Hey ya'll!

So, I am finally back from a loooong business trip to Sweden, and while listening to fifty-year olds talk on at conferences I have come up with a few ideas for the story, but all those ideas pivot on one question: Am I allowed to take the story outside of the office, or will it be too much work? Because, my idea is that after coming back to work, Jesse gets curious, and so he checks the label on his automoton colleauge, said label says that the robot was manufactured at 'Jenkins technology', a small nearly-out of business company near the shadier distsicts of town... There I have a cool gameplay idea, where there will be multiple ways to break in at night, and all three ways provide different challenges as to get in, my ideas  for oppurtunities are: The Sewers, a challenge of navigation and not getting lost, The business across the street, a tall bulding with a power line running from the roof down to the roof of Jenkins, this will provide a challenge of stealth as you sneak up the floors trying to not get caught by security, and third: The alley, you will have to beat up several thugs in the back alleys to reach the back door. Anyway, after finding some clues inside the workshop he heads to his discovered location: 'The royal star hotel'. The overarching question here is as said: Am I allowed to go outside of hte office? I feel it would make for a nice change of scenery, and make some new areas that pop in contrast to the mundane office of GGS... When I have gotten the answer I'll get right back to writing, can't wait! :D

So here's my idea: Our game could be like Call Of Duty: Zombies mode. 

What I mean is the game will go on forever (Or a cap of something like 30) and during that time you can find Easter eggs that unlock the plot. So in call of duty if you do the right things in the right order you unlock a cutscene and/or boss battle. In our game if you unlock certain Easter eggs you unlock the robot manufacturers level and perhaps the player could return there on specific nights and find different clues each night they return. Also even after the game reaches a cannon ending the game will continue. Like a high score.

Also I kinda want what FNAF has in the way that some of the lore is hidden in clues and Easter eggs that the player has to figure out.

This was a long message but it's how I wanted the game to be from the beginning. I couldn't find a way to explain it until I remember call of duty's style of storytelling. Please tell me what you think of these ideas especially if something is unclear. The only way we can create a good game is by communicating with each other.

Should we release the game in chapters? This would allow us to get part of the full game to other people. Like bendy and the ink machine. I have no opinion on this, so the decision is up to you guys.

Also at night the player has to do tasks to end the night. So do you guys have any ideas?

Also I wanted to try some things in the next Demo That we won't really need until later on. Like a cutscene or voice acting perhaps. Just to get into them.

Hey ya'll! I know it's been a while, but here is another story update, quick thing: A highly requested change was the addition of marking what is Gameplay and hwat is cutscene, and I am happy tell you that it's finally here, and mates, we are approaching the fun part :)...

                                    Replaced

-Cutscene

Jesse is on the bus to work, there are people all around him, he is drowned in a sea of voices. After a short bus ride the vehicle comes to a stop at the GGS (gravity games studios) HQ.

-Gameplay

 Jesse steps out of the bus and heads towards the door, he looks up at the familiar skyscraper that is GGS HQ. When Jesse opens the door he is immediately hit by the familiar sound of computer typing, phone calls and people speaking louder than necessary. The receptionist is almost hidden behind mountains of paperwork as Jesse passes her and walks into ‘office sector one’. He goes to his usual desk, desk nr. 87 where he turns on his computer and cracks his knuckles for another day of hard work.

-Cutscene

 He looks around, everything is as usual, the large room with an infinite sea of office cubicles, but wait, one of his colleagues, the one named Mark, is gone, and in his place is a robot. Jesse had heard the CEO talk about replacing workers with machines, but he had never imagined that it would actually happen, but beside him now, was a human-shaped robot, with its lifeless eyes fixed on the monitor and its metall fingers typing systematically on the keyboard. Jesse raised an eyebrow at the unannounced replacement of Mark, where was Mark now? Did he get a new job? Jesse tries to work but is constantly interrupted by his own thoughts of what has happened to Mark. He comes to the conclusion that he should maybe ask the receptionist, maybe if he gets an answer he won’t think so much about it.

