ProjectSelectorInterface- Dir. Willow Angelette MA, MS. 

The GAME

Welcome to your mind. It appears you have a problem. There is a sort of monster sucking away all possible joy and your desperate to fix this.

Thanks to a somewhat mad professor there is a way out. She has been working on a device that allows her to picture exactly where the monsters attack your brain. Until now the work has been top secret and as every day goes by the professor falls further prey to her own monsters. Somehow, you and your collaborators have stumbled into the professors work shop only to discover the professor sitting in a corner hypnotized by YouTube videos of old Jack septiceye video game reviews.  She can't be of any further help. So, it's up to you to take control of the brain viewing machine. 

She has left notes on her work that you will find along the way.

Pick up the notebook.

Look at the dash board of the control desk. Don't mind the Professor just push her chair to the side. She remains fixated on the YouTube video. Thought bubble: I wonder if there is something about that video that's important. Oh well. I can always come back to it later.

Look at desk displays.

The first thing you discover is that it is your own brain that the professor has been trying to examine and repair! It will be up to you to build new neural connections that will allow you to defeat depression.

The first thing you notice when you enter the brain lab is that the room is  full of papers randomly scattered. The papers explain your mission and what you need to find. First you need to find five objects scattered about the map. The objects are needed to release Sara Tonin, your only ally in this fight.

Can you figure out the relationship between the displays of the desk and the portal on the other wall?

Or, or will you lose courage and go through the exit?

You can't really know yet what lies in either choice.

If you leave using the EXIT you enter an apocalyptic future. Now you must find a way to fix the portal into your mind to figure out what the true EXIT is.

To fix the portal, you have to repair the remains of the office and ward off monsters. You must collect wires, gears, and a screwdriver to fix the portal. Now you reenter the brain lab through the very Exit through which you left. Or,  perhaps the ruins of it.

Having Navigated the desolate real world that awaits you if you give up, you've managed to find your way back into the Professors lab restored to the state it was in before you went through the exit. It appear you have no choice now but to enter the portal into the deep recesses of your own brain.

Like falling through Alices looking glass you see lightning sparks in a deep blue darkness. As you fall the long treebranch-like neurons spiral about and get thicker and more complex as you go.  There are branching tunnels with moving lights in all directions. Pick one. There are no markers to show the way.

Wandering down the translucent tunnel you can see out to other neural bundles that must lead to other areas of the brain. Is this important? Should you make a mental map of where you've been, where you will go? On the outside of the wall of the cell membrane there is a growth. it is the Basilisk.

This Neuron leads to your very eye. Pressing against the membrane causes the computer camera to come alive there, where you are in the eye, and also at the monitor in the Professors desk panel where you began.

You now see your own face and the room you left behind reflected in the glass. But there is something wrong. It is sad or angry and the lighting is dark with black tendrels around the edges of the room that seem to be growing slowly, menacingly.

As you look about your room through your eyeball, notice a large figure of a man in a white doctors jacket holding a pen and paper. You're not even sure he is actually there or just superimposed on the camera lens. Something in you says, "Can I trust him?"This is Dr. Horah Z.  player 2.

Dr. Z. is something of an anti-hero. He will make some mistakes in his efforts to help you out of this depression and we're unsure if his heart is actually in the right place or if he is motivated by less than pure intent. But we have no choice but than to consider his treatment advice. The image of yourself is almost intolerable and the sounds and ideas in your mind are opressive. "Why am I even here," you think to yourself. Gathering up your courage you try to read the Doctors tablet. Focus in on it. There!  

Dr. Z. says that you can begin to recover if you can only write down what you are feeling or express it in some way that you can let him know where we need to go from here. You open your mouth to speak but nothing comes out! Whats going on? Of course you can't speak outside your mind. No one in the world can know how you feel if you yourself are entirely inside of your own mind. Desperate, discouraged, enraged and confused the desire to flee returns so overwhelmingly.

 But wait. Glancing away from the eye, down the coridor of your neural tunnel leading away from the eye, there is another area of the brain. It is a folding bundle of neurons encompassing the Brocias Area and connected with your motor cortex. This is the language and speech area of your brain. No wonder you fail to speak. There, entangled with the tunnels of neurons connecting these areas is a second Basilisk. 

You, now, have before you two very important tasks. Battle off the Basilisk that is distorting your perception of the world and deal with the Basilisk cutting you off from speech and language. But how?

 You discover that pressing against different areas of your eye stimulates your brain to see and recall memories that take your consciousness back to different places. By pressing in just the right area you can see back into the mad professors lab, see yourself standing before the control console. Remember that you are in your own mind having been gripped by the portal. But, your actual body is still back there in the lab.

