Storyline

Introduction:

The opening of the protagonist in the laboratory, he learned from the letter on the table that the princess of Atlantis (mermaid) was brutally murdered, but before she died from their own body buckle scales left the identity of the traitor, but the fish scales were broken by the betrayer scattered in the village, the player needs to do the task through the npc to collect the pieces, spell out the complete scales and finally find a mysterious old man to answer the Atlantean language, to learn the truth and find the traitor

Gameplay:

Players start off by waking up in the lab(semi-damaged state). The text of tasks will pop up: Players need to find diving devices (oxygen bottles, goggles and wetsuit) to unlock 'Village' .

Each NPC will have a task for the player to finish through dialogue, after completing it and talking to the NPC, the player will get clues of the traitor (e.g. not wearing black, eyes xx colour, ............). There will an eviction menu on the menu page and it will also display during the game which contains the basic info for npcs and the clues colleted by players. Player needs to choose the traitor in the eviction menu based on the clues collected. There will be only three opportunities, if all wrong, the game will fail.

Win/Lose condition:

The player has three chances to choose:

• Three times all wrong ---- fail
• Choose the right betrayer ----- betrayer will tell the player how to make Atlantis restore.

Scenarios:

There are 2 scenarios in total: Laboratory - Village - Unlocked area in the centre of Atlantis Laboratory: find the diving device, limited time, completing the quest unlocks the village, Poseidon's temple and theatre

Village: NPCs are scattered throughout the village.

About the traitor:

Traitor is a male. He is the brother of the princess Nereus and was also the candidate of the guardian years ago. He was diligent and puffed with ambition. However, he has a problem of overcotrolling which caused his failure to take the guardian position. Several years had passed but he did not give up. After their parents step down from the throne, he chose to take back his place in a brutal way.

clues might use?: close to the princess, dark hair, amber eyes, bad-tempered

Tools：

1. In chapter of lab, player needs to find Diving goggles, diving suits and oxygen tanks to unlock the chapter 'Village'.
2. Broken Fish Scale: Players need to get all the scales to piece together the complete fish scale and receive the information about the traitor on it, and finally find the mysterious old man in the village to decipher the ancient Atlantean language on it.
3. Props that increase the time limit: Player can use items to increase the time limit.

Game mode:

1. Stand-alone game
2. Find relevant clues about the traitor by doing tasks and communicating with NPCs
3. Player has 3 chances to choose who the traitor is in the final segment. If player runs out of three chances and guess wrong，the game ends in failure.If player guesses correctly within the specified number of times, the game is won.

Chapters:

Chapter One

[unknon the player’s gender, so use pron. “they”]

Player woke up in the sound of calling. They knew it was from Zoe, the researcher, yet they were unsure why she was so fretful. The noises made by various devices reminded them that they were in the laboratory, other than that, they could see nothing but plants in the lab faintly illuminating.

(restore power to continue, task by researcher)

As soon as the power was back on, they saw someone laying weltering in blood. (find clues from the body, task from Zoe) It was Nereus, the princess of Atlantis, who was the guardian of this land. Her death meant the fall of Atlantis. After scanning the body, player found out that she seemed to hobble here with all her strength [conclude from bloodstain]. It was an assassination. The wound on her waist opened up more while she was on her way to the lab, slowly taking away her life. Her scales used to be glittering with a riot of colors, but now it was shattered and lifeless. (get one shattered scale)

(discuss with researcher to continue)

Zoe calmed down immediately to analyze the situation. From the dialogue, player got to know that the scales still remained part of Nereus’ memories which would fade away in three days. Player had to collect the scales to solve the case while trying to save the sunk Atlantis (general tasks, not from npcs).

Chapter Two

In order to find the murderer, the player had t ofind the oxygen bottles, goggles and wetsuit in the lab to continue. As they were on their way, a woman seemed to be attracted by them. She rushed to the player, staring at the gloomy scale held by them as if she was crazy. Never had the player seen such a terrified expression on anyone’s face. It was like a mix of shock, pain and disgust. She asked the player if the princess was dead. In the gaze of startle, the woman told them that Nereus was murdered by a man who was close to her. Neither did the princess suspected him, nor saw the assassination coming. Everything went normal until the man hugged the princess. The woman seemed to have the ability to read the memories on the scales. Yet since the scale was too broken to store more information, the woman could only hear the voice and see the body shape of the murderer. Before the player left, they got to know that the woman was called Metis. (player can get clues from her after collecting the scales)

