You are making a game based around a School Shooting. How would you design it?

[Starik20X6]

One of those 'Slice of Life' visual novel Japanese games. Depending on the choices you make, you're either the shooter, a victim or someone who escapes. The twist being that the game makes you sympathetic towards the shooter, perhaps even make you start rooting for them. For example, you spend the whole game being emotionally and physically bullied, and the end gives you the option to "get back at them", but it doesn't say how. So, seeking some gratification and justice, you choose the "get back at them" option, and it plays out a first-person non-interactive shooting rampage. It's got to be non-interactive so the player can't undo what they've done. You can only watch in horror as your fantasy of revenge gets warped into a nightmare.

Basically the idea is to build sympathy for the character, and to really get the player into their mindset, then pull the rug out from under them and say "surprise, you just committed mass murder". Heck, you probably wouldn't even know that's what the game was about until that final choice has been made.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Well since

a) the very idea of making a game based on this sort of thing is awful already, and

b) you didn't specify a video game in the title

I'd make a carnival style shooting gallery, replacing the moving ducks with photos of all the victims. Hit all the targets and get a framed copy of the shooter's obituary.

I'm a terrible person.

 

[sagitel]

i would make it somehow like LA noire. a detective game where you look for the killer. you go ahead see he attacked different schools. you see children gotten killed in horrified ways and hear stories about it from survivors and teachers. you go loock for the guy and see the guy is not some maniac stupid kill! hurr durr! type of guy. the further you go more justifications of him you see. the further you go more normal the guy appears to be.

 

[Loonyyy]

I wouldn't. You'd need a pretty important sentiment to be willing to exploit the tragedy, and it doesn't easily fit into a video game. You'd be shoehorning the subject to the genre, and why you'd want to depict the subject is beyond me.

If you've got a message, the game's still probably offensive to those killed. Bad move.
If you don't have a message, why the setting? Controversy seeking?

There's no world in which your work is suspect for exploiting tragedy. So it'd better be a fucking masterpiece, even to a Luddite.

And I really don't think there's much of a message you can explore through a video game. Certainly not one that would be in any way enjoyable.

The act itself is not the subject for a game. The act of butchering children, in a time when it happens all too frequently, shouldn't be a part of the game, whichever side you're on. If you want to do it allegorically, like say The Path (Suggestion stolen from @Katatori-kun), it could work, but if you play it straight, it's not going to be great. If you play as children running away-you cheapen the real story. These people died. Most of them without a chance. A game where you run from a caricature of a gunman would be as repugnant as one where you wielded the weapons yourself.

There's no way to make a game about police taking them down. First, that's not the way it usually works, and second, it'd be a rubbish game. Did you see the response to these events? More assault weapons than you can shake an AR-15 at. It'd be a boring game, and it'd also be meaningless and trite. Oh look, you killed the bad guy. Now how about cleaning up these dead kids. As meaningful as "Beat up Bin Laden" style games. Pointless Catharsis for the intellectually deprived.

The only way to make something with a point (Because the theme of Gun Control is not something that you can easily tie into gameplay), would be something I got Ninja'd to:

Have it be a VN almost style game where you dont play as the shooter, but instead play as the shooters friend. Over the school year you can see various things that cause the would be shooter to fall into despair and see what would be his motivation for doing such an act. Your decisions can either help him/her and prevent tragedy, or you could inadvertently worsen the situation.

I think it could be kind of interesting

A character piece, a psychological breakdown of humanity. The shooting itself should not be anything to do with gameplay. How you would mechanise that would almost certainly be repugnant. Instead, thinking about the actual issues, you could make something with a real heart to it, but you'd have to be a real genius, because this either is done perfectly and is amazing, or sub-par, and is terrible, and labelled as exploitationist across the board. You can't just come close, like Spec Ops did, and get away with it due to the absence of other media doing the same. You'd have to get it perfect, first try. It'd be a series of conversations, and interactions. Think The Walking Dead game, or Mass Effect conversations, or the like. Examine mental health, sanity, and the process one needs to go through to be able to see his fellow humans as acceptable outlets for their rage.

