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FuzzYspo0N
18-06-2008, 03:24 AM
Changes to this thread :

19 june : 1:41 am
New items/aspects added (i forgot them here, thanks thaumaturge)
basement
discharges


Ok, this is my second game in 19: but i decided i might pull the other to work on a game style i havent made in quite a while. I watch a lot of house and i watch a lot of scrubs and iv always liked medicine in general so im going to make an interesting death twist.

Some Conceptual graphics :

i got much better stuff than this coming, this was a 2min thing to get ideas down.

http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/8262/hhlogofinal2cv3.jpg

Story/Plot/Concept:

<letter in the post>
greetings from your friendly darktown hospital. Thank you for applying as a doctor, we see you have some respect in the community, and we have reviewed your credentials. You have been accepted! Please come in to the hospital first thing on monday morning to begin the doctors merge training.
Enjoy the rest of your day,

Your Friendly Neighbourhood Hospital Administrator

<concept>
Now is my chance to live out my lifes dream, a small town, the only hospital, not too easy to get caught. This is what i have been waiting for.

I am going to scare people to death.

I will keep my thoughts to myself, and i will avoid showing my dark side to other staff, hospital security, administrators and of course, the press. I will cunningly use my charm and wit to break down morale of patients, collapse concerns into a pile of self loathing, and most of all i will instill fear in the hearts of those who come to be cured. I will reign terror in the hospital among patients while parading the greatest doctor the community has ever known. I will keep my mind about me, and i will slowly kill off every patient i can get access to. This is going to be so much fun.

Welcome to horror hospital, my friends.

Game design :
Well, i am going for a side view / platformer sort of game, with only one level in the beginning. depending on time i will push more levels in but for now one level should be a lot of fun. I want click and point kind of adventure play mixed with a sort of control scheme. So you walk around the hospital, performing acts of terror, spreading rumours, overall scaring patients to death. The hospital itself will have an overall fear level that you will need to monitor.

The player :
The player will have a level of respect in the community, which is based on a number of aspects, and affects publicity and likelyhood of getting caught. Staff looking for you to ask questions, press looking for interviews, of all the documented cures, and an insight into such a friendly doctor wth so many great reviews, so many cures and so many successful discharges. The doctor will need to write these reviews, dispose of bodies and of course, avoid the obstacles and avoid getting caught.

The aspects of gameplay :

The disposal of bodies : when a person dies because of your direct actions (ie pulling a chainsaw outta your magic bag o' death to scare them, you may hide the person in your bag, for a short time, giving you time, you can finish some tasks before taking the bag to the disposal hatch (which gets dumped out the back of the building, into a neighbouring metal refinery, disposing of the bodies in a furnace). This also means a person can die when you are not on that level, or when you are not around, each person depending on their location has a time before discovery. This means you probably have to stop what you doing and hide the body before getting caught. If you are caught (in this version) it is game over.

The discharging of patient files:
This concept is under debate in my head my intention so far is to have "office space" upstairs which, you will have to visit every X amount of time, depending on the balance in the fright levels and what not, but its a "closed door" and you enter with a small timer animation. the clock goes by X amount of time depending on the extent of your paperwork. This means, fear levels will have dropped, things can be discovered, and other aspects globally will be affected by your absence. I hope this makes sense :)

The basement :
Basically your inventory is limited, but people tend to put all sorts of things in the supply closet and in the basement. these two places on the lowest level give you new items, and a place to hide things in the mean time. For example, keeping a chainsaw in your bag is really funny, but it might be a season of sad patients. "A suicide notepad" for example, a bloody knife, all scare tactics prop wise can be stored or take from here. the cupboard is more for hiding, but the basement in general is where janitors, gardeners and other maintenance people may leave items at random. So its a cool place to check in every now and again.

