The Dawning introduction concept

Over the Easter holiday I was mostly trying to gather as much research and sketch work as possible to fuel my Introduction idea. At this point I am going to explain how the introduction would work when it comes to showing my work as a portfolio or showreel.

One of the main visuals to the game is the abandonment of everything. This is due to the pollution forcing people to move out of heavily industrial areas, only the pollution became a new life form over time and destroyed most of mankind. However, these larger abandoned cities will not be shown until later on in the game because i believe this would show too much of what has happened and what is happening all in one scene. I am creating the introduction to be as suttle as possible so the player at first doesnt know what is to come.

The first scene is set in a country house, out in the middle of no where. As this game has no time frame, it is up to the view to create there own idea of when this world would be. Obviously as the game progresses this will became much clearer but only to an extent because of the fact that there is no humanity to explain the situation.
The country house is to look and feel as though the owner was very proud. This house would of been past down through the family as a get away home, not as big as a mansion but easily managed by a middle class family. The house in some places could have been renivated for a much more modern way of living although most of the decore has been kept to 18th century design. With the few exceptions of course.
The reason why I have decided to use a place like this for the games introduction is because I want the player/viewer to become familier with this homely environment. To comfort the player before things begin to change. Now, this place has been abandoned for years. It has decayed and slowly begun to disappear into the landscape. However, the player is shown areas of the house which look to as though they had just been cleaned and well kept. As these scenes begin to fade in and out of different rooms from different angles, the aging of the decore begins to show. You see wallpaper which has been torn away from the wall, puddles of rusty water and damp rising from the floor, layers of dust gathering on furniture. As the scenes explore the house, an animal can be heard moving around. From sounds, to blurred animal shape running through the scene, to the main shot of the main character. The Fox.

This right away tells you that this house has been long abandoned and the fox is scavaging around the rooms. This idea at first was to have this place as the foxes den which I have yet to decide on. The scene then follows the fox outside to an open area surrounded by forests, viborant and lush in the bright sun. This image is to throw off the player as to what has happened in this world.

From here, I imagine this is where the player would be able to take control for the first time to understand the game play mechanics and to learn the basics. Again having this wide open area to a large house to play in, much like a child and learning new things and exploring the land.

This is as far as I have gotten with the introduction up to now. What I plan to do is design a floor plan so I can come up with what rooms are going to be shown in relation to the scenes and how they would play out. I will be creating a story board which will explain exactly what I have just written along side concepts of the main rooms for the story board and anything else which are shown.