Hammer
Hammer Horror films rule so this would be a video game tribute to them. It would be an adventure like Shenmue but a horror. NOT like Resident Evil, no hordes of zombie, Hammer will only have 1 single enemy and the challenge is figuring out who or what it is.
You'll play a guy who returns to his old home; a village in Cornwall (by the sea), to look after his sick bedridden mother. You'll actually have to look after her too - getting prescriptions from the chemist, food and so forth.
The game begins with you arriving on a train in the village. You know nothing but you have a letter telling you the address of your mother's house (you have to find it yourself). On the first night of your stay you are sent to fetch the doctor in the middle of the night and you find a dead guy at your front gate. More people die each night. The village folk suspect you because the killings stated when you arrived so they'll put you on trial but it would be a real yokel trial with people waving pitch forks in the jury. You'll end up in jail but then of course another killing will happen so they'll let you go again. There is something nasty out there and you have to figure out what it is.
The important part of the gameplay is that you wont be made do anything. e.g. when you are told to get the doctor on the first night you don't have to. If you don't, you never discover the body but you'll still hear about when people talk to you. You don't have to investigate anything, but the events will still carry on until you are finally killed by the whatever.
You also wont be shown anything - when you approach the scene of the first body the camera wont suddenly take over and swing around to show you the dreadful sight. It'll just be there and you can walk straight past it if your looking the wrong way. The key is control the player will always be in control.
There may be occasions where you go to see you bedridden mother and she's not there. This is highly significant but you wont be told or shown it's significance. Some people playing may not think anything of it.
It's going to be difficult to coax people to do stuff they aren't specifically told to do but it has worked before with games like the Mercenary series and Skool Daze.
It's going to be really atmospheric, the weather will be important naturally. When I was first thinking about this I wanted to create something like the film Rebecca but then I got thinking about Hammer and I changed my mind but Rebecca gives an idea of the feel of the thing. It'll be a small fishing village and they'll be a scary pub full of locals like American Werewolf in London. I guess in the end it'll be the chemist who did it by giving your mum an evil drug which turns her all psycho. It's quite cliched really but with any luck it could turn out well.
There will be much fun too - Bubbaray suggested a cider drinking mini game - Fantastic, it'll be like the Nepal drinking contest in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Also if you spend too much time in the pub you'll actually be able to get drunk and the controls will go all funny. There'll also be a childhood sweetheart all grown up.
I can just imagine the sound on the waves lapping on the beach at night with a thunderstorm coming in from the sea. Cornwall is the best place for video games I'm sure - think of all those winding narrow roads you could have a fab racing game set there.