The bag o' death : Iv given the doctor a niche, a hook, if you will. It is a bag (mary poppins, felix the cat) that can hold limited but infinitely sized items. So you can hide anything from a dead body, to a knocked out nurse who may have discovered your actions. The bag has limited body capacity of say, 3, and can hold other items and props for scaring patients.. This all helps in raising your death count and scaring other patients with other dead patients. The point and click menus will have an inventory type effort, which will hold these, plus some great lines to scare people and push them off the edge. Each item has a probable outcome : ie, a possibility rating, for example a person might have fears already (listed in the patient file) that you can exploit, sometimes your bag of tricks is not as well equipped and stuff, but a patient who is scared of seagulls can be scared to death by a fake news report of seagulls atttacking the darktown area and the probability (plus sickness scores) can equal certain death.

The death scale : The probabilty of a stunt/action will be calculated on a number of variables and will be a rating of 1 to 4.
1 : laughed at (lose respect rating, gain small amount of "concern" in patient)
2 : Concern esclates and fear is instilled, unresponsive chuckle.
3 : Fear is wrenching, fear levels increased a lot (cud tip over to death)
4 : Certain Death (omg you are mean :)

Going for the win, is obviously the goal. sometimes you may not be able to scare someone taht bad and have to scare them a little and lose rating, this is part of the gameplay.

The patient file : Reading the patient history can be helpful at times, but the fears listed can be priceless, some patients dont list fears, and some patients are scared of anything. Some patients who are prone to suicide (which is a sort of bonus patient, ie emos) will be easy points and, you can exploit them to scare other patients. moving patients to other wards and grouping fears of the same kind will increase fear through discussion etc.

The props :
The tapedeck : a viable scare tactic, hide one of these babies in a cupboard near a patient for good results.

The administrative power : Shuffling patients can be beneficial. Use this power to help auto-death in the hospital

The suicide note : A well written suicide note reminding certain patients of how lame they are can tip the scales.

The Rumours : Start rumours amongst patients with a high fear rating to see results

The doctors emotions : Acting really angry can spur actions, and showing confusion, or concern can mix in some sparks.

The murder hour : The hour when most staff have retired for the evening, our friendly doctor has volunteered (again) to make sure patients stay well. You can kill patients directly in this time but that comes around not too often

The reports : Discharging patients when they are dead, you will need to head to the office level, and spend time filling out discharge forms. after a certain amount of deaths you must start clearing this pile of charts for patients who are not around any more (the other nurses know your great succes rate, and assume a successful cured patient) If this pile gets too full, your respect level drops, and shortly after the administrator fires you and u get caught. So dont let this get out of hand, you have to clear deaths sometime in the day to avoid getting fired.

The press : Some rumours can spread through the press. Causing mass hysteria anonymously is a great way to bring new patients into the hospital..


The gameplay dynamics :
Some things are unclear right now, but i will flesh this out when i have my prototype ready. The aim of the game is simple, the control is simple, the classes and management things will be coded as i go, so the gameplay will exist before i get too any cool or funny features.

The progress :
Ill track all progress in the first thread in this quote box below and i will update the todo list as i go. Please feel free to comment and suggest things as it so happens this idea is just the start.

The todo list :

[x] Basic graphics placeholders
[x] Simple triggers and "locations"
[x] Basic player movement and animations
[ ] Advanced player movement (ie elevator)
[ ] release tech demo 1
[ ] Patient list management
[ ] Patient generation code
[ ] Patient tracking code
[ ] Patient graphics placeholders
[ ] Global fear levels, game state machine
[ ] inventory
[ ] disposal system
[ ] inventory implementation(using items to affect states)
[ ] improve graphics
[ ] release fully playable prototype (tech demo 2)
[ ] add fluff (props and other things)
[ ] fix bugs
[ ] finalise graphics
[ ] take a bathroom break
[ ] Final test release
[ ] Bug fixing


FuzzYspo0N
:D

01DT!m3r
18-06-2008, 07:06 AM
I want i want i want i want . It sounds like fun . Now if only i could compare it to you other game idea :)

ASS_SAZiN
18-06-2008, 09:17 AM
Great idea!

I do feel inclined to mention that this seems to be a fairly big project, but who doesn't like a challenge ;)

some comments:

Regarding the story it feels almost like it has the same anti-hero feel as Dexter, which I love by the way.

