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For my Narrative Design Special Topics class, I wrote the introduction to a hypothetical video game--with the premise that the next course in the sequence was actually making said-game. While some students, free from having to actually produce anything, wrote something for a AAA-production timeline, I kept it small and only involved features I knew how to program. As such, focusing on the narrative, I decided to make a point-and-click adventure game with very minor narrative choices which simply involved ignoring or talking to the people at certain moments in the story. Special thanks to Angie Hoffman, my professor and mentor through this process.
Set in the same world as Demon in the Circus, A Demon in the City is the more serious sequel focusing on what happens when individuals face pressure to conform to social norms. The narrative contains violence, strong language, and implied sexual activity. If this sort of thing would disturb you, please read with caution.
The following is Copyright (c) DigiPen Institute of Technology 2020 and is only displayed here for portfolio purposes.
SCENE I
In which Aranele discovers the body of a demon in a back alley and introduces the world.
EXT – Alleyway
The demoness ARANELE stands in her leather trench coat with bead detailing, black top hat, and cane at the end of a dark alleyway. There are notches cut in the sides of the rim for her two black horns. Her red skin easily reflects the dim, dreary brown light. Colorful crabs skitter over the trash, revealing the body of another red-skinned demon like her with black goo all over the ground. A white handprint is prominent on the corpse’s chest. ARANELE looks grim.
Enter from right, a human blonde, his hair in a top knot, the sides shaved. KERN has a short, scruffy beard and kind eyes. He wears a leather trench coat that matches hers, but reveals a bulkier frame.
KERN
I swept the area but whoever it was… already gone. Fourth time this month, right?
ARANELE
…
KERN
There’s so much blood. What happened?
ARANELE
Broken neck. Tusk marks. Is a dire wolf, certainly certainly... But the hand mark…
KERN
So, someone set a dire wolf on her and then left a white handprint. That should narrow down the list of suspects considerably.
ARANELE shakes, frightened that whoever it is will get away with this and someday, do this to her.
ARANELE
…Blame the crabs… Anyone else would blame the trash crabs, no?
KERN
They’d be stupid and they’d be wrong. But we’re not “anyone else”. The Guard Mistress will hear the truth for once. This demon’s death will receive justice. You and I? We’ll see to that.
ARANELE
…hate this, Kern.
He crosses the screen to stand by her and places a hand on her shoulder.
KERN
I know you do, Aranele… Walk me through the evidence again and then we’ll go to the Guard Mistress.
KERN then kneels and looks closer at the body. The player gains control.
(During sections which the player gains control, dialogue branches in a tree. The following image is of the type of tables we were taught to use to indicate dialogue which did not trigger linearly.)
SCENE II
In which Aranele first learns of the Hands of the South
EXT—The Town Square
A small crowd, with BAR OWNER, PUPPETMAKER, SAILOR, and random NPCS, is gathered at the luminous town square. A Romanesque fountain with the Muse—the Southern God—gently dances in the late afternoon light, with YNFEL standing atop the stone rim and speaking to the crowd. With the camera already focused on YNFEL at center, ARANELE and KERN enter from cedar-tiled houses at the left. The camera discounts their presence as much as the crowd.
YNFEL
The Muse is not a threat to our way of life. They are not a God as our Gods, with Their flaws and imperfections, aloof in Their heavenly spheres. But rather, the Muse is a force. They are in the tying of knots and untying of knots. They are beyond gender and life and death. They are in the bond between parent and child, in the smile of a stranger, in the life the transfers from the grass to the livestock to your bellies and back to the earth.
ARANELE
(Disgusted) Southern swine…
KERN
(Warning tone) Aranele…
YNFEL
The Muse, I would actually argue, is exactly what the North is about. The North believes in family ties, in bonds, in working towards a world without war or hate. Why should we hate the South then, for spreading his message? The Southerners are merely humans, much as many thick-blooded Vaegen man, lady, or child. And so there’s really no shame in surrendering to them and taking on their policies. For instance, in the South, humans and demons live apart and the South has no problems with demonic temperaments nor their sudden violent outbursts. There’s nothing wrong with wanting demons—
ARANELE rushes to the center of the scene, pushing the PUPPETMAKER out of the way as she runs.
