Scripting for Interactive Media Pre-Production Materials - Don't Get Blood On The Biscuits

JASMINE MILLINGTON 40402661

Don’t Get Blood On The Biscuits.

A survival/mystery/horror game set in your local biscuit factory. You are out of place, out of time, your coworkers are here but also not there, something is coming... and above all, you must not get blood on the biscuits.

CONCEPT

Don’t Get Blood on the Biscuits is a first person, single player mystery horror game. As new night shift employee in a biscuit factory, you arrive to find that everyone else is not quite all there, or even there at all - the factory is run by spirits, the ghosts of workers past.

It is up to you to free them all... before you are murdered and belong to the factory, forever. Various endings, a mysterious cast and an environment full of murderous equipment, Don’t Get Blood on the Biscuits explores a world of personal loss and intense stakes to tell a gripping story of loneliness, escapism and betrayal.

Inspired by Five Nights at Freddy’s, Cluedo and Among Us, the Player must keep the factory running while putting together the narrative of who is trying to kill them and what happened before they came to the factory. This core narrative concept is formulaic in nature as it revolves around a central cast, allowing for great replayability and many easter egg opportunities.

Gameplay is kept taut and engaging by layering several different mechanics, each simple in execution but revealing a compelling tale in combination. Character dynamics play a large role, as ultimately the Player will make a condemning decision based on their experiences over the five nights, and if the Player is wrong... the factory will gain another soul.

INSPIRATION

Among Us While the overall structure of Five Nights At Freddy’s is closer to that of Don’t Get Blood on the Biscuits, Among Us is a better example of the type of tasks to be included in the game.

When designing simple mini-games, there needs to be enough variety and interest without bottlenecking players either by their own capabilites or their hardware. Also, by keeping the games simple, accessibility is improved as the player is free to adjust the difficulty curve to ensure they enjoy the game. Essentially, several low skill floor puzzles with an opt-in high skill ceiling.

Until Dawn Until Dawn is one of the most famous examples of decision-tree based games in recent years. The developers were careful to maintain a delicate balance between decision points and simple quick time events to keep players engaged and quick on their feet, occasionally resulting in impulsive decisions.

Both of these mechanics will be implemented in Don’t Get Blood on the Biscuits, however there is always a clear positive aim underlying the decision moment, hopefully negating some bitter regrets that a player might have after making an incorrect decision. Also, there are significantly less moments within a larger timeline, so the player should not experience neither meangingless decisons or decision fatigue.

RUINER The core concept is murder mystery that is heavily character driven. RUINER shows a unique blend of a 3D environment that switches to a 2D GUI when the player interacts with characters.

This separation of gameplay concepts will help players better understand what the characters are saying and how it might be important for them. Additionally, switching from 3D to 2D allows the implementation of a time-slowed environment - players will not be pressured to rush through important lore if the surrounding objectives are allowed to take a back seat in the moment.

Cluedo Traditionally a board game, Cluedo has been successfully adapted for the digital realm while maintaining its important gameplay elements. As Don’t Get Blood on the Biscuits is conceptually similar, inspiration has been drawn from these adaptations.

The player is given a checklist with multiple categories and probabilities, which when given alongside a physical representation of the map pushes players towards making connections between the information and clues they have gathered. This style of information tracking will be included in the game, but will be adapted to fit the game’s own timeline.

MOODBOARD

Inspiration for the spirits’ visible manifestations comes from the mythical Will o’ the Wisps, their strange flickering light will make them stand out from the industrial environment.

Contrary to real factories, this purgatory environment will have less than optimal lighting while still feeling clinically clean... mysterious bloodstains excepted.

Newspapers and notes are how the Player will keep track of the story and is given clues about the identity of the murderer.

The environment is large and oppressive, filled with bustling machines and seems to have been designed with humans as an afterthought.

SETTING [NO SPOILERS]

A single building stands alone in a purgatory realm - a factory, cast in a perpetual red haze, where the shadows are harsh but the wind is not.

There are no cars on the few roads outside, no traffic sounds rush by whether it’s day or night. The trees don’t change, forever losing their leaves in the eternal autumn.

There is little breeze, no windows creak and the sky will never colour itself blue again, only the faded red of day and pitchy black of night.