I think the game play will be wicked I am unsure of the choice of it being a platform game? I can so see this being a 3d person shooter :D, like Max Payne, but I do understand that a 3rd person view is not the easiest thing to pull of.

The game itself seems to be a bit complex too many things to consider, especially if you take in to account the time left for 19, but i am inexperienced when it comes to, game design doing my first one for comp 19, so maybe you will be able to pull it off!

I think this will be great to play!

Good luck!

FuzzYspo0N
18-06-2008, 11:06 AM
this seems to be a fairly big project

It depends a lot on experience and also, design. Planning ahead is way important. If you see the elements of the gameplay there are perhaps 3 or 4 aspects to cover, and these require little effort to get working well. The extra fluff is all in all the same element, just with different conditions. The design is simple , i just added a lot of facets to the same object, if you like.

The story : yea, i love dexter too

A 3rd person shooter is actually pretty simple to get going (using a 3d engine) the problem would come in with resources and media. Modelling a character, skinning, texturing and rigging it, animating all the animations for the game, adding the need for an entire level, plus the time factor left for 19: is not very feasible. I have every confidence i can make it 3d, but the aim is to make the game complete in a short time. I will be using a 3d engine, which i will exploit to make a 2d game. this can help with lighting and other concepts like depth, for a 2d side view game :)

Complexity : i want simple gameplay mechanics above all. The player only has to be concerned with moving around, interacting with the inventory, and watching stats and values. certain values are key, which will require the player to get moving to the office to do paperwork, which while busy the patients lose scare value. This is complex in concept but its pretty simple to understand. The timing on elements will be a bit tricky but i have some good friends here, as well as online elsewhere that can move with me.
When it comes to the gameplay, you basically monitor patients fright levels and try push some over the edge, with an inventory of gags and gimmicks its not hard. When someone does die you gotta get rid of them and watch paperwork. its complexly simple.

I am not saying i will definately finish in time, but i know i can definately finish in time. Barring any random sickness like 17: and the fact i work from home for myself which can be tricky with the jobs i currently am working on, i aim to spend a good amount of time every day polishing this game because i think it will be fun to play.]

Thanks a lot for the feedback, its good to see "beginner" people realising possiblt flaws in design

Thaumaturge
19-06-2008, 01:07 AM
I quite like this idea - it could be very interesting. ^_^

Heheh, it sounds a like a morbid take on Neighbors from Hell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighbors_from_Hell) - a potentially fun little game. ^_^

I imagine this portrayed in dark, dreary and slightly menacing tones (greys and blues, with some appropriate greens, primarily), with lots of frightened whispering and low-key music, the degree and volume of the sounds being directly proportional to the overall level of fear in the hospital. ;)

If I may suggest, consider representing patient fears with little icons over the patient's bed (albeit not presented in anything as cartoony as a speech or thought bubble), combined with the afore-mentioned whispers (especially, perhaps, when rumours are being passed).


after a certain amount of deaths you must start clearing this pile of charts for patients who are not around any more

How do you plan on implementing this? Will it be automatic? If so, how much time will the player spend watching per file, and if not, how do you plan on making this interaction interesting? Some way of faking release results, perhaps (maybe even something as simple as selecting fake discharge details from a list), with too little variation or too many implausible reasons raising suspicion?

I'll admit, I think that the project looked big to me too on first glance, but I think that I can see some of the fairly simple gameplay elements beneath it. Very good luck, Fuzzy! ^_^

FuzzYspo0N
19-06-2008, 01:41 AM
Thanks thaum, as always i may comment one thing, im not looking for generic, tho i will consider aspects of standard (ie an icon above a players head) but i will try represent it in many different ways before resorting to that :D

The tones will be sort of painted, digitally i am learning to paint and i want that "illustration" style look in the background. Plus, i will be "scribbling" the patients and doctors as placeholders. there will be very limited animation in the first stages but as i refine the game there will most definately be fully colored and animated characters. i will be using a combination of interesting tools to simplify animations and i will most likely be implementing a "sprite sheet" style approach to my sprite engine. The animations are nearly ready for display :)

Clearing a pile of discharges before getting caught for missing patients :
As a matter of interest there was an aspect i knew i was forgetting was the other two special zones. i will update the main thread with a new tag and i will say what each means in detail up there.

