I just got an idea after starting to play "Pray", and to be honest im kinda sick of the cliche stuff happening in a game, im also a big fan of the Monkey Island Series.,

With that said let me tell you quickly how i got this idea.

So Basically the game starts in the Future, where you can see all the pretty buildings, everything's shiny and there is no possible way that anything can be wrong here right?

Then you meet like a shady person where you instantly know that that guy is going to be a villain and you just need to explore stuff he did just to kill him at the end.

I find that rather boring myself and i think that games wasn't  supposed to be Movies but games...

What if there was a game where you start the same way, everything is shiny and perfect and you meet a lot of people trough the game and you need to figure out who the Villain is, but the thing is, there is none.

But with you exploring and questioning people, and using your thoughts who might be the Villain, you actualy create one yourself.

Example:

You speak to a Charismatic Rich Guy and your gut feeling tells you that this person has a dark history and you start to explore it.

You start questioning that person, following him around, listening to his phone calls , breaking into his office, breaking into his house, questioning his friends and family, which of course he finds out since they are his friends and family after all and they communicate.

After he finds out he starts being more careful, starting to reduce the number of "Trusted people" around him which result in having social problems which lead to mental problems.

The guy starts acting weirdly and that thing ruins his Business and he suffers a mental break-down.

Now he wants blood and actualy turns into a Villain and decides to do some CRAZY stuff which in the end gets him killed and you stand proud of your accomplishments. 

Altho you were the one who made him that way...

This was just a short story that i had in mind let's discuss this idea.

You've described a story. The game, though - is it an RPG, an adventure...? What's the best platform (mobile, web, console)?

It sounds interesting as a movie, but I need a little more details and specifications about how would you imagine the features and gameplay.

On 10/13/2018 at 3:34 PM, MelloTV said:

Altho you were the one who made him that way...

How do you plan to make the player aware he is the evil one hinself, and at what time?

I like the idea, could be Point and Click / Stealth / Action Adventure...

Maybe it's all about the character's IA. So, I imagine a Monkey Island style, and I think narrative and lore gets stronger at that point.

It is absolutely sound as concept; maybe I've heard about something similar in the past. It's seldom explored AFAIK as it was super hard to do right. I think an old Blade Runner game made something like it.

But, to be on topic, I've seen that happen in a tabletop D&D game I mastered years ago. By basically drawing the wrong conclusion, the playing characters turned their best allies against them. As you can imagine, it didn't end well. Perhaps a set of triggers would suffice. Surely targeting a specific character helps a lot.

You all guys have a good idea what i had in mind, since games that concentrate too much on the Graphics lack everything else, this was intended to be more in the style of Monkey Island, maybe not point and click, could also be a pixelated side scrolling game.

As for the ending of the game was having in mind that after you kill the "Villain" you get a short "Image scrolling" ending of the "Villain" perspective on what he had to endure and how your actions made an impact on his life.

So that basically you feel sorry for your actions durning the game

1 hour ago, MelloTV said:

As for the ending of the game was having in mind that after you kill the "Villain" you get a short "Image scrolling" ending of the "Villain" perspective on what he had to endure and how your actions made an impact on his life.

Nice, but then your game would be like those that you criticized, only the end would differ (although, remarkably).

I would try to utilize the idea more, maybe divide the game in 3 acts:

1. You're a divorced cop, your ex wife gets killed and you start inofficial investigation. Some of your police buddies help you out. You find evidence the son of the big gangster boss dated your wife...

2. You start to sabotage the sons life (like you said in OP). You find more evidence, but not enough to act officially...

3. Showing the cutscene you have planned for the ending. Turns out the son, after killing himself because he became totally crazy, has planned to build hospitals for the poor, and his love for your ex wife was true... With this plot twist the game could change a lot - maybe more action, darker, but still using the same mechanics, so players that liked it still like it. (Think of From Dusk Till Dawn Movie, although the change there is extreme.) Problem is now the gangster boss has found out you were after his son, and he sends killers for your only daughter. Also the police is after you now, so no more allies. You fail to save her in the end.

The story is banal, but that's what i come up with in some minutes. My point is that the game changes and keeps going on, and it punishes you for your mistakes.

1 hour ago, MelloTV said:

could also be a pixelated side scrolling game.

I think of something like Limbo with shooting, there was one great UE3 game in this style, small but very good. Can't remember the name right now...

1 hour ago, Krohm said:

I think an old Blade Runner game made something like it.

Bioshock Infinite is another example, but thing do not happen really surprisingly in those games.