Story
These entries below are storyline concepts for what could be made into the final game. Some of them (Scenario 1) have been adapted further into some other pre-development documents in other categories.
Scenario 1: (Written by Jeremy Bogucki)
In a previous scene, the player successfully evades a bull – the railroad’s private police – and hops into a train car.
Jack enters from below (the side of the train car).
*sound of door closing*
Jack enters and sees another hobo in the train car, he moves in the bottom right corner (computer will control Jack)
Hobo: “Headin’ west eh?”
Jack nods.
Frank: “Friends call me Frank.”
Jack remains silent.
Frank: “Oh, that cat has got your tongue now, has he?”
Jack: ” I’m Jack.”
Frank: “It’s a pleasure young Jack. Haven’t been ridin’ rails long, eh?”
Jack remained silent.
Frank: “T’isn’t a bad life, if you work hard, you can make it – ‘long as you don’t end up like crusty, old Frank! Oh, ho ho!”
Again, Jack said nothing.
There is a silence between the two which is only broken by the train horn.
*A train horn sounds and the train cars lurch slightly*
Frank: “Looks like we’re off!”
The screen then fades to black and white text shows up on the screen saying ‘some time passes…’
Screen fades in from black shows both hobos sleeping, Zz’s will be alternating between capital and lower case.
Jack wakes up. (Zz’s) disappear suddenly.
Jack looks around.
*Sound of train cars is not playing*
Jack: “I wonder if we’re here?”
Jack slides the door open.
Jack: “We ARE here!”
The player then gets control of Jack and can move anywhere within the train car.
>> The obvious decision will be to go into the newly open door and complete the transition from one city to another.
>> The player can walk up to Frank and talk to him and this alternate dialogue will occur.
‘You notice there are coins that have fallen out of Frank’s pocket, take them?
>> If you select yes, you will have gained some money and some time later after you venture to a couple of places, word will get out that you are a thief and some places may not sell certain things or people may not talk to you if you do this. You will also only encounter Frank, but he won’t be too warm towards you.
>> If you select no, you won’t gain any money, but the story will progress as normal, Frank will be your friend later on and shops and people will be friendly towards you.
Scenario 2: (Written by Author, Nicholas Bogucki. Edited by Jeremy Bogucki)
One of the ways that Jack can earn money is by working for the lumber industry in various towns across the West. As Jack gets closer to the East the lumber industry is scarce.
Jack stumbles upon a logging company and decides to work for them. Jack walks to the owner with a house behind the man and a few logs to the left of the house.
Jack: “Do you need an extra hand?
The Owner, grizzled with a long beard, looks exhausted and replies: “Yea, I do. You staying ‘til the job is done?”
Jack looks around nervously: “Uh, when will that be?”
Owner: “About a week. You’ll stay in the bunkhouse with the others. You can keep your belongings there or with you.”
Jack: “Oh, alright thanks.”
Owner: “Pay is sixty-five cents a day, still in?”
Jack: “Sure. What do I do?”
The owner doesn’t speak and walks behind the house and Jack follows him. The screen fades to black then fades from black and shows a few men facing opposite them. The Owner and Jack walk towards them and the Owner speaks.
Owner: “Well guys, I got another hand.”
The Owner turns and faces a man and talks again.
Owner: “Why don’t you show him the ropes, Sam? Oh, and we eat at noon.”
The Owner walks offscreen as Sam speaks.
Sam: “You’ll be with me; you’ll be a Sawyer today. When the first group, the choppers mark the trees, it is our job to cut those trees down so that the Limbers can cut the branches off the trees. When the Limbers are done, we then cut the trees into logs. You ready?”
An option appears that reads: ‘Yes or No’.
>> If the player chooses No, Sam will repeat the same dialogue again. First he will say, “Did you not hear me? Well listen closely” then he will repeat the dialogue. A loop will continue until they press Yes.
>>If the player chooses Yes, then the screen fades away and another screen appears with Sam, Jack and two other Sawyers in the middle of a forest. Trees are surrounding them and in some of the tree trunks are small marking denoting which trees to chop down.
Jack is being controlled again by the player and it is the players job to find out which trees are marked to cut. When Jack walks up to a tree a button will be shown to segue into a minigame.
In the mini game, the player will continuously press the button and accumulate money for their work.
The Player/Jack has a short amount of time to complete the mini game.
>>If they don’t complete the mini game, the following dialogue and event will happen.
The screen will fade and turn black and Jack will be standing in front of the Owner at the house with the Owner speaking to him.
Owner: “Why don’t you go waste someone else’s time? Get outta here!”