Inside, it bristles with anti-human machinery. Conveyor belts and stock pallets, reams of packaging and sacks of ingredients. The belts are endless, layered high up to the ceilings with fresh, cooling biscuits of many kinds. Pallets stand around, arranged in roughly marked areas and stacked high with their sweet things, loose in trays or packed tightly into their wrappings.

The employees are neither here nor there, as purgatory tends to be. A lack of physical form is no deterrent to the ever-demanding sensation of pain, and sometimes cries and screams will rend the stillness to pieces - only briefly though, and then the mechanical sounds will rush in to claim the space once more.

Of those who are already there, none remember where they came from, nor do they know where they go when the shift is over. They only know that they will return again some small, slippery hours later, and that the biscuits wait for no one. If anyone is new, it is only expected that they will succumb to the factory sooner or later - if they are noticed to be different at all, that is.

The days and nights blur, freshly baked shortbread is the only smell that ever seems to stick. The people here should be listless and lost, but be that as it may, they won’t even remember last week - or at least, most of them won’t.

Amongst them, between the forever-rolling belts and never ending orders and underbaked rejects, stalks a traitor. An ever-patient one who waits for a single opportune moment - a nudge here, a stopped button there - and then another spirit will bleed as red as the jam fillings, filled with pain, just like the one who started the hellfire.

And now that they are red, they remember. You are not supposed to be here the factory whispers to them. You are not supposed to feel how the time moves like treacle, not supposed to know that there used to be anything more than this place. Who’s fault is this?

Always watching, waiting, calculating, this traitor - known only in stolen whispers as the Anti-Manager - weaves among them oh-so-carefully, always with an alibi held close to the surface. They play with their treats before striking, lusting after the glimmer of desperation in a victim’s plea before snatching it from before their ghostly gaze.

SETTING - WORLDBUILING

Don’t Get Blood on the Biscuits is essentially set in the same world as ours, with the laws of physics for the Player remaining largely the same.

However, this is purgatory, so the lighting both inside and outside the factory is strange and unnerving with more reds and purples than there ever would be naturally.

The gameplay occurs at night, so the soundscape is eery and mysterious.

Various mechanical whirrs and clanks will be the pervading noises, in other areas such as the locker room and security office the faint hum of fluorescent lighting and other electronics will be only sounds.

Players may be confused when confronted with the spirits as characters, since a floating, glowing orb has a limited range of expression compared to the human body/face; the dialogue will need to be written in a manner that will be interpreted properly to convey the storyline.

For potentially gory scenes, they will be arranged on the screen so that all actual gore happens out of frame and only a very small external effect will be shown to show the outcome of the actions. This is so the game remains focused on actions and consequences, rather than shock factor. It also makes it more accessible, as a wider audience will be happier with a less explicit game.

For example, if there is a scene where a hand is cut off, that actual moment will not be shown, only a few blood splatters and a single still close up shot of an unmoving hand - not showing any guts or bone.

SETTING - AREAS

There are 3 key settings - the factory floor, the locker room and the security office. Travelling between each scene is done with loading cuts, not open world roaming.

Factory Floor

This is where the majority of the game is played, and it is divided into numerous areas called “plants”. Each plant is progressively unlocked each night as the game progresses and is set up for different biscuits and products, and therefore with similar but unique tasks. There will be clues in each plant that may be interacted with to unlock information and achievements.

Locker Room

The locker room is visited several times a night and is standard affair, filled with benches, lockers and PPE. The Player’s own locker is where all of their current story progress can be checked and interacted with, such as records of previous incidents, suspicicous characters and collected achievements. The Player is encouraged to write their own free-form notes to help them through the story.

Security Office

The security office is outside the main building of the factory, a generic room with security cameras, a coffee machine and a single Security Guard. The Player will receive important story help from the Security Guard stationed here, and can occasionally interact with the security cameras for extra information.

ENVIRONMENT BACKSTORY

- The Agency Manager: Leona Navarro is the Agency Manager at Bismal Biscuits, working the night shift to keep the factory running smoothly. She’s also in charge of all new trainee employees. Leona works alongside the other 10 plant managers to meet the production targets every week.

- The Interim: Over months and years, the factory changes and wears over time.

Machines begin to act up, and stock is mysteriously damaged in a number of small mishaps. Some employees are even grievously injured, but thanks to some clever media spin the factory is kept open. Upper management asks Leona to find the employees responsible, but it’s difficult to keep track of who is where in the factory as the shifts go by.

