TAILSPIN
TAILSPIN is an action and adventure video game concept, featuring character, prop and visual language design, where the divide between good and evil is as cloaked in ambiguity as the superpowered individuals who fight for control of the city.
CHARACTERS
Mal is a digital bounty hunter who uses her tech-based powers to gather information. When she's wrongfully accused of murdering her former classmate and nemesis, she must use her skills to find the true killer, and digs up old feelings in the process.
School-mate turned nemesis, Daphne is always foiling Mal’s plans in the name of justice. After uncovering shady dealings within the Vanguard, she was struck down. In unravelling the digital trail Daphne left behind, Mal learns more than she could ever bargain for.
As the charming face of the prestigious Vanguard, Will Wisp is very good at hiding things behind a smile and a handshake. When Daphne threatens to reveal his secrets to the world, he vows he would do anything to keep them safe. Anything.
PROPS
Mal’s primary tool from the beginning of the game is RAT-Tail, her Remote Access Tool, that she uses in tandem with her powers to be one of the most successful information bounty hunters in the city. It also functions to allow for a diegetic UI suite, creating a space for players to access the menu, their map, abilities, and active missions.
POWERS & FX
Mal has circuitry patterns across her entire body, all stemming from the center of her back. To the unknowing eye they look much like a faint tattoo or birthmark. When engaged they glow bright blue all the way to her fingertips, which serve as an interfacing unit she can press against any conductive material to manipulate electric energy in the surrounding area, or to interface with a computer to infiltrate its systems. When used in conjunction with RAT-Tail, Mal is able wreak digital havoc on anything she can get her hands on, literally.
UI & Environments
Mal can activate an x-ray vision ability called In-Site Scan to gain insight on her surroundings and highlight any objects that may be of importance. In this image, the player has broken into Daphne’s apartment to try and gather clues about the hero’s disappearance.
Mal can interact with significant objects and add them to her inventory as clues. This is an old picture of Mal & Daphne at school that the player finds in Daphne’s room, one of the first hints that there may be more to the relationship between Mal and her nemesis than what’s on the surface.