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.