Psycho Party

Psycho Party began as a game concept and experimental narrative project.

During the initial phase I assembled a small development team to work on the first chapter, involving illustrators, a programmer and a musical collaborator.

The project stopped at the concept and early production stage due to work and personal commitments that made further development impossible.

Some of the concepts and assets presented in this section come from that early phase and are used here with recognition and thanks to the people who participated.

The remaining visual material is used as conceptual support to present Psycho Party as a narrative design project.

GAME OVERVIEW

Norm shares his life with four personalities: Bear, Lord, Sofin and Tristan.

Living with them is not a sudden loss of control, nor a recent event.

It is a condition Norm has learned to live with, maintaining a fragile balance through mesmerism and constant work on himself.

In Psycho Party, the player controls Norm throughout a linear narrative that unfolds differently depending on which personality is allowed to emerge at key moments.

Norm always remains Norm, but the way he exists in the world changes:

his attitude, language, relationships and available actions shift.

The game combines exploration, point-and-click environmental puzzles and narrative choices.

To progress, the player must observe, gather information, connect events and decide whether to face situations neutrally or rely on one of the personalities.

During the first chapter Norm becomes involved in a murder that appears to lead back to him.

The evidence is concrete, even though he has no memory of the event.

From that moment on, the game moves between investigation, everyday survival and attempts to maintain internal control.

Psycho Party tells the story of trying to remain present while the different parts of oneself demand space, voice and recognition.

It is not about choosing who to be, but about understanding how to continue living with oneself.

Gameplay Dynamics

The core gameplay revolves around managing Norm’s internal balance and the way it affects actions in the external world.

The player always controls Norm.

At specific moments in the story the player can decide to:

• face a situation without activating any personality

• allow Bear, Lord, or Sofin to emerge temporarily, adopting their attitude and abilities

Tristan is not directly selectable.

He is a constant presence that influences Norm’s internal state.

Switching personalities is limited.

Each activation consumes an internal resource representing the level of control Norm maintains over his personalities.

If this resource is exhausted, Norm loses control and the game ends.

Switching does not create separate characters.

Norm remains the same individual, but several aspects change:

• the way he speaks

• how others perceive him

• which relationships become accessible

• which solutions become available for the same problem

Progression occurs through exploration, environmental interaction and point-and-click puzzles required to unlock new scenes and advance the narrative.

Choices do not produce scores or moral judgments.

Instead, they permanently alter relationships and the way the world perceives Norm.

There are no traditional game-over states caused by single mistakes.

Consequences are cumulative and eventually determine whether Norm maintains or loses internal balance.

PERSONALITIES

In Psycho Party, personalities emerge at specific moments in Norm’s life.

They arise as functional responses to events, pressures and contexts that Norm alone cannot endure.

Each personality serves a precise function: supporting Norm when a part of himself is not enough.

Over time, what begins as adaptation becomes an autonomous presence, increasingly difficult to contain.

The personalities are not conscious choices or deliberate constructions.

They are necessary solutions that allow Norm to continue living.

There are four:

• Bear

• Tristan

• Sofin

• Lord

BEAR

Origin

Bear emerges after the death of Brutus, Norm’s older brother. During the funeral, Norm’s father, Alan, spat on his dead son’s grave, holding him in contempt even in death. That act of disrespect detonated something in Norm: a mixture of love for his brother and rage toward his father.

That intensity generated Bear, a personality built to embody the strength and masculinity Alan admired, but also the love and protection Brutus represented for Norm.

Bear is the first personality to appear, a sign that Norm’s tolerance reached its limit at his father’s gesture. Bear is a protective reaction, a compensatory force meant to survive the apathy and emptiness left by his brother’s loss.

Key Traits

• Masculinity

  He embodies Alan’s ideal of masculinity: solid, robust, physically imposing.

• Orientation

  Gay, with a physical presence and strength that counterbalance Alan’s contempt.

• Occupation

  Truck driver. A symbol of independence and solitude.

• Childlike Core

  As the first personality, Bear is the most childlike. Not fully formed, he carries a blunt simplicity and a vulnerability that shows in his need to protect and be protected.

• Solitude

  Bear is comfortable alone. He often surfaces during long night drives or solitary moments of reflection.