-Gameplay

 So he gets up from his desk, passes the lifeless automaton and walks out of the sector and towards the white desk of the receptionist who is still hidden behind Mount paperwork.

-Cutscene

 Jesse knocks on the desk clearing his throat, he can barely hear the muffled voice of the receptionist behind all the papers, the receptionist pushes aside a stack of papers looking Jesse in the eyes “yes?” she says in a hurried manner “um, do you seem to know what happened to an employee named Mark?” the receptionist looked at him “which Mark? Mark Johnson, Mark Robins or Mark Halfor?” Jesse scratches his chin “Halfor I think” the receptionist nods and types something on her computer “according to the files the boss has provided, he is still working here, and is already at work by now” Jesse raises an eyebrow “but th-'' but he’s interrupted by the receptionist “if you are so keen on knowing, go ask the boss yourself”.

-Gameplay

 Jesse walks over to the elevator and calls it down to him, when it arrives he enters it and clicks the highest button appropriately named ‘boss’. When the lift reaches the very top floor of the building Jesse is immediately met with a fancy hallway leading to a hand carved oak door with a golden handle. The CEO’s office is a circular room with windows pointing out to all directions, in the luxurious chair behind the oak desk sits Matthias Crawson, the CEO of GGS.

-Cutscene

 “Do we have an appointment?” he asks without getting out of the chair, Jesse closes the door behind him “I just want to know what happened to a fellow employee named Mark, Mark Halfor I mean” the CEO gets up from his chair and turns to look out the window “I don’t understand the question” Jesse clears his throat “Mark has been… Replaced” the CEO shakes his head “no new people have been hired, now get back to work or I’ll cut your salary” Jesse slowly walks backwards, but now with a suspicion sparked inside him.

-Gameplay

 Jesse walks down the hallway back to the elevator, his head spinning, what was going on? Jesse walks into the elevator pressing the button to the first floor, and after a short trip down, he once again stands by the reception. He walks into the office area making sure to have at least a meter between him and the automaton, before he once again sits in his uncomfortable office chair and starts typing on the keyboard…

*Screen fades to black

A few hours later the lunch break starts, Jesse gets up from his chair, noting that the machine beside him hasn’t stopped typing. When he reaches the cantine he walks over to the far end of the lunch line, taking in all the people in the cantine. The room has ten long gray tables and the occasional trash can, at the front of the room is a long disk where employees are served their lunch. Jesse stands in the line for a while before finally he is at the front with a steel plate in his hands.

-Cutscene

 The lunch ladies are about as merry as a janitor who’s lost his job. They are always in this mood for some reason, one of them picks up a ladle and drops a huge portion of what seems to be old mashed potatoes “sauce?” she says in a grainy voice, Jesse nods “uh, yes” she rolls her eyes pouring some darb brown sauce onto his plate “t- thank you”. 

-Cutscene

Jesse walks over to his usual table and sits down, damn, he forgot his fork,

-Gameplay

 he gets up from the table and walks back over to the disk to get his fork, when he reaches the cutlery stand he notices a small black leather pouch on the table,

-Cutscene

 he looks around him, before quickly grabbing the fork, and the pooch. When he is back at his table Jesse puts down the fork and opens the pouch, inside it are a few paper dollars, but also a small note, he takes out the white paper and reads it ‘475634’, he raises an eyebrow, but reads under the numbers, it reads ‘code to encrypted email’, Jesse shrugs and stuffs the note into his pocket before devouring his lunch. When lunch break is over employees usually get a half an hour break, so Jesse walks over to the large albeit old employee lounge and hurls himself down on the gray couch, there were rumors around the office that this couch had once been brown, but it was so old all the color had worn off. Around ten minutes later another colleague of Jesse’s arrived into the lounge hurling himself onto the couch, this was Jack, a close friend of Jesse’s who had recently started working at the company “hey” Jesse said awkwardly, Jack looks at him “um, rumors fare you have been going crazy, the receptionist told me you asked what was wrong with Mark” Jesse stares at him “wait, you haven’t noticed?” Jack raises an eyebrow “what? Is there something I should notice?” Jesse leans back “Mark, is… Well… He has been replaced” Jack chuckles “funny” Jesse frowns “oh come on! He has been replaced with a robot or something!” Jack stares at him “you are joking right?” Jesse gets up from the couch “our break is over”

-Gameplay

 he says in an annoyed voice before walking out into the office area.