Thanks for the comments, it seems big but im pretty certain so far i havent hit any hurdles.

Thaumaturge
19-06-2008, 03:02 AM
Aah, fair enough - all of that sounds good to me. ^_^

FuzzYspo0N
20-06-2008, 02:01 AM
well , i have been a busy bee in terms of code, but i needed a break so i prototyped a doctor character.

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/4995/promo1wa3.jpg

plus : i added three frames of animation :D

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/9104/doc1ed2.gif

a bed template for patients : (added an emo patient)

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/1999/bed1hz5.pnghttp://img136.imageshack.us/img136/1499/emo2gd1.png

Liszt
20-06-2008, 07:53 PM
Super cool! I absolutely LOVE it!

Can I do both the music AND the sound design? There should be a huge variety of patients please!!! Cute graphics! Very inspiring! Beautiful!!! Mwah!

Perhaps you can add some horror as in 5 days a stranger. That would be SUPER!!!

Afflict
20-06-2008, 08:37 PM
Hehe make "Death" aka the grim reaper do rounds to find you cause your taking all his fun away. :)

Thaumaturge
21-06-2008, 02:14 AM
I like those, Fuzzy - good work. ^_^

Heheh, having the Grim Reaper come to get you sounds interesting too - perhaps as a mid- to late- game hazard, or a bonus/"sudden death" round. ^_^

FuzzYspo0N
22-06-2008, 12:13 PM
Hehe make "Death" aka the grim reaper do rounds to find you cause your taking all his fun away.

haha thats a funny idea thanks afflict.i shall work an idea out of that one.

Thanks for the comments. i have made progress on this, sigh. its been a hectic couple of days. Depending how this week goes i might pull the 19: from the front but i will definately finish this game

FuzzYspo0N
22-06-2008, 03:11 PM
Ok, here is some more graphics here so far. The walk cycle and a pad of stances.
Thanks a lot to MashPotato from CGEmpire who owned my old doctor and taught me alot about the pixel art techniques :)

Please take a look at her gallery of incredible work here :
http://www.cgempire.com/members/MashPotato

http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/4475/docpadbg8.png
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/8853/walkcycleur5.gif

Thaumaturge
22-06-2008, 10:33 PM
Again, good work, Fuzzy. ^_^

Hmm... I'm not sure about the movement of the character's feet. It looks a little less effective than that of the arms, and I think that this is a result of the lack of movement above the feet, which seems to leave the feet looking as though they are simply flicking back and forth, to my eye, at least. I think that having the coat animate a little to show the movement of his legs might help.

FuzzYspo0N
23-06-2008, 11:53 AM
the coat is actually moving if you look closer, but i will redo his feet when i get to it, these are placeholder graphics :) they took like couple of minutes each... thanks for the comments

Afflict
23-06-2008, 01:48 PM
Yeah don't crack your head on the place holder gfx, it's just going to waste time you don't have to waste on things that aren't relevant.

Now get cracking on the reaper ;)

*Cracks whip*

FuzzYspo0N
23-06-2008, 01:50 PM
lol, fixed the walk a little
http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/9704/walkcycleey9.gif

gimme time afflict. im doing important things first. the basis of the game, then the fluff

Afflict
24-06-2008, 12:44 PM
Hehe was just messing with you ;) Btw what resolution is the game going to be?

FuzzYspo0N
24-06-2008, 12:58 PM
1024x768 , im using the same framework from antisense, cos its a 2d game.

the walk was updated. lol

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/6036/walkcyclele2.gif

FuzzYspo0N
25-06-2008, 01:49 AM
updated some of the todo i think.
well the layout has come a way, i the background OBVIOUSLY wont be tiled like it is. each floor will be layerd and detailed individually with lotsa pixelly goodness. i decided to mix two mediums, and i am enjoying the look.

