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

[Jark212]

I would put the majority of the games focus on the underline causes that lead up to the shooting, like going into the shooters past while exploring his/her psyche, motivation, and contributing factors. I would pay very little attention to the actual shooting itself...

Ether way it's a pretty bad idea for a game.

 

[Gormech]

I'd have it where you are the friend of the soon-to-be shooter. The game plays out over the course of several days, letting you collect supplies, talk with other people in the town, join with or try to talk down the person as you wish. It would be a multiple-playthrough game. You can go through various rp paths with the other students, set up a plan and betray the shooter at the last second, or whatever you want to do. Some paths will leave you hiding from the shooter while waiting for police, others will have you run and gunning along with them, others will have you killing them and being mistaken as the origional shooter while running from everyone. There's lots of ways to go with it. Maybe have it play kind of like fallout 3 as far as controls and such go.

 

[lechat]

could go all out running with scissors style if you want a serious backlash. portray the kids as irritating beiber loving tools and the shooter as someone who has had enough and has to save the world!!! but i'm pretty sure that would have limited appeal and more than likely only to the sort of ppl that are considering a massacre

could portray the shooter as someone who is conflicted but has to press onwards for the sake of media immortality with a touch of spec ops, heavy rain and walking dead forcing the player into hard decisions that they would feel uncomfortable with but that would require a pretty heavy backstory for us to feel sympathy for the shooter and press on with the story

i'd mainly go for survival myself. have the view skew with any sort of look at what is going on ala silent hill and have the player try and save themselves and others but sadly fail repeatably

 

[scorptatious]

Oh dis gonna be good.

*grabs popcorn*

 

[ShinyCharizard]

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.

That would be the ultimate mind-fuck.

 

[Kopikatsu]

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.

 

[KingKickass]

If I were making a game based around a School Shooting... interesting choice. Nonetheless, I'd make it a Silent Hill-esque experience where it starts out normal, then when the shooter comes in and starts wreaking havoc, the protagonist's mind bends and starts seeing different monsters and demons based on the notion of the hellish scenario they are in and that their psyche is just cracking and breaking throughout the whole game.

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.

Or this, this is another great idea.

Captcha: hairy eyeball ...I'm not even gonna say anything

 

[balanovich]

I'd make it a fun party game, kinda like Burnout.

You do short killing sprees with various weapons and in various schools. You could team up with friends and try to make the most deadly massacre or compete each other.

I'd make map of real schools in which shooting sprees occurred. I would even create an easy to use map builder tool so players can make their own school and fantasise.


What do you think?

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

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

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

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

I think there's a Japanese Hentai game like that.

There's Japanese hentai about everything.

My game though wouldnt involve you having to sleep with the shooter and half the school though

 

[Master_of_Oldskool]

I would make it a sort of psychological puzzle game. The player is a psychotherapist who has been asked to interview a group of survivors. Each session starts with a brief action segment from the perspective of the survivor, in essence their retelling of the shooting, then an LA Noire-style interview. Success depends on helping the survivors to cope. Maybe an overarching mystery plot about trying to establish the shooter's motives.

Or, if that sort of boring but tasteful approach doesn't go over well with test audiences, a tower defense game. Ramp the blood spatter up to "This can only be satire, no mind capable of using a computer could genuinely be this ignorant" levels, make every conceivable insensitive joke, slap "Gun violence are bad" into the opening somewhere, and knock off for the day.

 

[DeltaEdge]

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.

So how could a game work? Well, I only see three possible approaches, all of which either distance themselves from the event or the "game":

1. It's not really about a real school shooting. i.e., it's an allegory, or fantastic elements have been added to the story, or something has been fictionalized to create emotional distance. Think of this as the spunkgargleweewee approach- superficially it's about the event portrayed on the cover but the heroism is fictitiously ramped up to 11 and anything that could possible evoke traumatic feelings in the player is carefully omitted.

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. Such a game probably would never be commercially viable, but a game where you play as a student in Columbine trying to escape the school could provide a kind of catharsis without cheapening the real lives lost. You would have no weapons, no way of attacking the shooters, and you would have to use stealth to get away. You get bonus points for every other student you can help get away with you, but the more students you have on the move together, the more likely you are to attract the shooters' attention.

3. It's 60 years in the future. Everyone who actually experienced the school shooting in question is far too old for this game to be a concern to them, and with the fog of memory people can go back and revisit tragedies without being monsters about it. Think of this as the WWII game/movie approach.