ARANELE
(Interrupting)
Wrong!
KERN reaches out to stop her but is too late. He begins to make his way through the crowd slowly.
YNFEL
Oh? And who do we have here? Please, introduce yourself. I do enjoy opinions which differ from my own.
ARANELE
Aranele. Am… I am not evil.
YNFEL
(Baffled. Utterly Baffled. He’s playing it up how baffled he is) “Evil”? I didn’t… I didn’t say you were evil. All beings hold capacity for both good and evil. No, what a demon lacks… is restraint. Every demon who lives amongst humans wishes to feast on human blood. It is in their very nature—just as the hounds who herd your sheep have yet still the brutality of the wolf in their veins. But unlike the hound, the demon is not disciplined and isn’t on a leash. Thus, they are a danger to all humankind. They should live somewhere else.
ARANELE visibly shakes, furious.
ARANELE
It is people like you… who let the Hands of the South kill demons.
YNFEL
People like me? I, Lord Ynfel of Vulgar, let the Hands of the South kill demons? I have never said I approve of killing demons.
KERN
You sure about that? You were up here just the other day saying, “Demons are red, fleshy sex-toys that occasionally try to kill you”.
The crowd snickers at that. Ynf
YNFEL
Well, yes. I did. I was joking. I also said, “We have enough of those in the city with all the beautiful girls here.” Isn’t anyone allowed to joke anymore? I’m not literally teaching facts to people. I am an entertainer! A patron! I sponsor a traveling circus.
ARANELE
You support the Hands of the South!
YNFEL
Hardly! To begin, to agree with an extremist group’s general ideals is not to support the group itself, tacitly or otherwise. That is a slippery slope you have introduced there, my dear miss Aranele. I said, I agree, the South is not a threat to our way of life. Everything we want from life is still here!
ARANELE
You let them exist!
YNFEL
Well, it isn’t my job to keep them from existing, is it? That’s YOUR job—and clearly you aren’t doing it. Maybe demons are all prostitutes, drug users, and lazy! And no one likes a lazy whore…
ARANELE
(Roaring) AARRRGHHH!
ARANELE lights the ground around herself aflame in anger, eyes glowing red hot. KERN moves to intercept her.
KERN
Whoa, Aranele! Stop!
ARANELE
How can you say that?! There have been four victims in the last month! Four demons mauled to death! And no one cares!
YNFEL
(Calmly) Well, no one cares—not because they’re demons but because they’re criminals and layabouts. Indeed, these “victims” are demons indulging in their vices who might kill nearby innocents in the throes of their illicit behavior. Are they victims? (Building in vigor) What about the all the people who had died when a demon mauls them to death after being drunk? What about the widows whose husbands died because a demon spent the night with him? The Hands of the South, while their methods are distasteful, have only ever killed demons who were degenerates and layabouts—the drunks, the smokers, the ladies of the eve.
ARANELE
GO TO HELL!
ARANELE tackles YNFEL into the fountain with a gush of steam. The crowd parts and bolts, screaming after one of the town guards just did the very thing the lord said she would. KERN rushes up to the fountain and pulls her out and off of YNFEL as he spits and sputters.
YNFEL
(Brushing himself off, laughing) My goodness!
KERN
Aranele, what are you thinking? Stop!
ARANELE
I’ll kill him!
KERN
Aranele, stop this! We’re leaving! We’re going home! I’m so sorry, Lord Ynfel! Please, she isn’t usually like this!
ARANELE
AAAARRRRGHHH!
YNFEL
(Laughing) Oh, no, that’s quite alright! She couldn’t possibly have helped it. That’s just how she is.
ARANELE
Ir oru heirat!
(Demonic for “You’re a bitch/coward!”)
YNFEL
(Still laughing) You know, this was really fun. If you ever want to come back, maybe we can all get a little wetter!
ARANELE AAAARRRRGHHH!
KERN
Nope, we’re going! Let’s go!
KERN drags ARANELE back off the left side of the screen. Pan over to follow them then back to YNFEL. He stares after her for a moment, before turning and walking off the right side. FADE to black.
(Better Format)
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