first pass script

this was the first shot i took at how i might structure the animatic / storyboard playover, with narration and animatic cues.

Black screen.

I have this idea for a game. I’d call it “Spunk.”

Really sappy music (*theme*) playing over black screen, opening to text: “I woke up at 6:22 AM. It was before my alarm went off. I couldn’t stay asleep, because today was the day I was going away.”

Well, it’s the story of … Zetsubou. It’s not about him as much as the people he meets, though. Zetsubou is… just a regular guy. There’s nothing to his character. That’s why it isn’t about him.

“My mom and dad are really supportive of my problem, but they worry too much. They think I have no friends. Maybe I don’t, but I don’t need friends. I’m really not like other kids.” Zetsubou is finally shown riding in the back seat of a Mazda minivan, between the shoulders of his parents. He looks out window at ‘I don’t need friends.’ He looks at his phone and cut to phone contact list, only his mom and dad and grandma are listed in his contacts.

The player is Zetsubou. And the game isn’t about the player.

Zetsubou walking with dad and mom onto school grounds, small processional clip as they are passed by various students, Zetsubou outright ignores them, carrying his things along. Credits are rolling now (under the guise of gameplay footage) as some arbitrary shots of Zetsubou & family walking along school grounds and passing glimpses of each integral character in passing. He reaches his room.

The only thing about Zetsubou is he has Asperger’s. He can’t read facial expressions at all, or body language. Um. He takes everything at face value. That’s why he’s at reform school. Not because he has Asperger’s, but because he doesn’t interact with people. His parents are worried about him. The reform school forces him to meet new people because… that’s the point of the game. You don’t get any say, so it’s not like it matters anyway.

Typically, what is a ‘enter name, pick gender, etc’ kind of screen just has some information about Zetsubou and some arrow buttons like you should be able to change it, cursor moves around screen and clicks the arrows, but they don’t do anything. Cursor hits next button finally, from “forces him to…” to “matters anyway”.

Sprawling, decrepit campus. Overwhelmingly squat horizontal building shapes. Quick cuts to random scenes in the school, Zetsubou being shunted in the halls by weird-looking people, Zetsubou drinking from a water fountain cautiously, Zetsubou standing in a prayer circle in an awkward classroom. Then cut to Zetsubou’s boring dorm room, looking out window at courtyard from dreary window where twins menace somebody with a skateboard.

So… at reform school… it’s very religious. Officially, the school is something like the Arkansas State Reformatory, and they’re southern Baptist. You go to classes sometimes? Wait. When you first get there, you’re like… in your room. It’s almost like, a vision of your community college experience, if you lived in a bomb shelter the rest of the time that happened to be located within campus for some reason.

Zetsubou grimacing in profile, cut to shot of him across the desk from Ms. Wolkov.

And… you meet… well, first you meet the principle of the school, who’s a total bondage queen in disguise. Ms. Wolkov. Who… she wears a normal woman’s business suit… and a full dominatrix suit underneath. But you don’t get to see that until you progress to a point in your relationship with her… if you choose that.

Wolkov character practically oozing out of clothes at Zetsubou over her drab desk, slapping a cat o’nine tails. Because she only deals with you if you skip a lot of classes or slack off. ‘Day by day’ menu options, on what to have character do in the day + stats, cursor selecting ‘play hooky’; show Zetsubou standing boredly in cafeteria, he looks left & right and sees identical cafeteria lanes with slightly differing lengths of lines coming out of people. One is Little Italy and the other is Comfort Zone.

Long shot of Zetsubou standing in line for Comfort Zone with an unchanging expressionlessness. Or going to lunch. You get to pick whether you eat from cafeteria line 1 or 2. You have to literally wait in each line, so it’s a real gamble. Realtime gamble. But it’s cool, that’s how you meet other people. Zetsubou has slop plopped onto a tray at last sentence and grimaces up at lunchlady, who makes a flirtatious scowl at him and he sighs and walks away.

Zetsubou looking at rows of tables, text choice “Where should I sit? – the back table – the center table – the front table” observing that Matilda sits at the back, Brian and Doria and Stef and Lucretia eat here. The front table is empty. Zetsubou chooses back table, and sits down across from Matilda, hidden by a stack of manga novels.

You can pick where you sit to eat your slop. So that determines who you meet. Say you sit in the back at the unwashed table, where Matilda sits. Anime girl. Like, literally, otaku actually. Right? You can spend a lot of time watching anime with her if you want to get with her. Cause that’s all she likes to do. You get close to her by making conversation about real animes. So if you’re a big anime fan, you could say it’s pretty easy to ‘woo’ her.

