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

Alhazred

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I was reading about a game called Super Columbine Massacre RPG the other day, based on the shootings at Columbine high school.

The moral outrage the game inspired didn't surprise me. What did intrigue me was the way the game was made; by one guy, using RPG maker and sprites stolen from Doom. And this got me thinking: what if this game could have been made on a bigger budget, without the restrictions of morality? What sort of game would it be? Would it be received better or worse by the public?
Would it be more or less fun to play? Could such a game, rather than creating further anguish in the wake of the tragedy, help us to come to terms with it in the same way a film or documentary might do?

So, for the purposes of this thread, all moral concerns are suspended and everything is permitted. Any creative ideas you have are welcome; gameplay, story, aesthetics, whatever. I have a few ideas of my own, but I would like to see what you come up with first. Videogames have as much right to tackle difficult subjects as any other medium, we just need to try making them.
 

Dreiko_v1legacy

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I'd make it a survival horror game where the person is seeing monsters and stuff and he's not comprehending he's in a school but in some abandoned hotel or something, then by the very very very end, I'd reveal the protagonist was actually shooting children.


That's bound to mind**** a few folks. :D
 

Baron von Blitztank

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I'd probably do it as a survival horror game in the same vein as Clock Tower. You cannot defeat the enemy, all you can do is hide and hope to God that the enemy doesn't check your hiding spot.
 

ThriKreen

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You'd notice a lot of professional made games tend to either not have them or make children immortal...
 

aguspal

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Katatori-kun said:
Alhazred said:
You are making a game based around a School Shooting.

2. It's not a "fun" game. Extra Credits did a video about this where they talked about Spec Ops: The Line and pointed out that games no longer need to be fun, in the same way other forms of art sometimes provoke emotions other than fun.
Damn man, look how far we have gotten, now games dont need to be fun...

Sigh- In those kind of times I actually miss the older gaming.
 

ThriKreen

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GunsmithKitten said:
ThriKreen said:
You'd notice a lot of professional made games tend to either not have them or make children immortal...
You didn't play the cult compound level in SWAT 4, did you?
And "tend to" does not mean "all".

For instance, in Dragon Age: Origins, you can opt to
sacrifice Conner
.

And actually I have played SWAT 4, but I don't recall that level. Been a number of years since and I never replayed it. In fact, the only incident/mission I could really remember was shooting the granny with a beanbag shotgun.

But she totally had it coming! She wouldn't stand down even with a gun in her face!

I'm just following standard ops!
 

Amethyst Wind

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I'd probably do it Chu-Chu Rocket style. You choose your moves before the action starts and play it out by trying to save as many students as possible. The students being the mice and the shooter being the cat.
 

RaikuFA

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I'd make it so that there's a path where no one dies. I'd also make it so that through documents and such the shooter is more sympathetic. Like he has been getting beaten for years by a kid yet nothing would happen cause either a) the bully has relations to the superintendent or another high ranking staff member, b) the bully is varsity *insert sport name here* MVP and the school looks the other way cause if the bully gets in trouble then they can't play and the team could lose or c) the bully lies out of their ass. Basically saying "Yeah it's extremly wrong that the kid's shooting up a school. But it could have been 100% avoided if someone at the school did their damn job about this kid's troubles."

As for gameplay, I picture it being like Clock Tower as another poster said or that Telltale Walking Dead game.
 

Arakasi

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I'd have it be as realistic as possible.
You'd have to live through all the traumatising aspects of the shooter's life, being torn down, going mad, having to go through weapon acquisition (ease of weapon acquisition depends on location), going even more mad, before finally snapping, seeing how terrible it is to shoot a bunch of people, seeing the heroic actions of people trying to protect other people, before finally looking down the barrel yourself. Cut to black.
 

Esotera

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I'd make it entirely about why someone would actually be driven to commit a crime like that. So it would focus on their life at school/home, deteriorating mental health, and eventually have them mount an assault with a nerf gun.

As DLC is inherently evil, I would produce release-day only DLC that allows you to replace the nerf gun with a flamethrower.
 

Gergar12_v1legacy

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I make it so that the guy sees many bad experences, and then make it so that the guy who is doing the shooting thinks he is in a dream, and shaking peoples hands,and what not, but then just at the end of the game when the swat people are just nearing him he wakes, out and sees he was sleeping walking, and that his mind did this for him, and then the guy spends the rest of his life in a nightmare. Their lots we don't know about the brain.
 

L4Y Duke

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I'd make it a LA Noire thing. The school staff have recently found a piece of paper discarded that details a plan for a shooting, and you've been called in to handle the matter discretely by talking to the students, trying to find out who among them is the potential gunner and making sure they get the treatment they need.
 

Najos

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Katatori-kun said:
Alhazred said:
You are making a game based around a School Shooting.
No, I'm not. Because such a notion is irredeemably repugnant. 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. I have to believe anyone who would even attempt such a game is on some level mentally/emotionally broken.
Just curious, but do you feel the same way about war games? I mean, there are more than a few games centered around Iraq/Afghanistan at this point. Certainly, war isn't the same as a school shooting, but games about it certainly involve deriving fun from the suffering of others.
 

Sack of Cheese

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I'd make it like a Rainbow six game where you control a squad and try to eliminate the shooter while keeping casualty low.
 

MortisLegio

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Najos said:
Katatori-kun said:
Alhazred said:
You are making a game based around a School Shooting.
No, I'm not. Because such a notion is irredeemably repugnant. 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. I have to believe anyone who would even attempt such a game is on some level mentally/emotionally broken.
Just curious, but do you feel the same way about war games? I mean, there are more than a few games centered around Iraq/Afghanistan at this point. Certainly, war isn't the same as a school shooting, but games about it certainly involve deriving fun from the suffering of others.
To be fair, in war games (most of them at any rate) the guys you shoot at shoot back. I mean yes you are doing a similar act by shooting people but there is a major difference between shooting unarmed students who are running for their lives and armed military/mercenaries/terrorists/ect trying to kill you with their own guns.

OT: I wouldn't make it a full game but I would make a level where you played a student trying to get out of the school for whoever is shooting it up.