The Public Defense Overworked, Underfunded, and “Lots” of “Fun” * *For a given definition of “lots” and “fun Created by Charles Yu and Michael Cleary Introduction a. Overview b. Target audience c. Inspirations The Player Experience a. Moods and themes b. Gameplay snapshot i. Time management and urgency 1. Increasing number of clients 2. Plea bargains 3. Sentence construction time limit ii. Relationship and money management 1. Cutting work days early 2. Consequences of low income 3. Consequences of poor relationships c. Intended message i. Workload and exhaustion 1. Lack of time 2. Exhaustion 3. Mental health ii. Criminal Justice system 1. Inability to adequately represent clients d. How the mechanics achieve this i. Satisfying quota ii. Skimming documents iii. Plea bargains iv. Life management on top of workload e. World and Characters i. Setting ii. Visual style and tone iii. Characters 1. Mother 2. Fiance 3. Judge 4. Clients f. Sound and Music g. Visual mood board Gameplay: a. Overview b. Time Management c. Pre-trial interview i. Overview ii. Gathering information iii. Plea bargains d. Trial i. Overview ii. Argument Construction 1. UI and Control Scheme 2. Information iii. Confidence and anxiety 1. Abundance of Information 2. Success Informing Difficulty e. End of the day i. Overview ii. Mental Health iii. Money and Reputation Points iv. Maintaining relationships v. Deciding Workload Production a. Scope and Production Team i. Content Generation ii. Team size iii. Post-launch plans b. Production Timeline c. Budget Paper Prototype a. Setup b. Scoring c. Casefile and word selection Okay, so what is “The Public Defense?” The Public Defense is a fast-paced, arcade-style puzzle game in which the player assumes the role of a public defender in a small town. Gameplay consists of stringing together sentence fragments in real-time in order to craft defenses for clients — but just like public defenders in real life, players are given hundreds of cases to work on, with as little as a single minute to prepare for each case. This unique game casts a spotlight on real, often ignored issues with the United States justice system, not by plainly stating the issues, but by forcing the player to experience them firsthand. Well alright, but how are you planning to make money? In terms of target audience, The Public Defense is aimed at college students and young adults who are old enough to appreciate its themes and social commentary. However, because there are no overtly violent or disturbing sequences in the game, it will still remain appropriate for all audiences, though young children may miss its intended message. The Public Defense will initially be released for PC, and will be digitally distributed through platforms such as Steam, and the Humble Bundle. Following launch, it will then be adapted for mobile distribution on both iOS and Android. Like the indie games that inspired it, The Public Defense will be available in its entirety as a one time purchase. Oh? So what kind of games does The Public Defense draw from? The primary inspiration for The Public Defense is Papers, Please. Much like Papers, Please, the player will be presented with a small-scale moral dichotomy that sets their work obligations and desire to help people against the state of their personal lives and the well-being of their family. Part of the gameplay revolves around speaking to people and reviewing their documents, and failing someone will show a brief cutscene entailing the consequence of your decision. Fig A.) A Gameplay Screenshot from Papers, Please Unlike Papers, Please, however, the visuals and tone of the work won’t be drab or monotone. Where visual communication and stylistic choices come into play, The Public Defense also draws considerably from Phoen Wright: Ace Attorney. Bright colors, memorable characters, and an interesting writing style will help make the experience feel more friendly and inviting, and make it easier for a wider audience to engage with potentially uncomfortable subject matter. The Public Defense has a number of smaller inspirations as well. The sentence construction mechanic can be seen as an expansion of Mass Effect and LA Noir- style dialogue trees. Thematically, we also feel the way Darkest Dungeon commodifies human lives is also an interesting venue to explore. A great focus of The Public Defense is in presenting the flawed situation real public defenders often find themselves in. While the overall mood of the game is meant to be light-hearted and funny, the deeper themes it conveys should still be able to make players engage with it critically. Many parts of the game’s design are meant to make players think, care, and even feel uncomfortable with how things play out. So how can we accomplish this? A Gameplay Snapshot At the start of each case, players will be presented with their new client, as well as case files relevant to their case. The player will have up to one minute to interview their client, or read through their case files. However, at the back of their mind, the player will always know that they have a large number of clients to get through, and painfully limited time to go through them, so they may want to cut the review session short and go directly to trial. Alternatively, players may attempt to pressure their clients into accepting a plea bargain - many clients will not accept this however, and the player may simply be wasting valuable time that they could be spending reviewing the case. This part will show both the client (left) and necessary case files (right) Upon reaching the courtroom, the player will be presented with sentence construction. As they pick words to continue their sentence, they will see words they’ve already picked slowly turn red, heightening their urgency to pick the next phrase. Provided they have sufficient time, a player may be able to change parts of their speech - but if they don’t catch their mistakes in time, they’ll have to watch in horror as they read out their mistakes. All the