BA7 - The Man

"It is a ghost story/adventure game. You play as a young girl, trapped in a dream like world. You discover, along with your best friend a toy rabbit, who you were and what happened to you in order to escape.  The story is abstract and is episodic; each chapter of her life being a story book. At the end, you are confronted by the 'Judge' and discover the meaning of this 'dream world'.

The Man is the person that attempts to abduct Rose and eventually kills her.  He is unidentifiable, with only the use of shadows to denote the character, as Rose doesn't know who the man is.  He appears big and scary as that's how Rose perceives him - a threat.  Not much is known about The Man given in the story as Rose doesn't know him - the Dream World is as Rose knows it and perceives it; if she doesn't know some one/place/thing then it will appear unknown as a fog/shadow in the game.

All that is known about him is that he is lives in the same town/village as Rose.  He is a very troubled man with Rose being his first abduction and kill, hence the clumsiness and rash behavior.  It is suggested at the end of the game that he goes on to abduct/kill again.

The effect i want on the player when seeing The Man is to be fearful, to see the early stages of a man giving in to the voices in his head and impulses, becoming an animal.  As i mentioned before, he will be a black silhouette, maybe with parts of his clothing/skin/hair/features being picked up by the light.  I think showing his eyes being big, bright and rounded to mimic an animal for blood lust would prove to be very effective; like a cats eyes gleaming in the light.  As the Dream World is how Rose perceives it, he should embody something she is afraid of or learned to fear, such as strangers and strange men from her parents.  He could have a more supernatural look to him by embodying a boogie man, or embodying some sort of evil character from a myth/fairy tale - Rose could be suppressing her death and killer by replacing elements with something else to achieve this.

Here are some images i am using as influence for his concept design!