Gameplay : walking around the map playing the game. :D
hehe, you can read the writeup and u can figure it out. i added one more element, but that not documented yet. Also , comments welcome. there will be a whole scene and background not just black. :D just a concept so far.

woops epic large, had to edit to a link. please click to view
thumb :
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/2987/layoutconceptas1pd4.jpg
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/2299/layoutconcept1pg4.jpg

Afflict
25-06-2008, 03:34 AM
:D That looks like Epic Win :)

Well done keep it up!

FuzzYspo0N
25-06-2008, 12:37 PM
here i updated the elevator. all this is temporary so far... its place holder stuff. i will neaten up and stuff.

http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/9452/layout2af7.th.jpg (http://img187.imageshack.us/my.php?image=layout2af7.jpg)

Thaumaturge
27-06-2008, 01:13 AM
Yeah don't crack your head on the place holder gfx, it's just going to waste time you don't have to waste on things that aren't relevant.


Heh, true, true - I apologise. ^^;

That said, the new animation does look improved to me. ^_^

As to the background, it looks really good! ^_^

I love the dark and dimly-lit corridors, the dingy textures, and even the font. Very well done! ^_^

My only issue is that the dark text on the left is a little difficult to read, I find.

FuzzYspo0N
27-06-2008, 03:01 AM
this is a layout shot thaum, there wont be this in the game. its a concept, and there wont be much text at the time. :)

Thaumaturge
27-06-2008, 04:25 AM
Fair enough, although it occurred to me that this could be a great help-screen entry. ;)

FuzzYspo0N
27-06-2008, 05:11 AM
this is nowhere near final quality, sorry :) tho the help comes in the form of a playable tutorial i think in this one, i haventywritten an in game tutorial in a while, so im gonna make this one with it, my aim is to introduce scripting once my sprite engine is complete (which out of interest is already done, its loading and showing sprites, its just a few bugs in the animation and i will be ready for a walking around demo :))

Thanks for the ideas tho :)

Thaumaturge
27-06-2008, 07:37 PM
Fair enough, and my pleasure - an in-game tutorial sounds good too. ^_^

FuzzYspo0N
29-06-2008, 11:20 PM
Dis, or anyone, pls rename this thread without the 19 : , i decided to keep this out of the comp for now, i want to work properly and unrushed. Thanks.

FuzzYspo0N
01-07-2008, 02:45 AM
well, i have my animation system working fully again, lacking one "type" of loading system.
This means i will be finishing the level placeholder art and adding the movement within the next few days, including the elevator.

I hit some heavy heavy glitches with the animation system, which were so small but crippling design flaws. had to redesign like 4 times. anyway, its moving now. ill post a playable demo soon

Thaumaturge
02-07-2008, 04:16 AM
I'm sorry to hear that you're pulling out, except in that it's in order to produce a better game. ^_^

I look forward to seeing the first demo - this game sounds as though it could be rather fun! ^_^

Afflict
05-07-2008, 08:29 AM
Awesome, I find the competitions to spark allot of creativity and I wish more of the titles will be developed further even after entry. :)

Glad to hear it Fuzzy.

FuzzYspo0N
10-07-2008, 02:10 AM
well an update, hoping this thread gets renamed sometime :P

But, good news is i got the movement working great, and the player can walk around now. Next step is writing the game code out of the menu (lol yes i wrote the gameplay into the menu to test) and as soon as thats done, i can add simple elevator mecahnics and the playable demo will be ready :)

Thaumaturge
10-07-2008, 02:14 AM
Excellent! I'm very glad to hear it. ^_^

I hope that you have that demo ready for us soon. ;)

Liszt
15-07-2008, 07:40 PM
Any MIDI for me? :-D

Contact me if the above said is true.

FuzzYspo0N
29-11-2010, 12:23 AM
Resurrection time. Completion rampage initiated.
http://blog.centrc.net/darktown-and-that-one-hospital-game

R4mzy
29-11-2010, 10:00 AM
Love the whole concept of the game, with the horror themes and demented doctors, so can't wait to see this one finished.

