Design Document for:

The Final Girl

The Unofficial Clock Tower Sequel

Designed By
Carlos Ramrez
Prototype Developed By
Carlos Ramrez
Andrs Vzquez
Pablo Mrquez

GDD Written by Carlos Ramrez

Version # 1.00
Sunday, August 23, 2015

The Final Girl - Design Document

Game Overview
Philosophy
The idea of The Final Girl comes from two different sources of inspiration.
First, I was reading up on articles and essays on the state of horror video games for my
first published book called Masters of Interactive Horror (Editorial Sntesis, 2015) when I ran into
Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film, a book by Carol J. Clover
which focuses on slasher films from a feminist perspective. In this study, Clover introduces the
notion of The Final Girl, that refers to the last woman alive to confront the killer. Clover argues
that this is a common clich found in horror films like Alien, Halloween, Friday the 13th, A
Nightmare on Elm Street, and so on.
Second, I started to play and analyse classic horror video games for the aforementioned
book. One of them was Clock Tower (Human Entertainment, 1995), a Japanese survival horror
game inspired by Dario Argento's cult horror movie Phenomena (1985). I observed that Jennifer,
the main character in Clock Tower, had been designed following the guidelines of The Final Girl
stated by Clover.

Common Questions
What is the game?
The Final Girl is an horror-adventure game where you have to escape from a serial killer
with no other help than your inventiveness using the items at hand.
Why create this game?
The Final Girl is a tribute to both the Clock Tower series and the typical slasher movies
mentioned by Clover where a teenage girl has to survive a serial killer, or a monster acting as
such.
Where does the game take place?
The Final Girl takes place at Sarah's house. Her parents are away for the weekend. While
she's watching TV, suddenly the lights go out, followed by the sound of footsteps coming from
the second floor. Sarah cannot escape from the house, but she can flee and hide from the
stalker. The setting is a typical American two-storey house including kitchen, living room,
bathroom, vestibule and two bedrooms, with stairs connecting the two floors and a small
cupboard under the stairs.
What do I control?

The Final Girl - Design Document

You control Sarah Bailey, a 16-year-old teenage girl in pyjamas. She is a bit rude, but she
has a survival instinct. You may not like her but you must protect her from the serial killer, so give
your all!
How many characters do I control?
Only Sarah, but this is just a prototype. The idea for the full game is to include several
levels, each with its own main character (always a girl). These levels would become increasingly
hard and be set in different places, like a cabin in the woods or an old mansion.
What is the main focus?
The main goal of Sarah, and therefore the player, is to survive the serial killer. There are
two possible endings for each level: you can flee and hide until the countdown reaches zero or
try knocking the serial killer out using a clever combination of the items at hand. If the first goal
is achieved, you will beat the level, but the serial killer will run away when the cops arrive at
Sarah's house, alerted by the neighbours. If the second goal is achieved, cops will find the serial
killer knocked out by Sarah. This can only be achieved before the countdown reaches zero.
The main goal is always to stay alive until cops arrive. If you just flee and hide that's OK;
you beat the level. But if you make a special effort and find the way to knock out the serial killer,
you will unlock precious achievements. So start training your out-of-the-box thinking! Throw
objects at the killer, use certain hiding spots and, above all, always close the door behind you,
since that will keep the killer busy smashing the door with his axe.
Whats different?
There aren't many point 'n click adventure games which are fast-paced instead of giving
the player a lot of time to figure out the right combination of items. In The Final Girl, players
have to think fast and act faster. If there's a genre that suits The Final Girl, that would be
"against-the-clock adventure game".

The Final Girl - Design Document

Feature Set
General Features
Suspense provided by game mechanics
References to classic slasher movies
Replayability and unlockable achievements
SNES-style 2D graphics
Original 16-bit background music

Gameplay
Fast-paced point 'n click adventure game
Inventory management
Emergent gameplay
Puzzle-solving under pressure
Same level, different outcomes

Multiplayer Features (Full game only)

Cooperative multiplayer (2 players against the AI)
PvP multiplayer (Player 1 controls the main character and Player 2 controls the serial killer)

Development team
Mrquez, Pablo: 2D animation
Ramrez, Carlos: game design, background music, dialogues, additional programming
Vzquez, Andrs: main programming, 2D art

