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heartmachinez · 6 months

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Hyper Light Breaker: Meet PB

PIVOTING TOWARD CHARACTER-BASED STORYTELLING

A while ago, we shared that we were developing Hyper Light Breaker with a limited form of character creation in mind - our player “characters” would be specific species, all following the same character archetype. The goal was to reduce animation scope down significantly by sticking with the single archetype.

As time went on, however, we discovered that a specific story was taking shape. And it needed to be told through a discrete cast of characters with their own backstories, motivations, and personalities.

We are now pivoting away from broader character customization, in favor of enriching player experience and empathy through highlighting each of these unique characters and their journeys through the world. We are still retaining customization in the form of offering near limitless loadout options, hub options, and other ways for players to have agency over this world.

With that said, please meet…

PROTOBREAKER

PB was featured prominently in our Announcement Trailer, but the character’s identity and role in the Hyper Light universe has been shrouded in mystery since. We’re now ready to share a little more about her.

You meet PB in the Hotel Lobby of the Hub, the launch point for all of your ventures into the Overgrowth. A former highly skilled Breaker herself, she now works a desk job where she assigns and oversees Breaker missions.

PB has a long history in this world. But she is generally reserved, and minces few words. It is up to you to uncover her past, and play a crucial role in writing this new chapter in her story.

PB IN THE WORLD OF HYPER LIGHT

PB has a unique role in Breaker’s narrative. The abandoned wilds of the Overgrowth are shrouded in mystery, and PB has been here since they were first sealed away from the rest of the world.

Within the Breakers, PB is your commander, so she passes along your marching orders from Breaker HQ. But like you, she’s curious about the Overgrowth’s mysteries. In particular, she wants to learn the goals and motivations of the Crowns—why do they fight the Breakers? What are they protecting, and why?

PB knows many secrets about this place, but she’s not quite sure which of them are relevant to the mystery. When you discover some brand new information about the Crowns or the Overgrowth, you’ll bring those stories back to PB. She’ll share her own memories with you, and help you put the mystery together.

PB has a few secrets herself, too. She’s been living in the Overgrowth for a long time, and she seems to have a strange personal connection to the Crowns. If you help her discover more about the Overgrowth, she may share some of her history with you!

LET US HEAR FROM YOU!

How do you feel about our character-based storytelling process?

What do you think happened to PB?

Blaze

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#hyper light breaker #hyper light drifter #gamedev #storytelling #narrative #game story #game design #game development #heart machine #game narrative #narrative design

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meanderingmedievalist · 5 months

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Pentiment's Narrative Design

Thanks to the Mesón Sol podcast for hosting me last year, and a tremendous shoutout to Ángel for transforming it into a beautiful video! If you like Pentiment, give them some support and a watch!

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#medieval #pentiment #andreas maler #narrative design #game dev #Youtube

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asaraviapt · 8 months

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[EN] Video Game Writing Resources!

Hello! My name is Andrea--I have been writing for games since 2018, and even worked as a writer at Firaxis Games from 2022 until April of 2023. So, I knew a few things about narrative design--but what the fuck is it? Recently, I gave a talk about the fundamentals and history of the field of narrative design. In Spanish. So, let's talk about it in English--the "what," "why," "how," "when," and "who," of narrative design! What is narrative design? Narrative design is not just writing--it's a huge part of it, but designing a narrative system involves implementing narrative content into the build of the game. So there is a technical learning curve to it. Personally, I watched and obtained certifications in Unreal Engine 5 and Unity in order to be aware of the limitations of each engine. I used the free trial of LinkedIn Learning, but courses about this engine are available in these websites: - https://platzi.com/ - https://www.arkde.com/ - https://www.domestika.org/?query=unity - https://www.coursera.org/ Why do we need narrative design? In order to create an interactive story that the player feels a part of, narrative designers are mandatory. It's not a responsibility that can be placed on other designers (then we would be entering crunch territory) rather someone who specifically specializes in both creative writing and game design is needed to explain within the context of the game's story why the mechanics work in a certain way. Imagine if a Telltale game did not have dialogue, for example--what would we be left with? Or if The Last Of Us did not convey a narrative through its environments.