Game show style trivia boxes asking questions like “Which Love Hina pairing is the most canon? A.keitaru & naru b. keitaru & kitsune c. shinobu & motoko d. naru & mutsumi”. This requires a great deal of devoted attention to your conversations with her. It can be difficult. Various screens of text with Matilda, making short comments on animes or saying “…”, looking flustered and confused.

She is also depressive. So if things get serious… she might take them too seriously.

Matilda looking progressively more distant and upset as player relays to Matilda “… I like the arena style arcs” and “I don’t get why they’re always blushing”, eventually concluding with her hanging in closet above her shrine to player as a bishie.

Or you can try to sit at the center table…

Zetsubou slams down tray at table, disturbing haughty looking Doria. Text option to choose whether to talk to Doria or eat food- “As I tried to _eat the food_, a huge douche plopped down across from me.” as aforementioned happens. Brian “Yo Doria, I saw you skip Prayer and Share. Where’d you go?” text choice: “Stick up for Doria” or “Look expectantly at Doria” or “continue eating silently”, Zetsubou sticks up for Doria – “None of your business, douche” to which Doria smiles weakly.


Here you can meet Doria and Brian.... Brian is, uh, this bro kind of guy. He’s always getting hassled to wear a shirt. Doria wears a uniform. It’s not from this school. Zetsubou can also date her… she turns out to be bossy and really needy. Um. She has bipolar disorder, but she doesn’t want to take medication. She just wants to date you. And be with you. All the time.

“I heard she’s the student council leader. She’s pretty unmistakeable. I don’t think anyone else wears a uniform here.” Progressive cuts of Doria becoming more and more manic looking, until she is on the screen in a bunch of repeated shots, across or next to character and filling the screen. Sync ‘all the time’ clips of Doria freaking out hysterically sobbing and wailing or banging her head on walls, scratching herself etc.

But Brian can be your friend too.

Back to the scene with Doria and Brian; stop on Brian.

Brian’s hobby is jacking off all day to weird porn.

Brian is cut to his dorm, beating off to television porn.

You can become his jackoff buddy in eternal unrequited bromance.

Player reaching for Brian during j/o session, initiates masturbation game where player is instructed to tap A repeatedly to get Brian off before he stops you, after coming he says “dude! No homo!”. It’s NOT gay though. Neither are the matching crystals. Zetsubou looks up from Brian’s lap, crystal necklace swinging into view.

There’s a mature character who’s been mysteriously retained at the… school, also.

Tammy looking austerely at character from choir practice room, singing “Ahhhhhh !!” in animated text movement, looking awkward. Close up to bland, mannish face.

In spite of good behavior, Tammy has managed to avoid leaving the school for over a decade because she likes the school life. She finds it, uh, stressful, however, so she needs to find somebody she can ‘trust’ to vent her frustrations to.

Tammy being avoided by other students in hall, Zetsubou monolog “A girl who looks like a French maid is also attending this school. She seems very elegant.” Tammy speaking with a lisp on some note. Concluding on ‘need with Tammy hitching her skirt just enough to reveal a huge diaper. Tammy in full baby garb on the floor, shaking a rattle and begging player to change her diaper while dolls surround them both.

There wouldn’t be anything beyond the school grounds. If you try to leave through the gate, you are conveniently attacked by another student to prevent the game developers from having to make up a town.

Player choosing to have Zetsubou travel to the outer campus and try to sneak out the gate, confronted by Naoko sliding into the screen (not literally – walking in like a sleaze) and demanding “All your shit, now”. Choices: “Hand over your stuff” or “Resist”, you “started to __resist__, but then you heard a loud yell- it was campus security.” Two guards come into frame and give choice for player to either snitch or don’t. Now, if you tell on him to security, you can get with the principal this way. Quick cut to principal, breasts heaving in her too tight suit, asking “So… I heard you squealed?”

If you don’t, you can pursue a relationship with Naoko.

Naoko appearing in bedroom, offering Zetsubou a joint, screen images turn trippy.

So you kind of get this illusion of controlling your destiny, which is pretty exciting.

In homage to my Japanese inspirations, of course there is a pair of twins at the school, Cheryl and Sheryl. They’re kind of trailer trash chicks.

Cheryl and Sheryl in the courtyard, one puts a cigarette out on a kid in passing; Zets: “I saw the twins in the courtyard. Whenever they’re there, I can’t go to class because I’m too scared to pass them. That’s my excuse, anyway.”

Sheryl is the dark kind of twisted one, and Cheryl is the sweet and innocent one. Cheryl is also the furry.

