Idea Birth Announces New Investigative Mystery Game, Flames of Redfield
Idea Birth is proud to announce that it will begin development of Flames of Redfield. The game will be an investigative mystery first person shooter, taking elements of successful games such as Condemned and Grand Theft Auto. By adding a large emphasis on the psychological aspect video games, Flames of Redfield promises to -- if anything -- deliver an experience that will immerse the player in the depths of a murder mystery. Flames of Redfield will be released in December 21, 2012.
Flames of Redfield is a sandbox-style mystery first person shooter video game with role-playing elements developed by Idea Birth. The game takes place in the fictional town of Redfield in the late 1990's and follows an unnamed protagonist as he unravels clues to discover who murdered his wife, Miranda.
The premise of the game is to combine the positive aspects of various games to create a mystery genre video game. In order to do so, great detail must be paid to the storyline and the characters. Both must be equally believable and both highly fascinating. Believability will be maintained by creating psychological profiles of all characters, and through continually rewriting the script and biographies of characters. Characters should act naturally. Making the game fascinating will take not only believability, but immersion and re-playability. Each character should be unique and should drive the story forward with every time the player interacts with them. Immersion includes not only giving the player a large city as a sandbox, but giving them characters within that sandbox that they want to interact with.
Graphically, the game allows the player to feel as though the world is fluid to them. The graphics should give the player the feeling that they already know the city and the environment. The city layout is friendly to beginners, but will contain Easter eggs, secret locations, and etc. to allow experts to feel as though there is always something new to explore. Here is where the idea presented in "Left 4 Dead" comes in: random placement of characters, dialogue, and etc. give re-playability to the game while immersing the player in a game that requires them to always pay attention.
Another way to provide immersion into the game is yet another idea borrowed from "Left 4 Dead": custom music that fits the player's situation. The music track should follow the player, not the other way around (i.e. making the music force the player to do an action). In this way, the player feels as though they are driving the game -- the player can take what ever strategy they want.
In essence, the game will create an environment that makes the player feel as though they are the protagonist: from the moment our beloved Miranda is killed, to the moment we take revenge upon the killer, we feel the protagonist's emotions and thoughts. We are the protagonist (I cannot stress it enough).
In summary, the protagonist's wife is killed, causing him to go out for revenge. Different endings and outcomes occur due to the player's actions and the amount of evidence s/he collects, all within an impressive sandbox that changes with the player.
Here are a few screenshots from the prototype for the game that was created in about a week to demonstrate the Irrlicht Engine:
![Image](http://i50.tinypic.com/296lwdz.jpg)
![Image](http://i47.tinypic.com/5btp8z.jpg)
![Image](http://i50.tinypic.com/1raxzc.jpg)
![Image](http://i46.tinypic.com/ym2o1.jpg)
To keep updated on the development of this game, check out our blog at: http://flamesofredfield.blogspot.com/.
If you would like to contribute to the development of the game, check out our open development page at: http://flamesofredfield.wikispaces.com/