Aww you named a game after me! So sweet you shouldnt have. Jk (obviously) but i like the idea in this game. I want to be Red from the Shawshank Redemption (:

I will definitely take ideas from Shawshank, as well as Escape from Alcatraz, the Great Escape, and any other prison movie/book I can think of.

I'm also planning some Collector cards (like the old cigarette cards for those old enough to remember them) that players can collect and trade with inmates.

Integrated prison or Broadside style switch?

Broadside style for the most part with added 'differences' depending on gender. It's either a men's prison or a women's prison so all characters are either male or female accordingly (broadside style switching of pronouns) but some of the tasks within the game will only be possible depending on your gender.

Modern day, I can't think of any particular difference between male/female prisons, so I don't know what you mean by different actions being possible. Heck, even guards have to all be the right gender in modern prisons, at least here in the US. (Well, theoretically, the actuality is much different.)

Also, considering the last thing you said, I get the feeling that someones needs to start playing the Jaws theme music in here... >.>

Standard prison life will be the same regardless of gender. If you are male, all guards and inmates will be male. If you are female, then everyone will be female. The only choosable exception will be your partner who could be either male or female.

What will change depending on gender are some of the tasks. Some of the inmates will make requests and give you tasks to do. These could vary depending on gender. For example, helping the pregnant inmate decide between having a baby or not would only be a female storyline.

On the whole, the gender differences won't affect the play through or your final outcome.

What I do need from the CoG forumers is ideas for prisoner issued challenges. I need a LOT of missions and tasks for you to complete so be as imaginative as you can. A basic example would be requests to smuggle items into the prison or someone having a grudge against another inmate they want you to sort out. I'll use the better ideas in the game.

Are you going to have different factions within the prison?

Some ideas for missions could be;

1) You are asked to plant some drugs in another prisoners cell or maybe even a guards room.

2) You are asked to elimate a prisoner/guard

3) You are asked by one of the guards to find information about someone trying to break out of the prison.=

I'm going to rip off Porridge here.

How about helping an older inmate establish a good reputation. What you do is that you start trouble and the inmate will come to settle it, thereby getting cookies.

And you can have a number of ways of achieving this. Or... Don't.

Good ideas so far, and yes - there will initially be 3 rival factions, any of which you can join (or not if you choose). This will become just two factions later after... A major incident (way too soon for spoilers!)

Any other suggestions? I need lots!

Something involving a secret gambling den and you can participate, keep a lookout, or sell them out for some cookies.

You can watch some Porridge for inspiration. I'm imagining the challenges are more light-hearted in nature, and Porridge is a sitcom so...

Gangs are a major source of tension in modern prisons. The PC joining one can make it easy to hook them into any number of story lines. (Can't think of a reason for the PC to get involved? 'Cause someone in their gang asked them to.)

Here's one idea about gangs: Dropping out. What do you do when someone comes to you asking you to help him 'cause he's a dropout and if he doesn't have someone watching his back he's going to die? (While modern prisons do separate gangs so that they can't fight, and try to keep unaffiliated prisons away from gangs, it's not a fool proof system, and dropout have often times been kept in solitary 'for their own safety'.) Now, as a gang member, what happens when one of your friends decided to dropout and you learn that he's going to be killed for it?

A good source of conflict in general is factions. They're also a good way to force PCs into action. (You're either for us, or you're against us!) Old gang vs new gang, Gangs vs Guards, Mafia vs Gang, Mexican Mafia vs Italian Mafia, Italian Mafia vs Mexican Gang vs Yakuza vs Guards vs Janitors vs Aliens. You get the idea.

Note: My only familiarity with modern prisons is in California (and therefor if I talk about 'modern prisons' that's only referring to a handful of prisons in California) and that's only in passing at best... for some reason tagging the 'best' familiarity with a prison as being knowledgeable about it from every angle, meaning inside it too, feels kinda wrong.

Hm... another specific idea...

The whole 'your bunk mate told you he killed someone' line. You bunk mate, however, has friends and enemies. You tell someone and his enemies become your friend and his friends your enemies.

Variants:

His friends that you'll be betraying are the whichever faction you join.

