setting

Setting

The main setting of TWW is in an old underground nuclear shelter built in the 60s, meant to act as an underground townspace to live, similar to vaults from Fallout but MUCH larger. There’s tons of vast empty space with crashed vehicles littering the

outer edges. This shelter exists under a large mud lake, where the original town

named Valerie was once. The town itself is in the middle of this void, where holes of

light illuminate some of it. The distance from the ceiling of the mud cave to the bottom is meant to be ridiculously high, about ¼ - ½ of a mile. It’s meant to be that long to emphasize the hopelessness of the residents of Valerie and Frankie’s own

hopelessness from ever escaping. Symbolically, it is quite literally the “bottom

of the barrel” situation that one finds themselves in when they are suicidal.

Now you may be thinking, based on TWW’s heavy inspiration from Undertale

media, that this aspect is ALSO inspired by it, but actually, not at all!

The setting is inspired by a book I read in middle school, called The City of Ember.

It’s based in a large underground nuclear shelter town, which is exactly where I

drew it from. I based TWW’s setting on the setting I imagined while I read the book.

Unlike The City of Amber, Valerie does not have any electricity, so the only light sources are the ceiling holes (which only illuminates the outside unfortunately) and anything that uses fire or batteries. For example, Abby’s house uses lots of battery-powered lights and candles.

Another big inspiration for the setting was where I grew up and live. I grew up in the backwoods of a very rural area, so I was surrounded by these “junk houses”. I have always been fascinated by these houses that seem to aesthetically exist between being entirely abandoned and being lived in. They’re always covered with lots of miscellaneous junk which is why I call them junk houses in the first place.

My grandfather had a house somewhat similar to these houses. When we went over, I was always somewhere my family wasn’t, just exploring and admiring these endless troves of objects, dust, garbage, anything. His house was far in the mountains and had A HUGE amount of property, which included an entire forest. I just loved being there.

In the summer time, I started taking walks around my neighborhood to find more of these properties around. Luckily my neighborhood isn’t a dangerous one and I was able to get my fix of these properties that I so admire (the worst thing that happened was when I got yelled at by a guy for taking a picture of his dog to show my parents (it was a rottweiler and i love rotties)).

So lots of the houses in Valerie are very rural-inspired. All of the houses have some of this junk house aspect to them.

Valerie is mostly houses, with one big mall in the middle. I’m not sure if I should add

more buildings or not. If there are more buildings, it would mean that the player

would want to explore these which would make the game longer, and I don’t intend

for TWW to be LONG long, probably about 3-5 hours, possibly more depending on

how I write it. But also if I DON’T have more interesting locations then it will be

harder for me to write the story in the future, with less set pieces.

The mall in the middle is inspired by the abandoned mall epidemic that’s currently

going on. The insides of abandoned malls are so interesting… there’s only memories

of life, and broken glass and vintage carpets. Memories of an earlier era. In the middle

of this mall is a Garden. The Garden is maintained by Abby. No one else knows about

the Garden except for Abby. Plants are able to flourish because there’s just enough

light under the biggest hole in the mud lake.

The main place where the three interact is the Barn. The Barn is… well, a barn. It’s

placed on the outskirts of the town. It’s very inspired by the many dilapidated barns

I see when I ride with my brother to and from his college, which is an hour away.

I haven’t really figured out if Thomas or Sue will have their own houses but they

probably realistically do. There’s not THAT many residents.

I do have Abby’s house pretty figured out though. On the outside, her house is fairly

isolated, covered with wooden spikes, barbed wire, anything to keep anyone out.

It’s harsh out there.

On the inside, Abby’s house is the only area that feels lived in. It’s clean, populated

with decor, and well lit. It’s inspired by the inside of my grandfather’s house. Very

wooden, has lots of floral patterns and decor from the 60 and 70’s.

The main way the residents keep track of time is from the HANGING HYDRA.

In a warehouse building off to the left side, many people hung themselves, but since

no one dies down here, they repeatedly wake up, scream and choke, and die. Every

hour of every day. Rinse and repeat. A damned cycle of existence. Their bodies are

conjoined together by skin.