What is your game?

The game is a story driven adventure game. The player awakens with no memory in a hospital setting. A radio implanted in their head is telling them they're an Agent, and need to escape.

As the player gets further through the story, clues are revealed which help the player to understand what's really going on.

At the end, the player is presented with a decision. They have to make the right decision by picking up on the clues revealed during the story in order to win.

Where did the idea come from?

I wanted to explore the idea of having a voice in your head, telling you what to do. Being your primary motivator.

How did you address the themes and keywords of the jam?

The game momentum is controlled by a Narrator voice, that exists only inside the player's head. The player also needs to gain access to a safe to complete the game.

Gameplay Instructions

Standard first person controls. WASD to move. Hold Left Shift to sprint (you will NEED to do this to complete the game).

Look with the mouse.

Left click while looking directly at objects to perform a default interaction with them.

Right click while looking directly at objects to get a context menu with all interaction options.

Right click again to close interactions menus.

Press the 'I' key to open your personal inventory.

Installation and running instructions

Download AgentEscape.zip

Extract to your chosen installation directory.

Double click AgentEscape.exe to run the game.

Once the cutscene completes, you can use the Settings menu to adjust your mouse controls (sensitivity, invert Y) if desired.

SPOILERS DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED

This is a serious game that explores the motivations of a paranoid and depressive schizophrenic. Auditory and visual hallucinations are common in these patients.

One form of treatment these kinds of patients sometimes receive is called electroconvulsive therapy, where psychiatrists use a probe to send highly targeted shocks through the brain.

Although this treatment is effective, unfortunately, a common side-affect of this treatment is memory loss. The opening cut-scene is meant to hint at the player receiving this kind of treatment (which is pretty barbaric and torturous looking by all accounts). However, we didn't have time to really flesh it out and make it nice/effective. Just be glad you have a cutscene at all.

This explains the memory loss.

When the player gets back to their apartment there are signs of general uncleanliness and drug use. Lack of motivation and drug abuse are very common in schizophrenic patients. A further clue is the message from your caring mother, and the fact that you use the last four digits of your mother's phone number as your safe code suggests you actually care about this woman.

These are the clues the player is meant to pick up on to decide to take themselves back to hospital. They must talk with the nurse at the hospital, who explains their situation, in order to win the game.

I hope that through playing this game the player gains a better understanding of the motivations and mental state of paranoid delusional schizophrenic s, and will exhibit empathy and understanding. The player is meant to sense that the decisions the character is making are sensible (within their deluded view of reality).

Incomplete story features

There were several additional puzzles planned to flesh out the story and make the game more interactive and immersive.

In the opening scene the player is meant to be handcuffed to the bed, and use their IV line to pick the lock.

After the player lures the nurse into the other room, they are meant to have to sabotage the nurse's chair with a blood sample, so that the nurse gets stained pants. This is so that the nurse will change pants and the player can steal her prox card. The player should need this prox card in order to use the elevator to escape.

The player is meant to find and examine their wallet in the nurses station. Looking at their ID will reveal their apartment address (and name). The player was meant to have to do this in order to travel to their apartment (otherwise they should have no idea where it is, memory loss!).