Written 28.11.2008 - Uploaded 09.05.2009 - PDF (contains entire design document)
This biography, along with other parts of the design document, was written for a course project at the university. This design was ultimately turned into a prototype, implemented as a Half-Life 2 mod. I have no idea about the mods availability, but we got pretty high marks from the course (4 out of 5). Remnants of Reality is a horror game that focuses around sound.
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Name: Vincent Harris
Age: 48
Height: 179 cm
Weight: 74 kg
Profession: private detective
Family: two sons and a daughter living with ex-wife
City: Boston, USA
Appearance: Vincent has the features of a rather ordinary middle-aged man. Like most of us, he has tried to do some exercising but no results remain to be seen. Business hasn't been good for a while and this has caused the contents of Vincent's wardrobe to become rather dated. Aside from his one relatively fair suit which he wears when meeting with clients, Vincent is typically clothed in jeans with various degrees of wearing out, old shirts bought from second hand stores and his brown leather jacket which is almost older than himself and looks every bit like it too. Vincent prefers to call his fashion “blending in with the crowd” which might be true in poor districts but isn't exactly accurate in a typical urban environment. Taking care of his appearance is something Vincent does rather lazily, especially with his beard which is never carefully shaved unless he is meeting with a client. The hairline of his dirt-brown hair has slightly escaped and while he prefers to keep it quite short, more often than not he misses his monthly haircut. There's always a faint smell of cigarettes present in his clothes.
History: Vincent grew up in Boston. His father was a factory worker and his mother was an elementary school teacher and he had two older sisters. The family wasn't particularly rich and while in high school, Vincent maintained odd jobs to help out. His favorite jobs were running various errands and delivering mail and orders, often taking him to new parts of the town. What he really wanted to do though, was to become a police officer and eventually he successfully entered a police academy. During his study years, Vincent met his wife-to-become Sarah Wilson who was running a small shop near Vincent's academy. Vincent never finished his studies at the academy as life led him to help Sarah out with the shop. Life was good back then and the happy couple got three children: two sons and a daughter. In a few years Sarah closed shop to open up a bigger one and Vincent faded away from that business to start up his own detective agency a year later. Sarah's business was good and she was clearly making her way up in the society and a few years later she decided that life with Vincent was too stagnant, so off she went, taking the kids with her because Vincent didn't have the money to raise them. Vincent on the other hand become very fond of his job, even when business wasn't that good. After losing his wife, the agency was all that was left and it kept him going, although he did start smoking, first on bad days and then more regularly. These days Vincent has been in the business for almost fifteen years and while his economy isn't that good, he's still liking what he's doing.
Nature: While his appearance is a little rough, Vincent is actually a smooth talker. He knows his way around the city better than most. These work to his advantage greatly, as he is somewhat of an old-timer, favoring legwork over modern gadgets. He does know his tech, but never feels entirely comfortable around complex machines. While he might not be the most optimistic man when talking about life in general, he does have faith in his own abilities and they often provide results as well. Vincent likes to keep things simple and unpolished, perhaps taking a bit too much of the “film noir” approach to his work which unfortunately drives rich clients to more polished and modern agencies. This doesn't bother Vincent too much though as long as he manages to live off his cases. He takes pleasure from the thrill of going around town and talking to strange people in search of clues as well as the good old shadowing business. He always keeps with him his black ink pen and notepad which he prefers to use over electric ones, especially because he can flip the pen around in his fingers while pondering. Vincent is not a man of action but if cornered he'll stand up to himself and actually has a pretty sharp right hook. He also carries a gun around for safety but he's barely drawn it outside a firing range. Aside from smoking and using pens as stress toys, Vincent doesn't have any particular vices but he is suspicious of flying and especially airports.
Present: Vincent's latest case was to find a girl who traveled to Norway. He was hired by the girl's father who was worried since he hadn't heard from the girl in quite a while. The girl had indeed run into trouble with local small criminals and was too ashamed to contact her family. Once Vincent found her it was easy to convince her otherwise and a few days later when things were arranged proper, the girl was put to a plane back home. Since this job had paid better than usual, Vincent decided he had the leisure to take a ship back to Boston instead of flying.