The screen fades away.
>> If the player does complete the mini game, the following dialogue and event will happen.
The Owner will approach Jack at the end of the time period and say:
Owner: “Thanks for your help, next time you’re in town, feel free to stop by.”
The player will then receive the pay for their work.
Scenario 3: (Written by Author, Nicholas Bogucki, Edited by Jeremy Bogucki)
Throughout the journey, Jack visits Steamboat Springs, Colorado around 1902. The scene shows Jack walking in from the bottom of the screen. He searches through the small town for a job and comes across various businesses. He notices that there is a meat market in town and goes into the store and asks the owner for a job. The screen then changes to inside the store as it shows Jack walking in.
*A sound of a bell from the door opening plays*
Owner: “Welcome! Welcome! what can I do you for?”
Jack: “Well…do you have any work that needs to be done?”
Owner: *looks around and speaks after a moment* “Actually I do, we’re falling behind with our meats, would you care to help out? I’ll pay you .50 for every cattle you help wrangle.”
>>Jack then has a choice to accept offer, deny offer, or haggle. (Maybe have it by luck?)
>> If the player chooses Deny, then the following dialogue and event occurs.
Jack: “No thanks.”
Owner: “Come back soon then!”
>>If the player chooses Haggle, then the following event will happen.
>>The Player/Jack can select Higher or Lower.
>> If the Player selects Higher then the following dialogue and event will happen.
Jack: “How about a little more?”
>>The computer will choose a random number between 1 and 0 (successful or not).
>> If successful, the Owner will give a new higher offer. Then Player can then continue to loop the actions unless there are too many denies (two consecutive denies).
>>If the Player selects Lower, then the following dialogue and event will happen.
Owner: “That’s my offer. Take it or leave.”
>>The Player can choose all three options once again and the actions will loop.
>>If the player chooses Haggle again, the loop happens the same unless it is not successful once again. If that happens, the Player will be locked out of the job and the following dialogue and event will occur.
Owner: “Stop trying to swindle me! Get out of here!”
The Owner will then come down towards Jack and push him out of the store. The screen will then fade to black.
>>Ultimately when Jack accepts the job, the screen will fade out.
(I will make a diagram showing the loop later for more of a concise interpretation. -J)
The mini-game will then appear. Depending on how well the player performs at wrangling cattle depends on how much money they receive.
The screen fades and opens with Jack and another NPC (most likely the butcher/wrangler) as well as a cow in the middle of them. There will be a button at the bottom of the screen (like most other mini-games) to press to make the action. Whenever the player presses the designated action button, it will show Jack throwing the rope to try to wrangle the cow.
After the mini game is over the screen fades back to Jack talking to the Owner. Depending on how well Jack did determines what the owner says.
>>If Jack wrangled zero cattle the owner will say “What are you doing wasting my time like that? Go on, git outta ‘ere!”
Jack: “Sorry, I tried my best.”
>>If Jack wrangles 3 or less cattle the Owner will say “Well, I suppose it is something. Here’s your pay. (.50-$1.50)
Jack: “Thank you” Then the scene will fade to black.
>>If Jack wrangles 4 or more the Owner will say “Wow, maybe I should keep you here full-time. Here’s your pay, son. ($2.00-???)
Jack: “Thank you” Then the scene will fade to black.
>>If Jack talks to the Owner again after wrangling 4 or more the Owner will say a unique dialogue: “Hey, if you ever come back here again, you always have a job here!”
Jack: “I appreciate that, but I’m headed west.”
Owner: “Well, in that case, have fun young man!”
Scenario 4: (Written by Author, Nicholas Bogucki, Edited by Jeremy Bogucki)
Jack enters from the right side of the screen into the Jungle and notices a few hobos sitting around a fire, some standing around conversing and other keeping to themselves. The player can now control Jack and talk to anyone there.
Jack can talk to any one of the hobo’s around the campfire, they each have their own dialogue, but it is short. (“What ‘chu want?”, “Need somthin’?”, “You lil youn’ to be out here by yaself.”, etc.)
There will be a designated hobo standing by himself that Jack can talk to:
Hobo: *Grunts* “Er, yea?”
Jack: “Are you trading anything?”
Hobo: “Ain’t got much.”
A screen appears with an item selection screen that can help aide or might not in Jack’s journey. Each item has a set amount of monetary value to it. Maybe some food to heal health? Some low medicine? A razor?
>>If the player tries to talk to the hobo again the same dialogue appears.
There is a sleeping bag in the bottom left corner that Jack can sleep in.
When Jack leaves he has to walk towards the same way he came in and the game saves itself.