Game Design Brainstorm: Do The Right Thing (the game)

[J T]

I came up with an idea for a series of threads where I propose some unlikely scenario for a video game just to see what people would imagine for a game based on the concept. If this thread is any good, I'll do more like this.

So, the scenario is simple, but how to do it is difficult. If you were to make a videogame adaptation of Spike Lee's movie Do The Right Thing, how would the game be played and how would you use the gameplay to stay true to the complex racial tension portrayed in the film?

Ok, brainstorm!

[GSZX1337]

FMV game.
*dusts off hands*

[Gamerforlife]

From the little I know of the film, I'm thinking something like the fear meter from Fear Effect could be used as a way to gauge the tension of the various characters with dialogue choices a la Mass Effect affecting character moods and affecting their actions

[AmishSamurai]

Fear meter's a bit cheesy. Arkham Asylum was able to have varying degrees of enemy panic without a flat-out meter. Character tells could be implemented to show how nervous they are, and you take notice of them with dialogue options.

I'm seeing this as an adventure game personally, though I haven't seen the movie.

[J T]

From the little I know of the film, I'm thinking something like the fear meter from Fear Effect could be used as a way to gauge the tension of the various characters with dialogue choices a la Mass Effect affecting character moods and affecting their actions

We think alike. I was thinking of having some sort of metric for tracking the increasing racial tension, though I don't know if I would make it visible to the player or simply use it behind the scenes to affect available conversation trees and character behaviors. The interactions with characters could alter based on the current rating of global racial tension in the neighborhood. As it increases, characters demand that you side more with your own race and treat you like a traitor if you try to help the other side.

The movie takes place in the sweltering summer heat and involves racial misunderstanding and anger between the predominantly black and Puerto Rican residents of the city, the Italian run pizzeria, and a Korean convenient store. I was thinking that various things could reduce the "racial-tension-ometer", ranging from keeping cool from the heat, to your ability to choose accurately empathetic dialogue branches, to making sure certain people don't end up in the same room together, to helping people see eye to eye by getting them to help one another. However, a failure to keep true to your own racial identity could also harm your relationships with characters of the same race.

The movie of course ends in total chaos as everything reaches a boiling point that ultimately leads to riots and killing. In the aftermath, it is not clear, but there seems to be some understanding and perhaps reconciliation between Mookie (the main character) and Sal (the pizzeria manager). The game should perhaps also have an inevitable boiling point moment, despite one's efforts to keep down the "racial-tension-ometer". This, however, makes it unclear what the criteria for "winning" the game are, but it's possible that how you behave before the riots affects whether you survive them or whether you can retain friendships in the aftermath.