Narrative designers are needed so that all of the departments are in sync and understand the story that they are trying to tell. For example, if a game takes place in a haunted house that was abandoned, we need all hands on deck. The narrative designer can explain to the environment artists why there are so many holes in the living room--perhaps the last tenants of the house were a rowdy bunch. Or, they can tell the sound designers which planks of wood are the most rotten and need a loud sound effect to highlight how it has been abandoned. How do I become a narrative designer? There is no one way to become a narrative designer. Some people start in QA and transition into the field, I have also witnessed engineers and doctors wanting to get into narrative design. I do recommend having the following (at least): - A passion for storytelling. - Deep understanding of the mechanics of the game and the player experience. - Communication skills are incredibly important--can you describe your story in a concise way to your peers in a Confluence page?

Documentation skills are also a massive plus.

Very basic understanding of game engines and limitations. You don't have to be a computer science major, but know what your requests will entail. If you have an idea of a cutscene, can the engine handle it? Will the animators have enough time? Is it within scope?

If you can, attend game jams! They are an amazing way to network with amazing people and get a feel of what the game production pipeline is like.

Additionally, I highly recommend the following resources: First, the free resources! ~It's free real estate~

Look up Twinery tutorials. (https://twinery.org/) Not only is it free, but you can use it on your browser. More importantly, you will learn about branching narratives and can create your own games within a few minutes--the interface, though it requires a bit of coding, is incredibly easy to use and there are a lot of tutorials available online.

Download Ren'Py (https://www.renpy.org/) and watch tutorials. It's free, and there is a huge community of visual novel developers who may need help with narrative designers, writers, editors and even translators. An amazing resource that a colleague shared was this Discord with visual novel developers--if you have an idea, feel free to connect with artists and voice actors here! https://discord.gg/nW5yn4FE

Network, network, network! Follow narrative design and game writer groups on Discord, Facebook and even LinkedIn. -- An amazing convention that is online, free and accessible regarding narrative design is LudoNarraCon.

If you go to itch.io you will see a list of game jams that you can attend to for free! Some game jams that I have attended and had a positive experience are the following: - Woman Game Jam. I encourage folks from marginalized genders to attend this game jam, as we have a large pool of mentors willing to help in every single discipline at any time due to the global nature of it. It is a safe and inclusive space for women and nonbinary folx who want to get into the gaming industry! - Global Game Jam. Self explanatory, it has some in-person opportunities but you can also attend remotely. - Greenlight Jam. Do you have an idea that can not be done in only 48 hours? The Greenlight Jam is amazing, as it lasts four weeks--which allows narrative designers to develop complex narrative systems and even record voice lines for a more complex project. Side Note: Even though most game jams have a time limit, I do encourage narrative designers to develop and polish the prototypes and levels created during game jams to have portfolios and writing samples that stand out!

Work With Indies is a job site that publishes job opportunities--including ones in writing and narrative design. Additionally, their Discord has some networking events with writers so you can connect with them.

Other websites that not only publish jobs but include networking events are Hitmarker.net (this is their Discord), IndieGameAcademy (link to Discord),

Newsletters! A lot of experienced game writers have newsletters dedicated to the craft, to name a few that I highly recommend: -- Greg Buchanan's newsletter. Rounds up game writing news every Tuesday, and includes job opportunities. -- Bright Whitney's newsletter. A studio founder with amazing insights regarding game design and thoughtful narrative, Whitney's threads are extremely insightful. -- Susan O'Connor's blog on The Narrative Department. In addition to providing free knowledge regarding world building, narrative design, game writing and other specifics of the craft Susan interviews industry professionals and alumni who offer testimonials that have amazing advice. -- GDC talks about narrative design. Though I recommend the GDC vault as well in the next section, I highly recommend the GDC talks regarding not only narrative design but the development of your favorite titles!