while, legal documents will be on their left, that the player will have to frantically scan through so they can speak on details relevant to the case. A Basic Wireframe of the Sentence Construction Segment (Below) As soon as the case is finished, the player will be pressured to take another. They can cut their work day short, however, they will be bombarded with messages, cutscenes, and dialogue pointing out the ramifications of leaving cases unfinished for too long. Moreover, they will be unable to pull enough money to spend on their family when emergencies crop up, like car accidents and medical bills. So what is this meant to convey? Real life Public Defenders are often criminally overworked, with hundreds of clients to represent and hardly any time to represent them. In this way, the mechanics of the game are setup against players. They have quotas to meet and limited time to do so. Choosing to spend extra time on one case means not having enough time for another. Documents will more than likely have to be read on the fly since the player will not have time to review everything. Over time, players will naturally come to the conclusion that the system is flawed, and may come to research or question the issue themselves. Moreover, as time goes on, the player will be obligated to take more and more cases, forcing them to opt for more and more plea bargains, mirroring how 90-95% of cases end in plea bargains specifically because public defenders can’t find the time to adequately help these people. The game presents a number of other themes to the player this way as well. The player is tasked with their work, maintaining interpersonal relationships, searching for a better job, and managing all of their financial obligations. In that way, The Public Defender can also avoid demonizing, the people involved, as the player will also intuitively come to understand how hard it is for these people to manage their lives. Story Overview The narrative has two main driving factors - your mother’s medical bills, and your own desire to transfer out of public defense and into a law firm, so you can spend more time with your child. After a brief tutorial level, the game starts by establishing your child’s dissatisfaction with your hours and is immediately followed by news of your mother’s accident. From there, periodically as you meet certain time and reputation thresholds, the player is treated to predetermined events. Of particular note is the judge’s re-election bid, during which the player may be pushed to perform some unethical work under the table, and your child’s birthday party, which will require both your time and money. World and Characters As mentioned before, the setting of The Public Defender isn’t really a main focus. The game is set in Middletown - an anonymous American town. The player’s experience will primarily revolve around their office (where interviews are conducted), the courtroom (where cases are argued), and their apartment (where they come home to their fiance). The world will be depicted colorfully, and in cartoonish style. Satire will not be a main focus, but satirical elements will crop up in the background every so often in the form of radio broadcasts, television shows, advertisements and so forth. It is not directly interactive - but it will often be shown in the background behind interface elements. There are three main characters the player interacts with outside of the courtroom. Your Mother - The player’s mother represents their primary financial obligation. Having been hospitalized without insurance, paying her medical bills is the primary driving conflict of the game. Despite being hospitalized, she is in good spirits, and is sarcastic and funny. She is very concerned the player, especially as his workload rises. Your Child - The player’s child is their family and primary connection to their home. Their gender is decided by the player. They are friendly and outgoing, and very comfortable joking around the player. Though they are initially understanding, as the player’s workload rises they will become increasingly distressed due to perceived neglect, and may even run away as a result. The Judge - As a public defending, you will be working very closely with the local judge. He comes off as a very cool, logical person, but secretly is actually a socially awkward nerd that doesn’t know how to properly interact with most people. Because the judge in Middletown is an elected position, he will start making some requests of the player when his re-election bid comes up. The player’s interactions with the supporting cast will happen between cases. They are not meant to distract from the clients or the jobs, but rather are there to occasionally add humor and context to the player’s actions, in order to make the player’s goal of supporting them feel more relatable and human. The clients themselves will also be given personality, but very briefly. Because the player only has a brief opportunity to speak with each client, it opens the possibility of recycling certain personality traits between clients, or even randomly generating them as their cases are received. This can help make certain cases memorable for the player, without having to expend undue time characterizing these minor actors. Sound and Music Music tracks will be required for each and every unique scene. A minimum of 8 tracks will be necessary (title, interview, trial, sentence construction, results, calendar, family, event), with a recommended 8 additional tracks for variety. Due to The Public Defender’s focus on gameplay mechanics rather than character and narrative, leitmotifs and character themes will not be required. Music will be rendered primarily in a 8 or 16-bit chiptune style. SFX will similarly also be bitcrushed in order to promote conformity within the audio suite, and can be directly generated by the team through programs such as BFXR. Phoenix Wright w ill serve as the direct auditory inspiration for The Public Defender, with particular emphasis