Cut between Zetsubou talking to each twin, one looking stony vs. one with a naïve smile; Cheryl turns around in her dog fur suit; “What do you think? – Good God… - Murr! -… ” The player must keep careful note of which twin is which; they care very deeply for one another and apparently can tell the difference between Sheryl and Cheryl. Sheryl: Yo Zetsubou. Zets: “Hello… -Cheryl –Sheryl” picks Cheryl, Sheryl: “…” “??” Cheryl smiling sweetly and laughing blushingly at Zetsubou in bed. Sheryl looming over player with knife in hand reflected in Cheryl’s sunglasses.

The real question, of course, is can you have both?

Twins on either side of Zetsubou in bed, close in on Zetsubou’s expression of lecherous intent and sweatiness.

There’s also a very visual kei kind of girl, Lucretia. She spent her parents’ money until they sent her here to teach her a lesson, and she never learned it. She’s being hunted by creditors now as her debt spirals out of control. But if she sees a corset or some other goth accessory, she has to have it.

Lucretia looming, intro, her various outfits. Lucretia in her room, Zetsubou offering her a red rose, which she looks disgusted by, and then black rose as an item, and she gets excited. Zetsubou donning different clothings.

This character won’t be interested in you unless you offer her plenty of material items and appearances to appeal to her aesthetic.

Really gothy Zetsubou flutters anime-ishly in non-wind, kissing Lucretia’s ring-studded hand and looking up at her with hella goth makeup ICP style.

Last but definitely not least is the most normal person in the whole school, Stef. Stef is just not too bright; she came to the school mistaking the workshops for trade school classes and is now stuck with her enrollment fee. She wants to be a vet. One day while practicing on a local stray dog, she gets bitten and starts to suffer something worse than rabies… a generic zombie virus.

Stef across the room in a classroom, Zets. monolog: “Stef is actually paying attention in class. I should borrow her notes.” A bunch of bland expressions and faces, normal dialogues, as Stef gets progressively sicker and more rotten looking. In one clip, her nose crumbles off while you’re making out with her. Zetsubou realizes she’s trying to eat his head.

You can put her down for the greater good or observe a zombie apocalypse unfold, starting with yourself.

Scene with zombie Stef lunging in closet, bound by ropes to closet walls. Zetsubou shakingly trying to level gun at her temple, then cut to class halls, chaplain and some students running screaming, zombie gym teacher grabs a girl and tears her head off bites into it bloodily. Stef running at head of lots of zombies, ending on you in the midst of crowd, chewing a hairy arm.

You can, you know, befriend all these people… Or pursue graphic sexual relationships with them. If you want to. That’s the extent of your control in this world.

Zetsubou watching anime in a beanbag next to Matilda, taking a joint from Naoko, then a rapid cut of sex scenes with Doria, Lucretia, Wolkov, and Stef.

You can access it at a semblance of your own pace. But really your agency is pretty limited. The point is the game is to punish the player with the weight of the protagonist’s lack of autonomy.

Zetsubou making mild observation about his dorm room, nothing of consequence, a lot of “…”ing, clips of him handling situations poorly and apathetically.

A strange world is presented intimately in a manner meant to enthrall.

Most importantly, every single ending is a Bad End. You can’t win. You’re supposed to think you can, though.

Zetsubou shakingly holding the gun after having shot Stef, and leveling it at his own head, wincing. “Don’t worry, Stef… you won’t be alone for much longer… !”

Even if you wriggle out of relationships with some of the less savory characters, in the end, old Fletcher is waiting for you. He won’t let you waste away by yourself.

Fletcher locking a classroom door Zetsubou is in, and turning to him with a gleam in his glasses. “Well, well, well… didn’t you know, school is over?”

Maybe a game developer could make cool minigames to trick some people into thinking this game is fun or cognitively challenging.

Dressup scene with Zetsubou in wardrobe, slipping in and out of similar boring outfits with a bored expression w/ basic Barbie style game mechanics moving him in and out of wardrobe. Zetsubou rushing to change Tammy’s diaper based on the button commands appearing on the screen in the proper order Cooking Mama style, as a time limit surges on w/ Tammy waving her hammy legs and arms.

It could be for the Xbox 360, and you get achievements every time you do something successfully so there’s even more worthless incentive to continue torturing yourself.

Take a handful of shrooms from Naoko and down them, Zetsubou starts tripping balls and giggling with Naoko and an achievement and trophy pop up – “Babby’s first psychedelic!”

Basically, I think a game like this has a lot of potential for success. A few extremely rare artbooks and figurines could be squeezed out for people to masturbate to. Maybe a made for tv live action movie. Yeah. And that… is my idea.