- A Warning: Leona keeps a closer eye on things, meticulously writing down details and checking in with as many people as possible during the night. In her locker in the manager’s area, a note has been slipped to her. It threatens to stop looking if she knows what’s good for her. Leona emails this to upper management, whose only reponse is “HR will be in touch soon”.

- Consequences: A week later, a second note appears, this time implying dangerous events should Leona come to that week’s Friday night shift. Leona comes anyways.

Six hours into the shift, a massive fire breaks out, and all of the emergency exits are blocked by broken machinery. Bismal Biscuits blazes to the high heavens that night.

- Re-Awakening: Leona is surprised to regain conciousness; she was certain she died in the fire. She finds herself on the factory floor, at the plant where she was last on that fateful night. She looks around and is stunned to find employees working at their stations as usual - except there are no bodies, only small ghostly spirits, floating the biscuits into their packaging from the conveyor belts.

- The New Order: Two spirits - plant managers, Leona guesses - approach her, as they come closer Leona realises that she too is now nothing but a floating wispy ball, flickering like white fire. The managers quickly whisper to her that no-one else remembers anything at all, only that they must continue working as normal. Spirits that don’t comply begin to cry out in pain, and they don’t even know why.

- Revelations: As Leona walks (floats) around the factory floor and adjusts to this new plane of reality, she realises something - the only people with access to the manager’s area are herself and the other 10 plant managers. Therefore only another manager could have warned her about the disaster. So one of the managers started the fire, one of them is responsible for this. But which one?

- A Chance: An indeterminate number of shifts later (the world blurs, Leona isn’t even sure if she goes anywhere every day between the nights), a new trainee arrives at the factory - but they’re human, with a physical form, not some wispy spirit. Leona desperately asks them to help save everyone - only for the new trainee to suffer a horrific accident only a few hours later. Another note threatens Leona, meaning the killing manager is still here, and listening.

- Enter, You: This happens over and over, and Leona experiments with how much help she can give without the murderer, who has been coined the Anti-Manager, getting impatient and killing the new employees. One day the new employee is the Player, who must succeed where others have failed.

STORY [NO SPOILERS]

As a new employee of Bismal Biscuit Factory, the Player is greeted by the Agency Manager, Leona - who is a small blue floating spirit. It quickly becomes clear that something is wrong... there are no other humans in the factory.

Leona quickly but rather limitedly explains that the factory is run by spirits, the ghosts of workers past. She says will try her best to help the Player, but really it’s the Player who will eventually save all of them... or die trying.

The Player is shown to a locker containing an ominous note about an Accident to Come, and is kitted out with PPE. Once ready, the Leona takes the Player to one of several Plants where the Player will be working for the night. The work consists of different small tasks to keep the machines running smoothly and managing the Player’s own Stress level - get too stressed, and the Player will be taken off the line to be “taken care of”.

During the shift, the Player can interact and chat with other Workers, and as the week progresses the Workers will begin to reveal more about themselves and the factory. Each Worker has a spiritual manifestation in the form of a small flickering orb. Everyone spoken to is kind enough, but they soon run out of stories to tell.

Their collective memory is spotty at best.

The Workers also don’t seem to be self-aware of the fact that they are dead; if questioned about their lack of physical form they are confused and do not understand the question. The Player will also meet the two plant managers, and learns that there are 5 plants in total, each with their own two managers. Unlike the Workers, all of the managers know they are stuck in purgatory, but do not know how they got there, nor how the number of spirits in the factory is increasing every month.

On the Player’s break, they are introduced to the Security Guard on duty, who insists the Player come back every break. Once Leona leaves after introducing him, he reveals that he and the other Security Guard, who alternate shifts, are self-aware of the current state of things. He also reveals that this has happened before, and although he does not know how, there will be a Disaster on Friday.

The Disaster will, according to the Security Guard, be a terrifying and horrible event, yet also an opening for the Player to free all of the trapped spirits. Howevere, if they don’t discover the identity of the spirit responsible for the Accidents first, the Player will find themselves trapped here forever. The Security Guard continues, speaking of the 10 plant Managers - and that one of them is the Anti-Manager, the one behind the Accidents, the Disasters and the consequent murders of the entire factory.