being placed upon the “Cornered” and “Pursuit” themes which recur throughout the series. Visual Mood Board The below images reflect possible directions we can take out art style, as well as inspirations can help inform the direction and tone of our piece. GAMEPLAY (Above) Mock-Up of Pre-Trial Interview & Player’s Office Background In The Public Defense, you play as a public defender seeking to boost his reputation so that he can get a job at a reputable law firm. Your goal is to acquire reputation points through successfully defending your clients in court, while also maintaining your personal relationships and financial obligations. As your reputation increases, however, so will your workload, allotting you less time to spend with your loved ones, leading to a decline in your mental health and work performance. The Public Defense’s gameplay will be centered entirely around UI interaction and resource management. The overarching gameplay loop can be divided into three major components: the pre-trial interview, the courtroom sentence construction, and the end-of-the-day resource management. Your decisions and performance in any of these segments will inform the difficulty and resource allotment of the subsequent segments. 1. Time Management Time is the central resource of The Public Defense, and subsequently the primary conflict of the game will be players trying to manage it. Players will be granted a certain amount of time each day which they must balance between satisfying work, financial, and personal obligations. Players can only defend a certain amount of clients each day, and so they must defend clients as quickly as possible in order to satisfy their daily quota, or else they’ll lose significant reputation points. Flowchart of The Public Defense’s major systems at work 2. Pre-trial Interview (Above) A labeled screenshot of the pre-trial interface elements a. Overview Before every trial, you will be given a brief amount of time to review the case file and question your client on their involvement in the crime. This time can be spent in one of two ways: you can prepare for the upcoming trial or convince your client to take a plea bargain. b. Gathering information The pre-trial interview will be the players’ most opportune time to review the case file and learn the details of the case. Every client you defend can be proven innocent, regardless of whether or not they actually are. It is up to the player to determine what information in the case file will best demonstrate the client’s innocence, or at the very least reduce their sentence. (Above) Viewing a Document; Important info is Highlighted in Red Players will also have the option to question their clients on information in the case file (highlighted in red above), which can potentially provide you more information to use in the actual trial. More often than not, however, if clients are guilty, they will provide false information to you in an effort to preserve their guise of innocence. All lies can be disproven by the case file, so the player ought to carefully consider the validity of a client’s testimony, as introducing false information to the court will result in an automatic guilty sentence. There will be a plethora of arguments the player can make to prove their clients innocence. For example, if the case file describes it as a pitch-black night, the player could argue a witness testimony is unreliable. If a client is covered in scratches or bruises, the player could argue the client murdered the victim in self-defense. If a client is accused of robbing a store, players can cite that the height of the client does not match the height of the man in the security footage. c. Plea Bargains Though it is technically possible to prove every client innocent, players will rarely have a sufficient amount of time to review the document a successful defense for clients. Furthermore, as the game progresses, players will have to take on more cases each day, necessitating them to complete cases as quickly as possible in order to satisfy their daily quota. As such, players will often ask their clients to accept a plea bargain, rewarding players less reputation points and money than a successful defense, but allotting them time to complete more cases. Occasionally, your clients will refuse to accept a plea bargain. Players can try to convince them it’s the best course of action or elect instead to study the case file in preparation for the trial. You can convince your clients to take the plea bargain in one of two ways: brute force asking them until they give in, or convincing them that there is no chance of them going free. Certain clients will be skeptical of a plea bargain at first, but will eventually cave with enough asking, believing that the player knows that’s best for them. Others will insist on their innocence, and refuse to accept until you demonstrate through the case file they don’t stand a chance at freedom. For example, if a client has a previous criminal record, you can tell them the jury will already presume his guilt. Alternatively, you can highlight information in the case file that contradicts their personal account of what happened. 