Now, for resources that may not be free--but I highly recommend, as someone who used them first hand. - The Narrative Department. This post is not sponsored by them at all, however it is rare to find an instructor as kind and hard-working as Susan O'Connor who has been a narrative designer in historic AAA, AA and independent titles. Known for her contributions in Tomb Raider, Batman: The Enemy Within, and BioShock to name a few (imdb is: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1897248/) her Game Writing Masterclass offers a certification in everything related to game writing. A few subjects she touches on are: -- Characters and how to make them compelling. -- Barks and ambience writing. -- Dialogue, backstories and scripts. -- How to work with other departments. And more! Additionally, you would obtain access to a huge alumni network full of game writing professionals working in independent, AA and AAA studios! Not to mention that all of the assignments completed in the class will look amazing in a portfolio as game writing samples. - GDC Vault. Though I have an opinion on the price tag of GDC tickets and the vault, I would definitely include it as it has resources from several studios, writers, narrative designers and more! When was narrative design formed? When can I become a narrative designer?

That's a wonderful question. Narrative design, as a term, was first used around the 90s but became more established between the 2000s and 2010s. So, although the field is relatively new, and there are not a lot educational resources available, consider yourself part of an innovative field that is exponentially growing! Recently, a game developer asked when was the best time to keep an eye out for job openings. And a harsh truth about the gaming industry is that it is extremely volatile--layoffs, downsizings and startups rise and fall. This is not meant to deter anyone from pursuing a career in narrative design, but rather I am including it for the sake of transparency. We cannot predict when a studio is going to layoff their employees, or when they cancel unannounced projects. Unlike most industries where we know for a fact that recruiters keep a sharp eye for candidates in Q1 and Q3, a piece of advice I received from a mentor of mine was to try to predict when projects are going to need more stories. There's the release of a game, and then there is the addition of additional narrative content--and for this, they will more than likely need associate/entry/junior level narrative designers, writers and quest designers. But--this is related to searching for a job as a narrative designer, and I can write a novel about that (and will edit this article to redirect folx into it.) So, keep an eye out for huge game announcements. Then, cater your resume to what the studio is looking for in a narrative designer. Now, to finish off this article: Who is a narrative designer? If you have a passion for storytelling and games, and have participated in game jams, congratulations you are a wonderful narrative designer! Make sure you always include that you are a narrative designer, and not an aspiring narrative designer--it makes you stand out amongst applicants. That's all I have for now--feel free to interact, comment and share! Let me know if I missed something and I will be sure to add it.

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hpowellsmith · 9 months

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Do you think a degree is a good place to start to get into the narrative designer scene? I don't have any sort of degrees and whenever I look at job postings it kind of intimidates me.

You don't necessarily need a game design degree. There isn't a single route into getting a narrative design job and most of the narrative people I've worked with have academic experience in other areas. Classics, publishing, linguistics, screenwriting (and other kinds of writing), film, literature, teaching, computer science, biomedical science, history, and philosophy are all things that come to mind off the top of my head. I personally have an English Literature bachelor's degree and a postgrad teaching certificate.

I do know a few narrative people with game design degrees and they speak highly of that experience - but it isn't essential and there's some ambivalence in the field of games about how much value you get from it. It would really depend on where you were attending and who was teaching it, and so on. Do research the lecturers and their industry experience before signing up to anything!

A lot of narrative jobs will require some sort of degree. Not all! But many will explicitly. Then, more trickily, there's the implicitness of it all: it's rare that I've encountered a narrative person at a studio who doesn't have a degree, and among many other things that's a marker of the lack of class diversity in the field.

That said: a degree is unlikely to directly help you get a narrative job unless it's very specific (eg you're an expert in the Franklin expedition, and the game is about trying to rescue the ships). It will more give you transferable skills. My PGCE helped me learn to deliver presentations and pitches. My English degree helped me discuss art. My PGCE taught me about being rigorous about developing skills and assessing where I'm at and taking feedback. My English degree pushed me to read widely. But none of that fed directly into getting a job in games - when I graduated from my undergrad degree I didn't know how games jobs worked anyway and neither did my career advisors.

