Hard-Boiled: Rebirthed

Here's some mock-ups of how I'd like to re-imagine "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" as an art game. If I'm lucky I can get this to be prototyped either as the next assignment or on my own. We'll see.

Hard-Boiled: Autopsy Report

Taking me way too long to get stuff written for this essay so here's some notes that are supposed to help me write it. Got a long way to go.

Novel Elements [I've probably missed the point on these so feel free to correct me]
- parallel stories which are interlinked
- alternate chapters
- unnamed protagonist (is the reader projected onto this character?)
- Indirect/Atypical approach to hero's journey

Core concepts of novel
- Identity
- Self (mind?)
- Use of conscious & subconscious mind

Story breakdowns:

Hard-Boiled Wonderland
Hero:
Unnamed Protagonist

Job/Special Skills:
Calcutec, human data encryption device

Setting:
Retro-futuristic Tokyo

Common item:
Unicorn skull as prop

Love interest:
Librarian as love interest

Guide/Mentor:
Guidance from old scientist and granddaughter

Enemies:
- Semiotics & Factory
- System
- INKlings
- Thugs (Junior & Big Boy)

Goal:
- Solve mystery surrounding current assignment (?)
- Not get killed (assumed goal)

Are the narratives linked: Unaware of existence of other until revealed to protagonist

The End of the World
Hero:
Unnamed Protagonist

Job/Special Skills:
Dreamreader, reads dreams from unicorn skulls

Setting:
Isolated walled town

Common Item:
- Unicorns, part of town
- Unicorn skulls part of 'dream reading'

Love Interest:
Librarian who main character forms relationship with

Guide/Mentor:
- Shadow (Provides objectives)
- Gatekeeper (Gives character job)

Enemies:
- Shadow (does provide conflict)
- Gatekeeper (enforces Town rules)
- Time (period of time to complete objectives)
- Woods & Woodfolk

Goal:
- Escape from Town(Shadow's goal)
- Find out about Town (Narrator)
- Keep grasp of mind (Narrator)

Linked to other narrative:
- Cannot remember past life (other self)
- At times memories from concious self make protagonist more aware

Game Design
This is just some notes on if I think the game is or isn't resistant to becoming a game.

Pros
- Interesting story & concepts
- Mixture of genres
- Exciting world(s)
- Subtle clues/links between stories
- Locations inspiring
- Potential for themes/concepts be explored in game
- Follows Campbell's hero's journey
- Atypical narrative
- Player/reader free to decide how story is told/read
- Can have replay value (dependant on point above)
- Games with similar themes have been made

Cons
- Story can be confusing
- Alternate stories quite different
- World(s) too unfamiliar to player
- Difficult to tie together graphically
- Links need to be made by reader/player
- Hard to explain
- Reader can't relate to characters (debatable)
- Ending up to reader's interpretation
- Ties to hero's journey not clear (atypical)
- Goals unclear
- Can't "win" game
- Replayable?
- Fun?
- Novel targets particular audience (intellectual)

Hard-Boiled - Witness Statements

It takes me ten minutes to explain the plot of Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. It takes this guy about 1 minute to do it.



Via Tv Tropes,we have a list of elements that are in the novel. [Contains spoilers]

• Big Eater: The librarian in Hard Boiled Wonderland is a thin woman who seems to always be hungry.


• Cyberpunk: Hard-Boiled Wonderland


• Downer Ending


• Empty Shell: The citizens of the town at the End of the World are basically this, and it is implied that the narrator will become like this once his shadow dies and he is fully assimilated into the town.


• Epiphanic Prison: The End of the World (To escape the prison set out by the story, the character has to have a moment of realisation(epiphany))


• Fate Worse Than Death: What will happen to the narrator at the end after his mind self-destructs.


• Identity Amnesia: The narrator of The End of the World can't remember anything about himself before coming to the town.


• Living Shadow: The narrator of The End of the World has been seperated from his shadow, which seems to have a mind of its own and which desires to get inside the town so that it can reunite with him.


• Loss Of Identity: A major theme


• Mind Screw (You're going to be thinking Mind Fuck while they mean use of heavy symbolism)


• Nameless Narrative: None of the characters in the book have names.


• Neuro Vault: The protagonist of Hard-Boiled Wonderland has top secret data hidden inside his subconscious to prevent the anti-government Semiotecs from getting at it.


• Ontological Mystery (Here they mean characters in a story who have no idea to their identity, purpose and are in a restricted environment.)


• Those Two Bad Guys: Two thugs show up at the narrator's home in Hard-Boiled Wonderland and trash it, but their purpose is unknown.


• Two Lines No Waiting (Two narrative threads that are interwoven)


• Unicorn: At the End of the World, there are beasts living outside the town that are described as unicorns, although they are quite different than the traditional description. The narrator uses their skulls for "dreamreading". The narrator of Hard-Boiled Wonderland also encounters a unicorn skull at one point.

Hard-Boiled: Mugshots 1

Here's some rough sketches of some art based off Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. Nothing concrete yet but some nicer(clearer) concept art is coming.



[That ought to be a unicorn skull but I haven't gone for accurate references yet. Sorry, at this point, if it looks like a skull, it's enough.]

Hard-Boiled - Trailing the Suspect

We're moving further into the swamp, luckily we've remembered to pack a torch. After some conferring with Truna and friends, I've decided to write about turning Haruki Murakami's novel Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World into a game.

Let's profile the subject.

Author: Haruki Murakami

Date: 1985, the English version was first published in 1991

Background: (Speculative fiction) Novel that mixes genres of hard-boiled detectives, cyberpunk, pop culture and the works of Kafka.

Themes:
- Identity
- Consciousness and subconsciousness
- Nature of the human mind

Presentation of Themes:
Uses two parallel stories as an allegory for discussing the themes. The stories are connected through the use of unicorn skulls as a reoccurring item. The stories are presented in alternating chapters.

Plot:
The novel is split between two stories, "Hard-Boiled Wonderland" and "The End of the World". [It's one of those books that requires 10 minutes of explanation.]

Hard-Boiled Wonderland:
A detective novel set in a technomagically realistic Tokyo. The main character is a Calcutec, a human encryption device, who works for The System which is a organisation that keeps information safe. His life becomes complicated when an assignment leads him to using advanced (and forbidden) techniques to store information using his subconscious. More problems occur when he finds out that he may have been part of a experiment involving his brain.

The End of the World:
Set in a walled village where no one leaves and unicorns come to die. The protagonist is unaware of how he came to the village but to avoid dying in the harsh approaching winter, he agrees to become a villager and have his shadow separated. He is then given the job of Dreamreader which invertantly removes memories in the village. The man's shadow tries to convince him that they must escape and the main character has to make the ultimate choice.

Style:
I would talk abou the style of the work but there's only so much you can say that isn't this or that. Words like

Connections:
What does the work make YOU think of?

-Everyday the Same Dream
-Don't Look Back
-Today I Die
-ICO
-Flower, Sun and Rain
-Hotel Dusk
-Rule of Rose
-Daymare Town series