3. Pull a Spec Ops: The Line, but handle it differently. You believe you're going into the school to stop monsters or something, and you go through cleaning out the place of different monsters. Some who walk towards you, some run quickly, some run away, some hide and jump out. It's later revealed that the monsters were ACTUALLY innocent people, and that you are really at fault. And unlike Spec Ops, you aren't a good person who unknowingly did bad, it wasn't in self defense, and you ultimately had no reason to kill everyone.

Yes that third one is a bit horrible in retrospect, but I think it would have a bigger impact than Spec Ops, especially if it was marketed as if it was a game like Painkiller or something. (Kind of like how Spec Ops from its appearance looks like another "Bro Shooter"

I think that one comes close to the song "Hammerhead" by the Offspring. http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=AU&hl=en-GB&v=TdbrxHLhOn8

There's a few different interpretations floating around, but I always took it to be about the perils of just doing what you're told, whether by authority, or your own desires. To complete the analogy, I wouldn't use Monsters, but "Terrorists". But, that's a bit harsh for a videogame. The school shooting then just becomes an example or allegory, which for videogames, with their current standing, is a bit too much to pull off.

 

[Loonyyy]

To make things worse, I highly doubt that the shootings were entirely the fault of the shooter and those at fault such as bullies and stuff are probably either dead, or definitely not going to own up to their responsibility and tell the truth... this makes a legit story very difficult.

Whenever anyone escalates a conflict, they are entirely at fault for the escalation. When you respond to bullying with mass murder, you are 100% to blame.

I see you're not someone who believes that "actions have consequences". Sure you go delude yourself. It's not like if you didn't respond to me I could of responded to you. That would make no sense right? Stop blaming people for something you either don't understand, or don't want to understand. All I'm saying is actions have consequences and it's people like you who refuse to acknowledge that fact with your mob mentality that people refuse to accept that there is an order to things. Maybe you don't want to believe that actions have consequences, that you are in control, that you determine what is real and what is not, that your feelings determine what is truth and what is untruth... so that when the time comes, you can deny responsibility by blaming someone else, refusing to simply FIX THE FUCKING PROBLEM cus it feels TOO FUCKING GOOD to blame someone else. Yea, you do that.

Of course you can't comprehend ANY AMOUNT of psychology, such as learning.
You can't comprehend ANY AMOUNT of biology such as innate human responses and emotions.
You made it perfectly clear already that you don't even accept that actions have consequences.

Can't tell if troll, deluded, religious, or retarded...

So here's the deal. You sort of can comprehend the notion of that things can "escalate" right? so if anything in the damn chain is broken, the last part won't happen right? yea, let's blame the last thing in the chain expecting to have an effect. Oh right, that doesn't work because by that fucking point THE GUY IS ALREADY GOING TO KILL HIMSELF (all shooters commit suicide). These are children by the way. Stupid stupid children who actually legitly don't understand that actions have consequences. These people don't know that touching fire results in a burned hand which is ironic from your statement that you believe the same thing but I digress. These people are legit retards from our standards. Biologically they're emotionally driven... (much like yourself it seems...) and reason takes a backseat due to the age and the... oh right you don't know biology. It's a tad bit difficult trying to explain to someone who has no interest in problem prevention but instead only interested in scapegoating. Yea, you go on believing that blaming is the solution, not understanding.

You're reading a lot into his post that wasn't their, and in doing so, you tend to come down more in favour of the shooters than their victims.

1) Not all of the victims were to blame.
2) Kids are dumb. They don't realise how much they hurt their fellows.
3) Consequences != escalation. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind. A life for an eye leaves the whole world DEAD.

You don't have to be opposed to consequences to believe that murder, and especially, mass murder, are an unacceptable consequence. If you took this typographical dressing down as a personal insult, would that justify you to shoot me? Of course not. That's not justice.

School shooters are a complex phenomena, and while I certainly think there's merit to the whole, disenfranchised loner taking out his rage against the world explanation, one should never justify that action by the suffering they underwent first.

 

[Edl01]

Since half of the title is cut off I assumed it was a game about schrodingers cat, then I saw the actual title, and so I am going to go on - pretending that it was about Schrodingers cat.

I would make it kind of like Okami, just without having to do all the Kanji stuff. It would be a beat em up game where you as the cat have to string up massive combos to KO all enemies on screen before you can move on. The story of the game is trying to get out of a god damn box.