2. Trial a. Overview When defending their clients, players will be required to construct not only their arguments, but their sentences, piece by piece, in real-time. The player will be presented with an empty box with several sentence fragments scattered around it. They must then construct an argument for their client in a given amount of time in order to prove his innocence. The amount of sentence fragments that appear on screen and the amount of time allotted will depend on the player’s current workload and mental health. b. Argument construction This is The Public Defense’s primary mechanic. When defending your clients, you will present your case to the jury, who will then dictate your client’s sentence. There are several factors that determine the quality of your argument, including the relevance of the information you provide, the sentence’s grammatical construction, and the speed with which you deliver your argument. i. UI and Control Scheme The screen will be split in half, with one side containing a copy of the case file, which they can scan for information during the trial, and the other side containing the argument constructor. The argument constructor will contain an empty box with several sentence fragments surrounding it, which the player will then drag and drop into the box. Players will be under a time constraint as they construct their argument. As players drag sentence fragments into the box, those sentences will gradually turn orange to represent the protagonist saying it out loud to the jury. If the timer runs out before the player can drag another sentence fragment into the box, the protagonist will pause mid-argument, making the jury more inclined to find your client guilty. A Basic Wireframe of the Sentence Construction Segment (Below) ii. Information The sentence fragments that appear on screen can range anywhere from information pertinent to the current case, information pertinent to other cases, or basic grammatical components, such a prepositions, verbs, subjects, etc. More information can appear if you question your client beforehand, providing options you wouldn’t have otherwise. C. Confidence and Anxiety The Public Defense is not a game solely about argument construction—it seeks to simulate most facets of communication, such as nerves, misremembering information, and lulls in speech. As such, the game will feature a large number of positive and negative feedback loops in an attempt to simulate the feelings of anxiety and confidence. i. Abundance of information As the player takes on more cases, they will have more opportunities to earn reputation points, but at the same time, more information can appear on screen at any given time, including information irrelevant to the current case at hand. For example, if the player is currently defending a client for a parking violation that took place on December 15th, sentence fragments involving bank robbery that took place on the same date may appear on screen. Wireframe of difficulty increasing as player fails ii. Success Informing Difficulty The strength of any given argument will inform the ease with which players can finish constructing said argument. In an effort to simulate nerves and confidence, when players first begin an argument, they’ll be given a wide number of selections as they try to decide where to begin. The more relevant information they bring up, the more the jury will side with them. The more the jury sides with them, the more confident the protagonist will become in himself, resulting in less possible sentence fragments and more time to construct the argument. Conversely, as players lose the jury’s favor, more possibilities will appear on screen and they’ll be given less time to construct. 3. End of the Day a. Overview After players finish all of the cases they had assigned on a given day, they return home to receive their reputation points for the day, interact with family, satisfy financial obligations, decide the workload for the coming week, or go to sleep early. If players do not satisfy their work quota for the day efficiently enough, they will come home late, preventing them from talking to their child or mother. Placeholder wireframe b. Mental Health As time goes on, players’ workload will increase dramatically, wearing down the protagonists mental health. The protagonist’s mental health will factor into the difficulty of trials. The more stressed the protagonist is, the player will be given more options and less time during trial sequences. Players can mitigate their negative mental health by interacting with family or going to sleep early, assuming as they get home at a reasonable hour. c. Money and Reputation points At the end of the day, you will be rewarded with money and reputation points relative to your performance at work that day. Money allows players to satisfy financial obligations, such as rent and groceries, and maintain relationship, for example, by throwing your son a birthday party. Reputation points determine the availability of cases for players. As players progress through the game, their financial obligations will steadily increase, necessitating more reputation points in order to find work. d. Maintaining Relationships Players will have three primary relationship that they must maintain in order to preserve the protagonist’s mental health: his mother, his son, and the local judge. These relationships will periodically bear financial burdens that the player must satisfy, such as mother’s hospital bills and food for your kid. As players assume more cases, they will be given less time to spend with their family, damaging the relationships and, subsequently, the protagonists mental health. e. Deciding Workload Players will determine the number of cases they work on for a given day a few days in advance.They can access the computer in their home to access their calendar, wherein they can drag and drop available cases onto their schedule. As their reputation points rise, the more cases they will have available. Similarly, as players lose reputation points, they will be given less case opportunities. The more cases a player assumes, the more opportunities they will have to earn money and reputation points. Consequently, this will give players less time to foster their relationships, making the workload they assume more difficult. This will be one of the game’s central conflicts, as players must attempt to strike a proper balance between building their reputation and maintaining their mental health and relationships. Basic wireframe of your planner Production Considerations This section primarily details development plans for The Public Defender, and additional considerations that may need to be taken into account which cannot be listed elsewhere in the document. Scope and Production Team Though complex in concept, The Public Defender