Two worlds.

In my previous post I talked about my idea for a little bit. Now for some more information about the whole game.

This game is about children who are in the hospital because of an illness of some kind. However, this game is not about ill children. It's about fantasy, children's ability to conjure up worlds and the game is also about escapism.

The reason I wanted to use a hospital environment with children for this game is:

1:
I have experience with being ill.

2:
Children have the imaginative capabillity to come up with everything.
I used to do some kind of imaginary stuff with my brother. Turning my little room into a space ship by using whatever technical stuff we could find. Gameboys, radiostations, keyboards. You name it!

3:
A hospital setting is a great excuse to combine with a science fiction world because of all the medical equipment and machinery. Lots of cool design posibilities.

4:
Sick people have a reason to want to escape to something else even though they know they can't really go anywhere. (a imaginary place seems like the right place to go)

I could have made a game with for example homeless people imagining a fantasy world for them to go into but that would change the entire world design-wise as well as story-wise. 

So the goal is. To create a science fiction world based on everything there is to find in a hospital. Think, beds, ctscans, a cantine, balloons, get well soon cards, heartmonitors, surgery equipment, you name it.

But ok. I have designed out this world. But what can players actually do?
The game will be a multiplayer visual novel, probably for 3 players. So it's just like a comic book. Only the players get to make choices that alter the storyline.

The game will take place both in the real world (the hospital) and the imagined world. The children (players) want to escape to that world and they would like to stay their. But in the fantasy world there are often reminders that they are still in the hospital. For example. The players enter a restaurant in the imagined world. And they get to choose from a huge menu. After they made their choices they all get the same hospital meal, to remind them that they are still in the hospital and they don't really have a choice.

Players ordering some food. They'll find out they don't really have a choice.

So the game will often change between worlds depending on the player's choices.
Some things are inevitable, like one of the kids needs to undergo a surgery. Or one of the kids can leave the hospital. Both can have a big impact on the fantasy world. Even though one of the kids can go home. The other ones will be left without him.

Players are able to make individual choices. And some choices will be made as a group. Choices the players make will alter the rest of the story.

All of the things in the world are based on things to be found in a hospital. This environment is based on some medical equipment.