 

[Dr Jones]

People who are capable of the most basic levels of human empathy do not attempt to derive fun from real people's tragedy and suffering.

Who said it had to be fun? Games can be educational and touch other emotions than one of joy.
Furthermore have you ever played a video game based on WWII? It's pretty much the same, Call of Duty is trying to make the greatest tragedy in human history into something fun.



Let's say I feel similarly. The closer, the more personal the depiction is, the poorer taste it is. [/quote]

Are you saying that video games aren't able to tackle big, important and terrible situations without being in poor taste? But movies and books get a free pass? I think that's a disservice to video games as a medium. As an artform it should be allowed to tackle any subject it wants and have the potential to do it either in poor or good taste.


OT: Personally I'd probably make the game about either the psychology of the shooter (who can be seen as either a sympathetic or insane character, should be ambiguous) or the aftermath of the shooting at a political level. Maybe something like "Democracy".

 

[Skeleon]

You could make it an adventure game in the vein of Gabriel Knight. The shooting happened and as an investigator you need to figure out why. Of course, that would imply much more sense and reason for such a shooting (be that a new experimental drug leading people to go haywire, some sort of cult or whatever) than such shootings often have in reality; that could diminish the pointlessness and tragedy of real shootings. Hm, it's difficult to think of something that preserves that aspect but still lends itself to an interesting story.

How about a Sanitarium-style game where you play the role of the shooter stuck in your own mind after the atrocity? You killed a bunch of kids, the police gunned you down and you're now in a coma, having a fever dream. You're travelling through your own psyche to discover what drove you to do this, what happened to you to commit this senseless act and, in the end, you get a chance to understand what happened. What broke within you. And maybe you can even find a chance at redemption, at forgiving yourself, or a choice for death/never waking up etc.? And also a choice to embrace whatever drove you to do it, obviously, because we need darker endings as well. Of course, the setup would have to be along Sanitarium as well: The game may start out weird, but a) you don't know you murdered a bunch of people and only get hints and clues and b) the world must still be believable enough so folks don't immediately figure out it's a dream. Quite the balancing act, which even Sanitarium only partially managed (I did believe he was really in an asylum at first, I just thought his perspective was really twisted; but you quickly figure out that it's not reality).

 

[FinalDream]

If I had to make a game about the subject then I would make it like Heavy Rain, start by focusing on the aftermath of the tragedy for one of the victims family. It would be a story about them coming to terms with what happened, trying to live like they used to, mixed with sections of a detective investigating the cause and suspect and trying to find out the truth behind what triggered the event. It would be very respectful in all aspects.

 

[Silver]

As realistic a simulation as I could possibly make it. The player is the superintendent of the school, and can change any and all variables. Try arming everyone in the school, see if that solves things. Try metal detectors at the gates, try banning guns, try getting more psychologists involved.

It wouldn't be fun. I wouldn't be trying to make it fun. But if it got used enough, it might save a few lives, and we wouldn't have to wait for yet another school to be shot up before anyone thought about it again.

 

[lemby117]

I love everyone complaining about how immoral it is when we have so many games based around war. Shut the fuck up, war slaughters civilians (including children) all the time. Get off your high horse.

*WHINEY VOICE* Nooooooooo this is different because white people are dying and that makes it a tragedy.

Yeah for the record I completely agree with you there is such a double standard when it comes to this kind of violence. As sad as the events in newton were 200 civilians died in Iraq this month but nobody seems to care about people who are not white.

OT: I would go with the spec ops approach and market it as a standard fps and then spring the trap on you at the end that you were killing innocents it would then switch over to the perspective of a student and you would have to escape the shooter who was doing all the things that you did when you played it, basically a PVP vs Yourself.

 

[MartianWarMachine]

Make it a bonus downloadable level for Unreal Tournament GotYE and install it on the school computers, that way the students can run around their school and shoot each other with The Redeemer, and other ridiculous UT weapons.

 

[Alhazred]

Thanks for all the well-though out replies, everyone. I had a bad feeling after making the thread that I'd opened up an awful can of worms; thankfully that wasn't the case. So, here's my idea.

I originally wanted the game to be in first person, but a few days of playing FTL persuaded me that it would be better with a top-down control system similiar to that game, only on a larger scale.