Maybe, you can find a way to manipulate your body using your mind. You ARE your mind. you press your hand against the area of the screen where it shows your hand there in the lab. It MOVED.  you still have control of your body. Guide your hand to the console.

Realizing that you can still see and remember, albeit through a glass darkly, Dr. Z directs your gaze to the portion of the counsole where there are a series of buttons, guages and monitors displaying choices. Poor prompts from Dr. Z result it slow progress. Better prompts can help you towards recovery to a higher level faster. But nothing progresses without your input. Pick your best responses and see what happens.

 There, in the lab, you can hear that the sound from the looping video revue has gotten louder. Why? Why hasn't the Professor noticed you. A quick glance around and you see the portal. What would happen if you looped back through? No time to think about that now. Have to get well.

 Turning back, you refocus on the monitors and controls. Dr. Z inputs your instruction and explains. They light up on the screen. you hear him say,

"Close your eyes and count with me. Take deep breaths and let them out slowly. ..."

You try to close your eyes but noting happens until you actually close your own eyes there inside your brain. Only then Does the lens go completely dark.

" One,..Two,.., Three,.. Four,"

"breathe, slightly deeper with each breath, Five,.., Six,.., Seven, breathe out, Eight,..., Nine,...Ten. Thats it. try to relax. You are safe here for now. We'll get you out of here soon."

"keep counting.".

How far can you count before you lose patience with the doctor? Is he keeping score? Is this some trick? You want to trust him but you need to get out of here. Every time you stop and open your eyes you find yourself still here looking into the lab. No progress. Try again.

Finally you realize that only if you can keep your eyes closed and count to 30 will The doctor help you further.

You open your eyes to find you are no longer looking throught your eye lens into the lab. Instead you find yourself in an entirely different place. All around you is a gray fog and a blue horizon as far as the eye can see and a gigantic gleaming chrome cube 100 feet in all direction with no windows at all. only a double door entry perhaps 15 feet high; the Giant brushed steel doors to a great temple.  The door handles are invitingly fashioned into the letters OK. Opening the doors you see what appears to be the grand entrance to a hotel with marble walls towering 40 feet high. There are green couches and brown overstuffed chairs. Sitting in one of the chairs is a strangely appealing young woman with long brown hair wearing a white overcoat, a black turtleneck, skirt and high heels, Sarah Tonin. The front desk is oval shaped and glossy brown. The tan floors are plushly carpeted and feature a patterned array of small shining silver stars. From the high white ceiling hang long black cones of light. From somewhere near by you hear manic laughter and suddenly all is pitch dark.

 The Fear Temple

 The lights flicker a little so that occasionally you can see shadows and siluettes in the darkened hall of what appears to be someting like a clown figure. With each flicker, you see that it is moving closer. You want to move but you're frozen with fear. 

 Meanwhile back at the lab.

Player 2, Dr. Torah Z., Enters to find the seemingly frozen body of Player 1 who seems to be staring at the portal, and the Professor who is still staring at the video screen looping game reviews.  If he chooses to go to the exit he will have the same experience as did Player 1 and will have to find his way back. Otherwise he must search the lab for a way to communicate with player 1.  There are preprogramed tapes that he can innitiate by pressing labeled buttons on the console.

here are the passages through the Fear Temple of the brain:

Dr. Z advises you of your situation and his ability to monitor you and guide you to safety. You must trust him. "What choice do I have," you think to yourself? The view is still that of the inside of the darkened hotel lobby. But, you can't remember comming here, only that you were closing your eyes and listening ot Dr. Z. Is this your own representation of your state of mind or is Dr. Z. somehow controling everything. How can you test this?  If Dr. Z. caused this you are at his mercy. If you caused it, Is it real, or only in your mind?

"I see from my console here in the professors lab that your brain is reacting adversly to your perdicament. This is why things have gone dark. Please, try not to panic," the doctor says, "I can guide you to safety. I have someone there that can help. Even though she is not strong at the moment she is willing to help. You saw her there when you arrived. Her name is Sarah."

you can feel a comforting presence beside you that reaches out to touch your hand. It is Sarah Tonin.



Second floor- Room full of water. Limited amount of time before you drown. Have to find an oxygen tank and key to escape. 

Third floor- The walls of this room are closing in on you. You must find the objects needed to escape before you are crushed. 

