Paramount Park Concept

The new mission for Remote Shepherd takes place in a large park in the center of the downtown borough of River Ridge. The design of the park is heavily influenced by both Central Park in NYC and Middle Park in GTA IV. For our level the Central Park was too large for us to recreate with our time limit and the layout of Middle Park did not match well with what we needed out of the space for our game.

Alley Concept

The non-lethal version of mission 3 takes begins in a small parking lot next to a local church. The organization of middle class citizens trying to clean up the city are getting ready for one of their charity events the following day at the church. Without warning, a group of gang members surrounds the parking lot and begin firing at the citizens. The citizens try and run away to the police station just a few blocks away. In order to get to the police station the citizens run through a series of alleyways all the while dodging bullets from the gang members.

Harbor Concept

If the outcome for the second mission was in the lethal category then the third mission will be set in an industrial harbor helping the police take down the gang’s leader at their base of operations. The harbor is set in the industrial borough bordering the River Cove borough with the large river separating it from the downtown borough. The harbor was one of several large dockyards for shipping supplies in and out of River Ridge. However like the rest of the areas around River Ridge it is now partly rundown and only has a fraction of the shipping traffic it once had.

The gang’s base is situated on an outlet of land adjacent to the main shipping dock with several industrial buildings and docks for mid-size cargo ships. The gang uses an abandoned cargo ship to hide its drug operation as it provides a hidden location compared to the industrial buildings with large glass windows. As for the industrial buildings, the gang uses them as a supply front to hold storage crates full of drugs and guns. The outlet has several abandoned silos and shipping crates from when this dock was used for shipping supplies. Access to these locations is by ship or an industrial road that runs through the harbor which provides the gang with a clear view of anyone coming near.

Apartment Mission Concept

Mission 2 takes place in an apartment complex built for the upper class families that wanted the niceties of life in the suburbs but could not afford it. To meet these needs the complex is built on the outskirts of Royal Cove next to the river, dividing it from downtown River Ridge. There is also a network of walkways running through the open areas of the complex and along the short cliff edge overlooking the river. Residents also have access to a Metro station and a small restaurant with patios overlooking the river just across the street. These apartments would have been the best place available to live near downtown River Ridge but the complex was completed shortly before the middle class left Royal Cove. When the gang moved into Royal Cove most of the high ranking members and their families moved into this complex as it was the best in the borough.

New York City

New York City

New York City

Market Mission Concept

The first mission in Remote Shepherd takes place around a small park at the heart of Royal Cove. On this day the park is being used for the weekly flea market where the locals can sell and buy goods. This is also the time when the local gang sends its debt collector around the local businesses to collect any outstanding debts the shop keeps might have. The mission for the player is to stop the gang from being able to collect this debt in an attempt to weaken the gang’s grip on the locals and to lighten the gang’s wallet. The player will first have to locate the gang’s debt collector based on his actions towards others as well as the behaviors of the locals towards him.

New York City

The concept for the market is based on the picture above of a section of Broadway in New York City. I came across this area while exploring New York City using Google maps street view for open markets. I had found a few places where there were open markets but they were all covered areas so that did not work for our game. I then changed gears and looked for a park that could be used to hold a flea market. This led me to this place which is too narrow for our game, so I simply made it into a full city block. With this we can have open areas giving the player a clear view of the NPCs so they can find the debt collector. It also allowed me to design an area in which some parts would be occluded from certain vantage points. Blocking the view from certain vantage points is important because we want to force the player to use all the vantage points.

Flea market vendor

Surrounding city blocks

Royal Cove Concept

At its height River Ridge was large enough to lead the local government to break up the city into several boroughs. The first chapter of our story takes place in Royal Cove that at its height was mostly populated by the middle class of River Ridge. Royal Cove is situated between the industrial borough and the downtown borough with the river separating it from both. When the industries went under this area was hit hard; when the jobs left most of the middle class population left with them. This allowed some of the gangs from the ghetto to spread into Royal Cove which quickly lead to the decay of the area. Some of the middle class that remains in Royal Cove have dedicated themselves to making the area a beautiful and safe place again. However this is a difficult, and sometimes dangerous, endeavor with the area infested with gangs.

10 years ago

Now

The concept for Royal Cove is based on the Bronx, one of the boroughs of New York City. The Bronx fit the idea we had for this area; it was built for the middle class but now is populated by the lower class. As discussed in River Ridge’s background we needed to create an area that has seen better days so that locations like the market make sense. Our first idea for this area was that it was always a rundown section of the city with an open market in one part of it. After having a day to think about this we couldn’t reason why there would be something as nice as this park in a rundown part of the city. This led us to rethink the area into what it is now.

By making Royal Cove an area that was once peaceful and beautiful and is now a decaying, crime filled area we gained two bonuses. The first bonus we gained is giving the player a reason to want this place to be beautiful again. The characters’ backstory is that they grew up in this borough when it was beautiful. While they were in college, and later the army, the industries went under. So when they came back from war they found their beloved home in the state that it is. The second bonus is we were able to craft a story where there are other people in this area that want to make it beautiful again.

River Ridge Concept

River Ridge is a large city that a few decades in the past was a thriving metropolis fueled by a large corporation. However several years ago this corporation went under, leaving the city with nothing to fuel its economy. This in turn paved the way for organized crime to spread to the point where even the police are helpless. Although all might seem lost there are some upstanding citizens who have devoted themselves to making their city a beautiful and safe place to live again. But with the law unable to stop the organized crime, this is a difficult, and sometimes dangerous, endeavor for these citizens.

15 Years ago

Today

The concept of River Ridge's background is based on many of the large cities on the east coast of the United States that were the center of large industries such as Detroit or Buffalo. This background was chosen because it gave us the flexibility in the design of the levels to make areas like the open market block for the first mission. This also opened up the idea of citizens working to make their city beautiful again, which became important to our story line.

The concept for the criminal story of River Ridge is based on the fictional city of Gotham from Batman. We wanted to create a place where the player felt they could trust the police to try to do their job but were just unable to without some help. This is important for the players that choose to clean the city through non-violent actions. If the player believed that the police were all under the influence of the criminal organizations there would be no point to handing them over to the authorities.