So, the game begins in media res, with the shooter (or shooters) entering the school. This enemy is armed with a shotgun effective at short-range, a slow-firing but long-range rifle, improvised explosives for blowing down doors and petrol bombs for setting the school on fire.

You have control over several of the school's faculty; three teachers, plus a janitor in the security office. The teachers can give orders to the children in their charge, telling them to follow, run, hide etc. They're liable to be massacred if they try to take on the shooter/s, but they might have a shot under special circumstances (they can equip improvised weapons and throw projectiles), but that is extremely unlikely. Their best bet is either to escape the school through one of several exits, or evade the shooter/s until the police arrive (indicated by a timer).

The janitor can assist the teachers by using the school's security systems against the shooter/s. Doors can be locked, forcing the shooter/s to waste time blowing them open. The sprinkler system can be employed, extinguishing fires and hampering the shooter/s speed and aim. The intercom can disorient the shooter/s with loud noise, but the janitor can also speak directly to the shooter/s and attempt to persuade them to stop. This could take the form of an RPG-style dialogue system, but with a timer representing the shooter/s attention span. This can be increased with succesful dialogue choices.

That's the basic framework of the game, but there's plenty of variables that could be tweaked:
1. A morale meter for the children. This increases over time, and if it reaches a certain point the children panic and stop following orders. The teachers can calm them down, and so can the janitor over the intercom.
2. The shooter/s could have a grudge against certain students or teachers, and will head straight for them as soon as the game begins.
3. Some teachers or students could be packing heat themselves, allowing for possible direct confrontation with the shooter/s.

 

[Lugbzurg]

It could probably contain traits of a fleshed-out Counter-Strike. Though, the "terrorists" would not be playable.

 

[Iron Criterion]

What's with all the psychoanalytical artsy-fartsy suggestions?

Dual wield assault rifles, use children as human shields (While still dual wielding rocket launchers) or stuff a grenade down their throat and chuck them at the cops, have the the army called in and send in tanks and helicopters (Which you take out by dual wielding Barrett .50 cal's), and just have the weapons and opposition escalate until they finally just have to drop a nuke on you, wiping out the West coast. But the post-credit sequence shows you pulling yourself from the crater with radiation-induced super powers, including two new arms for quad-wielding action. Cue sequel.

Bitchin'.

Come on people, it's a video game. Go crazy.

I'm trying to shove my money through the screen to you, but nothing's happening...

OT: There have been many disturbing, downright cruel subject matters in video games over the years, so I don't think that school shootings should be off limits. That said it does depend how it was done: either going all out with 80's action flick levels of balls to the wall ridiculousness, or taking it down a genuine survival horror path could work.

A Silent Hill 2 style approach would be quite interesting, with the twist being that the monsters you had been killing were actually innocent children.

 

[Whateveralot]

I'd make it a DOTA-like game, the map being a school, with three lanes. The two teams would be a) the school children (minions), teachers (super minions) and police (towers). b) the shooter. He uses shooters (minions), heavily-armed shooters (super minions) and rocket turrets (towers).

10 players get to choose either saviours (school side) or the murderers (shooter side) in a massive shootout where a lot of people die.

 

[Iron Criterion]

You're reading a lot into his post that wasn't their, and in doing so, you tend to come down more in favour of the shooters than their victims.

1) Not all of the victims were to blame.
2) Kids are dumb. They don't realise how much they hurt their fellows.
3) Consequences != escalation. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind. A life for an eye leaves the whole world DEAD.

You don't have to be opposed to consequences to believe that murder, and especially, mass murder, are an acceptable consequence. If you took this typographical dressing down as a personal insult, would that justify you to shoot me? Of course not. That's not justice.

School shooters are a complex phenomena, and while I certainly think there's merit to the whole, disenfranchised loner taking out his rage against the world explanation, one should never justify that action by the suffering they underwent first.

You can't justify bullying with, "the kids don't know any better," because you could apply that defense to the shooter too. As a society we have to look at both sides equally, just because one party committed a more terrible act, does not remove culpability for the other side either. If we allow bullying to go unchecked then incidents like this will continue to happen, because when your life is a living hell escalation and revenge does seem a viable option.

 

[Oinodaemon]

A puzzle platformer where you play as a small child trying to escape from the school. I imagine something like Abe's Oddysee.