• Signature Line

  “The next guy who gestures for me to honk, I’ll break his arm.”

  
  

Appearance

• Clothing

  Bear usually wears a white tank top, often stained with pizza grease. Jeans and boots. When it’s cold he sticks to a flannel shirt, worn or tied around the waist. He wears a cap with a nude woman printed on it. No jewelry.

• Tattoo

  Near his heart: “Teddy Bear,” a mark of the love he shared with Teddy.

  
  

  Movement and Presence

  • Posture

    Awkward and heavy. He moves one leg at a time, as if thinking before each step.

  • Behaviour

    He spends his evenings drinking. If someone provokes him, he hits back.

  • Voice

    ender when calm. When angry, his tone turns rough and threatening.

Relationship with Norm

Bear represents the masculinity and force Norm’s father admired, but he is also a shield Norm created to protect himself from Alan’s violence and criticism.

Bear carries many of Brutus’s traits, the older brother who often defended Norm from their father’s cruelty.

Bear emerges in situations that demand physical strength and protection, especially when Norm feels threatened or overwhelmed:

• physical danger

• high emotional stress

• confrontations with authoritarian figures that echo the father

Bear gives Norm a sense of safety, while also functioning as an ideal of power and self-reliance.

TRISTAN

Origin

Tristan emerges during Norm’s adolescence, a period marked by academic struggles, social misunderstandings, bullying from peers and emotional frustration. After the death of his brother Brutus, Norm finds it difficult to communicate and retreats into 1970s horror and thriller films, which become both an escape and a source of intense emotions capable of shaking him out of emptiness, apathy and abandonment.

The people around Norm see neither a strong reaction nor any desire in him to carry forward his brother’s dreams. This misunderstanding fuels in Norm a desire to destroy everything, to wipe the slate clean and remain alone, but only after releasing his violence.

Tristan is born as a response to that need. He is a distorted version of what others expect Norm to be: the carefree and aggressive high school boy Norm never was. Norm lives in fear. Tristan becomes fear itself.

Key Traits

• Manipulator and sociopath

Tristan is highly skilled with words. He adapts easily, becoming the perfect friend, lover or colleague, making it almost impossible to understand his real intentions.

• Gratuitous violence

Like the killers in the films Norm loves, Tristan takes pleasure in causing pain. Violence is for him a pure form of expression: disturbing and celebratory.

• Intelligence and strategy

Tristan is extremely intelligent and carefully plans his actions. Violence is only a tool. The real objective is control.

• Absence of remorse

Victims are, to him, simply “bags of flesh and bones.” He feels no empathy and does not recognize human value in others.

• Duality

Externally charming and charismatic, internally cold and calculating. He can attract and destroy with the same ease.

• Collective violence

Tristan never kills just one person. Every murder is an event, a celebration that requires multiple victims.

• Confetti

Confetti are the signature element of his rituals, thrown during and after killings to celebrate chaos and violence.

• Rituals of terror and control

Influenced by pagan cults and the film The Wicker Man, Tristan constructs elaborate rituals designed to terrorize and dominate his victims.

• Signature Line

“My bags of flesh and bones. I like shaking them and hearing the noise they make.”

Appearance

• Clothing

  Tristan dresses like a professor from Harvard or Oxford. Respectable suits, sober colours similar to Norm’s, with no flashy details except for a pocket square.

• Accessories

  He wears glasses. Hidden inside his pocket square is a carrot, which he snaps to relieve anxiety. The sound reminds him of breaking bones.

• Masks

  During LSD-fuelled parties he wears homemade masks inspired by the Scarecrow from Batman.

  
  

  Movement and Presence

  • Posture

    He walks upright but tends to lean slightly to one side. One hand often remains in his pocket to hide the asymmetry and to play with a coin.

  • Behaviour

    Always looking for guests for his parties. Despite the respectable appearance, he is profoundly alone.

  • The Coin

    After being beaten together with a Chinese boy, Tristan receives from him a Chinese coin with a hole in the centre. The coin becomes a symbol of the confusion and complexity of humanity: a gesture of gratitude Tristan does not understand, yet keeps as a reminder that a spark of goodness can exist even in darkness.

Relationship with Norm

Tristan is Norm’s second personality, less childlike than Bear but more fully formed.

