Pitch Meeting: Outbreak

[DougGraves]

Prd is a producer. Dev is a developer.

 

Prd: So, you have a tutorial for me in this current year of 2004?

 

Dev: Yes, sir, I do! Although it's odd that you mention the year.

 

Prd: So what's the tutorial about?

 

Dev: Yesterday I was at a restaurant and there was a sick man coughing at the table next to me. I wanted to hit him. So I thought, let's do that.

 

Prd: You want to have heroes beat up people because they are sick in public?

 

Dev: That's what we're going with.

 

Prd: And this is a plot in 2004?

 

Dev: Yes, although again it's odd that you mention the current year. Would it help if we call them "thugs" and say the sickness is due to "drugs"?

 

Prd: That works. So what do the heroes do?

 

Dev: You talk to a police officer named Officer Flint who tells you there is a crisis due to a drug.

 

Prd: Does he call it an outbreak?

 

Dev: No

 

Prd: But that's the name of the tutorial!

 

Dev: He calls it a crisis. He says the situation is desperate, and he has you bring something to Dr. Miller who is nearby.

 

Prd: Is the doctor in danger from thugs? Do you have to fight your way to him?

 

Dev: No. Dr. Miller is just down the street. You just walk down the street and hand it to him.

 

Prd: Why do they need a superhero do do that?

 

Dev: Because.

 

Prd: Alright. Tell me about Dr. Miller, what's his deal?

 

Dev: I just told you. He's a doctor just down the street. You talk to him. Then you read a sign. Then you go back and talk to the Officer Flint who introduces you to Officer Parks who you go talk to. He tells you things are getting out of control.

 

Prd: Out of control? Does he call it an outbreak?

 

Dev: No. In this entire tutorial no one uses the word outbreak, so I'm going to need you to get all of the way off of my back about that.

 

Prd: Alright, let me get off of that. So Officer Parks has you go after the thugs?

 

Dev: Eventually. First he has you talk to a scientist who has you talk to another police officer who has you go back to Officer Parks.

 

Prd: That may as well happen.

 

Dev: Then Officer Parks has you fight two thugs.

 

Prd: If the thug situation is so desperate, why are all of these police officers standing around waiting to talk to you?

 

Dev: So the tutorial can happen.

 

Prd: Well, okay then. After you defeat the two thugs, let me guess - you talk to another police officer?

 

Dev: You talk to two more police officers. Then you fight four thugs.

 

Prd: After that you talk to two more police officers?

 

Dev: No, just one police officer but you talk to him twice and you read a sign.

 

Prd: Is having characters talk to people and read signs the best way to get players hooked on a superhero game?

 

Dev: I don't know.

 

Prd: Fair enough.

 

Dev: The police officer gives you an enhancement and the sign tells you how to put it into your enhancement slot.

 

Prd: Putting things into your slot is tight.

 

Dev: Oh my god! Never say that again.

 

Prd: I'm sorry, I don't know why I said that. Let's just move on.

 

Dev: Then you talk to Coyote. He's a veteran superhero who sends the player on a mission to investigate the source of the drugs.

 

Prd: And what's his deal?

 

Dev: He's named after a pre-beta tester who was known for being helpful but died just after the game was released.

 

Prd: Wow wow wow. Wow.

 

Dev: So he sends you to the building he suspects the drugs came from.

 

Prd: And do you have to fight a lot of thugs to get there?

 

Dev: No, all of the thugs are behind a fence on the other side of the map.

 

Prd: Very considerate thugs.

 

Dev: In the building there are thugs and you have to rescue Flower Knight.

 

Prd: Hey, she's from Ouroboros!

 

Dev: She's not from Arugulas, whatver that is. I just made her up for this tutorial.

 

Prd: Right, it's 2004. You just made her up.

 

Dev: Why do you keep mentioning the year?

 

Prd: Hey, shut up. So you have to rescue Flower Knight from the thugs. Rescuing her is going to be difficult.

 

Dev: Actually, it's super easy, barely an inconvenience. She is guarded by two thugs just like you defeated earlier in the tutorial. Then you find the formula, defeat the other thugs, return to Coyote. He tells you the formula will let them reverse the Rikti mutation drug.

 

Prd: Reversing the Rikti mutation drug, I bet that'll be a big deal in the rest of the game.

 

Dev: No. In fact later on the characters will have another arc to create a formula to reverse the Rikti mutation drug as if the events of the tutorial never happened.

 

Prd: Whoops

 

Dev: Whoopsie. So then Coyote teleports you out of the area and the tutorial is over.

 

Prd: What caused the outbreak?

 

Dev: Unclear.

 

Prd: Can we explain it in an online post? That way we can lure people onto forums to argue about lore and maybe make youtube videos about it?

 

Dev: Sure. We'll just say the drugs were made by Crey Industries.

 

Prd: And what reason would Crey have for making the drugs?

 

Dev: Money.

 

Prd: Money, you said money. Well, that certainly explains it.

 

Dev: So what do you think?

 

Prd: Well, it gives the players the chance to read a lot of text and run back and forth between people standing far apart from one another and has the players fight a few sick people. So it seems like the perfect tutorial for 2020.

 

Dev: But it's 2004. There's basically no chance this game will still be around in 2020.

 

Prd: It might be. There's literally no way for me to find out. I certainly did not arrive in your time with grave news of the future. But it feels like something is missing. Maybe a badge. Something you can get that is incredibly tedious.

 

Dev: I'll add a secret badge players don't know about. If you defeat 100 of the thugs you get a badge. And there is no way back to the area to get the badge once you find out about it.

 

Prd: There it is. Perfect.

Edited March 6, 2023 by DougGraves

[Glacier Peak]

31 minutes ago, DougGraves said:

Dev: Yesterday I was at a restaurant and there was a sick man coughing at the table next to me. I wanted to hit him. So I thought, let's do that.

This is as far as I made it before laughing out loud. Nice work!

[Techwright]

[Tenaxa]

Mr. Graves has determined the secret. 

Please have him eliminated, immediately!!!

 

Hey, give him the Outbreak drug, that should do it...

[Go0gleplex]

That brings back memories of so many players hunting the badge that new toons showing up to run the tutorial had to wait for respawns and then try to beat the hunters to 'em. Totally forgot about that 'til now....though the part of running pointlessly long distances thru a zone that is essentially half empty (start to thugs) wasn't mentioned. 😉 lol

[Scarlet Shocker]

On 3/5/2023 at 10:54 PM, DougGraves said:

Dev: Yesterday I was at a restaurant and there was a sick man coughing at the table next to me. I wanted to hit him. So I thought, let's do that.

 

Prescient game is prescient. This actually happened to me in 2020