When the Player asks how they can be sure this will all happen, that they will be in with a chance to save everyone - the Security Guard only says that they hope the Player will be the one to succeed. Eventually the Player leaves to go back to the plant, armed with the knowledge that someone is trying to kill them and that somehow, they must be the one to succeed where everyone before has failed.

The night continues. And then, the Accident happens. Something horrible, gruesome, deadly, occurs either to another Worker or to the Player directly, and it’s up to the Player to find the correct solution on the fly. Successful or not, this first Accident reveals that while the Workers don’t have bodies, they can still feel pain.

Under the excuse of the stressful incident, one of the managers dismisses the workers at the plant early. As they walk the Player back to the locker, the other managers are introduced to the Player, stating their alibis and condolences for the distressing incident. The Player returns home, knowing that one of the managers they just met tried to kill them, but not knowing which one. The mystery begins.

And so the nights continue, each night beginning with a cryptic note in the Player’s locker foreshadowing the Accident to come, in the hopes that the Player may save themselves and the Worker involved.

Relationships between Workers are revealed, as well as the names for spirits with red manifestations Anti-Workers, spirits who have been Turned malicious and vengeful and aware, headed by the unknown Anti-Manager.

The Disaster approaches, and the stories begin to weave suspicions around the Managers. The Player must eventually make the ultimate decision, and the consequences will either damn them all or see them escape this infernal factory.

CHARACTERS

3 groups of characters, 2 possible Alignments - Managers (11, one Agency, one Anti) - Workers (15+, Majority Agency vs Minority Anti) - Security Guards (2, one per night, unaligned)

The Player

The Player is a new employee to the factory. There is no set personality to the character since all dialogues with other characters are directly chosen by the Player.

The Player is given a generic “new employee” form at the beginning of the game to establish a name and pronouns for later dialogues.

Alignments

Agency characters are universally helpful to the Player, Anti characters will sabotage and be resistant to the Player.

The Player is not aware of who is under which Alignment, except for the Agency Manager.

Agency Workers can be Turned to Anti-Workers by undergoing a traumatic event that would typically kill or grievously injure a human body; this makes them become self-aware of the fact that they are trapped in purgatory without a body and more importantly, without a conceivable escape from the monotonous bore-torture of manual labour. Thusly, they become spiteful of the Player being alive and will work to sabotage the Player/other Agency Workers.

The Managers

There are 11 Managers. One of them is the Agency Manager who is the player’s mentorfigure.

Of the other 10, one of them is the Anti-Manager who is trying to kill the Player. All managers are self-aware, unlike the workers.

The murder mystery is to find out which one is the Anti-Manager by Friday so the Player can trap them so they are free to save everyone else.

Agency Manager: Limited contact mentor, the only one in the factory building who is definitely on the Player’s side. Can be summoned up to twice in one night for help or discussion.

Anti-Manager: The antagonist of the game, the one behind every Accident in the factory as they want the Player to either die or be fired from the factory. They also Turn normal Workers into Anti-Workers.

Security Guards

The Workers Agency Workers: Workers with unique backstories and tips that the Player may talk to get information and help. They are not aware of the fact that they are dead and without physical form.

Security Guards will be visited on a Player’s break for information and help.

Anti-Workers: Co-workers that the player has failed to “save” on previous days Turn to become Anti-Workers, working with the Anti-Manager to attempt to kill the Player or Turn other Workers.

There are 2 different guards, working alternating nights.

Guards are self-aware, and will help the player piece together the “detective” elements of the storyline.

The Player may request an extra piece of information from the Security Guard to be gained on the next night.

GAMEPLAY

4 major gameplay mechanics: - Character Interactions (Plot Narrative) - Tasks (Minor Multitasking) - Stress Level (Resource Management) - The Accidents (Main Event)

Tasks

Once assigned to a plant at the beginning of the shift, the Player will be presented with a number of Tasks.

Tasks are very quick, small, simple puzzles to maintain the plant’s productivity, such as picking up biscuits, feeding skillets, resetting machines, moving stock etc. Puzzle types to be included are point and click, click and drag and keystroke puzzles.

There are two types of tasks - Normal Tasks and Critical Tasks. Normal Tasks are more forgiving, the Player can afford to leave some of these unresolved as another Worker will resolve it for them, while Critical Tasks are demanding and have bigger consequences if missed.

