The Black Wall
A game concept treatment © 1994 David Clough
The genesis of this game concept was one of those Arvon Foundation week long country retreats that focused on digital design. I was invited to participate on the basis of a treatment for an interactive narrative project that I submitted. As the week progressed I began to realise that the grandiloquent but still rather vague ideas contained in my submission were not going to be able to stand up to the scrutiny of the industry professionals who had been invited down to look at our work at the end of the week.
I was still wrestling then with the paradoxes that underlie such a project (see my article ‘The Pit & The Pendulum’ also on this Substack. Eventually I found a format that did work - at least theoretically - a kind of storyscape concept: (‘see emma play’). But that was later.
At the time, a little intimidated by the other serious young designers on the course, I thought I better come up with something more worthy of being taken seriously by the games companies to whom I had to make my presentation. The result was ‘The Black Wall’ which - if not exactly an interactive story - was at least a game which put stories at the heart of the game play.
It was a cop-out perhaps but I still think it was an interesting idea and a game that someone like me - a committed non-gamesplayer - might be tempted to purchase if it was ever put out there.
Introduction
‘The Black Wall’ offers the world of the classic ghost story - a world created by Henry and M.R. James, the Brontes, Robert Louis Stevenson, and other masters of the gothic genre - as an interactive experience.
It is a game which uses storytelling as an essential ingredient but it is far from being a talking book or a movie. As a user you are invited to enter a world that is half dream, half reality; where time and space can be fluid — and nothing is certain.
It is inhabited by spirits who will seek to persuade you into believing conflicting versions of what is real in this world. You must decide but you must choose carefully. Your sanity and your soul are at stake.
The Story
You are cold, very cold, and soaked to the skin. Night is falling rapidly as you reach the doors of the great country house. From a distance it appeared imposing and grand, lowering over the bleak marshland that surrounds it. But close-up, evidence of decay and neglect is every-where you look. The drive is choked with weeds, windows are boarded up and the paint under the heavy door knocker is crazed and peeling.
Nevertheless you are now the rightful owner of all of this.
You didn’t know until a bare week ago that you were related to the family that built this house and lived in it for so many generations. As its last surviving member, you are here to claim your inheritance, whatever that may mean in the days – and nights to come.
A grumbling voice responds to your knocking and a wizened face peers out at you balefully. Granny Skinner is the housekeeper, one of two surviving retainers. She shows you up to your room, then abandons you for the night.
By the fitful light of your candle you can see the room is sparsely furnished and dusty. The brocade hangings on the big four poster bed, once opulent, are now filthy and tattered. Bare patches mark the places where portraits once hung.
One wall is curiously painted black …
You aren’t aware of it yet but you have already entered a place where the safe daylight world you once knew will begin to seem like a dream. Where you cannot trust anyone or anything – including the evidence of your own senses.
The forces that brought you here are part of the fabric of the house and the dark history it has witnessed. They are alive around you as spirits from the past; anguished, pleading, remorseful or angry.
You are their link with the land of the living. The blood in your veins connects you to them and allows you to experience episodes from their lives. Only you can put an end to their torment and they are desperate for you to uncover the truth that is buried in your family’s secret and violent past.
It seems a simple task at first. Then you begin to realise that there is another spirit inhabiting the house; ancient, powerful and infinitely malignant. This spirit terrifies and holds the others in thrall, assuming any form it pleases … even the most innocent.
It is determined to seduce your soul from you.
The key to the truth lies beyond the black wall in a mirror world where dreams and reality blur together. Each night you must go there but the longer you spend, the more your health and your sanity will suffer.
If you succeed in finding it, then you stand some chance of exorcising the evil that has cursed your family line. If you fail, you will join the pale company of wraiths trapped within the house for all eternity.
It is a game which uses storytelling as an essential ingredient but it is far from being a talking book or a movie. As a user you are invited to enter a world that is half dream, half reality; where time and space can be fluid — and nothing is certain.
It is inhabited by spirits who will seek to persuade you into believing conflicting versions of what is real in this world. You must decide but you must choose carefully. Your sanity and your soul are at stake.
Characters
Character Profiles
The characters in the game are deliberately archetypal. Since an essential aspect of the concept is the use of different narrative viewpoints; character goals, and the function they perform, will necessarily change according to the scenario being played out. These descriptions therefore are in the nature of templates – particularly in the case of the ghosts.
Certain characteristics will remain constant however and they are described here in their most positive manifestation (i.e. when the character is least under the influence of the Evil Spirit).
Day People
Granny Skinner: (90’s),the housekeeper. Bad tempered, outspoken and often selectively deaf, her mind is still sharp and her memory good. She is a walking compendium of stories about your family if you can cajole her into sharing them, but you may have trouble distinguishing fact from gossip and folk-lore. She presides over the house and can be questioned about rooms and objects there.