-Cutscene

Jesse once again sits at his desk typing mindlessly at the keyboard, the disturbing machine still beside him, he keeps typing for a short while before his office phone rings, he rolls his eyes and picks up the monochrome stationary phone “hello? This is Jesse from the development department” he hears the person on the other side clearing his throat “yes, this is me, your upper manager” Jesse raises an eyebrow “ok? What are you calling for?” the CEO once again clears his throat “I have noticed your severe lack of progress” Jesse nodded for himself “oh, yes, I am sorry, I- uh” he could hear the CEO scoff “no need to apologize, you will just have to work farther into the night” Jesse stuttered a bit before replying “b- but, I’ve places to be!” the boss coughed “and you’ve work to do, now stop wasting your time and start typing”. Jesse was in a bad mood the rest of the day, he had plans for the night, and now he had to waste all his time on some stupid game? He watched as his colleagues left the office all jolly and merry, all while he sat there typing braindeadlessly on his keyboard. Everyone had left and night had set when Jesse decided to go to the toilet, 

-Gameplay

he passed the robot which was still active and working, he then passed all the empty desks before arriving at the back of the office hall. There were three doors, one for the male bathroom, one for the female bathroom, and at the end of the room one marked ‘authorized personnel only’ the latter was half open, and led into a dark metal staircase spiraling down into a basement area. 

-Cutscene

Jesse sat there for a minute, his eyes flashing between the bathroom door, and the much more appealing restricted door, a grin spread across his face, he looked around him making sure there wasn’t anyone else here, and when confirming the lonely situation, he took a deep breath and fully pushed open the white-ish door. 

-Gameplay

Behind it was a dark metal staircase leading down a story or two, a constant ventilator was running down there, as Jesse could hear a rusty hum at all times while standing in front of the door, but he slowly walked down taking in his surroundings as he slowly crept down the metal stairs, the walls were made of a rugged metal material, the stairs were made of what seemed like normal steel, but there was no way of being sure. He soon arrived at the bottom of the stairwell, in front of him was a white plastic door. It contained a small glass window on it, but the glass was so dirty it was hardly possible to make out anything, but Jesse slowly put his finger on the door and carefully pushed it open. The first thing that hit him was the smell of medicine, the second one was the door which hit him in the nose seeing as though the large rectangular piece of plastic was retracting back into its main position, but he pushed it open once again, this time making sure to enter while it was still open. Jesse stared in awe at the room, it was not extremely large, barely any larger than the employee lounge, that pesky man of a CEO wouldn’t invest anything in his employees, or so it seemed, but this small room contained several pieces of expensive equipment, weirdly enough lab equipment, it all seemed to be neurogenetics equipment, it looked like this was where they were researching the psychological side of the video games. Jesse walked around in the room for a bit examining all the peculiar lab equipment, and he who thought the night would be boring, one of the machines caught his attention more than the others though, it looked like a gray server cabinet, but it seemed only to contain hundreds upon hundreds of small chips all plugged into a large square disk,

-Cutscene

 Jesse put his hand on the strange machine, and upon closer inspection the chips revealed something, each of them had two or three letters written onto their backs, some of the combinations included: ‘J.F.H’ ‘D.O’ and ‘M.H’ Jesse examined them all, the letters didn’t seem to stand for anything in particular, he put them back into the device and turned toward a large filing cabinet in the far end of the room, he slowly pulled one of the drawers open. He didn’t know what he had expected, the only thing inside the cabinet was a bunch of papers, but what papers were these? There were several hospital bills, all marked with names: ‘Jonathan Fredrick Hanses’ ‘Donald Oliver’, all the names were written in the top left of their respective hospital bills, all the incidents listed were quote on quote ‘normal’ accidents, car crashes, broken legs, but one stood out to Jesse, the one marked: Brain failure, it was assigned to a woman by the name of ‘Julia Violet’, he kept reading down the page examining the details, her address was written near the bottom of the page, he packed together the paper and stuffed it into his pocket.