The Final Girl - Design Document

The Game World

The Physical World
Overview
The Final Girl takes place at Sarah's house. Her parents are away for the weekend. Sarah
cannot escape from the house, but she can flee and hide from the stalker. The setting is a typical
American two-storey house including kitchen, living room, bathroom, vestibule and two
bedrooms, with stairs connecting the two floors and a small cupboard under the stairs.
Key Locations
Living room
This is where you start. Once you gain control of Sarah, you have to use the phone to
call 911. This is how you get instructions on how to play the game. After the call, the countdown
begins and the serial killer starts chasing you. In the living room, you can turn the alarm and the
TV on. The killer doesn't want the neighbours to wake up by the noise, so he will destroy
whatever you turn on with his axe, giving you time to escape. Make good use of this strategy,
since once the alarm or the TV are destroyed you won't be able to use them again.
Kitchen
In the kitchen you can find almost every element needed to knock out the killer. If you
open the tap, you will spill water on the floor. See that toaster over there? Wonder if you can
electrocute the killer with the wire? Well, you can. You just need some pliers to chop the wire
and place it on the wet floor, then wait until the killer walks over. Just remember to be on the
opposite side of the trap or you'll be caught between a rock and a hard place!
Sarah's bedroom
Just like the TV and the alarm, you can turn on the stereo to attract attention of the
killer. Apart from that, you can hide in the wardrobe when the killer is not watching you, but if
you spend too much time inside he will end up noticing that you are hidden.
Bathroom

and fall.

There's a bottle of gel you can spill on the floor. When the killer walks over, he will slip

Parents bedroom
At first glance, you don't have much to do here. But wait a minute, how about having a
look inside the bedside table? There you go, the key to the cupboard under the stairs! Now you
can pick up those precious pliers.

The Final Girl - Design Document

Second-floor corridor
Don't forget to use the switchboard to turn electricity back on. Otherwise, you won't be
able to electrocute the killer in the kitchen.
Weapons
You can pick up certain items and throw them at the killer to gain some precious time.
The table below shows how many seconds the killer is stunned by a successful attack.
To attack, you must face the killer and press the spacebar to throw the preselected item
from your inventory. Remember: Sarah will throw the item in the direction she is facing, so make
sure you're in the right position!
Name

Vase

Lamp

Frying pan

Knife

Damage
Location

3 seconds
Living room

3 seconds
Parents
bedroom
Sarah's
bedroom

5 seconds
Kitchen

7 seconds
Kitchen

Gel (on
the floor)
7 seconds
Bathroom

Game Engine
Overview
The game engine used for this prototype is GameMaker: Studio, by YoYo Games. For
now, the game runs only on Windows.

The Final Girl - Design Document

Game Characters
Sarah Bailey
You control Sarah Bailey, a 16-year-old teenage girl in pyjamas. She is a bit rude, but she
has a survival instinct. You may not like her but you must protect her from the serial killer, so give
your all! Her skills include running, going up and down the stairs, interacting with certain objects,
picking up items, throwing and dropping them, and hiding in places such as the wardrobe.

Enemies and Monsters

There's only one enemy in The Final Girl: the serial killer. This character is inspired by
serial killers from slasher movies such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Friday the 13th and
Scream. Why does he want to kill Sarah? Well, he's just an archetypical character. He enjoys
chasing and slashing immature and naive young girls, specially when they're blond. The killer
from The Final Girl won't stop stalking Sarah until one of them is defeated. We have already
seen how Sarah can accomplish this, but what about the killer? If he gets too close to Sarah, he
will catch her. He will let her go the first two times because he's a maniac who's delighted by
someone else's suffering. However, the third time he catches her will be the last one.

The Final Girl - Design Document

User Interface
Overview

1 Inventory
Whenever you pick up an item, it will appear here. You can carry up to four items at the
same time. Press 1-4 to select an item, with each number corresponding to a slot, from the left
to the right. Then press the spacebar to throw that item.
2 Printed text
These are pieces of informative text. If you hover the mouse over interactive items, the
name of those items will be displayed here. Besides, there are other pieces of text that give a
hint about what to do next, much like Sarah's thoughts.
3 Countdown
If it reaches zero and you haven't been killed, you win.
4 Mouse cursor
Use it to interact with certain items.

The Final Girl - Design Document

5 Dialogue box
You can press the spacebar to skip any dialogue box.

6 Action buttons
Right-click on an interactive item to display the action buttons, then left-click on the
action you want to perform.

The Final Girl - Design Document

Controls
Overview

10