The game’s primary objective is to make correct decisions that give you the best chance for success to ultimately capture or kill Zarrouq and save as many children as possible from his compound. Secondary objectives vary based on decisions made through the game but include rescuing a village being plundered by terrorists, helping a lost tourist, saving a wounded fisherman being attacked by a crocodile, and other possibilities. These goals support the game concepts in that they will be where the bulk of decisions, battles, and rewards are based.
The short-term goals of the game are to survive each chapter and, if selected, complete any side missions. The primary long-term goal of the game is to survive, complete the mission, and return home. The secondary long-term goal is to complete the first one while bringing home the other surviving member of the team alive with you and on your side. These goals support the overall story, in that you, as the player, can go into and out of darkness, which is the worst of humanity.
Interactivity
As Jordan Parker, you experience interactivity through action, decision consequences, feedback, and social, cultural, and emotional moments. Some will be implicit, while others will be explicit, depending on the situation.
The player will move through the game environment mostly on foot over rugged terrain in uncomfortable weather. The player will work from point to point along a map, following several potential paths.
The game’s physics, including strength, stamina, combat, most biological needs, and use of machinery and weapons, are based on real physics. There are no otherworldly features, such as jumping 20 feet in the air and floating back down to avoid bullets.
Concept Artwork
The following is a concept art piece to give an idea of Jordan Parker during the mission to capture or kill Naeem Zarouq.
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