Committee of Fifty : 1906

Eric Schooley
Jim Duran
Ryan Regis
We envision a sandbox style game platform, in which the disasters of 1906 would play out in a linear fashion. Our “main” characters would be led by a single “mayoral” character, delegating rescue and response teams throughout the city. Time in our system would be divided into sequential “mini-missions” with set time limits. If a crisis were to be resolved before the times expire, the player will b given a slight reprieve to consolidate forces and resources. If the task is incomplete when time expires, the next crisis, or “mini-mission,” will begin with little warning.
The teams provided will resemble military, civil, and civilian teams from the era, as each crisis develops the “mayor” will be responsible for coordinating relief, or deploying resources to a different crisis. The unstated goal of the game is to educate the player on the progression of this disaster and relief efforts. The more clear goal, as it relates to the player, is to decide which parts of the city to attempt to rescue and determine which areas should be sacrificed. Later in the game, the player may be called upon to deal with media responses.
The feedback system for this game will include several status bars, accessed on a specific page. They might include: loss of life, property damage, response team health, civilian trust, major/minor landmarks saved/sacrificed, citizen panic level, city//private funds, and callousness of the player.
Unnecessary obstacles, could include traffic blockage, innocent objects, and even the terrain of the area would cause difficulties. The in-game animations will be based on, and include, archival photos and interviews. There are a LOT of options for actual game play. Each neighborhood includes specific buildings, and each of those has tenants and property that must be addressed. Will you spend resources, and possibly lives, in the attempted rescue of any one location? Is one building more valuable than others? What will the citizenry/media think of your choices?
While our layout has made space a larger factor in the actual game play, wee have taken a fast event and drawn it out into something explorable, from a variety of perspectives. However, time will remain a crucial factor, since it was one in the actual event.
Emotion activation will come throughout the game with loss of life and property, several heart-wrenching photos can be included. Further, at the end of play, you WILL be held accountable for your choices. You will be confronted with characters based on actual people, complete with profiles. Their lives will be in your hands, and when the game ends, you will be faced with accounts from survivors.