Jesser: (70’s), gardener, gamekeeper, odd-job man. Tall, taciturn, weather beaten, slow moving; sometimes mistaken for being a bit simple because he often appears to be listening to something only he can hear. Jesser is an elusive figure but may be found in the house grounds. He speaks in an almost unintelligible dialect and says little but he can occasionally be persuaded to act as a guide.
(Granny Skinner and Jesser have an antagonistic relationship and are scornful of each other’s interpretations of facts.)
Doctor Fitch: (50’s), grey haired, stern, conservatively dressed. A traditional country general practitioner and the family doctor. Fitch is the house’s only visitor and performs two special functions in the game. The first is providing feed-back to the user. He is summoned by Granny Skinner on the day after your arrival and appears in your room every day when you “wake up”. Fitch’s daily prognosis and advice on the state of your health can also be taken as a monitor of your progress. Fitch is familiar with the family history of insanity and wants to protect you from knowing too much. He will often urge you to leave, dropping cryptic hints and warnings. The more you find out yourself, the more forthcoming he will be. The second is the role of final arbitrator or judge of whether you succeed in identifying the true source of the family’s curse. (See game play.)
Night People
Generally the spirits in the house cannot manifest themselves as fully formed characters of their own volition. They will often first appear to you as dumb apparitions, voices, or stuck in some repetitive loop — an action or a phrase.
The more you engage with them however (by visiting the area of the house to which they are tied or by attempting to communicate with them) the more power they gain to enter your mind and speak with you — that, of course, can sometimes be dangerous.
Major Characters
These four characters will be central players in any scenario. They are linked through manylife-times, engaged in an intricate dance where the roles may change but the outcome is always tragic.
Emily: (14), a young girl in a white dress. On the cusp between childhood and womanhood, she can be melancholy, capricious, curious, wilful, sly and surprisingly mature – all within the space of minute. She speaks little (never as a ghost) and in a voice so soft it is nearly inaudible but everything she will say is pertinent. She is restless, constantly seeking diversion, but easily bored. One of the few ghosts who can wander freely throughout the house.
Guy: (42) a tall man in dark clothes. A mature individual with a slightly sardonic manner which he has learned to use to disguise an over sensitive psyche. Strong willed to the point of being driven, impatient, often sarcastic, always forthright, but having the saving grace of a wry sense of humour. He tends to brood and to hide, or suppress, his emotions but they are volcanic when they erupt. He hates asking anyone for anything and will be under constant pressure from that reluctance when you encounter him.
Isabel: (33) a woman often dressed in red. Strikingly beautiful in an unconventional manner. She shares Guy’s strong will and impatience with fools but has a wild streak which he lacks. She is contradictory in many ways. Her most sympathetic quality is intuitiveness, she can be surprisingly compassionate on rare occasions. Her least is a tendency to be self centered. Basically self contained and self sufficient in a cat like way, she is also subject to unpredictable mood swings. She suffers most in her ghost state from boredom which can make her melancholic and sometimes self-pitying.
Edward: (19) a young man. Fair haired, well built, immature for his age. He is reasonably good looking but not too bright. Becomes suspicious and defensive when he cant understand something; making him a natural butt of jokes. His least sympathetic quality is his tendency to sulk but he is basically good natured and has a strong sense of fair play. He is not very resourceful and easy to shake off but will latch on to you pathetically if you allow it.
The World Of The Story
The world of ‘The Black Wall’ consists exclusively of the buildings and grounds of Harker House, a remote country mansion situated between an expanse of marsh lands and a wild area of coastland. Time is the relative present but all the trappings of modern life are missing. The semi-derelict house lacks even electricity and the ill prepared user, it is assumed, has neglected to bring much more than a change of clothes. Such basic technology as exists and functions is at about the level of the 1930’s.
It is in other words a specific and realised generic world that is rooted more in great works of gothic and mystery fiction than any actual geographical location.
This world is also two worlds – it is multi-dimensional. During daylight hours, the user is free to wander the physical environs of the house. At night however he/she is drawn into a metaphorical dream-like world, where space and time can shift and distort without warning. This world is like a negative of the day world, a map of the unconscious with dangerous areas.
As the game progresses, depending upon circumstances, this night world can infect the day one, bringing with it strange phenomena and warping the fabric of reality.
Topography
The main body of the house is Georgian but it sprawls out in a mongrel mixture of architectural styles dating back as far as Norman times.
The landscape and features of the house are very much dependent on the scenarios that will be realised in development. At this early stage, we can say with reasonable confidence that the house will have amongst its prime features:
A marble floored entrance hall with sweeping staircases left and right.
A smoky basement kitchen with equipment dating from the Victorian era where the Housekeeper is mostly to be found.
A well stocked library with a minstrel gallery which will be an important source of information for the user.
