Adventures Inc
- Genre: 3D Action Adventure / PvE
- Type: Quest
- Engine: Unreal Engine 5
- Duration: 8 Weeks
- Tools: Arcweave, Excel, Unreal Engine 5
- Role: Narrative Designer
- 1. Branching dialogue writing, design, and implementation
- 2. Character descriptions , barks, and voice-over scripts
- 3. Tutorial script design
- 4. Location and building design
- 5. World building (+ game cartography)
Goal
- Build a narrative-focused prototype with documentation tailored for team collaboration
- Create branching and linear dialogue that is congruent with the characters and creates the core gameplay
- Create a thematically clear and digestible tutorial, trailer, and in-game character bios.
Overview
Branching & Linear Dialogue
Designed Branching Dialogue
Gameplay Dialogue Creation Process:
Step 1: Wrote branching dialogue threads that integrate variables and choices to create the gameplay:
Included the following branching dialogue design considerations:
- Choice Hub – Allows the player to choose different question options to create the core gameplay loop.
- Choice Weight: Every line of dialogue within an interview has value connected to gameplay. Dialogue needed to align with the backend value while maintaining in-story logic.
- Choices create Outcomes – dialogue informs player decisions later, which create several different outcomes.
Step 2: Wrote dynamic dialogue that drives player choice:
Created thematic choices to increase player immersion and inform player action:
- Clear and fun: Ensured dialogue was tight, informative, and entertaining.
- Point of view – Made it clear that the NPCs had a specific and unique POV through their interview.
- Narrative Simplicity – Designed the interview state to have clear questions and answers to help players keep track of all the information.
- Dishonesty – To create gameplay, NPCs all have at least one lie that can be checked against other documentation provided to the player.
Step 3: Prototyped a playable build in Unreal Engine 5:
Created a prototype with the following goals:
- Proof of concept: Ensure that the narrative focus of the game would be enjoyable in practice
- Growth – Through the node function in Unreal Engine 5, we can track variables early on and apply them to future builds.
Linear Dialogue
Tutorial Linear Dialogue Creation Process:
Designed linear dialogue threads to guide players through a tutorial.
As part of the tutorial section, this interaction was designed to:
- Teach players the basics of how to navigate the UI and the core gameplay loop.
- Guide players through the interview so that they don’t get overloaded with information.
- Entertain players by delivering the information through an NPC with a clear POV.
- Communicate clear goals – by structuring the dialogue to convey simple objectives framed by narrative lore.
Character Design, Bios & Barks
Design: Ethel & Adventurers
Crafted a player character with clear, vengeful motivations, established in the game intro. Designed to act as a pillar for player interaction with the world, deliberately vague to promote player agency and control.
This is the general description of tasks and skills used to create the characters (not unique to a specific character)
- Researched, designed, and fleshed out character motivations and personality to reflect a range of archetypes to promote gameplay.
- Contributed to the Player Character design with suggested edits. Additional character design was drawn by me, so all edits were done internally.
- Designed a unique Narrative Outcome system that combined the gameplay and dialogue together.
- Polished the character’s personalities, bios, and barks based on the finished character designs.
Bios + Barks + Outcomes
Designed the in-game Bios, Barks and Outcomes for each Adventurer with the following considerations:
- Each Bio needed to be “written” by the character themselves and contain lies, half truths and exaggerations to promote gameplay. Every Bio needed to showcase the character’s ability, skills, and background.
- Barks needed to be short, loop-able, and specific to the character. These are heard throughout the game and depend on whether the player selects the hero to join their team.
- As per the Narrative Outcome system, Outcomes needed to reflect three different variables selectable by the player. Depending on which Role an Adventurer was chosen for, a different outcome was called. Outcomes needed to be based on the Character’s abilities (or lack thereof) and unique to promote replay-ability.
Storyboarding & Trailer Script Writing
Created a trailer
Designed and implement a trailer for the game utilizing the following considerations :
- Designed shots that highlight gameplay & narrative.
- Included an opening sequence that sets up the overarching narrative.
- Planned out the sequence of events based on the limited amount of footage available.
Using Premiere Pro, I then edited together a short trailer that introduces the world and how it has changed.
Voice Over Documentation
Designed and Formatted a Voice-Over Script Document:
Created 9 Voice Over Actor documents for the Player Character, 6 NPC quest characters, and 2 supplementary characters designed to facilitate gameplay & tutorial. I provided detailed information to support the actors and provide faster and better voice recording sessions, which I then managed on-site. Each document included:
- Character Design images, character bios, personality notes, motivations, and vocal directions for each character
- All lines of dialogue for this character, along with scene details and quest summaries, to provide situational and mood context for the voice actor
Extras
Fleshed Out The Exterior & Interior Locations
Designed the preliminary building to achieve the following design goals:
- Provide a key reference image with notes and additional information to further refine design intent and supply my team with clear materials
- Clearly indicated whether the building document was for the interior or exterior of a building, as well as its name and location number, for the team to reference the town map with ease
- Maintain a clear and consistent design while we worked and collaborated on different designs in-engine and through art.
The Gear Box was created to give players a place to learn the basics of item Crafting/ Repairing. This is where the Player will spend the beginning of the game customizing their character’s look and playstyle.
Lore Considerations:
I wanted the Gear Box to be immediately identifiable to the Player from a distance while simultaneously introducing the concept of the Automotitons, a near-extinct species of semi-sentient robots.
The Jewel is the Main Story Quest Hub, where Players get jobs from the Tin Leader Yasmeen Lumiya. Through Act 1, Players frequently return to the Jewel to turn in and receive new Quests.
Lore Considerations:
Acting as both a Town Hall and a Union Center, the Jewel is designed to highlight to the Player how invasive the Triad Dynasty is. Even on a backwater like Tin, the Union is stationed within the halls of their leadership.
Live Laugh Love, the medical facility run by Dr Sunstar and his wife, Dr Elari. The medical facility allows the Player to heal themselves and their party for free and without moving time forward.
Lore Considerations:
Moon Flowers only bloom at night and need to be tended to outside of the sun’s gaze. The garden is both a subtle indication of Dr Sunstar’s vampiric past and his newfound caring nature.
Designed the Woodley Hollow map
Created a town map to achieve the following design goals:
- Designed the map to have selectable locations for the player that get unlocked through gameplay
- Each area is centered around a new gameplay function and needed to be unique and highlight the mini game.
- Maintained the whimsical style of the game.
- Wrote a location key to indicate location names and their gameplay function.
Genre and Content Research
Genre and Content Research
Performed high-level research document to help determine the game’s popularity and help the marketing team do preliminary research with the target audience, by critically consuming content from similar games as well as movies and shows that share narrative themes:
- Created a list of movies, TV shows, and games, including the official synopses of the titles, and links to their trailers
- Wrote focus notes on what elements to draw inspiration from to prove similar ideas have interest across several audiences