Overview
Title：Backstage Machina
Elevator Pitch：This is a game where players interact with NPCs and environments, solve puzzles, and uncover a story through their solutions. It’s a story about how one person perceives the warmth of others.
Platform：PC
Genre：Escape Room
Target Audience：Mainly story-driven puzzle lovers aged twelve and above, especially those who enjoy anime-style school settings.
Design Intention：Tell a story through gameplay, allowing players to piece together a complete narrative as they solve puzzles.
Essential Experience：We want players to gain immersion through interacting with the environment and NPCs in the game, and to experience a sense of accomplishment while solving puzzles and piecing together the story.
Game Design Pillars：
*Observation and Puzzle-Solving – Players must examine their surroundings to uncover clues that solve puzzles, thereby gaining further leads or pieces of the story.
*Interaction and Connection – Players will engage with NPCs through dialogue and mutual assistance. As players progress, they’ll experience genuine human connections, potentially unlocking NPC stories at specific milestones. This brings the narrative beyond mere storage cards, allowing players to feel truly embraced and understood.
*Mechanical Aesthetic and Human Touch – Primarily conveyed through background sounds and visual effects. Ambient audio incorporates mechanical hums, with early-game visual glitches from the player’s perspective fading as the story unfolds. The visual palette leans toward cool tones, emphasizing the cold, mechanical atmosphere.
Core Values：The Cost of Cognition，Empathy，Self-Redemption
Keywords：Cold，Hard，Dusty
Tone：Calm and Vigilant，Distant，Serious and Mysterious
Player Experience
Player Motivation：Players will be driven by curiosity to explore areas on their own. After solving puzzles, they’ll continue exploring out of a sense of accomplishment until they piece together the entire story and leave the escape room. Those who wish to learn more about NPCs will also need to progress through the game to unlock their stories.
Player Agency：The game features a single-path ending, where players can only reach the conclusion by completing the escape room. However, to prevent early gameplay from feeling tedious, players are presented with two or more action options during the initial stages. Only one of these options will guide players toward the escape room, while the others will result in the player’s death and an early game termination.
Player Journey：
*Onboarding – Explore the campus to understand the setting, encounter key NPCs, and interact with the environment for the first time.
*Mid-game – Escape rooms and puzzle-solving.
*Endgame – Piece together the complete story, unlock NPC narratives, and conclude the game.
Core Gameplay
Core Loop：Start→Find Items→Solve Puzzles→Unlock Stories→End
Mechanics：Click on items to pick them up or inspect them to gain clues. Some items can be interacted with in the environment to solve puzzles.
Systems：
*Progression – Displayed on the settings page via curtain-opening percentage, with NPC stories unlocking at specific milestones.
*Narrative structure – The main story employs fragmented storytelling, while the protagonist’s journey follows a linear narrative.
Constraints：Players can only adopt a first-person perspective and click buttons to switch their line of sight. The game flow is fixed; while the order of solving puzzles within locked rooms can be adjusted based on the player’s progress, other sequences cannot be skipped or rearranged according to the player’s preference.
Narrative & World
Due to excessive text volume affecting overall readability, sections requiring significant space will be moved to separate pages. These pages can be accessed via buttons within the document.
Visual Expression
Art Style：Features a 2D anime cel-shaded style with predominantly cool-toned colors and low brightness. Edges should be distinct and sharp, with minimal color transitions between hues.
*Mood Board：
Art Bible：
Sound Design & Music Direction
Mood ：Suppressed, uneasy, with minimal fluctuations
Tone ：The soundtrack primarily features ambient sounds with a continuous hum of electrical current. The music plays uninterrupted without any gaps, and the sound design leans toward realism.
Music Dierction ：Each scene features distinct music, with each track signifying a scene transition. Special music plays during specific story sequences.
Structure & Progression
Narrative Arcs ：
- Introduction and Instruction
- Interaction and Character Recognition
- Puzzle Solving
- Learn about the story
Difficulty Curve :
- Initially, move and click on items to obtain information.
- Mid-game requires interacting with objects and environments to solve puzzles.
- Later in the game, players must use items to gather preliminary information, then use that information to obtain clues for solving puzzles.
Onboarding & Tutorialization :
Players learn basic item interactions and movement through in-game prompts; they learn special item interactions by triggering dialogue sequences with NPCs.
Technical & Production Notes
Tools / Engine ：Unity
Platform Constraints ：The game targets PC platforms, utilizing keyboard and mouse input. The larger screen space allows for richer environmental detail, while interface design remains minimal to avoid overwhelming the player during exploration.
Control mapping ：Players interact within the game using the mouse. Mouse clicks are used to interact with objects, examine environmental details, advance dialogue, and move characters.
Market & Player Community
Existing games: Rusty Lake，Lost Island
Unique Selling Point ：Combining narrative with puzzle-solving and featuring a distinct storyline, the game offers enjoyment for both story-driven players and puzzle enthusiasts alike.
Market positioning ：Compact in scale, story-driven, prioritizing atmosphere.
Player demographics and communities ：Players who enjoy storylines and puzzle-solving, as well as those who appreciate campus settings and analyzing and discussing character development.
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