Game Introduction
You play as a peasant servant in the Medici family palace. The year is 1478, and you have just received a vision from God that a group of conspirators lead by the Pazzi family intend to murder your masters, Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici. If they are successful, they will usurp power in Florence. Though no one believes you about the murder plot, you know God hears your prayers and always comes to your aid. Discover as much information as you can about the conspirators and your Medici masters, and decide who to pray for. Will you ask God to bless the conspirators and force a change in Florentine government, or will you stay loyal to your lords and pray for their survival?
- Genre
- Point-and-Click Adventure; Historical Adventure
- GamePlay
- Walk through the Medici Palace and talk to NPCs. Complete simple delivery tasks for NPCs. Talk to NPCs to learn more about the conspiracy and life in the renaissance.
- Target audience & platforms
- Players are 1st and 2nd year college history students with little-to-no prior video game experience. They will play the game using the mouse (and optional keyboard) on laptop computers. Mac and PC versions will be available for download.
- Look and Feel
- The game is set in the Medici Palazzo in Florence during the year 1478. As art from this period is abundant, the game composed of period-appropriate renaissance paintings. Player should feel as though they are living in the world of the Medici.
Story
Students will play as a peasant servant in the Medici Palace. They get divine visions of the conspiracy as it is being planned through their dreams. They start out loyal to the Medici family and try to warn them of the plot, but no one believes them. They decide to gather more evidence about the conspiracy and its perpetrators, and they believe if they pray hard enough for the plot to be foiled, God will stop the assassination. However, the player very quickly learns the Medici family is not as virtuous as it seems. The player learns about Medici corruption. Now they must decide whether or not the Medici should be in power. If the player prays for God to bless the conspiracy and oust the Medici, the player believes God will do so.
- The Real History of the Pazzi Conspiracy
- The Pazzi Conspiracy is a political event that took place in 1478 Florence. The rulers of Florence, Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici, were the targets. The perpetrators were the rival Pazzi banking family, high-ranking officials of the Catholic church, key politicians across northern and central Italy, and a neighboring mercenary lord. The would-be assassins hoped to flip political control in Florence from the Medici to the Pazzi as well as gain land concessions and church offices. In the end, the coup failed and Florence became even more pro-Medici than ever.
- Story Structure
- The game is broken up into 7 episodes. At the start of each episode, the player receives a vision about the progress of the conspiracy. Then they have a day of work as a servant in the Medici Palace. They run simple delivery errands in the palace, and they will have the opportunity to talk to NPCs, interact with items, and explore the building to gather more information about the Medici and the conspirators.
- Choice-Driven Story Elements
- At the end of every episode, players will have a chance to pray to bless either the Medici family or the conspirators. Which side they pray for will determine what kind of evidence they get the next day. If they pray for the Medici, they will learn new information about why the Medici are bad rulers that deserve to be deposed. If they pray for the conspiracy to succeed, they will learn new information about how the Medici are great rulers and good people who care about Florence.
Gameplay and Mechanics
This section will be my biggest challenge. It will be time-consuming to program all the player actions and interactions, their ability to go in between locations, the dialogue progression, the game's memory of player choices, etc. I can put all the assets into the game project easily. Making them all work together as intended will be the hard part.
Gameplay
What does the player do throughout the game?
- Player Goal
- The player goal is to decide whether they are pro-Medici or anti-Medici.
- Actions
- During the main day-time portion of each episode, players will complete simple delivery tasks. They will also have much freedom to investigate the palace and the conspiracy on their own.
- Delivery Tasks
- Higher ranking NPCs, such as member of the Medici family or characters acting on their behalf, will give the player a simple delivery task. They may have to deliver an item or a message. The player will always complete the task by locating the intended recipient, interacting with them, and following up on any new task given. ----- The goals of this mechanic are: 1)) to give players a tangible, achievable goal for the main part of each episode 2)) to force the player to speak to different kinds of NPCs and explore the palace
- Investigation
- 1)) Explore the Palazzo Medici. Navigate between rooms using the mouse or keyboard or through the map. 2)) Talk to NPCs. The palace hosts people of all social classes including elite bankers, important politicians and religions figures, famous artists, craftsmen, workers, and other servants. Each one will have unique perspective on the Medici and different attitudes about life in 1478 Florence. 3)) Examine objects and NPCs. Each item, person, and location in the palace will have a short description. This will be optional information on the Renaissance that curious players will seek out, allowing them to learn more about the world of the Renaissance at their own pace.
Mechanics
What are the implicit and explicit rules for navigating the world?
- Player Movement
- The player will have one unchanging walking speed. They can walk with WASD, the arrow keys, or by left clicking where they want their avatar to go.
- NPC Movement
- Some NPCs will pace back and forth in a pre-determined circuit at a fixed speed. They will stop if the player interacts with them, and they'll pick up where they left off in the circuit after the interaction. Other NPCs won't move at all.
- Objects
- Objects will highlight when a player hover their mouse over them or clicks on them. When a player picks up an object, it will appear in their inventory. If the object was visible in the world, it will disappear from the world and reappear in the player's inventory. If the player uses an object (such as by giving it to an NPC) the object will disappear from the player's inventory.
