(The Video Game)

CABIN IN THE

WOODS

Based on the 2012 Horror/Satirical film “Cabin in

the Woods”, directed by Drew Goddard and

produced by Joss Whedon.

THE ADAPTATION:

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.

BASIC PREMISE:

…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.

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).

THE GAMEPLAY

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.

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.

EXTRA CONDITIONS:

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 SURVIVORS

The Athlete The Scholar The Fool The Whore The Virgin

Each survivor has a set of specific strengths and weaknesses, based

on their respective archetypes.

THE SURVIVORS

(CONTINUED):

• 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

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.

THE MONSTERS

SOME MONSTER EXAMPLES:

Werewolf Zombie

Dragon-Bat

Giant Snake

Dolls

Hell Lord

Vampire

Evil Clown

MermanMummy

• 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

OTHER IDEAS