The user’s bedroom where the Black Wall of the title is situated. This will also contain a four poster bed and heavy dark furniture. A door leads from it into an en suite bathroom with Edwardian fittings.
A nursery at the attic level with a single barred window. Antique toys are scattered about it, including a dolls house that is an exact scale model of the mansion.
A conservatory with a dried up fountain.
A domed ballroom with elaborate frescoes.
A dining room with French windows facing the back garden.
A wine cellar full of racks of corked wine and spoilt barrels.
A warren of corridors, stairs, passages and interconnecting doors.
Surrounding the house are once impressive ornamental gardens leading down to a small lake. Beyond that lies a wood and, buried within it, an eighteenth century folly in the neo-classical style.
Stables and servant quarters lie to the east. To the west, a path threads its way towards the sea cliffs where there is a disused miniature chapel and family grave-yard.
Back Story
Knowledge of the back story of the house and the family, and its acquisition by the user is really the heart of the game. Included here is brief over-view which also contains the seeds of many potential scenarios:
In ancient times a stone circle was built by Druids near to the cliffs. Here, local legend has it, human sacrifices were once performed and a superstitious dread of the power of these stones survived even the spread of Christianity.
After the Normans invaded, the land was deeded to Giles de Faucon, a ruthless and pragmatic feudal lord. He built a keep a few miles from the circle and, partly to demonstrate his power and contempt for local superstition, he had the stones broken up and used in its construction.
The keep was destroyed in a fire but one of de Faucon’s descendants, after making a fortune in the slave trade, built a house on its site in the eighteenth century. Guy Harker (the name having corrupted from Faucon to Hawker and then Harker) was a rake and member of the notorious Hell Fire Club who was also reputed to have dabbled in black arts. His death, in mysterious and violent circumstances, marked the beginning of a decline for the Harker family.
Many of Guy’s heirs made substantial fortunes only to lose them. Their personal lives were unhappy and the majority of them died young or left the country, never to return. Some committed suicide after succumbing to various forms of addiction and one or two went mad. Talk of a curse upon the family became common amongst people in the area.
In recent times occupants of the house have tended to be reclusive. Their privacy has been protected by the locals who are generally close mouthed and hostile to strangers. The house itself has fallen into the state of disrepair in which we find it.
Game Play
The objective of the game is to exorcise the evil spirit that has cursed your family for generations. Methods of achieving this vary from scenario to scenario but each one will have a turning point where you are forced to commit yourself to a course of action or pay the penalty.
It is assumed at the start of the game that you have caught a chill tramping over the marshland to the house. Dr Fitch will monitor your health (see Characters) which will reflect your progress in the game.
Pursuing your goal has a price, you are engaged in a life and death struggle. The less sleep you get, the weaker and more feverish you become. Eventually, if you don’t succeed, you die or become possessed. (Doing nothing will be diagnosed as a terminal lassitude.)
You win the game by deciding which spirit or spirits are genuine and which are manifestations of the evil presence and gathering physical evidence to support your hypotheses. You present this to the Doctor who will then provide whatever missing information you need to complete your task.
(This might require such actions as giving a character a burial on sacred ground, deeding the house to the ancestor of a wronged party or destroying a particular building from which the evil emanates.)
Interaction
Possible physical interactions for the user will include being able to move around within a three dimensional space, open doors, ascend stairs, go outside the house, question characters and pick up objects in certain situations.
Cursor feedback will be adaptive to the environment and available choices and as non intrusive as possible. (This needs further development but one option might be the use of candle-light indoors and a shadow outside for movement feedback.)
Interaction with characters will be structured as far as possible to be triggered through physical responses and the use of props. However some simple mechanistic device, such as a floating icon, may be necessary to facilitate questioning.
In the case of spirits, communication becomes both easier and harder. They can sometimes speak telepathically to you but they will often be inarticulate and cryptic, restricted by their ghostly state. You may allow them to enter your body but this can be risky. Once permitted, they will find it easier to return, eventually doing it without your consent.
If you do, you will find yourself instantly transported back into scene from their lives Ð viewing it through their eyes as a passive spectator. You can break out of this state but at a cost to your reserves of strength.
Look and Feel
It is strongly felt that this world should chiefly be monochromatic with perhaps an occasional use of colour for dramatic effect. Realism should take second place to realization. Black and white animations or non realistic rendered modelling is the ideal.
Potential Market and Platforms
The appeal of this game is primarily content based. It rests on characterisation, plotting, relationships – the ingredients of novels and films. The game mechanism is simple but the point of playing is less goal orientated than experiental. It aims to be a game that you can lose but still have a satisfying interactive experience whilst doing so!
There is an established market for gothic fiction and a number of successful writers writing for it. Although that is the obvious target for this game, if it is developed successfully along the lines indicated here, it could potentially have a much broader audience. The themes it deals with: love, passion, betrayal, murder, are adult ones which aim outside the predominantly “young male” consumer profile.