- Actions
- The player can interact with objects by examining them or picking them up. They can interact with an NPC by examining them, talking to them, or giving them an item. When not engaged in an interaction, the player can exit the room they are in and enter a different one.
- Saving and Loading
- The player can manually save their progress at any point in the menu. They can load their most recent save from the menu.
- Replaying
- Once a player has unlocked a particular Pro-Medici or Anti-Medici scene, it gets unlocked in the player's menu for them to replay at any point. They will only be able to play the scene and return to the menu.
- Dialogue
- The bulk of the game content is in the dialogue. The player will have multiple response choices during dialogue interactions. These choices will impact the direction of the conversation.
Characters
This game's story is very much character-driven. The characters will fall into four categories: the Medici, the Pazzi and their co-conspirators, famous historical figures that would have interacted with the Medici at this time, and the servants of the Medici palace. All the characters except the servants are based off of real historical figures. They are intended to show the wide range of people that were part of the Medici household and the diversity of opinions in Medicean Florence.
Medici
The Medici family are private citizens in name, but they really rule Florence behind the scenes. These bankers control the Signoria, the government, by stacking it with loyalists. The head of the family is Lorenzo "il Magnifico," grandson of Cosimo "il Vecchio" who initially brought the Medici to power. Lorenzo and his younger brother Giuliano are very close. Even though Lorenzo acts as the head of the family, the dynasty could easily be continued through Giuliano if he were to die. One would have to eliminate both brothers if they want to create a power vacuum and fill it.
Fabulously wealthy, the Medici are well known patrons of the arts, and later the sciences. Florentine gems such as Sandro Botticelli and Michelangelo Buonarroti enjoy steady work with high wages at the Medici court.
- Lorenzo "il Magnifico" de' Medici
- Lorenzo is the head of the Medici house. He runs the banks and controls all of the family assets, and he runs the government from the shadows. Though widely known to be unattractive with his large nose and foul odor, Lorenzo has unmatched social grace and can easily woo any man from statesmen to religious figures to artists. He is widely celebrated in Italy for his intelligence. He is a skilled diplomat, a savvy businessman, a lover of classical philosophy, and a budding poet.
- Giuliano de' Medici
- Giuliano is the younger brother of Lorenzo. The two are very close, but very different. Giuliano is considered the most eligible bachelor in Florence, frequently paired with Simonetta Vespucci at state festivals as the two pinnacles of classical beauty. Giuliano is the young athlete of the family, while Lorenzo is the intellect behind the family's success.
- Angelo Poliziano
- Though not a Medici himself, Lorenzo and Giuliano consider him as a brother. When Lorenzo is cut on the neck during the April attack, Poliziano fears the wound is poisoned and sucks on it as a precaution, risking his own poisoning to potentially save Lorenzo. Poliziano is a philosopher and poet. He and the Medici brothers study Plato and Aristotle above all.
Pazzi Conspirators
The conspirators all come to the plot with different motivations, but each of them would benefit if the Medici were ousted from power. The conspiracy is named for the Pazzi family, but its members only made up a fraction of the men involved. After the conspiracy failed, the Pazzi name was all but eradicated in Florence.
- Francesco de' Pazzi
- One of the heirs of the Pazzi clan, Francesco seeks glory for his family by doing away with the Medici. If all goes well, the Pazzi will control Florence politically and reap the benefits of prime business deals. Francesco and Girolamo Riario hatch the plot. Francesco is one of the two assassins that stab Giuliano de' Medici to death outside the Duomo.
- Jacopo de' Pazzi
- As the oldest male, Jacopo is the head of the Pazzi clan. He never had heirs of his own, so his nephew Francesco will inherit much of Pazzi wealth. Jacopo is a shrewd business man and a successful banker. His family bank has the official contract to finance the papacy, an honor the Medici once enjoyed and still covet. Jacopo was initially against the conspiracy because he thought the chances of success were slim and the risks were too great. Papal support won him over.
- Girolamo Riario
- Girolamo Riario is one of the Pope's nephews as well as the Lord of Imola in the north. He started hatching the conspiracy after Lorenzo de' Medici blocked his land grab in northern Italy. If the assassination plot had been successful, Girolamo Riario would have become Lord of Florence with the powerful Pazzi clan at his back.
- Francesco Salviati
- Full name Francesco Salviati Riario, this man is connected through strategic marriages to the Riario clan (and thus the Pope), the Pazzi family, and even the Medici. His nephew is Cardinal Raffaele Riario, who he uses as a pawn to lure the Medici to their assassination. The Medici opposed Francesco Salviati's appointment to the archbishopric of Pisa because they hoped Giuliano or another Medici loyalist could take the seat. In Francesco Salviati's mind, the Medici are an obstacle to a successful and lucrative career.
- Giovanni Battista da Montescco
- This man is a military general in charge of a mercenary army for hire - in other words, a condottiero. The conspirators loop him in because of his military ties to the Pope and Count Girolamo Riario. His job would be to provide the armies that would support the post-murder coup. He is skeptical of the plot at first, famously saying, "Take care, may lords, for Florence is a mighty undertaking." He even visits Lorenzo in Florence to keep up appearances and has second thoughts about the murder because of how likable he finds Lorenzo.