He emerges to face Norm’s adolescence by turning fear into a weapon.

Where Norm endures, Tristan destroys. Where Norm is paralysed, Tristan acts without limits.

Tristan embodies a dark force that allows Norm to survive emotionally, but at the cost of uncontrolled violence and a progressive loss of empathy.

He protects Norm by destroying everything around him, including the boundary between defence and annihilation.

sofin

Origin

Sofin emerges during Norm’s college years, when Norm feels deeply isolated and unable to adapt to the fashions, music and cultural trends of the time. Norm’s adolescence had already been closed and solitary, and at university the computer becomes his closest companion, revealing more secrets than he expected.

The digital world offers Norm a stable and predictable structure, in contrast to a society he perceives as incoherent and constantly changing. Numbers do not have double meanings: two plus two will always equal four. They follow clear rules, unlike social norms, which shift constantly.

Sofin emerges as a response to this need for order, coherence and refuge. He is the personality that allows Norm to immerse himself in technology as a safe space, away from social pressure and emotional exposure.

Key Traits

• Intellectual and curious

Sofin is extremely intelligent, with a strong passion for technology, programming and mathematics. He is also a hobby hacker.

• Solitude and isolation

Introverted by nature, he prefers the company of machines to that of people. For this reason he is the personality most similar to Norm.

• Escape and concealment

Sofin rarely confronts problems directly. He specializes in evasion, avoidance and using environment or technology to disappear.

• Passion for reading

He is a voracious reader, particularly drawn to books dealing with illness and darker themes, such as tuberculosis.

• Relationship with silence

Sofin speaks very little and often whispers. Silence functions as a protective barrier.

• Signature Line

“I’m thinking of becoming deaf. That way I’ll only have to hear myself.”

Appearance

• Clothing

  Sofin dresses comfortably. Sweatpants and a plain white shirt are his default clothing. In colder weather he adds a military green jacket.

•  Accessories

  He always wears glasses. A small scar marks the back of his neck.

  
  

  Movement and Presence

  • Posture

    Similar to Norm’s: slightly curved posture, but with his gaze directed toward the horizon.

  • Behaviour

    He rarely speaks aloud and prefers whispering. He often scratches the back of his neck where the scar lies.

  • The scar

    Sofin claims the scar comes from an accident with his alcoholic father, who smashed a bottle over his head. This detail is likely a fabrication created by Norm to establish common ground with Sofin, the personality he feels closest to.

  • Russian Origins

    Although Norm has never been to Russia, Sofin claims Russian origins. This likely stems from Norm’s fascination with Russian literature and its dark themes, as well as stories surrounding tuberculosis.

Relationship with Norm

Sofin is the third personality to emerge and functions as the “friend” personality.

He represents a more structured phase of Norm’s psychological fragmentation, following the emergence of Bear and Tristan.

Sofin is the personality Norm feels closest to. They share similar posture, silence, solitude and the same instinct for withdrawal. Sofin offers Norm a safe refuge in the digital world and allows him to confront technological challenges with precision while avoiding emotional exposure and direct conflict.

Through Sofin, Norm attempts to become self-sufficient, finding stability and companionship in an ordered virtual world far removed from the contradictions and pressures of real life.

LORD

Origin

Lord is the last personality to emerge in Norm, during the period when he is training to become a court transcriber. At this stage of his life Norm comes into direct contact with the corruption of the judicial system and with the power dynamics that regulate society.

The experience makes him feel inadequate and out of place in the world around him. During the same period Norm develops a crush on someone who is quickly taken away by the classic “bad boy.”

The episode reinforces his belief that being authentic, honest and sincere only leads to deeper loneliness.

Norm realizes that following the rules means earning less and being exploited, while cunning and opportunistic adaptation are rewarded.

From this awareness Lord is born: a personality created to navigate a reality perceived as corrupt, where honesty is not a viable strategy for survival.

Key Traits

• Manipulative and cunning

Lord is extremely skilled at manipulating situations and people to his advantage. Cunning is his primary instrument.

• Disillusioned and cynical

He no longer believes in rules or honesty as meaningful values. Authenticity, to him, is simply weakness.

• Ambitious and opportunistic

Driven by ambition, Lord exploits every opportunity to advance in life and career, even through questionable means.