I can't think of any other approach that doesn't turn the person making, playing, or approving of the game into an utter ghoul.

I was originally going to argue with you on your original point, but after thinking about it for a bit, I realized that it actually would be pretty tasteless, and there would be little acceptable reason to make a game centered around a school shooting that has in a way, affected the entire nation. There would be little defense for a game that just so happened to appear right after a violent school shooting, about a school shooting as it would obviously only be about that to get cheap attention, and there probably would not be any thing special about the game either, just a tasteless bland shooter that tries to pull on the Sandy Hook incident for attention.

If I were to make a game about this, it would really only center around the shooter, being the protagonist, before the murder, like many other people here have already suggested. I would probably put a substantial amount of time in between the the start of the game, and the shooting, possibly even years. I would make it centered around the protagonist's up-bringing, and development as a person, and it would be up to the player to somehow give the protagonist the tools he would need to deal with his problems and stress. I would make it difficult to just send him to therapy, because real people who are seriously troubled probably do not want to go to therapy, and it would not be the end all fix for him either. I would probably throw in some bad therapists too that would only exacerbate his issues. There would be fixed bad/tragic events that will happen no matter what at certain parts of the game, that would have extremely negative effects on the protagonist, altering his views, and altering the choices you get to make for him. It would be up to you to make a series of limited choices in his daily routine that could help or hurt his current situation. Time would be ever present, and if the character is not capable of dealing with stress and anger by the time the shooting nears, then you basically get the "Bad Ending" where the incident happens.

It will basically be up to you to monitor the mental welfare of the protagonist over the years, possibly even from birth, via limited decision making, and your end product of a protagonist will determine the ending. I would probably have such endings as an ending where he goes through with the shooting, a suicide ending, an ending where he neither kills himself nor anyone else, but it is implied that his problems still are not fixed and it is still possible for something of this nature to happen in the future, and an ending where he ends up being able to deal with his problems, and no one, including himself, is hurt.

 

[kommando367]

Top down shooter/ driving.

High HP, slow regen.

7 schools, 4 driving sections, 1 boating section, 1 helicopter piloting section, and 1 last stand area.

When you complete a level, you may choose between 1 of 3 pieces of gear/weaponry.
Same thing with driving sections.

You get an life for every successful school section.

Difficulty: easy to "dead nation on grim" difficultly

Each school is better equipped than the last, has less cover on your side, more cover on their side, and enemies are more aggressive.
Students and teachers start rushing you with knives after school #2 and shoot you after school #4

Each driving section has more cops and SWAT ramming you and shooting you and more barricades to avoid. Civilians eventually start trying to kill you after driving section number #2.

SWAT shows up after school level 3 and driving level 4

The military shows up starting on school level 5 and "driving" level number 6.

After beating the 7th school, you're running through the nearby neighborhood. Everything is against you. You're being flanked from all directions. People even try to ram their cars into you while you're on foot

You have infinite ammo, but when run out of lives and die, the game ends.

I'll take those death threats now.

 

[Raven_Operative]

Alright, basically here's my idea: The game would be more visual novel style up till the actual shooting happens. You are a student at the school going about your daily life, and the game focuses on your decisions in regards to making friends, or how you treat others. At one point, you notice a certain boy (or girl to avoid sexism) being picked on relentlessly, and can potentially choose to help him.

If you choose to help him:
You become friends with this kid who is antisocial, but really not that bad of a person. The plot follows you as you attempt to help him in his classes (his marks are suffering due to his distress), help him avoid or stand up to the bullies, and generally support him as he is having a really tough time right now. You eventually become very good friends with him, but despite trying to help him in the best ways you know how, things still keep deteriorating for him. The bullies come after him when you aren't around, his parents are revealed to be abusive, and the stress from school continues to pile up on him. Eventually he snaps and at the beginning of one episode, you spot him walking through the school with a rifle. Before anyone can say anything, he opens fire, killing/injuring several people.

