Game Mechanics

Brief
The aim when designing Castle Briar's game play is to stress the importance of the characters hierarchy, as well as the player's own as the king. Through the threat bar and misinformation, it is intended to induce a feeling of paranoia in regards to the npcs.

Start State
Firstly, the player chooses their difficulty setting. This will change the starting narrative of that game.

Easy = you begin as a new king, young and previously removed from politics. As such your subjects have no real opinions towards you.

Hard = you begin as a new king who has already voiced opinions against a single random faction (e.g. the army), they are already against you.

Extreme = you begin as a new king with negative outspoken opinions on every point, and as such every faction is beginning to turn against you.

Game play
Game play is broken up into 4 stages, forming a single cycle or "day" of in-game time.

 Tree Menu 

The hierarchy tree (or "Tree Menu") is shown at the beginning to present the player with the most up-to-date information to inform their decisions later in the cycle. The relevant npcs are presented in the style of portraits on a family tree, showing who is connected to who, and the hierarchy of subordination. Next to these portraits is a 5 star rating of their public reputation, and the faction they belong to is designated by a coloured border e.g. Green represents all clergymen. Hovering over them reveals a bullet point list of information that may have been discovered about that npc during the investigation and event period. These list is automatically updated. The threat bar is shown at the top of the screen to indicate how close a murder plot is to succession.

 Investigation 

After reviewing the gathered information, an npc can be chosen to investigate further, and the information learnt will be added to the character information for the player to decide what is relevant.

 Event 

A random event will occur in which the king is presented with a scenario they must respond to, in the form of 2 - 3 choices. Through the event, choice chosen and npc reactions the player will learn information about an npc which is added to their personal list for review at the beginning of the next cycle. Some events may chain from certain choices, or by certain game states e.g. difficulty setting.

''' Execute? '''

After these events the player is returned to the hierarchy tree with the choice to A) choose an npc to execute for treason, or B) Withhold an execution to continue investigating, after which the next day cycle will begin. Both responses will trigger an npc response further detailed in Additional Information. If an execution takes place npcs will be promoted to take their place, and new ones added.

Additional Information
NPC Responses: In relation to the conspiracies, npcs will be given one of three designations - A) The leader of a murder plot B) Conspirator of a plot or C) Innocent bystander. These npc roles will not be shared with the player and are subject to change depending on the game’s progression.

If A, conspirators may rise to take place as leader, or disband depending on threat level. The threat bar will decrease significantly now that the ringleader has been removed. If B, no npc reaction is taken, however the leader remains free to increase success likelihood of the plot, and the threat bar will remain the same level. If C occurs often enough, npcs of close relation may form a plot and become conspirators. Furthermore, any active plots that have not been prevented will continue to creep closer to success, and will be reflected as such on the threat bar.

When killed, npcs directly below them will be “promoted” (Similar to Shadow of Mordor’s use of the orc army) to replace them. New npcs will be generated to fill the gaps created at the bottom of the hierarchy as well, so as to ensure there is always a full tree with new characters.

Hierarchy: Npcs are shown to the player on a hierarchy tree, detailing how certain characters relate to each other as well as their level of influence in the kingdom. Influence is demonstrated by their height on the hierarchy tree. The opinions of npcs above will affect those directly below them e.g. a plot leader may coerce innocents into becoming conspirators, or those who are simply unhappy with the king's rulings may cause unrest below them. If the top of the hierarchy holds the same faction, there is a higher chance of becoming a puppet king. Other factions will also become unhappy by this distribution of power e.g. If the church holds all the higher positions, the army becomes dissatisfied.

Puppet King: If someone gains higher influence over you (represented as above you on hierarchy) you become a puppet king and certain event choices may be chosen for you. Due to their power over you. There are harsh consequences of public opinion if they were killed outright. To be free of their control the player must destabilise the foundation by removing their supporters first to remove their influence.

Game Values
The king's standing in the kingdom, and the npc are measured by the following values:
 * Threat bar - This measures the increased likelihood of a murder plot succeeding, which would induce a fail state once full. This instates a mental time limit that does not adhere to real time, and may increase or decrease drastically between cycles, creating a sense of unpredictability and increasing the player’s paranoia and sense of urgency for drastic action. Once the bar reaches 3/4 full, an npc must be killed each cycle and random npc's information will be false, reflecting the king's irrationality.
 * Reputation and Public Standing - This demonstrates how much a character is liked by the public. those with higher reputation will be harder to kill through execution, and may have to be undermined beforehand.
 * Influence - This shows how much power a character has over their subordinates, and is reflected by how far up the hierarchy tree they are positioned.
 * Npc information - Each character on the hierarchy tree has information gathered on them in a short bullet point format that can be accessed by hovering over that character's portrait. This is automatically updated every cycle, as more information is learned through investigation or that character's reactions to events that may occur during game play. This is then used by the player to determine whether that character is involved in a conspiracy.

End State
Castle Briar has no defined end state, as it is intended to have continuous game play, as the goal is to stay alive for as many days as possible. If the king is killed through a successful murder plot, it is considered a game over. At the end a list of figures are revealed to the player, detailing how many days the king survived for, how many murder plots were foiled, and how many of those killed were conspiracy leaders, collaborators or innocents.

Controls
Initially released for PC, Castle Briar plays as a standard point and click game. Information is given by hovering over sections or right-clicking them. It can also be played using the keyboard for the standard actions of navigating and selecting.

This can be converted to standard console devices with the joystick and specific buttons.

Written By
Neve O’Neill, 1700988