His friends are powerful (Guards).

It's actually a guard that ends up saying he's killed someone and it's your word against his, unless you can get evidence (through your social ties).

Your bunk mate is actually the good guy, offed someone horrible and is turning to you for guidance. However, betraying him will get you something you really want (his enemies are after your blood, but doing turning on him will get them off you). Or perhaps it'll get you something you need (it's the only 'in' you have with an enemy of his, and that guy that you'll have an 'in' with has information that will vindicate someone else who's innocent of a crime.

(If I'm not making sense, sorry, I'm a little out of it.)

I like the faction idea I think it would be interesting

But wat will the factions be about

@Reaperoa For one reason or another you will have your own cell and no cell mate, but that plot line would work just as well with a friend.

Perhaps I should be clearer about the setting. Think more Shawshank for the lifestyle. Not 21st Century modern (although over the 25 years there will be changes if you stay that long). Prisoners will follow a strict daily routine and you will have a job. Locations for events to take place are kitchen, yard (where most discussions will take place), shower room, mess hall (twice a day), workroom (details of this tbc), and laundry room. Cells themselves are mostly locked down apart from an hour or two in the evenings.

@Blackheart, I don't have specifics for the 3 factions yet. All I have is the long term fate of each. There will be several faction-faction collisions which Will happen whatever faction you are part of (so 4 very different storylines depending on which faction you enter (or not)).

Does anyone want to suggest ideas for the different factions?

Any other ideas for quests?

This is all good discussion so far. Keep it coming!

Sorry for the triple post...

@ScarletGeisha I like the 'look out' idea. There's so much I can do with that and it could be used as an early gang task.

Hmm, I have never seen the Shawshank Redemption.

I think the factions should be centered around certain things that they do

Then I'd recommend getting hold of a copy and watching it. Twice! First time is wow! Second time is WOW!

Basketball... Chess... I don't want to have factions based on race.

Not like that like one deals in smuggling more than others and another could deal in "accidental deaths" more and etc

Or perhaps, based on personality.

And no, definitely don't do race factions.

Faction suggestions.

Faction one: consists of the old school criminals those that have been there the longest. Are the most powerful of the factions, they are on good terms with the guards having been there since the beginning.

Faction two: the modern day criminals, they are antagonistic against the other factions believing they should be more respected.

Faction three: the new blood, this faction has been transferred to the prison recently (perhaps the same time as the PC) they are currently the weakest of the factions.

Maybe even let the PC start their own faction.

Yeah and if the pc starts its own faction u could try to get on good terms with one or all of the factions

Or they could try to take over another faction

For some reason, I'm thinking about Jailhouse Rock and am gushing at the thought of a gang run by an Elvis impersonator. And they'll sing and dance too.

But I doubt that's what you're going for. Damn.

This game looks cool. As long as you confine the gender-specific scenes purely to matters of actual physiology then I see no reason for classic horror film scores in this thread. Of course if you involve stereotypes or bigotry, that's a whole other matter.

@Canisa Classic horror film scores?

@ScarletGeisha I was referring to Reaperoa's earlier comment about playing the 'Jaws' theme after Andy mentioned that certain paths would only be available to certain genders; indeed, I would have gotten angry about it but Andy's later comment giving the example of a pregnant inmate seems to imply that these paths will be to do with the biology of the relevant genders, rather than stereotypes or bigotry.

I like @NocturnalStillness's ideas for faction 1 and 2. I have an older character in the game who would fit well with faction 1.
Faction 3, I may even take @ScarletGeisha's idea of an Elvis impersonator for the leader of faction 3. A slightly crazy group of thugs, definitely violent and unpredictable behaviour. I like it!

Any suggestions for names for the three factions? Characters within them (I think 4 main members per gang is more than enough, coding-wise)

@Blackheart, I'm afraid you won't be able to create your own gang as that would be too much coding (the gangs are only a part of the full game!). However, you WILL be able to lead your gang in the future!

@Canisa Gender differences will be minimal. Don't worry about that.

How about "Root" for faction 1 as they believe they are the foundation of the prison?

