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Original post by Wavinator
Consider, for example, that players would understandably find a game about being a rapist repugnant.

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Not in Japan .

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Original post by Wavinator
You don''t see, for example, a middle aged victim crawling on the ground, crying for help. You don''t hear extended pleas for mercy. And children certainly aren''t your victims (I think they''re absent from the game).

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Postal had all of those things, and it did pretty well. Actually, I don''t think you ever really got to kill children, but in the ending movie the dude napalms a schoolyard. That was a horrific game. Fun gameplay, decent controls, awful content. But I played it.

It''s tough to gauge how these things will be received, though. If you make the game good, and let the player see it from the businessman''s side of things, rather than the victim''s family members, which is what the RE games show, then I think you''ll be alright. You could even let the player use the research for good things. You can cure Hepatitis if you get enough medical research done, but part of the R&D is kidnapping a broad range of people, infecting them with engineered viruses, recording their reactions, and keeping it all under your hat.

You also make and sell foodstuffs, automobiles, and stationary. It''s not like Umbrella manufactures nothing but horror.

Since you probably won''t be able to get "UmbrellaCorp" in your game, just make it a business sim where "illegal" operations are possible. Design weapons and sell them to terrorists, or run an underground cloning ring, or just live on the up and up and make a modest millionaire''s living building a better mousetrap. Rival companies, government officials, and the occasional bleeding hero would confront you depending on how you behave in the game. It would be awesome if one of your facilities was actually destroyed by a superpowered experiment gone awry and he is coming to take revenge on you, but your research data increases exponentially the closer you let him get to your headquarters. The temptation to let him fight his way right up your front steps would be irresistable, but if your last line of defense failed, you''d get killed. Sweet.

Yes, I wouldn''t be able to use the umbrella corp name, but that doesn''t mean I couldn''t make the company like the it. The game would have buisness sim elements to it, but it would not be pure business sim, after all there are plenty of those already and I''m not interested in makeing another.

What I see is this:

The game begins with.

"Congratulation on your promotion to junior executive and welcome to the BioWeapons division of Cappella Corporation. You have been placed in charge of the Agrippa research facility constructed following the cold war. This position only recently became available, due to the previous administrator’s failure to live up to expectations, however we expect great things from you.

You have till the end of the first fiscal quarter to show some research progress and have the facility operating in the black or the company will be forced to invoke the immediate termination clause in your contract.

Have a Nice Day.

Cappella Corporation - Human Resources Department"


At the begining the player only control a single facility however if they do a good job or their supior has and unforuante accident, they can gain promotions and move up the corporate ladder. Gaining control of a larger area, and being able to build new failites. As well as dealing with bigger problems such competing executives, and greater danger from public scrutiny.




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"Fate and Destiny only give you the opportunity the rest you have to do on your own."
Current Design project: Ambitions Slave

That looks neat. It reminds me a little bit of the SimCity scenarios, where you had to recover from the Earthquake, build an airport, and get the treasury over $100,000 within four years. It''s a good system, and allows for a variable learning curve. Good idea, and feasible too.

I think it would be fantastic if you could develop a reputation, so that if you solve the first few problems by ruthlessly crushing resistance, violating all sorts of laws, and treating all your personnel as expendable assets, you''d be brought in as a specialist in departments that were falling behind. You''d be "Mr. Black", and when Mr. Black shows up at your facility, you know that the increase in productivity will be directly proportional to the survival rate of the staff.

Its not exactly going to be scenarios, since you keep all your assets as you move up in the company. But I suppose thats a close enough of description,I''ll even include a story as part of the game.


But the most imporant thing is to have a good corporate slogan that sounds innocent but has a sinster side to it.

I was thinking of "Cappella Corporation changing the world one person at a time."

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"Fate and Destiny only give you the opportunity the rest you have to do on your own."
Current Design project: Ambitions Slave

This seems like a good idea for a game, but it also looks like you could easily screw it up. Don''t do that to it, please.

Oh, and one more thing. For some reason, TechnoGoth''s example dialogue reminds me of the blue-suited man from Half-Life.

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I am the master of stories.....
If only I could just write them down...

On the other hand, perhaps you would want to make a horrific game where the player is a totally evil character and feels that way for real. People may not like it, but since most devs here are indie anyway I don''t think it matters much that the game won''t sell. Indies can do all the weird games that are ridiculus to sell but fun to look at or even play, sort of like art. Anyway, the point is that, if you do make the player be able to see how victims of the corporation are suffering, perhaps visit their families, etc. it could really make things interesting. A sort of unfunny Postal (let''s face it, Postal was not a very serious game). Better still, the player character would have a _reason_ for being evil; something neglected almost everywhere, but storywise, it will be known why the PC is working for that corporation and doing such horrible things.

Or maybe I''m just trying to find justification for being evil myself... :D