-Gameplay (the discussion on the other side of the door is mere audio, not a cutscene)

 The silence was a few moments later broken up by an argument. There was a door in the right side of the room, it was simply marked ‘conference room’. Jesse could hear an argument emitting from inside, there were two men discussing something “sir, there is nothing we can do about it! We did what you asked us to do, it must be them that is the problem!” The first person sounded like a male in their thirties, he had a strong Glasgow accent, the second voice however he knew all too well, for it was the voice of the CEO “Mr. Joyhill, I paid you to do a job, so do it well” Joyhill sighed “I already told you sir, there is literally nothing doable about it, the easiest thing to do is to fire them” the CEO slammed his fist into a table “listen, if that chemical of yours doesn’t do its job, then force it to do it, all assets can be bent and warped till they obey, that is what I did with that imbecile Halford”. There was some more muttering behind the door before Joyhill scoffed “you give us little resources, yet you expect immense results, that’s not how science works” the CEO took a sip of something before clapping his hands together “dammit, Mr. Joyhill, I’ve better things to do, get the hell out of here” Joyhill grunted “so be it! We’ll see how you do without my science” the CEO laughed “you think we depend on you? We are the ones that construct the machines, we acquire the subjects, we do the extraction, you just do the theoretical calculations, and yet you dare say we need you, get out”. Inside the conference room a door was slammed shut before the distinct sound of a light switch indicated that both of them had left the room, the laboratory didn’t contain anything more of interest to Jesse, and so he cautiously tried to open the conference room…

-Cutscene

After silently pushing down the door handle Jesse managed to get the door to open, the conference room was pitch dark because of the impending lack of light, so Jesse's first objective was to find the little light switch.

-Gameplay

He fumbles around in the dark before finally spotting the green glow from the small light on the light switch.

-Cutscene

After flipping the switch the room swiftly lit up, the fluorescent lights made a slight buzzing sound as they went into action.

-Gameplay

In the middle of the room lay a large conference table, several black leather chairs were stationed around it, but only the one at the end seemed like it had been recently used, probably the one the CEO had sat in, he didn’t seem like a fan of standing. But over the table a large projector loomed, Jesse thought of trying to turn it on (we should make a optional gameplay puzzle here, if you can solve it you get to go to ‘Jenkins machinery’ like Cod said, you will get to come back here in later night however, so you mustn't solve it now I don’t have any ideas for puzzles, so I’ll leave it blank for now), after finding the switch for the projector, the machine buzzed for a minute before displaying a 90’s esc quote on quote ‘animated’ video (in the Fallout esc style), and after humming for another minute a female voice starts voicing over the video… “welcome proud scientific pioneers! To the Nova project!” The animation shows a man waving to the ‘camera’, “As you were informed about in the information leaflet that was sent to you in your mail, this project seeks to make the economical world more efficient and productive. Have you experienced your employees being sloppy? Lazy? Or brain dead?" the video shows a zombie sitting lazily in front of a PC without typing on the keyboard “well, the Nova project seeks to rob you of your workspace problems!” the man previously seen hits the zombie with a hammer which suddenly makes it type methodically on the keyboard “with our generous supplier: Jenkins machinery, which has through an anonymous representative, have sent us several subjects to kickstart the Nova project, their kind boss: Jenkins Violet has sadly not been able to contact us about the project, but the representative assures us we have his full permission to use their products'' the man in the video points at several robots that look vaguely similar to the automaton stationed by Jesse's desk. But after this the video changes, the voice starts glitching and turns into inaudible screeches, the video too, starts glitching and graying out, and after a few seconds of breaking the video simply turns off. Jesse waits for a few seconds before scratching his cheek before deciding on his goal: “Jenkins machinery, here I come…”