Roots for one clan, the Rockers for a second (they like rock music and hitting people with rocks??)

Any ideas for the third?

Maybe a mafia style group?

That would fit @Reaperoa. They could be the gang who you go to to 'fix' a 'problem'.

That's because they are Family.

...and that will be the name of the gang. Family.

Okay, so the factions are sorted. I need more ideas for tasks between gangs. I need as many ideas as possible as there will be a lot to do in this game!

Each faction will have a leader (not you to begin with at least) and 3 other figures who you will converse with. (details of which to be decided). The tasks can be issued by any of these members and can vary from personal favours to inter-faction disputes.

This sounds like it's going to be an awesome story.

Playing the spy for other fractions. As in you are a member of Roots and you are told to join Rockers to spy on them. Which could, of course, be branched out into whether you betray your original fractions or not.
Alternatively snitching for the guards.
You could also be a middle man between the fractions.

Another idea is playing witness. A friend/enemy kills someone and you are a witness (this could be true or you could be lying about seeing it). Your testimony could either have them killed or keep them alive.

If you have like an archnemesis you can screw around with his work and get him into trouble.

More good ideas aurumcelest. I will try to fit all of these ideas into the game along with any others people come up with.

I think Root tasks should conflict with Family tasks while Rockers are the anarchists of the prison.

A task for the player regardless of faction could be they set up a way out of prison and people pay the player to get them out.

The Rockers just want you to love them tender.

I'm going to set up the family as the main faction to begin with and you'll have a brush with them on your first day in prison. The player will learn about the other gangs over the first few weeks in prison. Then, you will spend time conversing with the different gangs. After about a month, you will have to make your choice as to which gang you are part of.

This game will be big:
-play through every day of a 25 year prison sentence
-three gangs to join
-parents storyline
-life-partner storyline
-three prison professions to learn
-seasonal changes
-four main escape routes.
-technological advancements over the years including one that prevents all previous escape routes, but opens up a fifth escape route.
-collector cards to be used as currency in game or just collected.
-60 different lunch menus so far!
-varying environment depending on your mood.
-possibly more!

One Gregorian year has 365 days. 365 multiplied by 25 equates to 9125. *Faints*

With you taking this big project, me busy with a big (but not THAT big) project, Reaperoa with two big(?) projects, appleduck with two projects I don't know the size of but Born a King seems pretty big... Anyway, point being that I wonder if we would ever find time for EgoChoice.

We'll get there ScarletGeisha. When the time is right, we'll get there!

Ps - you forgot leap years... if I can program them in. 9131 days!

*Faints hard enough to make my skull crack a little*

If you're having any trouble with the coding aspects, I doubt that anyone will mind you cribbing what's up for EgoChoice, although I think that'll be a bit more intricate than what you need, so I can PM you a (tiny) clock style counter I made (which handles years to seconds, but can be cropped down in size easily) if you want.

9131 days? You are insane. I like it.

@Reaperoa cheers for that but I've already got the date system in place for everything but leap years. should take just a bit more tweaking to include it.

@Canisa yes, I slightly am. Don't worry, each day will start with the date and a day counter telling you how long you've been in prison. That way you can see how long a 25-year stretch really is! (the realism side of the game!)

First off, i like this idea, it sounds great :D but if you do factions, id recommend you do them realistically, and in reality most 'factions' are gang related, and most gangs are race specific, black, hispanic, japanese, its not bieng racist doing so, its just truth, you cant worry about stepping on toes too much, its a prison, its not a nice place, theres crime, violence and racism on a daily basis, thats just the way it is. Then theres your typical non-racial specific gangs, cartels, bikers etc. And if you get stuck for different currencies, sometimes cash is used in prisons, but you also got drugs and cigarettes. Maybe its just me, but realism and believability make a game. Either way, good luck!

@Cyrus, the sole reason I'm NOT doing race based factions is so that you can realistically, in-line with the story, join any of the three factions.

You're right about the currency. The main currency in-game will be cigarettes (as standard and the player can play in hard-mode by declaring him/herself as a smoker - hence the need for more currency than the non-smoker).
The second currency will be the much-talked about but little understood collector cards.