Steve arrives at a cabin the in the woods. There he meets and befriends Hungry, and together they must find a way to escape Attila, who wants to eat them.

As a storm hits their area they get a small chance to establish communications with the outside world, but as it fails and Steve gets hurt they must remain at the cabin.

Having no other option that to try and trap Attila and escape they try to do just that, but it goes wrong, setting the cabin on fire and killing Attila. The smoke causes them to be spotted and rescued.

World

1980’s America, a pine forest and a cabin.

The Cabin

The cabin location consists of two buildings: A main cabin and an outhouse. The main cabin consists of a main room and a pantry. The main room has a sofa, a desk, a bed and a small kitchen. There is also an attic for storage. On the roof is a satellite dish for communication and it’s got wires that run to a fuse box and connect to the electrical grid.

The cabin itself is built on a concrete base which extends about 2m from the cabin itself, and functions a patio.

Grant Woods

A pine forest located in northern USA, seemingly perpetually autumn. Not that it matters with the evergreens, but days are short and nights are long. It also rains a lot.

The name comes from Gerald D. Grant, who attempted to burn down the forest in 1805. He failed, however, due to the humidity at the time, burning only a bush.

Characters

Steve Stevenson

A burnt-out workaholic, Steve moves to a cabin in the woods to get some rest. He tries to get his pc running and do some work but circumstances keep him from it.

Personality: Steve is very straightforward, he doesn’t think through things a lot. He keeps himself busy with work, and not much else.

Hungry

The wolf, who really wants to do good for her pack, is responsible for a member of her pack getting hurt, and takes her leave. Unable to hunt alone she scavenges for food and meets Steve.

Personality: Hungry is curious and wants to fit in, be useful to her pack. She is, however, a bit clumsy.

Attila

A massive black bear. He f*cks sh*t up to get food. The conflict between the protagonists and antagonist is pretty simple: Attila wants Steve’s food supply. Steve and Hungry want Attila to leave them alone.

Personality: As long as he’s got food he doesn’t care about much else.

Images by Sarah Schmitz.

Plot Techniques

Time Limit

Fixing the satellite dish before the storm hits and the unknown return of Attila.

Foreshadowing

Because of the two scenes of the protagonists separately the player will know and be aware that they’ll meet.

Set-up & pay-off/seeding & planting

Throughout the story I use several recurring objects. The car and cans for example. The cans are used to make Steve and Hungry friendly towards each other, and from then on to show affection. The car is an element to fix things, and finally contributes in eliminating Attila. Also the matches that the hippie drops at the beginning are reused at the end.

McGuffin / reversal Deus Ex Machina

At a certain moment Steve must fix a satellite dish in order to communicate with the outside world. If he can manage that he can be saved from this entire situation and that’ll be it. Of course this doesn’t happen and he slips, breaking the dish, which completely disables this option.

Cliffhanger

When Steve slips and falls unconscious, ending the level.

Story Outline

Level 1 | Intro

Hunt

A misty morning. Hungry is sneaking through the bushes of the forest. Suddenly a howl can be heard, and she starts running. She meets up with a pack of wolves running after a deer, lead by a large dark-gray wolf. The wolf starts to close the distance, and Hungry runs through the pack, trying to catch up. She wants to be at the front to help take down the deer. Suddenly she trips, distracting the gray wolf and startling the deer. It jumps into the wolf, causing him to fall, and darts away. Both Hungry and the wolf get up as the rest of the pack catches up. He growls and scares Hungry away.

Arrival at the cabin

Steve is driving through the forest. Suddenly his car stalls and the rolls to a stop. Slightly panicking he gets out and, grabbing onto the door, he starts pushing. As he pushes he notices a hitchhiker at the side of the road, a hippie type guy. They have a conversation and the hitchhiker helps to push the car. After building up some speed Steve gets in the car and turns the ignition, which gets the engine started. He breaks and lets the hitchhiker get in the car, who gets out at the next town, but he drops a pack of matches in the car. Steve puts them in his pocket and drives on.

He arrives at the cabin as the sun sets, and parks the car. He walks over to the cabin and unlocks the door. After going back to the car to get a few of the boxes he enters the room and places the boxes on the bed. He choughs from the dust that is blown into the air. He opens one of the boxes and it contains a 1980 personal computer. Another box contains cans of food.

