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Voyeur opens with a special TV bulletin:
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The feathers are bound to fly because Reed Hawke's children Jessica and Zack, his niece Chloe, and his sister Margaret, all have enough dirt to bring him down if they decide to use it. Reed has gathered his family at his mansion to clear the air one way or the other before announcing for the presidency.
The Voyeur's Apartment With Working Camera,
TV, and Phone
You as the player/voyeur are lucky enough to live in an apartment opposite the Hawke estate. With your super powerful video camera, you can see and hear what goes on in any room of the mansion. When you pan your "camera" over one of the mansion's windows, and the cursor changes to an eye icon, it indicates that the room holds a video scene, an ear icon indicates an audio scene, and a magnifying glass indicates evidence.The image below shows the view of Reed's mansion through your video camera. The eye icon appears over the foyer. If you click, you will get the foyer video scene.
The Game Interface and the Voyeur's View
of the Hawke Mansion
The goal of Voyeur is to figure out which of Reed's family members are going to expose him, and then stop Reed before he kills him or her for endangering his grab for the presidency. If you collect enough evidence with your camera, you can warn the family member by sending them the tape or by contacting the cops. If, however, you contact the police with inadequate evidence, you might be thrown in jail as a peeping Tom. If you contact the wrong family member, he or she might tell Reed, and you could get a visit from Reed's assassin.
Complicating your search for Reed's accuser/victim is the fact that there can be up to six scenes happening at one time in different rooms, so if you watch what is happening in one room, you will miss what is going on in the others.
Adding to the fun and the replay value of Voyeur are the four variations on the main plot, which are loaded randomly each time you play the game. In each variation, a different member of Reed's family attempts to expose him.
Voyeur had a number of technical limitations that were the result of executive decisions and the sophistication of the current technology. Because of limited disc storage space and access speed, the video of the actors could only occupy one quarter of the screen area. The rest of the image (the sets, props, etc.) had to be computer generated. This is because computer generated images take much less disc space than video or photographs. This meant that the actors would have to be shot against a blue screen so the computer generated backgrounds could be later keyed in. Figure below shows the actors being filmed against blue screen. The video monitor shows the same image combined with a computer generated background as it appears in Voyeur. This also meant that characters would primarily have to be seen in medium shots and full shots, because closeups occupy too much screen space.
Actors Shot Against Blue ScreenThe writers and designers had to come up with a concept that would turn the technical disadvantages to advantages. Thus the voyeur concept was born. If everything is shot from the player's point of view, and he or she is a voyeur peering into a building across the street, then it makes sense that the other characters would be seen primarily in medium shot or full shot. The voyeur idea solved the major problem, but another idea to conserve disc space was to put curtains on all the windows. When they are completely closed, the voyeur can still hear what is going on in the room as in the example below. This saved disc space because sound occupies much less room than video. However, an audio only scene requires the writer to use the skills of a radio dramatist to spark the user's imagination and create the images in their mind.
The Player's Interactive Options
One of the player's options is to warn the person that they think is Reed's intended victim. However, if the player/voyeur mistakenly warns one of Reed's allies, the voyeur could get a visit from Reed's assassin, Chantal.
Z2/320/100 - REED LOOKS OUT HIS WINDOW INTO VOYEUR'S APARTMENT
REED stands looking out his office window -- making eye contact with the VOYEUR (player).
Reed Stares at the VoyeurThe sound of the VOYEUR'S apartment door opening is heard. The VOYEUR turns around to look at the door (animation of his/her POV).
Z2/905/300 - CHANTAL KILLS VOYEUR/PLAYER INT. VOYEUR'S APARTMENT CHANTAL steps into the doorway.
Reed's Assassin Chantal Pays a Visit to the Voyeur
Cop Threatens Voyeur
