When choosing a competition theme, I want to go with something that makes a story interesting (for me at least).
I came to the conclusion that after stubborn villains, this is next on my list: DESPAIR.
Or rather, someone facing a seemingly completely hopeless situation. The hero having all the odds against him, that kind of thing just makes any story much more entertaining. In this competition, it's time to emphasize such a situation.
Task
Your hero (*for an exception, see below) must be put in an absolutely despairing situation.
You may not be sure what exactly I mean (though some of it is supposed to be left up to your creativity) so I'll clarify a little and give you examples. I know. I'm so nice.
Obviously there's some kind of obstacle in the hero's path, but what exactly makes it despairing?
First, for a situation to actually put you in despair, high stakes are always better. Sure, you can go with the usual - loss means losing a case, but if the hero has to worry about additional things like... losing his life, or being sold off into slavery, that'd certainly increase his despair, wouldn't you agree?
Second, complete loss of hope at solving the dilemma, as per definition of despair. Since the first requirement makes it likely the hero cares, he'll obviously try everything that comes to his mind until the options are exhausted. (unless the situation is so overwhelmingly hopeless there literally aren't even reasonable options he could try.) Maybe he had a slight ray of hope, his friend with the decisive testimony that'd turn the case around arrived just in time. BUT THEN... betrayal. For some reason the friend turned against our hero, and his last hope is shattered.
Some of this will be a matter of characterization and presentation. If I cannot empathize with the character in question their despair may not be fully conveyed. Presentation should be obvious. Don't just present it as a minor setback. It shouldbe presented as completely devastating, screwing up any seemingly foolproof plan the hero had, shattering his final bit of hope, leaving him with no confidence at all. Of course, when people have nothing left to lose... that is often when they can risk everything and rise from the ashes. While this is normally what should happen, unless you want to go for a sad ending or something else that doesn't mean the story is over, whether they rise again from their despair or not is up to you and not a requirement.
Example time.
Canon example: 2-4. The solve the main dilemma, Nick's final ray of hope is that the assassin is caught. So he stalls for time hoping for just that. However, in the end, that hope is shattered. He tried absolutely everything, but in the end he ends up in despair, having to choose between the two options he wanted to avoid at all costs. (before Franzy storms in, and miracle happen)
Generic fancase example: Let's go with locked rooms. You know you love them. In most fancases, solving these is just put off until the end. However, they're generally not really presented as that despairing. By the time you get to them, you've usually solved everything else that's there to solve about the case. So there's way too much hope around, and usually it just takes another couple steps. They're almost always minor setbacks at best. However, they can certainly presented as a despairing situation. If the hero tried several theories on them and every last one was completely crushed, I can certainly picture quite a despairing situation. Ideally, he's also tried to call for a recess, tried to prolong the trial for another day, and tried to convince the prosecution that since he's solved the rest of the case they should just consider it a draw and be nice. I want to see them try everything and despair. Add some inner monologue about how it's simply no good to try this and that and you pretty much have what I want to see.
Two more things.
*An exception mentioned above. It doesn't necessarily have to be the hero who's put in a dilemma. You can go with someone else, as long as we're able to follow this person's thoughts throughout the situation. I want to see them consider each option in their head and conclude it's simply no good. Keep in mind that yes, this means you can just make the villain the one who despairs, but it's generally harder to make people empathize with the villain, so the impact might be significantly lessened.
Also, by all means, it doesn't have to be a hopeless "situation". Situation can be widened to "setting". Post-apocalyptic world with no future for humanity? Hero starts out in hell on death row? Fine by me.
WHAT THIS IS NOT:
This does not mean your trial have to be absurdly difficult.
I'd just like to note here that it's not directly the player who is supposed to be put in despair. It's a character in the story. Unless your character is super-meta and somehow aware of the difficulty, that just won't work. They usually act like they got it right on their first try, so...
Besides, you could never crush my final ray of hope anyway. You're forced to send me walkthroughs, and there's always the source code~
But yeah, it doesn't have to be difficult at all. Consider 10 successive easy presents. However, story-wise they are presented as the hero trying thing after thing, slowly running out of options until he's tried everything. Works way better than having one testimony with one single ridiculous astra-objection. No matter how often the player has to try, the character will still act as if he got the correct answer straight away after some serious thinking. (unless you use variables and make the hero's comments after each failed attempt get worse and worse until it's just ALL USELESS... Huh, I actually remember playing an umineko fangame where that sort of thing was done when you had to select your culprit. Battler went from being fairly confident to shouting just that. Might have had something to do with someone else's limbs getting cut off for each failed try. I guess that'd be a creative solution. Except it'd require me to fail on purpose to even see it, so...)
That's pretty much it. I'll leave the rest up to your creativity. Have fun coming up with people in absurdly despairing situations.
If you still have no clue what you're supposed to do... well, uh... go watch Kaiji or something. (I just added that because of Lind's avatar. No really, add a little of Kaiji to the courtroom. That'd totally fit.)
...
Entries will be judged in the following five categories. And yes, I'll make it so the points actually reflect the ranking.
Plot: Self-explanatory. Don't bore me. Don't have plotholes. You get up to 10 points for this.
Characters: Make them memorable. Make them likable. Have good interaction between them. Then you get up to 10 points.
Presentation: Always have a polished case. It leaves a better impression. 10 points.
Gameplay: ...make it fun. Or make it challenging. But don't make it too frustrating. 10 points.
Theme Relevance: Will depend on both the quality and the quantity of these situations. Mostly quality though. It's not that hard to give a situation a slight touch of hopelessness, but it's not that easy to make it actually memorable.
In addition, it's better to go for few of those. Though you can certainly create a spiral where each attempt backfires and makes things even worse. Well, I'll leave that up to you, it's the final impression that counts. For this one you can get up to 20 points.
TL;DR: Increase the stakes a little, add a couple of mercilessly crushed moments of hope, then optionally put it all in a somewhat unfriendly environment and I'll probably be ok with it if the rest of the case is good, too.
MISSION START!
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Conditions
- The entry must have been created between Juny 14, 2013 and September 5, 2013.
- The entry must not be showcased until September 6, 2013.
- The entry must make a character face at least one extremely desperate situation.
- The entry can be a miscellaneous. This includes comedies, if you can make that work somehow.
- The entry may contain GK2/GS5 spoilers. They're not spoilers for me.
Deadline
September 5 2013 11:59 PM CET (CET. deal with it)
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Entrants:
ZetaAzuel & kwando1313 ~ The Most Despair-Inducing Turnabout in the History of AAO
Whirlwind & Evolina deLuna ~ 2nd Place
SwagmaWampyr & enigma ~ 3rd Place
Rtaos Grimm ~ 4th Place
dehughes ~ 5th Place
Detective Luke Atmey
Twigav
DeeYo
Accord & jakerj10
AquaAce72
FenrirDarkWolf & Slayernice
~Dataman~
Ping'
S.S. Sleuth
ShadowEdgeworth & Tap