• Charismatic and persuasive

Lord possesses strong presence and persuasive abilities, which he uses to influence and control others.

• Signature Line

“The winner isn’t the most capable. It’s the one who can prove he is.”

Appearance

• Clothing

  Lord embodies the cinematic imagery of the gangster. He wears impeccable suits, always fashionable and perfectly tailored.

•  Accessories

  He always wears a watch. No jewelry except for his wedding ring. His polished shoes and custom gold cufflinks were a gift from his wife.

  In the 1970s, solid gold cufflinks were typically 18-karat.

  
  

  Movement and Presence

  • Posture

    Chest forward, confident gaze, strong stage presence.

  • Walk

    He walks upright and proudly, often with his hands in his pockets.

  •  Behaviour

    Lord prefers keeping his hands hidden because he carries a miniature syringe containing a defensive substance if threatened. He also keeps a concealed weapon inside the sock of his left leg and often whistles while walking.

    
    

Relationship with Norm

Lord represents Norm’s disillusionment and cynicism toward society and its rules.

He is Norm’s response to a world perceived as corrupt and unjust, where opportunistic adaptation becomes the only winning strategy.

Through Lord, Norm attempts to compensate for his perceived weaknesses: difficulty standing out, competing, gaining recognition and achieving stability.

Lord is the personality that allows Norm to function within the system by accepting its hidden rules and abandoning any ideal of purity or transparency.

WORLDBUILDING

A World Without Decisive Wars

In the world of Psycho Party, the World Wars never happened.

There were no total destructions and no forced reconstructions. Cities were never erased and redesigned. They simply aged.

The absence of major conflicts avoided collective trauma, but it also prevented radical change. Social tensions never exploded. They settled, hardened, accumulated.

Power was never truly challenged. It adapted.

The result is a world that appears stable, but is deeply stagnant.

Advanced Technology, Incomplete Progress

Without the pressure of war, technological development progressed more slowly and unevenly.

Advanced technologies exist, but they coexist with obsolete systems. Computers, recorders, telephones and electrical networks function, yet often unreliably.

Nothing is truly new. Nothing is truly broken. Everything is worn.

Norm’s City

Norm lives in a large city suffocated by smog and corruption.

A place that never collapsed, but never renewed itself either.

The architecture is a mixture of well-preserved historical buildings and modern structures left to decay. Unfinished skyscrapers stand beside Art Nouveau buildings, neoclassical courthouses and medieval streets.

The city is not a battlefield. It is a functioning landfill.

A Society That Does Not Change

Society is heavily stratified. The wealthy live in protected and orderly districts.

The poor survive in deteriorating neighborhoods where crime and compromise are the norm.

Corruption is not an exception. It is the method. Justice exists as an institution, not as a value.

The courthouse where Norm works is one of the oldest and most respected buildings in the city: solid, monumental and intact.

A symbol of stability. And precisely for that reason, a symbol of hypocrisy.

Anni Settanta permanenti

L’estetica del mondo è ferma agli anni ’70. Non per nostalgia, ma per inerzia.

Arredi iconici, colori saturi, design audace convivono con ambienti trascurati e decadenti. Gli interni raccontano un’epoca che prometteva libertà, ma che non l’ha mai davvero mantenuta.

È un mondo che ha sognato il cambiamento, senza compierlo.

Permanent Seventies

The world’s aesthetic is frozen in the 1970s.

Not out of nostalgia, but inertia.

Iconic furniture, saturated colours and bold design coexist with neglected and decaying environments. Interiors tell the story of an era that promised freedom but never truly delivered it.

It is a world that dreamed of change, without ever completing it.

Mesmerismo

n Psycho Party, mesmerism is neither therapy nor a romantic esoteric practice.

It is a tool of cognitive control. An imperfect method Norm learned to maintain cohesion between his personalities and prevent the system from collapsing.

Norm uses it to establish internal boundaries, regulate turns of intervention and contain the more invasive personalities. Mesmerism does not eliminate Bear, Tristan, Sofin or Lord.

It allows him to negotiate with them.

Narrative function

Mesmerism explains why the personalities:

• do not emerge continuously

• can only be activated at specific moments

• carry a cost every time they take control

It is the fragile pact Norm has made with himself.