Whether or not you have a degree, you need to have examples of your skills and how you've applied them to your work. If you've had jobs in other areas, you can refer to that - you're great at spotting data entry errors? fantastic. you can meditate an argument between a group of crying five year olds? great. And most of all you need completed examples of your writing and your games work for your portfolio. It doesn't have to be massive ambitious projects, but you need to prove that you know how games fit together, what makes them feel good or not good to play, and can apply it to your own work.

Make interactive fiction. Make a small game, or a bigger game, in bitsy. Join a game jam and work with other people on something - that will give you something to talk about in interviews, and teach you about working with other people on a creative project. Finish things! Not only will that give you more to discuss, it will also mean that you have a better sense of the bigger picture of interactive storytelling. I got my first studio job off the back of years of short hobby IF and a completed CoG game; I brought skills from my studies but I wouldn't have got a foot in the door without those projects to show that I could write well, understood narrative design, and could finish games.

Some unsolicited advice:

Be cautious about expensive game writing courses. They can be valuable for networking and pushing your to be rigorous about your work, or they can be a money sink. Remember that in 99% of "dream studios" there will be people working there for whom it's a nightmare. Don't put people on pedestals and remember that studio games are a team effort - but also respect and celebrate your own contributions. Don't dunk on games in public: I've seen a lot of people do that and then turn around and ask for a job from the people they were dunking on. It doesn't make people inclined to say yes. Don't neglect your peers in favour of trying to get in with a crowd that's already established; but if trusted people offer mentorship (such as Limit Break in the UK) go for it. When you are one of those established people, don't pull up the ladder behind you.

Here is a doc of resources from Raymond Vermeulen and another from Adanna aka AFNarratives. Also there are a ton of free talks available from AdventureX, Narrascope, Writer's Guild of Great Britain, and the GDC Vault about narrative which are both interesting and useful.

None of this is any guarantee of anything, there are a lot of people competing for not many jobs and if you find someone selling One Weird Trick to get into the field of narrative design, avoid them. I've seen talented people with a lot of experience struggling to find another contract after one has ended. So I don't want to act like I have it all figured out - but I hope it's helpful.

#indie games #game writing #narrative design #game industry

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shannonsketches · 6 months

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Do you have a Ganondorf pov for the fealty swearing scene when he sees link and Zelda through the window?

SO!! Yes and No, and I'm so so sorry because you activated my trap card and this is one of my favorite things and I need to talk about how great this scene is in terms of narrative design.

So, in OoT, that is (as far as I know) not a scene of him pledging fealty. It was referenced in that scene in TotK, but in OoT, Zelda's dialogue indicates that he's already sworn allegiance to her father by then, and she's warned her father about her dreams, which he does not believe.

But in terms of narrative it is so economical and successful in introducing the villain and very subtly setting up your expectations for him. He's on screen for what, ten seconds? But between that and Zelda's dialogue, that very short scene tells us, the player, the two key factors:

1 - Because he's already sworn fealty, he is at the castle for an audience with the king, and if he is walking into the chamber when you arrive in the garden, it means Ganondorf got to Hyrule just before we, the player, did, which sets up the recurring story point that Ganondorf is always one step ahead of you.

2 - Him looking over at the window tells us, the audience, that he can see us. He doesn't know who Link is, as a person, in the game, but as the player, he's aware of us, and he will continue to be perfectly aware of us and exactly what we're doing throughout the remainder of the game, to the point that he uses it against us.

And I know this is absolutely NOT what you asked but I love narrative design so much, and when it comes to establishing things very quickly, this is one of my favorite scenes to reference, because as long-winded as the legend explainers are, they set up Ganondorf's mechanic within the narrative so quickly and effectively, and I just love it to death.

