Game Pitch 3 - Cabin

1. CABIN IN THE
WOODS
(The Video Game)

2. THE ADAPTATION:
Based on the 2012 Horror/Satirical film “Cabin in
the Woods”, directed by Drew Goddard and
produced by Joss Whedon.

3. BASIC PREMISE:
The film centers on five survivors (each of whom embodies a
different archetype of victims in horror movies) trying to escape from
a mysterious cabin and its surrounding area while being attacked by
supernatural creatures.

4. …Little do they realize that these creatures are being sent and
controlled by a mysterious organization in an underground facility
beneath the cabin, tormenting the survivors as part of a centuries-old
ritual sacrifice to (SPOILER ALERT) appease and provide
entertainment for an ancient evil.

5. THE GAMEPLAY
Five players form a team, each one controlling a different one of the
five horror archetypes (more on those later)
If one of the characters is killed by monsters, that player is effectively
“out”, and eliminated from play until the next round
In order to win a round in the game, these five survivors have to
navigate the game’s setting, avoid the monsters and keep at least
two members of their group alive for the duration of the round’s time
limit (represented in-game by the transition from night to sunrise).

6. Meanwhile, a sixth player takes control of the Director of the
Organization, and is set in direct competition against the other five
players.
Instead of controlling a character directly, the Director has a full
overhead view of the map, and can direct the monsters towards the
survivors in a manner similar to a real-time strategy game (RTS)
In order for the Director to win a round, he or she must direct the
monsters and have them successfully kill at least four of the five
survivors before the time limit runs out.

7. EXTRA CONDITIONS:
At the start of the round, the Director is given a randomized list telling
him/her the order in which the survivors must be killed (this deviates
from the set order established in the movie, in order to make
gameplay less formulaic)
If the Director fails to abide by this set order and kills a survivor out of
sequence, the round automatically ends and is considered a loss for
the Director.
This list is not shown to the survivors themselves, meaning they have
no way to predict who the Director will go after first.

8. THE SURVIVORS
As stated earlier, it is the goal of the survivors to try and keep
themselves alive until sunrise.
To try and achieve this goal, survivors can attempt to hide from
monsters, scavenge tools and weapons to fight back, coordinate
strategies amongst themselves, and so on.
Each survivor character embodies one of the five following horror movie
archetypes:
The Athlete The Scholar The Fool The Whore The Virgin

9. THE SURVIVORS
(CONTINUED):
Each survivor has a set of specific strengths and weaknesses, based
on their respective archetypes.
• The Whore: Fastest running speed, second-best physical
attributes, difficult to scare
• The Athlete: Best physical attributes; able to fight monsters
without use of a weapon
• The Scholar: Able to identify important items/monster
weaknesses as well as notice traps before they are activated
• The Fool: Immune to mind-altering monster effects, able to
give a “morale boost” to allies’ stats, able to sneak past some
monsters
• The Virgin: Starts off with the lowest stats, but gets stronger as
the situation becomes more dire, eventually surpassing the
other four characters in terms of ability

10. THE MONSTERS
At the start of the game, the Director can choose a limited number of
monsters from an overall “pool” to be usable in that round. Like the
survivor, each monster has specific strengths and weaknesses that
affect how useful they are in different situations, meaning the
Director will have to employ strategy to use each monster effectively.
While some monsters are purely physical, others are able to inflict
different fear-based or mind-altering effects on the survivors,
negatively impacting their stats in various ways. Some monsters can
also plant traps and interfere with the environment, such as by
causing lights to flicker out.

11. SOME MONSTER EXAMPLES:
Werewolf Zombie
Dragon-Bat

12. Giant Snake
Dolls
Hell Lord

13. Vampire
Evil Clown
Merman
Mummy

14. OTHER IDEAS
• Potential to have multiple “maps” with different locations and
environments to play in
• Online leaderboards to rank overall performances as either a
survivor or the Director