Hungry Hungry

Hungry is walking through the woods. She spots a rabbit. Sneaking, she closes the distance, until she steps on a twig. The rabbit darts away. Hungry chases, but it jumps down a rabbit hole. Hungry starts digging, but to no avail.

Fixing the power

Night. Steve plugs in his computer and tries to turn it on. Nothing happens. He goes outside to find a power cabinet and finds it under a pile of branches. He opens it and water pours out. Must have not been sealed properly and rain got inside. He hooks up some wires to his car and uses it as a generator to power the pc. As he goes inside he sighs, turns on the computer and, illuminated by the screen of a monitor, starts typing.

Level 2 | Meetings

Hungry finds the cabin

Morning. Hungry goes towards the sound of a car engine. She finds and open cabin and sneaks inside to find food. There she can smell the scent of meat and goes into the pantry. The meat is on a high shelf. She attempts to stand against a wall to reach it, but can’t. She is able to knock over a lower shelve. Using it as a ramp she knocks down the meat and starts eating.

Steve finds Hungry

A beautiful morning. Steve wakes up, turns on the coffee machine and goes to the outhouse to pee, but the door is stuck. He walks past the car, still full of groceries, and picks up a stick to lever the door open with.

After doing his business he goes back inside and takes a sip. A loud, chewing sound can be heard from the pantry. He sees a large beast eating whatever meat is in the pantry and runs outside, closing the door behind him.

He takes some time to collect his thought and comes up with a plan: put a piece of meat from the car on a stick and lure the wolf outside.

Hungry’s great escape

Hungry hears a loud screaming and the door being slammed shut. She panics and starts running around. She knocks over a lot of things, lamps, chairs, Steve’s computer… She needs to escape. Finally she rips down the curtains and picks them up, trying to destroy the window and escape through it. As she breaks the glass in the window. As she gnaws at the wooden frame the door slowly opens and meat is dangled from a stick. Hungry follows it to see Steve in his car with a stick out the window. The meat drops. She eats it and sits there. Steve honks and scares Hungry away.

level 3 | Conflict

Attila

It’s dark, raining. Suddenly he hears a crashing sound outside. As he opens the door to investigate Hungry runs in. Steve panics again but is interrupted by a loud roar; Attila, the massive bear, towering above him. Swiftly Steve closes and locks the door. Attila starts banging against the door, shaking the cabin, causing the satellite dish to fall on Attila’s head making him move away. Then he moves to the windows and shatters one, getting cut in the process. This makes him finally stop his assault.

Hungry and Steve are sitting at opposite corners of the room, following the sound of Attila walking around the cabin. She looks at Steve and approaches him. Steve cowers trying to defend himself. Hungry stops for a moment and walks to the pantry. She knocks over a few cans and takes one. She places it down in front of Steve. Steve, holding a rolled-up newspaper, just looks confused. Attila roars in the distance. Lightning strikes and thunder rolls. All very dramatic.

Dozens of empty cans

Daytime, the rain is getting worse. Dozens of empty cans are stacked up on the floor. Hungry is lying on the bed while Steve is attaching some wires behind his computer. He lets out a sigh of relief as it turns on. Finally he can get in touch with someone to help him get rid of Attila and Hungry. Sadly, he can’t connect to the network. He looks outside and sees the antenna dish half buried in mud. Slowly he grabs a can of meat, opens it and waves it in front of hungry’s nose. She wakes up and immediately locates the can. Steve points it at the door and Hungry whimpers. Time to see if Attila is still outside.

Communication

The cabin door opens and Hungry sprints outside, sliding through the mud. She looks around, Attila nowhere to be seen. Scratches can be seen on the outside of the door, and the car is badly damaged. Hungry runs along the perimeter checking for a trail or scent, but the rain is making it hard to see. She spots a trail of broken branches and follows it to a ravine. Attila must be down there somewhere.

As Hungry goes into the ravine, over some slippery rocks, she spots a cave. As she gets close she can hear Attila breathing loudly. Sneaking closer towards the sound she sees him, sleeping. Suddenly Attila wakes up, sniffing the air. Hungry runs outside, Attila roaring behind her. She sprints for the rocks and jumps up. Attila exits the cave and tries to chase her, but can’t make it up the cliff. Hungry continues to climb and hurries back to the cabin.

