Experience Life on Hard Mode

The Problem

Minorities all around the world live in a state of alienation. They survive their own nightmare
every day – starting from workplace discrimination and everyday harassment to violent hate
crimes. Their unique challenges fly under the radar, unbeknownst to the majority. This
ignorance breeds contempt, and tension, along racial, ethnic, sexual, and religious lines. The
harms are manifold – from seemingly harmless micro-aggressions to structural barriers that
prevent them from climbing socio-economic and political ladders.

Mission

We believe in a world where people can internalize the struggles of others and understand the
nuances that shape their lives. This elevated understanding leads to much more meaningful
interactions and far less social friction. For example, as immigrants flock to Europe, many white
western Europeans, despite the best of intentions, find it difficult to create a space for them in
which they can feel at home. This is generally owed to a categorical inability to comprehend
their story and distinct needs.

We propose a way for everyone around the world to put themselves in the shoes of struggling
minorities - oppressed, alienated, silenced – in a story-driven role playing videogame for
Android, iOS and PC. Titled, “The Extraordinary Lives of Others”, players will assume a wide
range of minority roles in compelling chapters set across different parts of the world. Players
have to navigate through the harrowing ordeals of a Palestinian nurse tending to the countless
dead, or be an African American child as he walks the gang-ridden streets of America and tries
to chase the American Dream.
Merely humanizing them isn’t enough though. Once we nuance the intricacies of the minority
struggle, we want people to believe, that given the chance and the ability to realize their fullest
potential, anyone can be an icon. Each of them, in their own unique and understated way, are
also superheroes.

The Game

The game is a narrative driven experience split up into several volumes. Each volume features a
unique setting, with a distinctive central character. As an example, we address one such
volume of our game for the next few sections.

The Character and Setting

A 23 year old Syrian woman. A promising medical student. A bride to be. When the first missiles
of the civil war took to the skies, Zahra’s life would change forever. Just months into the
conflict, on a fateful night, tragedy strikes.
On the night of her wedding, she spent a minute too long at the beauty parlor. 52 people
turned to ash at the ceremony from a misplaced missile strike, where she arrived minutes later.
Her father, mother, and fiancé- gone.
In despair, she fled, on a boat to Greece and then a flight to America. She was soon at one of
the refugee settlements in America with nothing but a few hundred dollars and quickly
diminishing hope.
Like most strong immigrants, she persevered. Zahra picked up work at a grocery store and
rented a tiny apartment in a shady neighborhood.
In a traumatic experience where she survives a racially charged sexual assault, Zahra discovers
her hidden power – shape-shifting. She can take the form of anyone she chooses.
The story is set in modern New York City, USA.

Game Dynamics
The game world will be seen from a birds-eye view:

Each character will have multiple “traits” and “skillsets” that they need to maximize for unique
advantages in social and combat scenarios.
These can include:

Credibility
Identity
Charisma
Agility
Street Smarts
Attack
Defense
Diplomacy
..and so on.
This role playing game intends to portray the duality in each protagonist’s personality –
vulnerable minority and part-time superhero.

To this effect, each volume will have two sections. The first half of each volume will be an
extended life simulator. Players will achieve simple tasks like shopping, obtaining groceries, and
training for a vocational job (working at the fire department, as a mechanic, etc.). Each basic
task will have their associated mini games to play and puzzles to solve. For example, surviving
the first fireman drill, or fixing the ignition of a car engine.
Each task will feature dialogues and interactions with non-playable characters from the
majority ethnicity/race/religion. They could be the owner of the grocery store, the supervisors
at the fire department, co-workers and so on. These dialogue sequences will make the player
select from multiple dialogue choices with different consequences. The responses of other
people to each choice will serve to highlight the subtle discrimination and the condescension
that minorities suffer.

For example, playing as Zahra at a job interview, the interviewer suggests that the player is very
“intelligent for an Arab” - an insult disguised as a compliment. The player chooses from:

Thank you! I
Excuse me?!
try

The confrontational response on the left immediately increases your Identity trait by a
significant amount (say, +50), having just taken a stand for her identity, but will simultaneously
cause your Charisma stats to drop by the same amount. Choosing the option on the right and
compromising your morality will cause the reverse.

This is illustrated below:

Furthermore, in the case of Zahra, her shape shifting abilities highlight the multiple double
standards people have when dealing with people of different ethnicities. Suppose when she
chooses to be a Caucasian male, people will be far more accommodating, whereas in her
original form, she faces difficulties achieving even the most mundane tasks.

The second half of each volume features the character coming to terms with their hidden
superpower. The powers will not be over-the-top, but will be subtle features that make them
special. This half will feature an overarching objective and story – a goal that the character must
achieve with their power.
In Zahra’s case, she stumbles onto a human trafficking ring hidden in the heart of New York.
This ring smuggles young Arabian girls, much like herself, through American ports. After
rigorous training at the local dojo, Zahra will use her shape-shifting abilities to investigate,
discover and ultimately take down the crime ring. This gives the game a sense of purpose, and
ultimately makes it exciting for the player.
 Learning Scopes

Popups & Real-World Trivia

▪ Articles, Trivia and Pop-ups: Game quests will be littered with articles, trivia, and pop
ups will appear on the top right of the screen that a user can optionally tap on. These
pop ups, when opened, will expand to articles and trivia on real-world issues that relate
to the quest. This will enable the player to make better decisions in the game, giving
them an incentive to read.