A thought occurred to me while I was reading through this thread though: what if you were to implement a "waiting room" of sorts, where patients' relatives would gather and go visit patients? This could add an additional aspect to breaking a patients' morale down.
For example, initially loved ones and friends are reassuring to patients and are a force to contend with as they make the patient feel better, BUT if you (the doctor) can manage to convince the *visitors* that their loved one (the patient) is in terrible state and won't make it then the visitor might:
a) stop visiting because they can't handle it (obviously a massive blow to a patient's psyche 'cause, y'know, they'll figure "what does my loved one know that is so devastating they can't even come see me ?? :(" or a simpler "waaah nobody wuvs me i wanna dead! :'(")
or b) become a drag on the patient. Still visiting but being so down and depressed that they actually affect the patient in a negative manner. I don't think this should be as big a blow to the patient *individually* but a person like this could affect an entire *ward* instead (this could work the other way too. Unreasonably happy visitors could bring an entire ward up...).

I don't know how you could implement the mechanics to convince visitors that there's no hope. Perhaps through clever dialogue trees? At any rate, this should be something that's kinda hard to do (I think). An easier option could be available to the player where they manage just to bring the positive influence of the visitor down so that they are not so tough an adversary (ie. the effect of their visiting is negated.) I also see the potential for "leveled" approach where the player brings the good effects of the visitor down in levels.
I also think that the "happier" a visitor is at the start (and therefore a bigger challenge), a greater effect of despair should be achievable once the player flips those smiles upside down.

I like this because it adds an adversary to the game mechanics. It's also not too taxing on the player because, like any hospital, visitors will only be a factor during visiting hours so the player can try to take patients out between visiting hours and dedicate visiting hours to turning visitors into ultimate spreaders of despair.

Anyway, just a thought that occurred to me. I realise you're probably a little far into development and I don't know how much of a mission it would be to implement this, but perhaps it might work for a sequel? Use it, don't use, yeah. :D
Hope to be able to play this soon.

FuzzYspo0N
29-11-2010, 10:23 AM
Hey thanks for the ideas!
Blackshipsfillthesky also suggested some really good ideas,

1) Make the first hospital a mental facility, making the patients easier. As the game progresses you face normal wards and it becomes more challenging with sane folk.

2) Plant ideas in patients using inception style trickery.

For me,
A lot of the death mechanics were because of the competition. Because I am aiming outside of the competition i have decided to change the goal from death to just 'stunned'. Not much else would change for the mechanics but the concept is that you scare them to a breaking point, and they will be moved into another ward for better care (more patients per month = higher reputation for you).

I have also tweaked the story a little, to clarify the reason behind the gameplay :)

glCoolHandf
29-11-2010, 11:39 AM
This is a very good idea, always good to see someone going back to old ideas and unfinished projects to finish them…thanks for letting me feel very, very guilty… :)

While going through this thread and seeing some of the ideas something occurred to me, with an abstract enough design you can actually get two games that uses the same mechanics. Sort of Good and Bad doctors … are you a Perry Cox or Bob Kelso (Scrubs).

The parallels in the two types of games is very clear and can share the same mechanics; sickness/phobia, medicine/scare tools, happy and healthy/scared or dead.

With a good balance in difficulty between the two games, you can have a “good” and “evil” type personality indicator, showing the player’s personality as he plays the levels.

There is two wolves in every person (Good and Bad) … which one do you feed?

This might not fit into your idea, but give it a thought … not a lot of work more for a whole new dimension or a new game.

P.S.
Another thing, if you haven’t seen the Theme Hospital game, give it a look … I can remember a open source buzz around it.

FuzzYspo0N
29-11-2010, 12:06 PM
Heh, i actually referenced scrubs along the way in my newer design.
Whilst i would love to make this an epic scoped game,

The purpose is a fully playable single level "prototype". If it gets attention i might further it but i doubt it :) Want to just finish it asap.

There are some ideas i am definitely including, and of course anyone can feel free to expand on this game when im done with it.

I always loved the concept of this game being much wider and deeper but my goal is completion first.

Thanks for the ideas!

