Innovuture: Anthony Criscione, Assignment 1, Step 4: Failure to Step

Title: Deadly Routine Length: About 30 minutes

Creator: Anthony Criscione Medium: Video Game

Story:

The year is 2054. People's homes are integrated with computers, and many of their daily tasks are completely and conveniently automated for them. You play The Disruptor, an assassin and hacker known for using people's appliances against them. With elaborate Rube Goldberg style schemes, you arrange for something in your target's morning to go horribly wrong, and disguising your murders as accidents in the process. The Disruptor is a smart, but unhinged individual, with an extreme and unforgiving sense of justice. The tutorial mission is a straightforward hit, paid for by the cuckolded CEO of Happy Mornings Appliances. After he tries to skip out on paying the Disruptor's fee, however, the Disruptor embarks on a personal quest to discredit the appliance giant. By sabotaging the homes of jaywalkers, shoplifters, and some real criminals with Happy Morning's products, the Disruptor drives the company into the ground, before ultimately killing the CEO in the final level.

Tone:

The game is primarily a dark comedy. The mission synopses describe the targets as generally horrible individuals, but for the most part only actually guilty of smaller crimes. This is meant to play with the darker side of vigilantism, and the Disruptor as a deluded individual believing his extreme methods are working towards a brighter future. The deaths can be gruesome, but are still presented in a somewhat comical and slapstick fashion, similar to the TV series "Pushing Daisies" (ABC, 2007 – 2009).

Gameplay:

Each mission starts with the player being given a brief summary of the target and their daily schedule. The player is then given a 3d model of the house, toggleable with wireframe or not, and any surrounding property, with intractable appliances fully rendered. Appliances can be set to start working as intended, where the appliance does its normal task until told to stop, stop working as intended, where the appliances ceases operating immediately, regardless of how complete the task is, or overload, where the appliance starts storing unsafe amounts of electrical energy, and any further attempts to interact with it will result in a violent explosion. Some appliances will have extra options, such as sinks having a water temperature setting. Some houses will have more appliances than others, and all will vary in floorplan.

The more obviously the player changes the daily routine of the target, the more suspicious they will get that something is amiss. If the target becomes too suspicious, they will leave the house immediately, and the mission will result in failure. The target will perform actions based on how necessary they are to being ready to leave the house. "Daily" level actions are things the target will normally do, but will skip if moderately suspicious that something is wrong. "Necessary" actions are things that the target must do to be minimally prepared to leave the house, such as being clothed, and will ignore moderate amounts of suspicion to perform. "At all Costs" are actions that are unavoidable to ensure survival, such as opening doors or moving through certain areas. At maximum suspicion and during attempts to escape, targets will only perform "At all Costs" actions.

An example solution to a hit, assuming all common appliances are available: The target's morning proceeds as usual, up until their morning shower. While in the shower, the sink is set to flood the first floor of the building. At the same time, the laundry machine is set to stop working, and fresh clothes are not delivered to the bathroom. After the shower, the target notices the lack of clothing, and must fetch some themselves, slightly increasing suspicion. They will move toward the laundry room, whereupon they will notice the flooding on the first floor. This will drastically increase suspicion, but because being clothed is a necessary action, they will press on towards the laundry room. At this point, the refrigerator can be set to overload, transmitting a deadly electric shock through the flooded ground, and killing the target.

Visual Style:

The game will be made in a semi-realistic cartoon style, primarily using cel-shading. It will look similar to Telltale Games' "The Wolf Among Us".