Each Task is dependent on certain factors - most are based on recurring timers, others triggered according to Production Targets, and some will be dependent on the Player’s previous strengths/failings. Tasks can also be triggered by Anti-Workers or the Anti-Manager.

Player Stress

The Player has a resource meter on the screen labelled Stress. If the Stress meter maxes out for more than a certain number of seconds, the player blacks out and is fired from the factory which is game over - from there the Player can either receive the Fake Ending or the Bad Ending.

The Player’s Stress increases if Tasks are done incorrectly/left incomplete, the Player chooses wrong dialogue options, the Player interacts with Turned characters, or if the Accident begins.

Stress will fall naturally over time and can also be reduced by interacting with Workers and Security Guards, successfully completing Tasks and saving everyone involved with the Accident.

Character Interactions

The Player may interact with the environment, other Workers and the Security Guards to discover the story. Other characters can be enlisted for help for tasks.

Interacting with Workers will give dialogue options to talk about their backstories, give instructions and tips on how to manage tasks and request their help for future problems.

Most interactions will reduce the Player’s Stress, however some will make them either the Worker or the Player upset and as a result increase the Player’s Stress.

Interacting with Anti-Workers is based on similar dialogue options, and will yield more informative tips and hints, but will always increase the Player’s Stress.

Interacting with the Security Guard on breaks will give the Player insight that Workers cannot give, as the Security Guards are self-aware of the fact that everyone at the factory is dead and trapped. Interacting with the Security Guards resets the Player’s Stress to zero after their break is over.

The Accidents

Every day, before the shift begins, there will be a note in the player’s locker referencing an Accident to come - the player must then try to prevent the Accident and save everyone involved.

Each accident will occur at some point between 4-6am, and consists of 4 consecutive QTEs, two based around another Worker and two based around the Player.

It is possible to fail the first 2 QTEs and continue the night, however it will make subsequent nights more difficult. If the Player fails catastrophically by missing either of the last 2 QTEs, it’s game over with the Bad Ending.

Completing the Accident will end the night early, regardless of the amount of Tasks completed, clues gathered or the first 2 QTE outcomes.

TOP-DOWN MAP

Left: a top-down map of Plant 22, the first plant the Player is assigned to work at.

Plant 22 handles marshmallow-type biscuits, such as chocolate tea cakes.

The colour coding is Blue = Worker positions, Green = Task points and Red = Plant Manager paths.

Each Worker will remain at their position for the whole shift to avoid confusion. In between tasks, the Player is free to talk to any of the Workers to gain information about who might be the Anti-Manager.

Task points are spread evenly around the map, meaning the Player may need to account for the time it takes to reach a certain Tasks while running the plant to prevent issues. The locations of Normal and Critical Tasks among the points marked is decided on a per-playthrough basis.

Manager paths indicate the general area the Manager may be found in, as unlike the Workers they are free to roam during the night. Sometimes Managers will leave the plant during the shift, and occasionally Managers from other plants will visit the plant the Player is currently working at. In between Tasks, the Player is free to talk to any of the Managers present to gain information about who might be the Anti-Manager.

Various clues will be placed around every plant for the Player to find and interact with, however these are not marked on the top-down diagram as they will vary between playthroughs, and since the level has not been modeled yet potential locations are currently undecided.

INTERACTIONS

The longest flowchart is an entire night’s gameplay, with all subsequent flowcharts being subprocesses called numerous times elsewhere in the code.

Decision points, either made by the Player or the game, are marked by green diamonds. Potential outcomes are marked by regular boxes, and subsequent consequences are roundcornered boxes. Game ending points are marked by red boxes, while all subprocesses are individually colour-coded.

The flowcharts are made to show outcome trees and concurrent concepts to other humans and as such, do not completely follow “coding” logic.

Left, from Left to Right: Night Gameplay Break Mechanic Night Over Upper Right: Stress Mechanic Lower Right: Task Mechanic Rightmost: Accident Mechanic

SCHEDULE

General aim: Roughly completed first night of gameplay, around 20 minutes or less.

Concepts to be included: Modeled Levels - Factory Floor (Plant 22), Locker Room and Security Office Task Mechanic - 3 types of task Workers - 2 dialogue trees Managers - 1 dialogue tree Break Mechanic Accident Mechanic - 2 QTEs Stress Mechanic Information Storage in Locker Room 1 Interactive Clue on the Factory Floor