BlackShipsFillt
01-12-2010, 11:06 AM
I've read through this properly now, and I have a few suggestions! (some of which may be good)

Obviously you, FuzzySpoon, have some stuff in mind when it comes to the gameplay, so correct me if I've missed the point.

Beyond the sinister, and refreshingly morbid flavour, essentially this seems to me to be a time management game. Kinda like Dexter is to The O.C as Horror Hospital is to Cake Dash.

I really like R4mzy's idea of having a waiting room where patients arrive and have to be dealt with, which puts pressure on the doctor to keep up with his rounds (which are made trickier by having to dispose of evidence) which is made trickier by having to fill out paperwork every now and then.

But basically the doctor has to keep on doing things and there are lots of timers that keep on creeping towards having some kind of negative effect. I'm not suggesting that it has to be hectic, but I think FuzzySpoon has in mind that there should be some pressure on the player to keep performing doctorly things while also finding creative ways to off patients.

What would REALLY make this come alive for me is income and some hospital customization (which is a classic cake dash mechanic).

Once again, I may be off the point, but the way I imagine the gameplay goes something like:

Patients trickle into the waiting room, more arrive if their is some hysteria like Fuzzy said.
Patients will pay money upon being admitted (I know hospitals don't actually do this) and they will pay much more if the doctor exaggerates their condition (and also be a little more afraid).
Patients will be greeted by nurses if the doctor does not make it in time (and therefore loses some money).
If neither the doctor or a nurse greets the patients then the doctor loses a little respect (which means slightly fewer and cheaper patients)
Every day the patients spend in hospital costs the doctor money, so it is important to discharge patients as fast as possible.
I really love the idea that switching patients around can make them less stable. It sounds like a wonderful little simulation element. The player may even keep some really upsetting patients alive simply to harm the mental states of other patients.
Money can be spent on purchasing props (and cheaper ones can maybe be found occasionally, possibly in lost and found, left by dead patients)
Also money can be spent on customizing the hospital (I feel this is key), some customizations can save the doctor time (like better computers to do paperwork, faster cash registers, hotter furnaces to burn corpses), while others hurt the patients mental health (like flat screen TV's that play horror movies and special beds with giant clown ornaments) and others increase the community's respect (like pot plants, paintings of pot plants and certificates from universities). Also more capacity could be purchased, like more hospital beds and more staff, as well as money being useful for some quick fix situations (like bribing police).
It would be nice to be able to hire new nurses... I would like there to be a selection with various effects, eg Meek nurses are cheap but help the patients recover, Efficient Nurses are fast and cost more, Scary nurses scare the patients but hurt community respect, Stupid nurses that don't grow suspicious but are slow.
Discharging patients through healing or "Discharging" patients through death (by covering tracks) increases community standing. Maybe (and this is a bit sneaky) a doctor may choose to treat some patients really well and then the patients, once discharged, will tell their story of a perfect hospital to the outside world (and reach newspapers), and maybe certain patients are better at telling these stories (like handsome firemen, or adorable children). But of course actually healing patients is costly. It would also be important that any patient that survives horror hospital not be mingled with terrified patients because they will share stories.
Some patients may be fairly healthy, the doctor may have to drug them to make them feel sick so that they don't leave (which, if they have been exposed to the horrors would be bad for community standing). Sometimes it may be cheaper to heal them than to kill them, however this only benefits the doctor if they leave with a good impression.
Like Fuzzy said, every patient has some information about them, and the doctor can find out more information through conversation... I think, possibly, every patient should also have something bad in their past that the doctor can find out about, that way the game can feel a little more like Dexter, in that there is always some justification, however tenuous, to killing these patients. Eg. A fireman may seem noble, but he doesn't pay his taxes. A Bank Executive may have an unreasonable carbon footprint. A cute little girl may have killed and eaten her parents.
It would be great to be able to converse with any entity... I am for the Sims-style speech bubbles, all the doctor really wants to know is what is on the patient or nurses mind and those things can be represented with icons.
Every patient has fears, and it should also be possible to instill some fears, for example with creepy decor and getting other patients to share their horror stories. Also possibly with psychotropic drugs (which cost money).
Patients fears can lead to a convenient and tidy death if the doctor exposes them to their fear enough (like you said Fuzzy).
Advertising campaigns and word of mouth rumors could improve community standing or spread the word of dangerous plagues (in order to cause hysteria), but cost time or money to execute.
The doctor carries around a bad of stuff which is useful in multiple ways, carrying horror props, carrying corpses, tape-recorders, handy suicide notes (like Fuzzy suggested).
Nurses could quit if they get too freaked out, alternatively, if the doctor fears the nurses telling bad stories the doctor can make the nurse a patient (by tranquilization, like Dexter).
Paperwork and corpses pile up. Corpses can be hidden for a while, but eventually need to be incinerated. Most of the time the doctor will bring death on the patient (and so will be nearby), but other times the patient may commit suicide and the doctor may want to stash the body for a while. Paperwork eventually has to be dealt with (maybe the furnace takes a while to heat up and costs money to keep running).
Nurses and patients are stupid, and after enough conversations can be lead to believing whatever the doctor wants... however there will not always be time for this and sometimes faster measures will be required.
Actually killing patients leaves evidence (in the form of blood, or illegal drugs), which takes a lot more time to clean up.
Every now and then the police should show up and require a brief look-around of the hospital.
Celebrities could show up sick once in a while, which affords certain possibilities and also some additional difficulties.
Clowns and mascots (to supposedly cheer up patients) can be hired.
Staff should patrol around helping patients and the doctor (like you said Fuzzy). I like that there is this little simulation going on, and there would naturally be a pattern to it that the player could learn. Also maybe the doctor could distract the staff, by maybe calling an emergency in one area and then being devious in another. Staff can catch the doctor doing devious things (like leaping around with a seagull) and can become suspicious and eventually may leave and spread stories.
Maybe the doctor could spike the nurse's coffee machine (at a monetary and possibly risk factor cost) to allow for some extra-clandestine activities.
I think Fuzzy mentioned the possibility of the doctor actually hiding, like in cupboards or behind potplants. If suicide does come into the game then hiding may help disassociate the doctor from the death when the nurses come running. I quite like the idea of causing a death, hiding, waiting for nurses to arrive, and then innocently walking out of the nearby cupboard and assisting (a doctor in a real-life hospital always has to pronounce the time of death, although that could be tedious).


