Because the game will be similar to a detective mystery, the narrative will primarily rely on environmental storytelling. While the story has a complete plot, players will depend on deducing the story based on the environment and puzzle-solving techniques.
｜Narrative Overview
The game’s narrative atmosphere consists of two parts: the background story, which connects different narratives; and the in-level stories, each of which is an independent story, evoking different emotions depending on how it is interpreted.
｜Background
In the future world, with the development of artificial intelligence, humans have already entrusted most of the “rational judgment” tasks to AI: transportation, healthcare, resource allocation—everything that can be quantified has proven that AI can handle it more appropriately.
However, there is a type of case in the police system that cannot be completely resolved. These cases are often accompanied by strong emotions, not because of insufficient evidence, but because the motives cannot be rationally judged and the emotions cannot be reasonably interpreted.
Players take on the role of a seventh-generation reasoning-based artificial intelligence. Your responsibility is not to make judgments, but to understand the mechanisms of human emotions by reconstructing past events and analyzing the role of emotions within them, thus laying the foundation for evaluating similar cases in the future.
｜Level One
Note: The story is based on the Black Death, also known as the plague, in the Middle Ages. For more details, please see the research part.
- The complete story overview (visible to non-players)
In a mediaeval village, a child was infected with an unknown plague, and black spots appeared on his body. A traditional rule is that everyone who shows these symptoms should ring the church bell to warn others to avoid the village because it is considered a sacred punishment. Only after the symptomatic people are imprisoned and burned to death on the stake can the bell ring again to inform other villages that God has forgiven them. This is a tradition in the village. However, this time, the symptoms appeared in a child. The child is very gentle and even shares his food with the mouse. When the villagers locked him up and prepared to set fire to the village, they hesitated. They don’t believe that such a kind child will be punished by the divine. In the end, they decided to bring food to the child every day, hoping that God would forgive him in the end. Unfortunately, the symptoms spread rapidly, and the villagers who took care of the children soon showed the same symptoms. But in order to avoid suspicion, he left the village when he felt that death was approaching. Sadly, the child’s plague has not been cured; on the contrary, it has spread to the whole village. When there was only one person left, he chose to set the whole village on fire and pray for God’s forgiveness.
The above is the complete story, but it’s hidden within the environment and clues, requiring players to deduce it. I hope players will arrive at different conclusions, so the clues may be misleading. However, as long as the deduction is part of the story, it will unlock an emotion, but will also provide a hint that this is not the complete story.
This story requires players to infer the answer, and I divide it into three levels. The clue will provide some guidance for players to have different interpretations. Next, I will explain the possible outcome of each of the three levels.
- Different interpretations
On a superficial level, players can choose to ignore unused clues in some explicitly guided locations and, based on the interconnected clues and environment, deduce the following: “This village is cursed, the children are the source of the curse, Based on the number of times the bell was rung, it was deduced that the child had been burned to death.” This superficial story activates the “horror” emotion in the emotion tree.
Mid-level understanding: “Players uncover unused clues at explicitly indicated locations, explore unmentioned areas, discover that villagers brought food to the child instead of burning him, find clues about the child’s inherent kindness, discover that villagers questioned the reason for divine punishment, and finally discover that there were actually no corpses in the village at all, deducing that the child survived and that the villagers didn’t want the child to be affected by the environment, so they took the child away”. Upon reaching this conclusion, the player’s emotion tree unlocks the “heartwarming” emotion.
The final layer of interpretation requires players to deduce the complete story: “They discover numerous charred marks in the environment. By using clues to solve puzzles, they open the room of the villager caring for the child and find his diary. To ensure the child’s survival, he chose to die in a secluded place. After finding his body, the player discovers keys to many villagers’ homes. Entering their homes reveals that they all exhibit symptoms but chose to hide them to save the child. When only one person remains in the village, the villager doesn’t take the symptoms out but instead burns the village down.” Players who deduce this outcome based on these clues will unlock the “Courage” emotion on their emotion tree.
Note: If a player deduces the complete story in one go, they will unlock the emotion associated with each interpretation, and additionally unlock the emotion of “Attentiveness”.
｜Level two
Note: The story of this level is based on the Chernobyl disaster. Please see the research section for details.
- The complete story overview (visible to non-players)
A power supply company in charge of large-scale power supply facilities has recently developed a new security system. The publicity is that it is safe, there will be no errors, and it is about to be installed in multiple nuclear power plants. However, a safety officer found that some uncommon data that will not be changed frequently has not been calculated during the test. That is to say, the system is not absolutely safe. In order to save costs, it has reduced the calculation of relatively safe data. However, these data are not always unchanged. With the increase of use time, they will reflect some problematic parts and give a warning. Although the parts that need to be replaced will usually be updated before the warning begins, if an accident occurs, the early warning function of the data will be invalidated, and the system cannot respond to the sudden warning. So the safety officer reported this on the work log, but he was beaten back and called back again and again. Finally, he decided to report this at the company meeting. He succeeded. Under the attention of the media and shareholders, the company stopped putting the system into use and improved it, but the security officer disappeared.
The above is the complete picture of the story. However, the game will add some information to complete the interpretation of each level. Similar to the first level, different levels of interpretation will unlock different emotions, but completely wrong interpretations will deduct health points. Next, I will describe each possible reasoning result.
- Different interpretations
A superficial interpretation is that “players will discover that the security tester is taking medication for bipolar disorder, and that the tester is under immense work pressure, leading to an extreme reaction at a company meeting and ultimately resulting in their dismissal.” Players who deduce this outcome based on these clues will unlock the “stress” emotion on their emotion tree.
The intermediate interpretation is: “Players will discover the security tester’s report on system testing, realize that he found a system vulnerability, and mention it at a company meeting. Ultimately, because the security tester still has his credentials and has the necessary permissions to open the door, it’s deduced that the security tester has been promoted.” Players who deduce this conclusion based on these clues will unlock the “careful” emotion on their emotion tree.
The deeper interpretation is: “Players will discover records of safety testers reporting issues upwards, as well as records of all reports being rejected, realizing that the company deliberately ignored this vulnerability. The safety tester publicly revealed this at a company meeting, forcing senior management to take the matter seriously and improve the system. Later, players discover that the safety tester’s information is no longer in the company system, and the work card can be used to open doors because it has been replaced with someone else’s information. Ultimately, players realize that the improvement of these systems, which were intended for use in numerous nuclear power plants, will save countless families and lives.” Players who deduce this conclusion based on these clues will unlock the “Responsibility” emotion on the emotion tree.
Note: If players find all the clues and deduce the deeper ending in one go, they will unlock the “Perseverance” emotion.