03) Production outline: – Jabber – Digital Portfolio {by Jacob Appleton-Burdall}

Synopsis:
A weak girl with overgrown hair, cat ears and a tail wakes up inside an unknown dark and dilapidated facility. They have no idea who they are, or why they are in this place. After climbing out of a chamber they begin to wander around the facility, trying to find a way outside, even if they are unsure what ‘outside’ even is. The further they venture through the facility, the more they discover what they really are, and eventually meet another ear-cladded girl of a very similar appearance, but a completely different demeanour. Will the two make it out into the open together – or alone -, or will they be trapped in their eternal prison, not of the building, but of the mind…

Story deep-dive:
100s of years ago (in relation to the current unspecified time period), a company mass-produced and sold a new species of alive conscious sub-human designed purely for sexual and companionship-related usage. Sporting cat ears and a tail, a perfect slim figure and soft luscious multicoloured hair, they originally appealed to fans of otaku and geek culture for a brief period of time, until a craze of owning such a creature spread into general public consumption. Many at the time claimed it was highly unethical for human-like creatures with undeveloped brains to be used and exploited in such a way, but they were reminded that they were designed specifically for this sole function. For a period of time, they were even sold in order to combat drastically rising levels of sexual abuse and harassment across the globe. Increased global demand gave way to the construction of a giant plant residing in a snowy forest in the middle of nowhere, in order to stay out of reach of prying government agencies, which allowed mass production to begin. With these ‘Catgirls’ not being developed enough to understand even the most basic things and how anything around them made any sense, not a single one ever retaliated, and they all lived incognizant for the rest of their days. In the present day, the production facility has been out of service for hundreds of years, with no signs of life to be found and mostly dilapidated. That is, until a brand new unactivated catgirl finally wakes up, completely alone and severely overgrown. usually one of her kind would simply perish in the blistering winds billowing throughout the facility, but her thick overgrown hair acting as a perfect oversized coat and her over-developed mind give her a fighting chance to finally escape, and perhaps make a life of her own.

Story presentation:
This experience is created like an RPG but will feature no battles, as I want to fully concentrate my time and resources on more story elements. The story will be told through dialogue boxes upon selecting PCs, data storage points and paper files found around the facility the game is set in, as well as through some brief interactions with the secondary cat girl character. Certain visual details will also shed context on specific story elements to tie the experience together. I will be very adamant about not falling into the trap of creating a video game, as that is not what the assignment is about – the story will come first.

Characters:

Protagonist:
Name: Me
Age: Many 100s of years old
Appearance: Giant mound of unkempt overgrown hair wraps around her petite nude body, keeping her from perishing within minutes. She has cat ears on her head and an overgrown tail sprouting from her lower back.
Traits: Confused, tired, cold, resourceful, curious

Secondary character:
Name: ???
Age: Older than Me
Appearance: Same species as Me, except not as pristine-condition looking. Has multiple deep gouges out of her flesh, bandages wrapped around her limbs and wears company stockings taken from an ‘inactive specimen’ to keep her legs warm.

Secondary characters:
Name: The Mushi
Age: N/A
Appearance: Tiny little dancing singing creatures with overly happy smiles, come in many different forms such as butterflies, clouds, flowers, music notes and worms.
Note – they only exist inside Me’s mind

Antagonist:
The story’s antagonist is the facility itself and by technicality the engineers who used to work there a long time ago.

Idea sketches:

My first sketch work explored the different variations of potential visual styles I could adopt for the project. I always knew from the beginning that I would utilise a stylised cartoon-y look, especially for the characters, as it perfectly reflects the child-like mentality of the catgirl species. Something more realistic for the characters wouldn’t fit as thematically, however, a more detailed and mature style would greatly fit the environment instead to juxtapose the two.