Anyway, I don't know if that is what you are thinking Fuzzy, I feel that some way to profit off of the patients and to be able to spend that money to make even more money even faster, which is the basis behind every tycoon and time management game, would really work here and coupled with the Killer Doctor theme would be a winner.

I know what I have suggested is a much bigger game as well, maybe there is something achievable in there though.

I personally like the idea of the doctor wanting to profit off of killing people, it is morbid, but understandable. And if the game characterizes the patients and nurses as both unpleasantly stupid and also a little sinister themselves (ie having sordid pasts) I think the game could appeal well outside of its twisted art-house audience. (I myself and sold either way, I like twisted-ness in all its forms).

On the other hand you may have been thinking of more of a puzzle game, which could also be awesome (and probably produce a stronger flavour without the time and money constraints)... in which case ignore this post :)

BlackShipsFillt
01-12-2010, 01:05 PM
Thinking about it again I realise that you probably intend a more puzzle-like game.

So maybe each hospital presents the player with a tricky scenario with some lose conditions... the idea is to scare to death a certain number of patients before one of those lose conditions catches up to you... once you have "discharged" enough patients you can consider it a job well done and you move onto another hospital/scenario.

Kinda more like Neighbors from Hell then, keeping your activities invisible to the patrolling staff and using limited resources cleverly... With each level introducing the player to more deadly tricks and allowing for ever more rapid "discharging".

Maybe an example of a level could be: How do you kill an entire ward, without being discovered, using only an inanimate carbon rod and a casset-tape recording of an opera?

(which is possibly a very interesting problem to solve)

AndrewJ
01-12-2010, 02:06 PM
Patients will be greeted by nurses if the doctor does not make it in time (and therefore loses some money).If greeted by the nurse, perhaps the patient might be calmed down a bit.