Steve slowly inches from behind the door and grabs the satellite dish. Now he needs to figure out a way to get on the roof… He gets in the car, takes a moment to enjoy not getting rained on, and tries to start it up, but nothing happens. He puts in neutral and pushes it up to the cabin, onto the concrete base. As he gets on the car, holding the satellite dish he is almost blown off. The wind is really picking up now. Slowly he climbs onto the edge of the roof and starts crawling towards the dish mounting point. Suddenly he sips and falls off of the roof. He hits the concrete patio and falls unconscious.

Level 4 | Kaput

Hungry finds Steve

Storm has passed. Hungry comes out of the trees and spots Steve face-down in the mud. She drags his body to the cabin door but it’s stuck. She can get in through the broken window and sees that the storm caused a roof beam to drop and block the door. She climbs back outside, spots the open car door, and drags Steve into it.

Waking up

Steve wakes up half inside the car, getting hit with a can on his head. Hungry is standing over him, panting. She moves away as Steve tries to get up, covered in cans, when suddenly he screams and drops back onto the back seat. His leg is bent the wrong way. He gets up, leaning on the car roof, and sees Hungry jump out of the cabin window carrying a can opener in her mouth. Steve takes it and opens a can with ‘meat’ on the label from the car and puts it down on the floor. Hungry starts eating.

Steve takes a first aid kit from the car and gathers some sticks. He bandages and spalks his knee, and tries to open the door to the cabin. Still blocked. Suddenly a roar can be heard not-far-enough away. Steve quickly turns around, but can’t see any movement. Hungry starts growling and takes up a defensive position in front of the window. Steve quickly and painfully hoists himself inside, followed by hungry. He takes the couch and blocks off the window. He assesses his situation: no communications, no car, leg’s broken and there’s a bear somewhere outside. He lies down on his bed, still covered in mud. He should take a shower. One thing’s for sure, they won’t be safe until Attila is taken care of. They need to trap him somehow.

Level 5 | Fire

Preparations

A day later, sunny afternoon. Hungry is looking at Steve through the opening of the doorway. He’s busy emptying the cans of meat on the floor. Then he hands her a spool of wire, which she unrolls as the goes outside, behind a bush. She suddenly takes an attentive pose as she hears rustling in the bushes not far away. She runs back to the cabin.

Steve pulls the cable through the window and attaches it to the doorknob. He pulls it to confirm that the door can be closed. Suddenly he hears howling. Limping outside he sees hungry running towards him. Attila is close. He quickly move unblock the window and opens the door completely, letting the smell of the meat get out of the cabin. Limping as fast as he can he follows Hungry to the end of the wire and they lie down, waiting.

Night. Steve is leaning up against a tree. Hungry wakes up from a nap. She’s getting hungry. She sniffs and gets up to walk towards the cabin. Steve gets up and tries to stop her but he isn’t fast enough. He shouts for her to get back, which makes hungry stop. She turns around to see Attila behind Steve. Attila roars, which makes Steve fall down. Hungry Sprints to over to him and attacks Attila, with little effect. It, however, gives Steve enough time to get away from the fight. His leg causes him to trip and he sees Hungry getting knocked to the ground. She doesn’t get up. Attila starts moving towards Steve, who lies there. He plays dead. Attila gets close to smell Steve, but the smell from the meat in the cabin is too distracting for him. He walks inside. Steve drags himself over to the wire and uses it to close the door behind Attila, now trapped inside the cabin.

Fire: fire (fire)

Steve limps over to Hungry, who is wounded badly. She appears dead. Steve cries. He puts her down and walks over to his car, next to the cabin, and takes a fuel cannister from the trunk and matches from is jacket pocket. He pours it around the cabin and lights it on fire, Attila still inside, eating. It does up in flames. Steve quickly tries to get to Hungry’s body, and carry it away, and Attila can be heard roaring inside the cabin. The fire reaches the car and it explodes, burning anything close. Attila succumbs to the flames, and Steve limps away, holding Hungry in his arms. He walks along a road until a car that was going towards the smoke reaches him.

Level 6 | Conclusion

Return

Steve walks up to the remains of the cabin. He spots the shell of his computer, the springs of a sofa and the metal remnants of cans. His leg is in a brace. He sit down. Hungry comes up to him, exited. He pats her on the head and together they walk on.

Interactive Plot Structure

Parallel Structure

‘Showing the same events from differing perspectives.’ I use this not by showing the exact same events for both protagonists, but mostly by overlapping the starts and ends of each change in perspective, and letting the events happen chronologically.