▪ Interactions and conversations with non-playable characters: Conversations in the

game, especially those with the “majority”, will highlight the micro-aggressions, racially
charged criticisms and racism.

▪ Quests and worlds influenced by real life: Many stories and quests will be based on
real-life incidents. Similarly, our game world will depict the grim realities of the
communities that minorities live in. We will depict ethnic enclaves like China-Towns,
African-American neighborhoods and shanty towns.
 ▪ Fighting stereotypes: Our characters will have traits and personalities that directly
contradict stereotypes against them. For instance, our Asian characters may be
artistically inclined instead of choosing a career in mathematics.

Uniquely Compelling Aspects

Escapism: One of the biggest reasons why role playing games and life simulators have such a
consistently loyal fan-base is because of the sense of adventure that comes with living in an
alternate world and living a completely alternative lifestyle inside a videogame. We take this
escapism one step further: we put individuals in the shoes of interesting yet troubled
superheroes whose lives are categorically different from the ones most users live. This is a huge
draw for the gaming audience.
Game Evolution: Extended playability is organically ensured within our game. Firstly, an endless
supply of world events allows us to create entirely new stories shaped by real events. Secondly,
our game will feature cross-overs where old characters come back as part of new volumes and
extended stories.
The Execution

Regardless of how good our game is, it won’t draw in players unless we bring it to them first. For
that, we need to first focus on the marketing aspects of the game. This will be achieved in several
steps.

PHASE A

The Beta: A game draws most of its sales within the first few weeks, and even days, of
release. So, to guarantee a significant user base at the time of release, we release a beta
consisting of one volume, 4 months prior to launching the full game on the Play Store, Apple
App Store, and the downloadable PC game.

The Essentials: A Website and social media profiles will be set up, featuring extended
overviews of the developments of the game and exhibiting captivating screenshots and videos.

PHASE B

Getting in touch with NGOs: Along with conveying the message of the minority, to help
them directly, once we break even, we’ll be giving 5% of our revenue to NGOs who work to aid
them.

Showcasing the game in game booths, competitions & journals: This will give the
game more exposure in the avid gamer’s community.

Reaching out to influencers and YouTubers: We’ll be sending them advance copies so
they can play and review the game on their channels. We’ll let them exclusively share the
advance copies with their fan-base as incentive for them to promote the game.

PHASE C

Launching the trailer: The trailer goes up in August, two months prior to game launch. We’ll
also be making customized trailers for every expansion pack that will come in the future to
further focus on every minority character we introduce in our game.
Outreach through different humanitarian groups: Since this serves a social cause, the
game will be displayed through liberal media channels to highlight the humanitarian aspects of
the game worldwide.

The Timeline
Here is the schedule displaying our campaign for the 1st year.
The Finances

Cost Breakdown:

The cost will be broken down into 3 categories.

Game Development: Primarily, the funds required to make the game, are at a rough
estimate of $150,000.

Marketing: This is the expense behind the whole marketing campaign, which would require
around $50,000.
Running Cost: This is the monthly expense behind maintaining and updating the game after
the release.
 Earnings

The game itself will be free to download. But we intend to get the get the returns on
investment in a number of other ways.

Ad revenue: At an average CPM of $2, ads are a great way to get revenue especially since
over 90% of all mobile gamers worldwide don’t pay a dime.

Pay to stop ads: Players who don’t want to see ads, can pay to stop them.

In app skin purchase: Skins that the player can put on the character will be available for
purchase.

Loot Boxes: Another way to get random skins is by collecting loot boxes, which the player can
get by buying it, or by watching a certain number of ads.

Revenue Calculation

For a fair estimation, we’ll be taking into account the ad revenue for the game as this is
expected to bring the bulk of the returns.

Now, since we will have a beta up 4 months prior to the launch of the game, followed by an
intensive marketing campaign, we expect a user base of around 100,000 at the time of the
release.

Assuming each of this user sees around 5 ads each day at an average CPM of $2, so for a month
we calculate the revenue to be:

(100,000*5*2*30)/1000

=$30,000

Projecting this over the course of 4 months, considering an organic growth, the sum total
stands at $375,000, at which point we break even overcoming the investment cost of $275,000.
Refer to the figure below.
 Reference: http://www.mobyaffiliates.com/guides/mobile-app-advertising-cpm-rates/

Conclusion

What we have here is special.

While The Extraordinary Lives of Others is a great business investment, we think its greatest
value lies in the sweeping brushstrokes it creates for tolerance and social change. We don’t
grow unless we all learn to all love each other. Our game takes us one step closer.