Fortunately Atlantis was quite small. The player went to the village and saw Doris was sitting in her garden, looking upset. A scale was held by her. Even if the scale’s original owner had died, it was still trying to shine in the hazy underwater sunlight. (Talk to Doris to continue)

Doris was blaming herself for not keeping the scale well enough. The scale was a gift from the princess a couple years ago. Nereus believed that her scale could protect the ones she loved even when she was not around them. Doris carefully treasured and wore that as a necklace until yesterday. When she was looking at the mirror, part of the scale was turning grey because of the death of the princess. Of course, she wasn’t aware of that. She heard some ways to brighten the jewelry so she wanted to give it a try. Please find some Fluorescent corals for Doris. (Find some Fluorescent corals and give it to Doris to continue, task by Doris)

{ps. i didnt set the amount of corals or where they were. you guys can set as you like}

The scale didn’t rejuvenate, as the player expected. Player offered that they would take the scale away to analyze the reason for turning grey and promised they would give it back. She seemed frustrated but she chose to trust them. (get one dying scale)

Chapter Three

*if the player chose to get back to Metis, she would tell the player that the scale was too damaged to be read. They should head out to restore it.

The people arguing on the street caught player’s attention. As they walked through the crowd, they saw one man screaming at another person, with eyes blazing with fury. Heph, the bad-tempered restorer, was known for his superior skills and his weird personality. A small damage of his work could trigger a fight with someone random on the street. There were rumors saying he was good at repairing only because he had to learn restoring the things he broken into pieces. (go check the situation to continue)

Maybe the Heph can help restore the scale, the player thought. They managed to stop the argument and dragged him aside. In order to persuade this stubborn man, they told him part of the story, except the death of Nereus. A lie needs more lies to cover. It was not long before Heph detected the lie. Apparently, he was furious. In spite of unknowing the whole truth, he still agreed to help them for the sake of the scale. But the prices for that were more things to collect. “It’s a fair exchange.” Heph sneered. (collect seaweed, Fluorescent corals, jellyfish, task by Heph)

*i was just randomly listing things. you can add or delete as you want.

(after giving them to Heph, player will get a normal scale)

Heph gave back the repaired scale, mumbling the people’s carelessness. Orpheus hurried to him last week, begging him to save his irises, whose pedals were like being ripped off by someone. The poor musical actor was about to give the irises to the princess but somehow the plant was dead before he sent his feelings to her. Player decided to go to the theater to meet this man.

[if it is possible, you can make player to collect stuffs and sell them to Heph for the theater ticket. otherwise just next chapter?]

Chapter Four

(Having gotten the thearter ticket)They successfully came to the theater,finding Orpheus crooning a sorrow melody.The gorgeous clothes couldn't hide the gloom in his eyes.Looking down with his eyes,a few irises scattered on the ground.(They can choose to tell him the truth that Nereus dead or not.)After struggling for a short while,players determined to inform him of the death of Orpheus and attempted to get a scale from him.

He stopped singing and a big shock appeared on his face.Orpheus couldn't accept it,even his love for her had never been shown at any time before.After spending a long time to calm down,he "It felt meant to be...",muttered Orpheus.He clenched the scale in the palm of his hand and seemed unwilling to hand it over to anyone. So, players must come up with a good idea to get the scale.

(An option can appear that try asking him for scales）

However,great sorrow and anger kept him from quelling for a long time,he failed in considering other things just refused them directly for the scale if the last reminder of memory on her.In order to collect all scales,they propose cooperation to find the murderer(or traitor)together.Hearing their intensions, he was a little shaken, but didn't want to accept the kindness of these strangers so easily.Remind that Nereus was kind-hearted and treated everyone very well, also not having any grudge against someone.It looked hard to know who the murderer was, but there's a great chance that it's someone close to her.Thus, he delegate a task to search for some information (tips)about Neuers's family to players.

*the task can be some simple reasoning games or else.the tips can be the introduction of her family members.Once finished the task, players need to come back to meet Orpheus again to get the scale.

Chapter Five-One

Player collected some information about Nereus' family.Her father was the king of Atlantis but he stepped down from the throne a few years ago for health reasons and lost voice about heir to the throne as a result.Her mom was also in charge of the main regime in Atlantis and had high admiration among villagers out of her shrewdness and broad perspective.Also, her mom loved Nereus for her talent of leadership.However,for their son Ares,he has strong skills in swordsmanship though, wasn't good enough in other decisive aspects espeicially to be the guardian of Atlantis.