- Cardinale Raffaele Riario
- As the cardinal of Pisa, Raffaele Riario is an important figure in Medici-controlled Tuscany. The conspirators invite him to Florence with them to pay the Medici a visit, knowing Lorenzo would be socially obligated to host him. This would provide an opportunity for the conspirators to kill the Medici brothers at the same dinner. Lorenzo invites the Cardinal to return and look at his art collections another day, Sunday April 26th, the day the plot is carried out. After the plot fails, Lorenzo believes he is innocent and is able to save him from the man-hunt.
- Pope Sixtus IV
- The Pope had tense relations with Lorenzo for many years. They fought over territory and who would fill important church positions, particularly in Pisa. The Pope strongly disliked Lorenzo and would benefit greatly from a change in power in Florence. When the conspirators asked for his blessing to carry out the double murder, Sixtus carefully noted that he could not sanction murder as the Pope. However, he made it clear that the result of such a plot would benefit him greatly and that he would deal kindly with whoever were to carry it out. He fully endorsed the Pazzi Conspiracy and even offered resources in support.
- Bernardo Bandini Baroncelli
- He was not one of the main plotters, but he carried out the attack on Giuliano de' Medici with Francesco de' Pazzi. Between the two of them, they were able to stab Giuliano 19 times. Leonardo da Vinci has a famous sketch of Baroncelli's body hanging after the fallout of the conspiracy.
Famous Figures
- Sandro Botticelli
- (Artist) The artist who painted "The Birth of Venus" and "Primavera."
- Michelangelo Buonarroti
- (Artist) Lorenzo noticed Michelangelo's talent when he was a young man and took his under his wing.
- Benozzo Gozzoli
- (Artist) He frescoed the Magi chapel in the Palzzo Medici. "The Procession of the Magi" features Medici family members as the Biblical figures to showcase Medici wealth, power, and piety.
Servants/Workers
The characters in this section are ahistorical. Too little is known about the poor in the Renaissance to build fully characters out of real people. This class of characters is still important to show that the world of the Medici was not composed entirely of wealthy elites. The rich needed a small army of ordinary people to sustain their lifestyles.
- You, The Player
- You play as an ordinary servant in the Medici house. You are deeply religious and believe that God and His saints watch over you. God has blessed you with prosperity by placing you in the Medici palace rather than on the streets. Though you know murder is wrong in the Catholic faith, divine justice is another matter entirely. You haven't made up your mind about the Medici or the conspiracy, but you do believe in the power of prayer. God listens when you pray, and you believe that He will answer your prayers if you pray hard enough. You must decide whether you think the conspiracy should succeed or not and ask God to act.
Level Design
The history is set in Florence, but the game takes place almost completely in the Palazzo Medici because that is where the servant (player) works. This is the Medici family home in the heart of Florence. It is literally steps from the massive central Duomo, and its just a short walk from every other major site in the city.
Florence
Palazzo Medici
Renaissance palaces are the size of modern day apartment complexes. The family would often live on upper floors and host businesses on the ground level. The building would often have a courtyard garden (or two) so that the family could enjoy fresh air without walking among the general public.
The Medici accepted important guests in their gorgeously frescoed home chapel featuring the Journey of the Magi scene. Alexander Lee's book, The Ugly Renaissance, has a whole chapter dedicated to how this fresco exemplified Medici wealth, power, and piety, as well as the effect it had on guests. This chapel - or at least the painting - should be a central image of the game since all of the player's power is through prayer.
The Duomo
Game Flow Chart
See the images below for flow charts on the Overall Gameplay Structure, the Player's Actions, and the Core Loop of Engagement.
Audio & Sound F/x
The sound design overall should reflect the time period. When possible, I will use music from, or inspired by, 15th century court music. The SFX will be realistic rather than cartoony.
- Background Music
- Background music will be either taken directly from popular court music in the late 15th century, or at least inspired by it, if complete historical accuracy is not feasible. Finding the right music for accuracy, copyright, and tone will be time-consuming.
- SFX
- There are many websites with free-to-use SFX. I have done sound design for a game before, so this will not be as time consuming as the background music. SFX will add to the game's believability and give the player feedback when they do an action such as click on a menu item or have their character walk.
- Dialogue
- The dialogue will not be voice acted. This would be challenging for a number of reasons, and it would likely distract from the world of the game if the voice acting is subpar. Instead, the dialogue will have a light SFX as the text appears on the screen. Games like Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, and a number of RPGs do this successfully.
Technical
The game will be made using Unity. It should run smoothly when downloaded on Mac and PC computers.
User Interface (controls)
The game should be entirely playable using the mouse. Players will be able to left click on parts of the world to move the player character to that position. They will also left click on menu items to interact with them. They will right click on objects and NPCs in the world to see interaction options: talk, pick up, give, examine, etc.
The WASD and arrow keys will also function as movement keys. Players will have the option to use any of these keys or the left mouse button for movement.