The initial GDD aimed to explore the psychological complexity behind a serial killer, so Youth and I began our early narrative planning with that theme in mind. We didn’t find a clear motive for the original killer in the source material (or perhaps we overlooked it), so we decided to redesign the circumstances of the victim’s death and the killer’s motivation while keeping the original character set.
Building on the original concept of the killer, we created the character of Laura’s ex-husband, Steve, a violent, alcoholic man. Both Laura and Rose lived under the shadow of his abuse. Unable to endure the suffering any longer, Laura eventually chose to escape, but she left her daughter behind and ran away alone. Rose was left to bear everything by herself. Over time, she began to resent her mother for abandoning her. When she later encountered Laura, who had seemingly found happiness at the motel, it only deepened her pain. In response, Rose decided to lock Laura in an underground basement that no one else knew about. That way, Laura could never leave her again.
Rose never intended to kill Laura; she simply wanted her mother to stay with her forever. Once she felt certain that Laura wouldn’t leave, she found peace of mind and went on to live a quiet life with her stepfather, Henry. Eventually, Rose married and had a daughter, Jade. Years later, Jade happened to discover one of Laura’s old diaries, which became the catalyst for the events of our game’s story.
To guide players toward uncovering the true killer, Youth and I added many lines of dialogue in the outline to subtly hint at Rose’s past presence at the motel.
Some Examples of Metaphor and Foreshadowing in The Dialogue
- The Resident in the Scene: 3.2 Hallway is Rose herself. Back when she was wealthy, she purchased the motel and has since spent much of her time living there. When she saw that her son-in-law Alex, a police officer, had arrived at the motel, she realized that the truth might finally come to light. So she chose to help Alex uncover the long-buried secret she had kept hidden for years.
- In Rose’s room and in the hallway, we placed two oil paintings as subtle clues. One of them depicts Oedipus, the tragic hero from Greek mythology who unknowingly killed his father and married his mother. In modern psychology, the term “Oedipus complex” is often used to describe an unconscious attachment to one’s mother. We felt this served as a strong symbolic hint toward Rose’s underlying motivations.
- This segment contains several layers of hidden clues. First, Theodore Horton, the former owner of the motel and a known serial killer, mentions that a girl once broke into his basement and discovered his secret. He also notes that the girl’s father was a drunk, which subtly implies that the girl was actually Rose. Horton goes on to say that he should leave the area and stop killing because the police are beginning to suspect him. The video is dated 1925, a full year before Laura checked into the motel, which makes it impossible for Horton to have killed her. He also mentions that he saw something in Rose’s eyes, something that reminded him of himself. This suggests that he recognized in her the same violent tendencies, subtly revealing that Rose is, in fact, the true killer.
- This footage is dated August 31, 1926, and serves as Laura’s final message. She checked into the motel in early August. Since the basement had access to water but no food, we researched how long a person can survive on water alone and found it to be roughly one month. That’s why we chose to set the date of this video about a month later. In the recording, Laura implies that she can no longer endure her situation and wants to take control of her own fate, suggesting that she ultimately chose to end her life. This video subtly hints at the cause of her death. While her circumstances may point toward murder, the immediate cause was suicide. We included this hint to help players draw the right conclusion by the end of the game.
- These two examinable items both hint that Laura once attempted to escape from the basement, but ultimately failed, and that there is no one else down there.
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