SCUM Read Me

Thank you for downloading SCUM. I hope you enjoy the game, even in this relatively early alpha stage. This current version is roughly 2 - 3 months of solid work to try and reach the deadline for the Make Something Unreal Contest. Unfortunatly we were unable to get past Alpha Candidate before the deadline. But we plan to finish the game non the less, so keep your eyes peeled for future updates.

SCUM is an experimental game that challenges the player to think their way out of the situation, rather than shoot their way out. What I have tried to achieve with SCUM is to create a narrative game that is infinity replayable. That means that the game is never the same twice although there is a narrative situation that guides the player along. The game plays like an old PC Adventure game where the player has to talk to different characters and make choices to further the narrative. SCUM is different in that everything is randomised from the start of the game. What the player end up with is more like a game of poker than a traditional adventure game. The cards are shuffled at the beginning of the game and from then on it is up to the player to see who is bluffing and weed out those who oppose him.

About The Game:

The Virtual Online Sexperience has become infected with a computer virus. The server is in lock down and only you can save the day. Kill the infected AI characters before they kill everyone else and close everyone's accounts!!

SCUM is a turn based investigation game similar to the Mafia game devised by Dimma Davidoff, as well as its many variations. The game revolves around Ten characters who are split into Two groups. Three of them are infected with a _SCUM virus, while Seven of them are not. Those that are infected have to kill or infect those who are not infected and the player has to kill the infected characters before this happens.

The game is played in turns, first the player will kill who ever they think is _SCUM, then the _SCUM will kill or recruit one of the non infected. This continues until either the player or the _SCUM have won.



How To Play:

The player's goal is to eliminate the _SCUM before they eliminate the other AI characters. To do this the player must travel around the game world, talking to each AI character. Each character will give the name of one of the other characters. The player must then decide who they think is the _SCUM.

The player must make an informed decision based on the information presented to them. If a lot of characters are naming the same character does that mean they are the _SCUM? Or does it mean that the _SCUM are manipulating the player into killing an uninfected character?

To help the player has $400 to spend on the virus scans. Each scan costs $100, so the player can not scan every character and must use the money wisely.

SCUM games usually only take between 5 and 15 minutes to play, but no game is ever the same twice.



Installation:


Non-Steam:

To install the game simply copy the SUMAlpha folder to your My Games/Unreal Tounament 3 folder in the Documents folder (slightly different locations for XP and Vista).
Once the folder is in the right place make a shortcut to you UT3.exe file and put the line "-mod=..\SCUMAlpha" (without the quotation marks) in the command line.
When you run the shorcut SCUM should load up automatically.


Steam:
To install via Steam simply copy the SCUMAlpha folder to your My Games/Unreal Tounament 3 folder in the Documents folder (slightly different locations for XP and Vista).
Once the folder is in the right place open up the My Games list in steam and right click on Unreal Tournament 3. select Properties, then select Lauch Options. In the Launch Options box type or pase the line "-mod=..\SCUMAlpha", without the quotation marks.
After that simple run Unreal Tournament 3 and the SCUM mod should load up.



Version History:

Alpha Candidate v1.0





Know Issues / Bugs:

Have to press E twice to activate characters / items.

Pressing keyboard and mouse buttons during cut scenes can break the game, keeping the player in cut scene loops (don't do it).

On rare occasions the AI will not take their turn at all. This results in the player having an extra turn or the AI never taking their turn at all.

Menus and conversations / dialogues can look out of place at resolutions lower than 1280 x 720. recommended resolution is 1280 x 720 or higher.

Clipping issues on some static meshes.

User must exit and relaunch the game if they want to play again after winning or losing.




visit www.trashgames.co.uk/SCUM for more information.

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