Hey ya'll! New opdate here! Decided to not post the entire thing this time, just the new addition as to not clutter up the page, enjoy! :D

Day 2

-Cutscene

At the office once again, Jesse opens the doors to once again be greeted by the noise of keyboards, printers and an array of voices. (The player now has two choices: Either confront the CEO about the basement and the information contained there, or go to work as normal). 

If the player picks to confront the CEO the following events will occur:

-Gameplay

Jesse walks over to the elevator and picks the floor named ‘boss’. After some relaxing elevator music the door finally opens, half a minute later Jesse opens the door to the CEOs office,

-Cutscene

 this time brutally barging in “Boss, can we talk?”.

-Gameplay (gameplay as in you can walk around in the office as the events play out)

 The CEO looks up from his paperwork “this is the second time you barge into my office, it better be important” he responds with a harsh and irritated tone. Jesse closes the door behind him and clears his throat “you know your intzy laboratory under the office building, I seem to have found my way there, and you have a lot to respond to”, the CEO puts down his pen and raises an eyebrow, he looks genuinely confused “err, no?” Jesse scoffs “what about Mr. Joyhill, the NOVA project, and Jenkins, eh?” the CEO shakes his head “the answer is still no, is there nothing more important? That’s what I thought, now get out” but Jesse refuses to leave the office “look, the bloody police can get involved, so now you speak up, or I’ll hit up 911, right?” the CEO looks down at his paperwork, you mentioned the name Joyhill?” Jesse nods before letting the CEO continue “there is one thing I can tell you, I fired him a few years back, satisfied, marvelous, now leave my office or I’ll fire you” Jesse reluctantly then leaves the office in fear of losing his livelyhood. He quickly walks down the hallway murmuring to himself “Joyhill, fired, eh?”.

-Cutscene

Jesse enters the elevator and pushes in the button for the first floor where the office space resides, after yet another elevator trip elevated majorly by the elevator music the lift stops, and opens its doors.

-Gameplay

Jesse realises he is late for work, and so he hurries back to his work space, and just like the previous day, the automaton is systematically typing on the keyboard, it has been working all night, he realises, as he can hear the break-starved fans screaming inside of the computer. 

-Cutscene

Jesse sits down in his chair, he realises the colleague to his left is gone today, he didn’t really them, but the fact that they were missing now, made the situation even more eerie…

(Screen fades to black)

-Cutscene

Lunch break, finally, Jesse pushes away from his desk, he couldn’t wait to get something edible into his digestive system. 

-Gameplay

Once again, the road to the cantine went smoothly, he soon arrived at the monochrome mess hall, the line to get consumables was as always, long, but Jesse promptly put himself into the line.

-Cutscene

But not one moment passes before Jack squeezes himself into the line infront of Jesse and turns around “mate, heard rumours you’ve been sneaking around where you shouldn’t be” Jesse rolls his eyes “no…” Jack scoffs “c’mon, what did you find in the lab?” Jesse hesitates for a moment “wait, how do you know there’s a lab down there?” Jack blushes “errr, j- janitary job” Jesse nods suspiciously “didn’t know you where a janitor” Jack nods intensely “y- you learn something every day, right?” before hastily turning to face away from Jesse…

(Screen fades to black yet again)

-Cutscene

Jesse recieves his food in the same lazy manner as the previous, and really, any other day, walking over to a table like any other day, Jesse starts to wonder, the cooks in the kitchen are quite old… Maybe they can tell him something about Joyhill?

