Narrative Project: We Are Spared Hell
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Genre: RPG Narrative Horror
Role: Narrative Designer
Duration: 13 Weeks
Toolsets: Excel, Powerpoint, Milanote, Arcweave
Skills:
– Branching Narrative, Linear Dialogue & Quest Design
– Character Bios, Barks & Weapons
– Location & Building Design
– Sequence Storyboarding
– Voiceover Script, Documentation & Casting
– Worldbuilding (with Cartography)
– Content Research
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Thematic Overview:
After a heavenly comet spreads plague and religious mania across the forests of Southern Germany, an ostracized nun must help an orphaned boy survive the impending Northern invasion of their home, trying to grapple with threats both human and divine as their world risks being embraced by the fires of Hell itself.
Linear Dialogue
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As a supplement to the branching, I wrote a number of linear dialogue scripts between the player character and multiple NPCs, to introduce tutorial quests and early-game contextual worldbuilding.
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Summary:
– Structured four progressive quests, each providing a natural introduction for a new NPC.
– Outlined the relevant quest for each conversation, and following gameplay outcomes.
– Adhered to externally defined word counts to produce focused but interesting dialogue.
– Marked character facial animations for each line, making considerations artist limits.
Character Bios, Barks and Weapons
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For each character that features in dialogue I created a relevant design sheets. Although my project vision was not combat focused, I provided potential weapon sheets to demonstrate flexibility in design scope, and wrote multiple non-specific bark lines along with bios to capture each character’s voice and personality.
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Summary:
– Created character sheets for: Player, Leader, Blacksmith, Enemy (Mini-Boss) and Healer.
– Wrote short biographies to define each character’s backstories, motivations, personalities and allegiances.
– Conducted setting and theme research into costume to assist character artists.
– Supported potential combat design by devising weapon and attack sheets.
– Wrote generic bark sheets to cover ambient wandering, battle cries and combat outcomes.
Location and Building Design
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I packaged clear documentation to summarise the starting town for the game, providing necessary details for art and environment teams to use in their early concepts whilst showing consideration for potential scope and budget limitations.
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Summary:
– Designed a summary location sheet for the game’s starting town: Hoffnung.
– Clearly marked the town’s location on the overall world map for quest reference.
– Highlighted key buildings, important level art, and pertinent gameplay features.
– Included important setting and thematic details to assist in consistent art direction.
– Detailed each key building’s exterior and interior visual design.
– Identified assets of interest, outlined backstory, and noted present NPCs for each location.
– Stressed project scope and limitations in designs to ensure realistic artistic vision.
Sequence Storyboarding
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I wrote and storyboarded an introductory sequence to the project that could also serve as a marketing piece for the game. I decided not to feature the main protagonist, Junius, but focus on the chaos that beset Hoffnung prior to the game in the form of the angel’s comet event, in the process setting up the key themes and conflicts of inquisitors and plague.
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Summary:
– Crafted a storyboard script that outlined the game world’s crisis event to tie back into gameplay.
– Provided simple sketches to convey vision, with clear camera direction to assist marketing teams.
– Followed a strict time limit to demonstrate recognition towards budget.
– Wrote voice-over dialogue to underpin narrative connection and build intrigue.
Voiceover Documentation
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In the same documentation as the branching dialogue, I prepared voiceover sheets for each character. This provided key details to help assist actor casting, along with important contextual notes for lines to improve voice-over performance.
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Summary:
– Created voiceover sheets for characters featured in the branching and linear dialogue.
– Included contextual scene details and quest summaries to assist performance.
– Outlined essential personality notes, motivations and vocal directions for characters.
– Provided appropriate notes on cultural, age and gender requirements for each character.
Worldbuilding
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Taking inspiration from real features and divides within Holy Roman Southern Germany, I created the fictional state of Fegefeuer, crafting a detailed game world map that would underpin quest design. In addition, I wrote extensive contextual history and a brief summary of the narrative, which would spearhead a pitch document for the project.
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Summary:
– Provided a narrative summary to capture the main plot, genre and themes of the project.
– Wrote clear notes on the setting history to outline the world’s cultural context.
– Crafted a detailed world map with listed gameplay locations that conveyed the setting.
– Used cartography to provide spatial restriction to better define exploration scope.
Content Research
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To achieve coherence, determine scope, and best present the project’s potential I conducted extensive genre research into appropriate games and media which would assist in marketing the game.
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Summary:
– Used Disco Elysium to help define We Are Spared Hell as an AA Open-World, Dialogue-Driven Isometric RPG.
– Provided additional game references to further explain the unique survival horror elements.
– Added television and film examples to capture themes of historical fiction and terror.
– Supplemented media references with a list of official synopsis, trailer links, and steam pages.
– Wrote focus notes to justify design inspirations and mark creative intention.