will not require a large team to complete, as its procedurally generated nature and single-mechanic gameplay will take relatively little time to implement, after which the team can focus entirely on content generation. This may even allow The Public Defender to ship before all content is finished, allowing the rest to be patched in later. The initial team for TPD is slated to include one designer, one writer, two programmers, one character artist, one background artist, and one music composer. After the development of the initial app is complete, both programmers and artist will remain on board to develop the mobile port. Additional writing, audio, and design will not be required as these details will remain identical between versions. Development Timeline # Weeks Development Description Phase 1 Week Finalize team, design notes & documents, and prepare Prototyping & Version Control and Project Management Software. Pre-Production 8 Weeks Basic Functionality for Sentence Construction complete. Development 16 Weeks Basic Functionality for other segments complete. Procedural Alpha Case Generation should be in its first stages. Placeholder artwork implemented. Playtesting begins on first version. 20 Weeks Content Generation and Bug Fixes during this time.Updates Beta will be continually sent out to backers who obtain the game early, and additions will be made based on feedback. 25 Weeks PC Release. Full team will remain for another two to three Gold weeks to create additional content and/or fix any bugs not caught during development. 28 Weeks Production begins on mobile port. Separate trunk created. Post-Gold 36 Weeks Mobile Release. A Patch to add extra content Post-Gold Budget Paper Prototype The paper prototype will focus on what we envision will be a very common situation for players to find themselves in: defending a client whose case file they didn’t have time to read. To begin, print out the case file, argument box, and sentence fragments provided below. Cut the sentence fragments out into small, individual cards and scatter them around the argument box. For the purposes of this prototype, all information in the sentence fragments will be relevant to the case at hand. Organize the sentence fragments into their respective categories (starting phrases, middle phrases, ending phrases, and evidence specific phrases) Be sure to have a stopwatch handy, as players will only be given 5 seconds to select which sentence fragment should follow the one that preceded it. Players may take 10-15 seconds to briefly skim the case file for important information before the timer begins. Even after the timer starts, they are free to review the case file, but should they stall too long, they will suffer time penalties. To maximize points, players should try to pursue only one line of logic. For example, if they begin by citing the location of the crime as evidence of the client’s innocence, they will lose points if they then refer to his height as evidence of his innocence. Players may make the sentence as long as they may please, though they should keep in mind that a focused argument on one subject is key to achieving a high score. When players have completed the prototype, they should tally their score using the scoreboard below. And yes, it is very likely for players to have performed quite poorly. Scoring: Evidence A: +100 points Evidence B: + 90 points Evidence C: + 80 points Time penalty: -1 per penalty Grammatical errors: - 2 per error Shifting information: - 5 per subject swap 90-100 = client proven innocent 80-89 = 1 week of community service 70-79 = 1 month of community service 60-69 = 3 months of community service 50-59 = 3 month in prison 40-49 = 6 months in prison 30-39 = 1 year in prison 20-29 = 3 years in prison 10-19 = 10 years in prison 0-9 = Life sentence Below is a (truncated for the sake of document length) example of the tutorial case file. Police Report Case No. #24601 Date: 01/05/2017 Reporting Officer: J. Montgomery Prepared By: B. Rosenberg Detail of Incident: Officer responded to a noise complaint near 44th Ave residential district. Subject was intoxicated and belligerent, and assaulted an officer while resisting detainment. Actions Taken: After several attempts to verbally warn the subject, a taser followed by cuffing was initiated in response to an attempted strike. After being tasered, and fall to the ground, the subject then writhed menacingly, after which we were forced to use our nightsticks to beat him into submission. Details from Client Interview: - No history of violence - No history of alcoholism - Claims he was not drinking - Claims he did not attempt to assault the officers - Claims he does not live near the district in question Example Phrases: Starting Phrases: “On the night of the…” “My client…” “January 5th,” “January 4th” “January 6th,” “January 3rd” “...incident…” “Even though…” “In spite of…” Middle phrases: “...incident in question, …” “...had simply been…” “...would not have been able…” “...was not…” “...should have tried…” “...is when the incident occurred.” “...my client…” “...has no history of…” “...resisting arrest…” “...had been applied to…” “...even though…” “...used…” “...had not been…” “...was wrongly accused of…” “...could not have…” Ending Phrases: “...wasn’t anywhere near…” “...hadn’t even been…” “...has no history of violence…” “...has no prior record…” “...was occupied with…” “...drinking…” “...fast asleep…” “...to detain…” Evidence Specific Phrases: “44th Avenue” “Drinking” “Noisy” “Violence” “Taser” “Writhed” “Menacingly” “Excessive force…” “Attempted” “Officer Montgomery” Example Phrase Sequences: “On the night of January 5th, my client was wrongly accused of resisting arrest, as he was simply reacting to the excessive force of Officer Montgomery” “January 5th, on the night of the incident, my client hadn’t even been drinking. Even though my client had no history of violence, Officer Montgomery used Excessive Force to detain.”
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