Also this structure is useful, I find, for building tension: by having one character suddenly charge into the other’s situation and explaining what happened previously only after the situation plays out, from the other character’s perspective.

Gameplay-wise the player might be free to switch protagonists at will, and the time would dictate which scenes he would play. For example, the player might play the entire game from either Steve or Hungry’s perspective, only getting part of the story, or switch between them. In case of the “Communications” level the player could be Hungry and go look for Attila, only to get back and find an unconscious Steve. On a second playthrough the player might play as Steve and witness the fall, followed up by waking up in the car, and having the knowledge that Hungry dragged him in there..

Chronological events, based on character perspective:

Script

Steve vs many broken things

FADE IN:

INT. CABIN - DAY

(INTERACTIVE CUT-SCENE) A dozen empty cans are stacked up on the floor. The labels read “SPAM - PREMIUM CANNED MEAT”. HUNGRY is lying on the bed while STEVE is sitting at his desk. (CAMERA CASE - GOING OVER THE DESK) On the desk is a computer manual and a book titled “Pest Extermination”. His computer is dismantled in front of him. He’s inserting a few wires into the back IO panel.

(Quietly talking to himself)

STEVE

Oh come on. Please work.

He gets an electric shock.

(Raising voice)

STEVE

Damn it!

Steve continues to plug wires in. Another shock, followed by the computer turning on.

STEVE

Ow ya bastard! Ahah, hey hey, it’s working!

(small chuckle)

Steve looks over happily to HUNGRY, who’s fast asleep. The screen slowly fades in some text. It reads:

ATTEMPTING TO CONNECT TO SERVER:
HAPPY COOKIES INC.

…

… CONNECTION FAILED
NO NETWORK PORT AVAILABLE

PLEASE CONTACT A NETWORK ADMINISTRATOR

(Disbelief, worry)

STEVE

What? Nonono come on don’t do this to me.

(GAMEPLAY) Steve leans over to get to the back of the computer. The network cable is connected. He stands up and follows it to the wall, where it runs next to a window to the roof. Looking through the window he notices the satellite dish half buried in mud.

STEVE

… Fuck.

Slowly he grabs a can of meat from the pile on the floor and waves it in front of HUNGRY’s nose. She wakes up and immediately locates the can. STEVE points it at the door.

(Interactive cutscene - Dialog options)

STEVE

I need to go outside, and you are coming with me. Outside. Come on, follow. Come on.

HUNGRY

(whimper)

(SCRIPTED EVENT) STEVE walk over to the door and knocks the can against it, making a metallic noise.

STEVE

Come on. I’ll give ya some meat.

HUNGRY

(Excited panting)

HUNGRY gets up from the bed and join STEVE at the door.

(Loud voice)

STEVE

Alright! 3 2 1 go!

He opens the door and throws the can outside. HUNGRY darts after it. STEVE calmly puts on his coat and follows HUNGRY into the rain.

EXT, CABIN - DAY, HEAVY RAIN

He walks over to the satellite dish through the mud and pulls it out. Then STEVE looks up to the roof. (CAMERA CASE - SATELLITE DISH & ROOF)

STEVE

Now how did you get down here, eh buddy?

STEVE walks over to the car and gets in the driver seat, placing the satellite dish on the seat next to him. He takes a moment to enjoy not being rained on and turns the ignition. Nothing happens.

(Frustrated)

STEVE

Oh dear God why does everything keep breaking on me.

STEVE then tries to turn on the radio. It makes a buzzing noise.

STEVE

Looks like the battery still got some juice left.

He tunes the radio and manages to get some fragments of a weather report.

(Heavy Interference, static)

RADIO

… heavy rain …dvice to stay …nside… nger of being flooded, so pr…

(Forecast predicts heavy rains coming from the south, and we advise you to stay inside. Several town are in danger of being flooded, so prepare accordingly)

STEVE turns the radio off. He gets out of the car and pushes it up to the cabin, his feet digging into the mud. He grabs the satellite dish and climbs on top of the car. Standing up he gets hit by a gust of wind and he struggles to stay upright. He covers his face against the rain. Climbing onto the roof, dish in hand, he continues, crawling. (SCRIPTED EVENT) At the top he tries to stand up, but lifting the dish he slips and falls, hitting the concrete patio and falling unconscious.