Gameplay function

Mesmerism is the resource that governs personality switching.

• Each switch consumes a charge.

• Charges are limited per chapter.

• Exhausting them does not trigger a traditional game over, but an irreversible loss of control.

Activaction spaces

Mesmerism requires reflective surfaces.

Mirrors.

Glass.

Water.

Polished metal.

The bathroom mirror scene in the first chapter is the first place where Norm manages to speak with multiple personalities at the same time.

It is not the only possible location, but it is the only one fully structured in the prologue.

Secondary characters

Gerry Miller

Gerry Miller is Norm’s direct supervisor.

Short, stocky, oddly proportioned. Always in a suit, usually with loud ties. He flirts with anything that moves, uses drugs in moderation, and cheats on his wife without a hint of guilt.

He’s not crazy. He’s worse: he works perfectly.

He secured his position by helping the Big Boss during a protest years ago. Since then, complaints about his behavior simply slide off him. He’s untouchable.

He never raises his voice with Norm.He doesn’t need to.

All he expects are results. Money. Silence.

«Norm, I don’t care how. I want that money on my desk by tomorrow.»

Donna Hart

Donna is one of Norm’s coworkers.

Soft presence. Pastel pink suits. Gentle smiles. Constant attentiveness.

She’s the only one who seems to actually notice Norm.

Donna listens. She reassures. She smiles. But her empathy comes from years of bullying and loneliness. Helping others is her way of avoiding her own life.

She is well integrated. Well liked. Socially active.

And still completely alone.

To Norm, she represents something he can’t manage: someone who appears to function in society, even if it’s hollow.

«You’re always so quiet, Norm. If you ever need to talk, I’m here.»

Michael Blackwood

Michael Blackwood never appears.

He is a presence, not a person.

His office has direct access to the parking lot. No one ever sees him in the corridors. His decisions arrive as typed notes left on desks.

The Big Boss isn’t really a man.

He’s the idea of power itself: distant, opaque, unreachable.

«…»

Detective Samantha “Sam” Spade

Sam became a detective almost by design.

Not by choice. By compensation.

Her mother, obsessed with noir fiction, raised her like a hardboiled character. She gave her a masculine name. A role to play.

Sam follows that script exactly.

Which is why nobody takes her seriously.

She’s competent but not believed. Determined but isolated.

«There’s no evidence, no suspect. They handed it to a woman so the whole thing would look ridiculous.»

Teddy

Teddy is Bear’s lost love.

He exists only for Bear.

The other personalities don’t remember him. Norm doesn’t remember him. There are no photos, no records.

Only emotional certainty.

«He was everything to me. Even if no one remembers him.»

I Fratelli Blank

Vic, Donnie, and Reggie Blank work for whoever pays.

Different bodies. Same empty stare.

They’re not stupid.

They’re just inert.

Lord has already crossed paths with them before: gambling, debts, bad decisions.

Outside the courthouse they have no problem beating Norm to the ground.

«The Blanks erase you.»

Alec Starling

Alec is Norm’s university friend and the one who introduces him to mesmerism.

Popular, charismatic, charming.

And deeply fragmented.

He believes in controlling the mind, but not in curing it.

He’s an ally.

Not a solution.

He returns mainly in Act II as an advisor.

«Just because my personalities don’t show themselves doesn’t mean I only have one face.»

The grim family

Alan Grim

Alan Grim despises anything that isn’t strength.

Elegance, affection, care. To him, these are weaknesses.

He raised his sons as instruments.

Brutus was meant to be the heir.Norm was a mistake.

When Brutus kills himself, Alan spits on his grave.

Note on the name Brutus

Alan chooses the name Brutus deliberately.

In his reading, Brutus is the man willing to sacrifice everything for a higher ideal. Even family. Even blood.

Alan doesn’t see Caesar’s betrayal as a crime.

He sees it as strength.

The ability to sever bonds when they become an obstacle.

By naming his son Brutus, Alan assigns him a task before he even has a life.

Be hard. Be heavy. Be willing to destroy.

«A real man relies on no one.»

Brutus Grim

Brutus wanted to protect Norm.

But he did it by hurting him.

He believed controlled violence was better than their father’s.

He always wore a cap.

The same one Bear will later wear.

