Game Vision

Vision Statement

The Capra of Malsburrow is an emotionally grounded, choice-driven visual narrative about healing from losses, forming meaningful relationships, and finding your voice in a world one may feel as they do not belong in. The vision here is to create an emotionally captivating storyline that those with similar experiences in the real world can relate to, and feel connected to characters who reflect their own struggles, while also offering a chance to explore a world where choices and consequences can provide perspective and certainty they may lack in real life.

Creative Pillars

1. Healing Through Connection

The heart of the game lies in characters supporting, challenging, and transforming one another. Every choice strengthens or strains relationships and shapes Noah’s growth as well as their own. To them, life is not easy, and there is no one size fits all answer to everything. Despite hardship, there must be healing in some way, good or bad.

2. Grounded Emotional Realism

Tone, writing, dialogue, and visuals all reflect everyday intimacy, trauma responses, and authentic character behavior. Despite being in a fantasy setting, there is no melodrama, no fantasy escapism. Its real world experiences with a different coat of paint.

3. Meaningful Personal Choice

Choices are not about branching into wild plot twists but rather about who Noah becomes, and how the plot shapes around himself. Dialogue decisions shape tone, relationships, and Noah’s internal change. These decisions impact how confident or cowardly, egotistical or humble, and caring or cruel Noah turns out to be, which impacts the story from then on.

4. A Lived-In Cultural World Without Real World Connections

Malsburrow is shaped by history, identity, class, and conflict, but every aspect of worldbuilding is meant to be fictional and not related to the real world. The town and setting should not reflect any real cultural divides, conflicts, or drama. Every aspect of the worldbuilding is meant to be fictional, while the story handles real world connections in its setting.

5. Slow, Intentional Growth

Character arcs unfold gradually. Progress comes from patience, trust-building, and emotional openness. This will result in a longer playtime, but that is the idea. TCoM is not a game to play while a cup of coffee is brewing, its a dedication that players invest time in slowly as they choose. As a result, dialogue may be long, stretched out, and potentially may take several hours for a single Act in a single arc to complete.

Player Fantasy

TCoM delivers the fantasy of:

This is not a power fantasy where players can min/max every aspect of money making or connections. This is a slow burn emotional fantasy that helps players feel heard and their actions never ignored or brushed off.

Target Audience

TCoM is designed for players who:

Appeals especially to fans of games like:

Visual Tone

As the storyline can be both soft or heavy, TCoM's storytelling and tone relies heavily on its visuals.

Light Tone

Dark Tone

Emotional Descriptors

Light Emotion

Dark Emotion

All actions made are never for shock value. Characters that could be considered evil are still emotionally humane as everyone else. Antagonists never act generally evil just "because," there is always rhyme and reason for actions, visible mistakes, uncertainty in actions, and expressiveness that shows the darker side of people without being evil for just plot.

Purpose / Intent

TCoM is a story about the transition from enduring life to living it.
It exists to portray:

It is a compassionate narrative about choosing to heal when it feels impossible to do so.