Phase Three

Idea 2 -

Loggers and Lawyers

General Idea:

Loggers and Lawyers would be a game which looks into and exposes greedy businesses for what they are. The overall feeling of the game is meant to be over the top, comedic and exaggerated to stress a state of ridiculousness. The game will place the player in the position of a branch manager of a logging corporation, they are in charge of how the money they make is spent. Money is earned every time a tree is cut down and can be used to hire loggers to cut down more trees quicker, upgrade workers and machinery so that they are more efficient, and hire lawyers to cover up any mistakes the player may make. This idea is meant to express how large corporations value their employees as a statistic rather than an individual, and the malpractices that shady corporations use are shown to the player through the use of lawyers which are used to perform unethical tasks.

Gameplay:

For the most part the game is meant to unravel and play itself, developing as time goes by. In the background AI will move from one side of the screen and stop every time they encounter a tree, as the edge of the forest they are cutting down is pushed back, the screen will move to follow them. The overall experience will be for the player to witness carnage which would erupt through random encounters, ridiculous upgrades and shady business decisions. However, the interactions of the player come through management. The player will be able to spend money they earn to spawn in a new character to come onto the screen and do their duty. Loggers will earn revenue but are subject to accidents, and lawyers are a one-time payment used to cover accidents up. The way I envision the game is for the loggers to have a 1/20 chance of injuring themselves every time they fell a tree, if they do, the lawyers will have to be purchased to go bribe or "take care" of the employee. By having this as a main mechanic in the game, I hope it will dehumanise the employees and in an over the top manner express to the players that this is a reality, employees are often only assigned value in top tier organisations if they are profitable. Below you will find a diagram I made which shows how the game may look. In this iteration, the screen is divided into two, on the top half of the screen the player will see the workers constantly doing their job. On the bottom screen, the player will be able to select files on their desk which would allow them to choose whom to hire and what they can or cannot do, in a way which doesn't require an intrusive HUD, and maintains immersion. This is only an initial design of how the game would look and is subject to changes and variations.

Mechanic - Upgrades and purchases:

Upgrades will take time for the player to build to, but essentially speed up productivity, efficiency and the pace of the employees in-game. As time goes by, the more upgrades that are purchased the more ridiculous and sped up the game will become.

For example: Upgrade the loggers from fists to having axes, to then having chainsaws, and finally upgrading them to have flame throwers.

This upgrade would affect the visuals of the game as the avatars of the AI would change [see above] but it would also make the game more chaotic and difficult for the player to manage, however it will also give the player what they are after, profit within the game at a faster pace.

Special Events:

Special events will be used to dramatise the effect the loggers are having on the forest they are felling. This will require the player to save up enough currency in order to quickly deforest an area. This special event will give a bonus of sorts to the player (i.e. make it even quicker for the loggers to cut down trees) but will also provide an over the top visual as well.

For example, the player can save up enough money to buy a napalm strike on a large chunk of the forest. This would aim to vilify big businesses and the practices they use in over the top fashion. In-game it would quickly destroy part of the forest and weaken what remains for a certain distant thereafter. Ultimately it may have certain downsides though, for instance, certain loggers within the players business may be killed in special events, which would hopefully add further to the atmosphere of the game that employees are often disregarded and a second thought.

Random Events:

Furthermore, I also thought random events could help keep the player engaged. These events might come in the forms of protestors or police investigations into the actions of the player and would require lawyers, bribes or violence in order to be taken care of.

End state:

Currently, I am unsure what the endstate of the game would be. I am still developing different ideas, such as below, but I am not convinced if the game should ever end. Like cookie-clicker-Esq games, I am unsure if an end is required, or if the player should eventually give up, with the message of the game clear throughout. Regardless, a few endings I have thought of are as follows:

The player completely destroys the landscape, but they carry on going, punching little shrubs and twigs even when barely anything is left. This would be fairly comical, unnecessary and ridiculous but hopefully would express that corporations often carry on working towards a profit no matter what.
The player completely deforests the world and the employees are sent to the moon to break it and gather its resources. This was a pretty stupid idea of mine, but at the same time, I think it fits in with the message that corporations won't stop at anything.
The player dies. Once every tree is cut down the player, the employees and the whole world die due to a lack of oxygen. This would hopefully relate to modern-day protests that deforestation is essentially slicing down the lungs of our planet. This ending would essentially have an over the top, greedy and self-centred business that the player controls, lose at the end due to their chaotic and unethical actions.