-Gameplay

He walks over to the kitchen,

-Cutscene

and knocks on the white plastic door, a man with a gray beard and glasses opens, “if ya didn’t like the food ya can just throw it away you know, then we’ll se ya starve to death, eh?” the man sounded Irish, very Irish, but Jesse nods and politely asks “excuse me, but do you know of an employee with the surname ‘Joyhill’? He was apparently fired a few years back, and so I thought I’d ask some of the, errr, more experienced, people here if they remembered him” the old man steps out of the kitchen, he has a white apron on him, albeit it is covered in grease stains “Joyhill, eh? The man was nasty, always poking around where he don’t belong, ‘ol boss fired ‘im ‘fer good reason, he always messed more with machinery than working on those blasted games ya’ll work on” Jesse nodded “thank you for the… Intel”.

I was thinking about the fear we are tying to invoke, and I think the fear Cronos Syndrome would represent would be -what I call- the "Fear Of Tainting! " Basically we all have two death: when we die and when we are forgotten. But this fear would corrupt your memory. If that makes sense.

So I was thinking about my easter egg idea. Maybe to a lesser extent then I originally thought. Because for call of duty, they have millions of players and each player just knows that there are secrets to uncover, and each player uses other players progress to solve them. Just for example: we get a hundred players, and each devotes only 1 hour to one easter egg, most players won't find a single secret. And even then we don't need all the steps of a big game like Call Of Duty. Just a piece of paper hidden in a corner would be great (Like Jesse's hospital bill).

Though one thing on my part is something I call "Out of world easter eggs." These are easter eggs that don't exist canonically, but are just fun little tid-bits for the players, such as a nod to a famous movie, video game or youtuber.

I would really appreciate feedback, and looking back on it, I was kinda forcing my ideas, so I'm very sorry about that!

Edit: Maybe if the player completes optional tasks they either unlock the secret after a certain amount of "Overtime tasks." Or it gives them a hint to complete the real secret. 

Also if I remember correctly we talked about multiple endings, and I love the idea. Just a few broad ideas for some endings. 

Good-Ending: where Jesse stops the GGS and/or saves everyone. 

Neutral Ending:  Jesse escapes the GGS but let's the company continue operating. 

Bad Ending: Jesse get's replaced and the company continues for the foreseeable future (This would be different then getting killed by the robot. It could be the player forgot a few steps to unlock the good ending).

These are just broad examples for some endings, so there could be more endings where Jesse succeeds or fails in different ways (like maybe recruiting the other employees or the Boss for instance).

every time a coworker gets replaced, a new robot appears, as we've talked about. But my original idea was that the new robot could attack the player as well. Only one enemy per day, but each one would have their own way of attacking the player. Here are some of my ideas of enemy behavior, these can be changed in any way you think is necessary :

One idea is that the enemy wouldn't chase the player, but would make an audible noise when it's about to attack. Basically the player would be doing a task or something when they hear a very feint sound. They then have to search around them with the flashlight on (Or torch if you prefer), they'll see a transparent version of the enemy. This would keep going all night or ontil the enemy's trade rolls between attacking and working.

My next idea is basically just a weeping angle from Doctor who. 

And then my last idea is an enemy that chases the player relentlessly at a slow pace.

I need input with these ideas especially if you don't understand them, cause I don't think I explained them very well.

Hey ya'll! So, I know the story of this game is all over the place at the moment, and so I have decided to make the decision to reboot the story. I want to start over again, make a tighter story that makes a bit more momentary sense, what I mean by that is that the story at the moment, has the flaw that at any one point you can not know at all what is going on, it only makes sense from a wide view, I know this is confusing and I can explain further if anyone wants, but for now we'll leave it at that. So, if anyone is strictly against this decision, please let me know! And if there is something you want in a new rendition of the story, let me know too! Thanks for reading and I hope this though decision will bring positive outcomes. Cheers! :)

So, for the new story, what are some elements ya'll want? I know I kind of asked this before, but I'll ask again, what does everyone want? Same characters? New Characters? Locations? Plotlines? And I might add that in the new rendition I want to put a heavier focus on investigation, figuring out what is going on, and then maybe even different endings depending on the conclusions you make!