Character concepts and a static cutscene for a visual novel

As expected, robots took over the workforce and basically made humanity redundant. This has caused major conflict between people and has led to a general distrust of robotic machinery among the population. But has anyone ever considered how that makes the robots feel?

These are the character concepts of two main characters whose stories intertwine in a sci-fi visual novel. There is also a final emotive piece featuring them both, which would be used as a static cutscene in the game. The human character is a young boy who, like many children his age, have been raised learning of how gradually overtook almost every career over the past 100 years. That robots are not to be trusted or empathised with since ‘they’re just programmed to be nice.’ Most of his days are spent enforcing this mentality, going around the city and harassing, vandalising, or outright breaking any robot he comes across. The boy probably would have grown up following this belief, eventually passing it on to his children.

That is until he met the humble paramedic robot. ‘Doc-ted’ is the name of this teddy bear inspired bot, created to help assist paramedics with more serious accidents. He has a range of features from being able to store basic medical equipment in his body, detach and hover his arms to create a stretcher, and detach and hover his ‘fingers’, using them to perform simple surgeries if required. He also comes with a range of gadgets that help paramedics such as a hologram projection of the patient’s important info, his ‘ears’ are able to flash and act as warning lights, and his tank-like treads are able to best any terrain. Yet despite all these amazing features, he faces a huge amount of abuse with some patients outright denying his help. As one of the robots that are programmed with a level of basic human emotions so he may better sympathise with them, he is greatly upset by his unfair treatment. Yet, he still wants to help, and he would like to believe that is due to more than just want his programming tells him.

Upon their first meeting (where the boy is caught trying to tip the robot while it patrols the city), Doc-ted becomes interested in the boy, sensing that something is off with him. He insists on helping and soon realises the boy is victim to ruthless bullying from the older children. Then, when the boy is on the verge of being beaten to a pulp, and every other human is more than happy to stand by and watch. Doc-ted rolls in and acts as the boys only defender. This not only creates a change in the boy but has a ripple effect on society as a whole. This event is what is portrayed in my emotive piece.