His suicide is the fracture that breaks the family for good.

«Don't worry.»

Giuliana Grim

Giuliana stopped fighting long ago.

She pours gin into her tea.She hides colorful clothes in a closet she never opens.

Norm cannot forgive her.

Brutus could.

«I can’t change it. That’s just how the world works.»

Sample IN-game scenes

Short fragments of dialogue and action taken from different moments in the game, meant to convey the tone, the internal conflict, and the identity-driven nature of the player’s choices.

Sad Cleanup

Context: 

Norm wakes up in a boiler room.

Tristan’s “party” is already over. Now it’s his turn to clean up.

NORM Do I really have to clean this up again?

NORM Tristan, you never bother choosing… men, women, it doesn’t matter as long as they’re still breathing when you start with them… and how the hell did you even get a bed down here?

NORM God, I hate these damn confetti…

Norm begins cleaning the scene.

Every movement weighs on his mental stability.

Coming Home

Context:  Dawn. Norm’s apartment.

NORM Tristan had fun all night.

NORM It belonged to my father. From when I was a kid. It creaks because it’s old… or because of the weight of the memories.

NORM I change the bulb every week. I like warm light. Sofin and Tristan prefer cold light. We set up a schedule.

The player explores the apartment.

Every object is a fragment of forced coexistence.

In the shower

Context: Bathroom. Hot water running. Tristan interrupts Norm’s shower.

NORM If I didn’t know it was blood… I’d almost find the pink water… poetic.

TRISTAN I’d love to enjoy a shower in silence. And without pointless insults.

NORM You need to stop this, Tristan.

TRISTAN Oh, I did stop, Norm… but when you’re so stressed you can’t even manage to take care of yourself… well, that’s when I step in.

The player can perform small daily actions.

Each moment is inhabited by a different personality, showing the forced coexistence, the lack of privacy, and the absence of any time that truly belongs to Norm.

The Mind Lobby

Context: 

Norm collapses.

He wakes up in the waiting room of his own mind.

NORM They’re like children. They need discipline.

VICTOR BELLAMY Shall I keep the elevators locked, sir?

NORM No, Bellamy. Someone called me.

Each elevator leads to a different personality.

The mind becomes a physical space the player can navigate.

The office

Context: 

Norm sits in front of his slimy supervisor.

VISCIDO RESPONSABILE You’ll need to change a few words in that transcript today.

NORM That’s… corruption.

LORD Doing it without getting something in return would be slavery.

SOFIN No, Norm. It’s wrong.

The conversation takes place inside Norm’s mind while he interacts with his boss.

The player chooses which voice to listen to.

The choice isn’t moral.

It’s identitary.

Dana

Context: 

Early morning. The coffee stand outside the courthouse.

DANA Do you always feel guilty about something?

NORM Let’s just say… I like to anticipate my inner judge.

NORM Just a rough night.

DANA Classic serial killer answer.

Dana is Norm’s opposite: strong, socially integrated, and not trapped by the system.

Lo scontro finale del capitolo

Context: 

Evening. Bathroom. Norm has reached his limit.

NORM You’re free. Like some damn genie out of a lamp, you’re free. I don’t want anything to do with you anymore. Whoever wants out, get out. Whoever wants to stay inside, stay. I’ll just crawl into some forgotten corner of my brain and disappear.

NORM I even managed to get abandoned by myself.

This marks the end of Chapter One and the escape of Norm’s fifth personality.

Why this game

This is the project closest to me.

Norm is, in many ways, a lesson I wrote for myself.

A personal fable about something I deeply believe in, but rarely manage to apply.

Being myself. Being enough for myself.Not splitting into a thousand different versions just to fit the world, a relationship, or simply survive.

I wrote this game to confront one of my biggest difficulties.

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Project status

The project is currently in advanced narrative pre-production.

The following elements are already defined:

• worldbuilding

• narrative arc of Chapter One

• identity structure of the personalities

• main and secondary characters

• tone and narrative function of the dialogue

• integration between narrative and decision-based mechanics

The project currently includes:

• solid narrative documentation

• examples of in-game dialogue

• examples of narrative gameplay scenes

The game is designed to grow modularly.

The narrative structure is already built to support iterative design without losing coherence or direction.