If you choose to ignore/assist in picking on him:
You either ignore the antisocial kid, or 'poke fun' at him throughout the school year. It doesn't seem to be a big deal, as the kid seems to be used to it. Over time he seems to become more and more withdrawn, and gives less of a reaction to the harassment. A few days later, everyone seems like they're about to leave him alone due to the lack of responses, but one guy (or you, depending on choices) decides to go all out and try to get one last response out of him. This works, and the kid gets angry, before running out of the classroom, and heading home. The next day, you're getting your books from your locker when you see him walking down the hallway with a rifle. Before anyone can say anything, he opens fire, killing/injuring several people. (He seems to be laughing this time, where as in the 'help him' arch, he was not)

At this point, the game changes into more of a stealth survival game, as you try to sneak out of the school without being shot by him in the process. Unfortunately, the security doors in certain areas have locked and block your exits multiple times. During this phase, you would see him gunning down other students or staff, kicking in classroom doors, and generally rampaging about. When you hide, you can wait till he passes, and would have the option to try to sneak out and drag the wounded to safety, or perform basic first aid on them. (Obviously if he spotted you, you would get shot and die.) Eventually, you would make your way to an area that had a malfunctioning security gate, and would attempt to make your escape. This is where a split ending happens.

If you helped the kid:
The kid is standing there, still armed with his rifle, over the bodies of some of the people that had bullied him, and repeatedly bashing their corpses with his rifle butt, despite them clearly being dead. After a moment of this, he spots you, looks up, and is revealed to be crying uncontrollably. He takes a few shaky steps towards you, before eventually uttering that he is sorry, and shooting himself with the rifle. Moments later, a SWAT team breaks through the door, and after checking to see that the kid is well and truly dead, ushers you out of the building, along with any other survivors, or people you managed to save.

If you harassed the kid:
The kid is standing there, giggling as he beats the corpses of the other bullies with his rifle. He spots and advances towards you, slowly, giggling all the while. Eventually, he says something about you being cruel, and that he would have his revenge. He shoots you, and as you lay on the ground bleeding out, a SWAT Team breaks through a door. The kid turns around, and the SWAT team orders him to drop his weapon. The kid opens fire instead, and is quickly gunned down by the SWAT team, who rush over to you, and check your pulse/try to stop your bleeding. They fail, and your vision slowly fades to white as the officers try to resuscitate you.

If you ignored the kid:
You rush towards the open security gate, and notice several other students running down a different hallway, going for the same exit. These students are some of those who bullied the kid in the previous weeks. You all meet up and run for the exit, but before you get there, bullets tear through you and the others in the group. You fall to the floor, and see the kid approaching from one of the hallways, gunning down the rest of your group. Your vision goes blurry, and promptly goes black when he smashes your face with the butt of his rifle.

Epilogue:
If you helped the kid:
You survive but are very mentally disturbed by this experience, and go into intensive counseling. The screen displays a newspaper heading noting the number of dead, and you (provided you saved anyone) as a hero for risking your life trying to save others (the number saved is displayed). It goes on to detail how bullying was a suspected cause, as well as the usual claims of violent media, high stress, and psychological issues being present. A testimonial from you is also included, telling how you believe that bullying and abuse was the main cause.

If you harassed the kid:
You die, and the headline tells of the kid opening fire on the police before finally being shot. It displays the number of dead and wounded, as well as a small paragraph about you (provided you saved anyone), claiming you to be a hero who sacrificed your life as you tried to save others (information gained from testimonials), as well as telling of your 'tragic' death while the officers were attempting to treat you. The suspected causes focus more on bullying and psychological issues, this time, rather than violent media and stress.

If you ignored the kid:
You die, and the headline tells of the kid opening fire on the police before finally being shot. It displays the number of dead and wounded, and mentions that an unknown hero risked their lives to save others, but ultimately was killed, his/her identity unknown. The suspected causes are all over the shop for this one, with people seemingly grasping at any plausible motivation.


___________________

Wow... I really did not expect to post something that long.
Not sure if it makes sense/is a solid idea, or not (its 1AM over here, and I'm running on adrenalin), but I'm not editing it until I get some rest.

...

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

DAMN IT, NINJAS!!!

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

it depends, am i trying to legitimately sell this thing or am I trying to use it as a ground to make a statement?
If it's the former, might as well go nuts and let the player slice kids' eyes out with a knife and defecate into their skulls. Make it as tastelessly violent and sick as possible and try to sell it on controversy.