Fourth floor- Dark room. Not pitch black but dark. One other person in the room. It’s someone you don’t know, Sarah Tonin. You have the choice to trust her and talk to her and listen to her advice or find the objects and leave. If you listen to her then you learn the secret to escaping the fifth floor. If you don’t listen then you enter the fifth floor but have no idea of how to escape.

Fifth floor- You are standing on a ledge. You can hear the character breathing heavily in fear. If you listened to the woman then you know what you have to do this jump off the ledge. If you didn’t, then you must figure out what to do for yourself.

Stop and think about your state of mind now. You may find your head just a little more clear. There is a slider on the panel. See if you can direct your hand to it to indicate the result of this first exercise. Has your condition changed even a little? The doctor needs to know your progress.

Once you manage to move the slider the panel viedo screen lights up with your next instruction.

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Annotations: 

mechanics

First Person game play.

The story describes the pont of view of player 1

Look around the room using arrow keys or mouse to edges of screen.

Examine objects using left mouse click on hot spots.

semi transparent tabs slide out context sensitive sub menues from the side using press swipe motion of finger or mouse.

 swipe finger/mouse to move the professor.

 The players have entered basic info about themselves and a picture is captured prior to game start. The image appears semi transparent with brain image layered beneath in one of the monitors in the desk panel.

Selecting a paper brings out a sliding menu from the side. Animation prompts player to drag papers to approptiate place in sliding menu.

 Moving first person play through the Exit changes scene to a mirror image of lab but no walls and all equpment burnt and broken, stark gray scale color only. Sound is a deep rumbling and wind. Grimm music.

 Use navigation features mentioned above.  Place player 1 directly in front of the portal, then press and hold the left mouse button/finger pressure   until tumbling into the brain animation begins. Sound: wind, chorus aaaah. 

Sound: electrical spark.

All tunnels continue the game the same way. Later inerations of the game may provide alternative therapy options depending on tunnel leading to different area of the brain.

 Wherever your finger/depressed-mouse-button presses or moves accross the players computer screen causes the image to slightly deform somewhat like pushing your finger into streched out plastic wrap.  

Player 2 begins in the lab and can see player 1s image in monitors on the desk panel.

 Looking around your room means whatever actual room is captured by player 1's computer camera. The image of Dr. Z floats layered on the camera image but not the lab where he is.

 Player 2 is Dr. Z. His imediate origin of view point is back in the Professors lab.

 Pressing/clicking the notepad starts a sound: Dr. Z soothing, reasuring voice over. A stream of text moves down the screen as he speaks

 in fact, Dr. Z Has two competing motivations. He may be comitted to your recovery or he may have a profit motive. both will be modeled by the game.

 A note pad will be introduced at some point.

 note: dr. z. can on his screens monitor and even provoke distortions and visions on the screen of player 1. He can inject medications into the arm of player 1. increasing and decreasing dosages. When Dr. Z. gets the right drugs and dosages, he is able to see reactions of the basalisks. chewing and clawing at the appropriate neurons. As the game progresses Dr. Z. and player 1 can collaborate on choices of meds based on preferences of player 1 and data collected and analysed by Dr. Z's observation of the effect on the basalisk.

 Moving player 1 back through the tunnels could lead to one or another of these areas.

But, game play prompts you to manipulate the eye for now.

 For later development other areas pressed in the eyeball trigger other scenes. pressing the correct area on the screen now turns off the players camera and brings up the first scene as before except now Dr. Z is there and two hands appear on the screen for you to manipulate with fingers/mouse. 

 Dr.Z attempts to develop raport and a therapeutic allience

  Behind the scenes a neural network model of player 1's actual brain states is being built in real time using Spaun and feedback gathered from player 1 input through the UI. Corrections to model activation states result. Player inputs outside of established ranges inticates fake good or fake bad.

 Counting brings play 1 into therapeutic compliance. 

 The players computer camera is still on although not displaying an image. It must detect if the player is actually closing their eyes and responds accordingly by blanking the screen only if eyes are actually closed.

New Scene. Building exterior.

New Scene. Temple interior.

 References for Fear Temple 

 Neural correlates of fear: insights from neuroimaging,  Garfinkel S, Critchley H 1 December 2014 Volume 2014:3 Pages 111—125
DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/NAN.S35915

 The users camera records frequency of eye blinking. Changes in eyeblinking coorelate with changes in fear response. These changes are sent to the console for the 'therapist/player' to monitor the state of mind of the user. And this information is used to change the state of the relavent neural bundles of the connectionist network modeling the brain of the user. The 'therapist/player can observe representations of the relevent activation levels in the console. 

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