Chapter Five-Two

--------the second day----------

Player went back to Orpheus and told him the clues attained so far. They combed through together but it seemed nothing about the murder appeared.Orpheus mentioned that he saw Heph shouted at some troublemakers saying the death of the princess was none of his business on his way to the theatre.But those who love the princess very much asserted that he was the murderer becaue he always showed violence to anyone who had some small conflicts with him. Meanwhile, Heph didn't quite agree with the political philosophy of the princess and he thought the prince Ares was more suitable for the heir to guard Atlantis because Ares had stronger power and superb swordsmanship which was he admired for.And in one night, when he was heading for theatre from the palace, he heard Nereus' parents were quarreling about the guardian of Atlantis and Neures were sobbing softly.He felt very sorrow but just pretended not hearing it and walked away.He didn't want to reveal any love for the princess yet considering he was wanting at that time.

Orpheus reached a consensus with Player that they wouldn't leak out all the content he had told.(Here comes a choice given to Player to chosse whether agreed his request or not)

Chapter Five-Three

(Assume player chose to agree and got a scale from Orpheus->Gathered the scattered scales)

Facing so many clues, Orpheus and player couldn't figure out a useful conclusion. They decided to go back to the lab to find Zoe and asked help. After analyzing for a while, he proposed to put together all the scales that had been collected and then look for Metis to read the princess'memory attached to it.They got outside of the lab again and fund Metis in the village.Metis touched the assembled scales and said "I saw him..."in a tone of fear and disbelief.

(Here comes the final choice about the traitor: if guess correctly then unlock the next chapter)

Chapter Six-One

"Heph was holding the knife ... Nereus were saying her brother's name."

"Ares was standing aside and keeping silent ,not stepping forward to stop Heph..."

"Nereus was forced into a corner, she was so scared."

"Heph approached Nereus step by step...But his hand holding the knife was shaking badly?!"

"No,it wasn't he. No."

"It was Ares."

......

Ares thought that Nereus was too loud, and that Heph was still too soft-hearted, he couldn't take it anymore. He stepped forward quickly, snatched Heph's knife, glanced at Nereus meaningfully and plunged it in the middle of Nereus' heart.

Shocked, Zoe's words came:" That will make sense." "In your clues, Ares wasn't appointed as the heir by their parents.So he failed in becoming the guardian of Atlantis. As we all know, he is always sensitive and competitive, but he lost to Nereus while competing for the guardian and this situation will hardly change.Unless..."

"Unless the current guardian dies."

Chapter Six-Two

"However, the biggest question in front of us is why was Heph holding the knife? Does he have anything to do with this?"

No one knew something about it, so they determined to find Ares to check it out and ask why he did it.Suddenly, a man emerged from the corner.It was Ares. He heard all the conversations. In the face of everyone's doubts, his conscience still felt bad and finally admitted his crime. As for Heph, he also admitted he bought Heph. Ares heard from his subordinates that because of Heph's bad temper and violence, he accidentally smashed the gem that the nobles sent to him for restoration in a conflict with others. He was very flustered for knowing the damage was beyond repair but he couldn't afford it. If discovered by nobles, the result would be unimaginable.

Thus, Ares came to meet Heph and promised to keep it secret and hush people up. The premise is ,help him kill Nereus. Heph was very hesitant, he never wanted to kill people no matter how violent he was. However, if he didn't agree, not only will the nobles demand huge compensation, but people will be afraid to send things to him to be repaired, because they may be permanently broken due to his violent temper anytime and anywhere. Without any other choice, he made this exchange.

At the same time, Ares let his subordinates re-engraved an identical gem and return it to the nobles.

Chapter Six-Three

（Found the murderer/traitor, the next step is to make Ares unsink the Atlantis) He was not a professional killer. It hurt him after killing Nereus. He felt sorry for his parents, the villagers in Atlantis, and even more sorry for his sister who was growing up together with him and very loved him.

He knew what awaited him next. Considering what he had done, he decided to unsink Atlantis to bring light to the whole of Atlantis City under the persuasion of the player. He went back to the lab with everyone and pressed a switch in the corner that was hidden by a painting covered in scales. Finally, Atlantis was rising slowly from the bottom of the sea.The whole village ushered in the dawn of the long-lost past.