Boondocking is a computer game about street smarts and frugality players must master the art of living out of one s car in order to survive.

Transcription

1 Boondocking is a computer game about street smarts and frugality players must master the art of living out of one s car in order to survive. The Story After a tumultuous two years of marriage that finally snapped after quitting a horrible job, you finalize realize it s time to leave behind your less-thansatisfactory life in Los Angeles, California to start fresh. Your spouse has taken possession of the house and all you have, aside from a few thousand dollars in personal savings, is a sizable amount of electronics and other miscellaneous things, but nowhere to put them. You decide the first thing you need to do is buy car you ve heard of people boondocking it and you think you could do pretty well roughin it to save up more money. Your parents think you re insane, but you firmly believe it will be the perfect opportunity to save money and travel. Your ultimate goal is to prove to them that you can do it that you can go boondocking successfully.

2 Scenarios The game starts on the front lawn of your (or what was) house with a pile of your possessions. Your first duty is to quickly sell off everything you don t want, need or won t fit in a car. Afterward, you will need to buy a car. One you have a car, you ll need a job (or a temporary one, depending on how often you will move around) so you can start saving up money. You start with $3,000 in your savings account. YOUR PARENTS Your mom has decided to continue to pay your cell phone bill (though you wanted to get rid of your cell phone, too) so she can stay in touch with you. Your mom will call you frequently to check up on you if she continues to not be happy with you (this can be a combination of many factors, including money saved up, job, hygiene, etc.), she will track you down and bring you home! At any time, your parents can call or demand that you visit them. YOUR CAR Your car is now you re home you ll have plenty of choices of used cars, so be sure to choose wisely. Take into consideration gas mileage, comfort, privacy. You will also want to spend some money making it a home. Remember, you ll be doing almost everything out of your car. To drive your car, use the spacebar to accelerate and the house to steer (up = straight, down = brake). YOUR JOB You re job is important. Because of your circumstances, you probably won t be able to land any big gigs at first. Apply to jobs that interest you; depending on what you choose you will have to go through mini-games to complete tasks for your job. If you are without a job for more than a week, your parents won t be happy.

3 BUYING/SELLING/BUDGETING You will have to become the king or queen of frugality. It s going to be about the things that you need, not want! Make use of pawnshops and selling directly to others on the internet. Manage your bank account carefully, if your bank account gets below $100 your parents won t be happy. HYGIENE Hygiene is important, to stay healthy, you need to stay clean. Not to mention, scraggly people hanging around their cars tend not to seem like the most trustworthy people. You will need to find places to shower maybe invest in a gym membership, get to know truck stops or develop some sort of inconspicuous routine using public restrooms. DODGING SUSPICION Living out of your car can bring a lot of unwanted attention, especially from the local authorities. You ll want to stay low key in every way possible. This can include finding different places to shower and finding appropriate places to park your car overnight so that it doesn t bring suspicion and you aren t checked out by the cops. You ll also want to watch out for those towns in which living out of your car is actually illegal. If you are ever arrested, the game is over. INTERACTING WITH PEOPLE While walking or driving around, you will run into a lot of people. Feel free to interact with them, make contacts which you can save into your phone, or even get help from them. Some may even offer for you to stay the night at house or offer you a hot shower. It s your choice whether to take them up on their offers, but remember not to take advantage of them! Gameplay To navigate the game, most actions will be done by clicking the mouse and typing in responses. Different mini-games will require different skills and will all only need the keyboard and/or a mouse to be completed.

4 The following is a sample action interface: A screen similar to this will appear every time you have the option to perform an action. The menus as the top (menu, items, money, messages, actions) will always be present, although in settings you can place them on the screen. There are some actions you can perform at any time (under the Actions + screen), but this action screen will appear when you enter a place or come across a person that prompts an action. The game narrative really depends on the actions that you choose to perform. And although there is a goal, there is no set time limit. Your goal is to always keep your parents happy, so as long as they are, you can continue to play. Eventually, you can earn enough money to buy nicer things for yourself (like a nicer car).

5 Audio/Visual The game will have a 2-D graphics and a very clean/minimalistic interface in hopes of taking the grimy connotations of the idea of living out of your car. Audio will also be very limited with only daily sounds occurring to indicate the activity such as a car driving, a shower running, a cash register ringing, footsteps and even the sounds of birds chirping or a crowd bustling.