If it's the latter, what I would do is portray the whole thing as it realistically would be, extremely tedious and unrewarding. The game would have you as the shooter, an overweight out of shape loser who apparently has severe mental and emotional problems. You can only bring equipment to the shooting that you obtain and prepare beforehand and the game would make you do so to an excruciatingly realistic degree. (IE manually loading each bullet which requires more and more mashing of b as the clip gets more and more full, researching online and going to the hardware store to buy materials in order to homemake explosives, etc.) The only thing you would have easy access to is a gun you steal from your mom's closet with almost enough bullets to fill one clip.

During the preparation process you can be arrested by doing anything that rouses suspicion of the police to the degree where they would have reason to search your car or home.

When you finally get to the actual shooting, you would control as an inexperienced and out of shape person would realistically; like shit. Aim is horribly inaccurate, reloading takes forever, when you sprint, you don't move very fast and can go about 5 seconds before slowing down to a walk again, your gas mask severely limits peripheral visibility and frequently need to be adjusted, fogs up, etc. There would be no music, guns would make realistic sounds (meaning loud pops rather than the long ringing bombastic bangs of most videogames) people shot would crumble to the ground, most people would be frozen in shock or hiding rather than running away, the whole thing would just feel extremely dry, unsatisfying, and offputting.

In a few minutes the police will show up. They have relatively good aim, outnumber you, and one bullet will either kill you or severely cripple the place where you are shot. At this point if you haven't wasted all your ammo, you can turn the gun on yourself or try to stave off being killed/arrested. The game would operate purely on an autosave function, so when the player is caught or killed, the whole thing must be played again to get back to the shooting sequence.

 

[GameMaNiAC]

So I guess Far Cry 3 meets Clock Tower.

I'd probably enjoy that game, until the dubstep kicks in.

OT: It's funny how so many of you are saying 'I wouldn't.', although I'm willing to bet at least half of you have played Postal 2. Which is immoral to the core, but still manages to come off as an entertaining game and gets away with its horrors. It's possible.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

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.

So how could a game work? Well, I only see three possible approaches, all of which either distance themselves from the event or the "game":

1. It's not really about a real school shooting. i.e., it's an allegory, or fantastic elements have been added to the story, or something has been fictionalized to create emotional distance. Think of this as the spunkgargleweewee approach- superficially it's about the event portrayed on the cover but the heroism is fictitiously ramped up to 11 and anything that could possible evoke traumatic feelings in the player is carefully omitted.

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. Such a game probably would never be commercially viable, but a game where you play as a student in Columbine trying to escape the school could provide a kind of catharsis without cheapening the real lives lost. You would have no weapons, no way of attacking the shooters, and you would have to use stealth to get away. You get bonus points for every other student you can help get away with you, but the more students you have on the move together, the more likely you are to attract the shooters' attention.

3. It's 60 years in the future. Everyone who actually experienced the school shooting in question is far too old for this game to be a concern to them, and with the fog of memory people can go back and revisit tragedies without being monsters about it. Think of this as the WWII game/movie approach.

I can't think of any other approach that doesn't turn the person making, playing, or approving of the game into an utter ghoul.

I don't understand why you think the idea of a game about a school shooting not being a fun game would be a stretch. ...I also don't know how you think a game about any real event wouldn't be deplorable if it derived enjoyment from the other's suffering in a sadistic way. A game about WWII is one thing. A game about WWII where you play as Hitler turning the levers to the Holocaust gas chambers is something else entirely.

I think the whole point of an exercise like this is to think about how to turn deplorable human activity into something a bit more emotive at a level where people can play it and not be repulsed. I don't think you can derive "entertainment" from it, but games not being "entertaining" has been a concept since Silent Hill. Before, even. A game is a leisure activity, a piece of "entertainment" in the same way a movie or book is. I don't think the idea is to make a fun videogame here; I think the idea is to make a game that has a reasonably suitable tone, in the same way you wouldn't make a hilarious Sunday comic strip about The Watchmen, but you'd certainly make a graphic novel about it.

So I guess what I'm saying is, I agree with you, but your statements are not running against the grain. No need to feel upset towards these hypothetical monsters you've invented. No-one sane would do such a thing. Not unless they had a very important point to make. A game like Hotline Miami, which makes it fun to murder people, before turning around and making you ponder the consequences of your actions... that wouldn't be completely deplorable, though it'd certainly be controversial. Or, in other words - the concept ISN'T irredeemably repugnant, not by a long shot, unless your definition of "game" is so rigid that any attempt to be thought-provoking or artistic falls outside that definition. I can honestly say to you that it isn't the case, and hasn't been for a long, long time.