But I will have to draw both his fealty scene and his pov of the window scene separately at some point, yes lol

#ganondorf #narrative design #headcanons #i just i love oot man #it really was the first of its kind ;v;#the way zelda's like 'HURRY OR HE'S GONNA BE GONE' like gan just went 'hey girl im here i'm gonna go run around town and scare the locals'#bc he's in hyrule the whole game like he's there until you come back and see that he's ruined it #he's just chillin as a guest with the king probably bullying a 10 year old together #or the funnier option gan shows up and the king is like 'yay!' and then they just go wander around the castle together #do I picture zelda's father as season 1 richard from galavant? yes #lozhc

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emmabeforenone · 4 months

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Slay The Princess has FromSoftware narrative DNA and I don't know how to explain it.

You have to engage in horror and violence and you don't really know why. You have to choose completely opposing, obscure, world-shaping endings based entirely on poetic and philosophical descriptions given by biased characters. No matter how much you try to hash out what is really happening, you'll never have perfect information. The time to make your choice is coming, now choose and live with how it affects those you've met on your journey.

#slay the princess #fromsoftware #narrative design

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milesluna · 10 months

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If you see a big, loud American dressed like this at tonight’s WGGB Game Writing Event, that’s me*! Please say hi! I’d love to meet new people here in England.

*If it’s not me, RUN. THE CLONES HAVE ESCAPED.

#wggb #game writing #milesluna #narrative design

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andreablythe · 2 months

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In my latest newsletter I share some thoughts on the role of food and meal sharing in books, movies, and games: https://andrea-blythe.beehiiv.com/p/2024-02-lets-share-a-meal

#books #writing #writing community #storytelling #games industry #game writing #games writing #narrative #narrative design #filmmaking

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blacktabbygames · 6 months

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hey did you know that slay the princess is out now? did you know it's on sale with a 10% launch discount until november 2nd? do you want to spend several hours getting sternly lectured by and annoying jonathan sims?? well this is your game i think it's good and you should buy it but don't listen to me look at that 91 metascore—and for us, just a couple of lil guys make a game with no gameplay other than click dialogue options! idk must be fun

“An existentially horrific visual novel, with an incredibly well-written plot, a beautiful score and graphics that will enrapture all senses. One of the best narrative games of 2023.” 10/10 – Voxel Smash

“There isn’t a single thing I don’t like about Slay the Princess. The presentation is beautiful, the story is fantastic and moving, the voice acting of amazing characters is done phenomenally well, and the branching paths of the story give you what feels like unlimited possibilities.” 10/10 – Try Hard Guides

“Slay the Princess will stay with you for a long time, I think. It’s absurdist and dark and haunting in a way that not a lot of games are. If you have an itch for something that’s spooky but also morally confronting and you will be thinking about it for days to come, it’s impossible not to recommend this.” A- – Player 2

Anyways more seriously truly from the bottom of our hearts thank you all so much for making this launch a world-shifting experience for us! We can't wait to share more games with you, starting with Episode 5 of Scarlet Hollow 👀

#slay the princess #scarlet hollow #jonathan sims #nichole goodnight #indie games #visual novel #interactive fiction #narrative design #gamedev #horror game #horror games

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askagamedev · 17 days

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Sent this ask a while ago but I think Tumblr ate it so here it is:

In which stage of game development are relationships between characters decided? Asking this because I recently found an old Final Fantasy VII relationship chart and originally some characters were supposed to have completely different bonds compared to the ones they ended up having in the actual game. These seem to be quite important plot points, so I assume that final decisions should be made before creating cutscenes? Or you can change stuff later if devs come up with better ideas?

The importance of the narrative depends primarily on how important the narrative is to the game. For a game like Overwatch, where the core gameplay is team pvp, the narrative is a lot less important and things like relationships are generally prioritized. It matters more that each character fills the specific gameplay needs of a team-based pvp shooter than it matters that these characters are brothers or that group has a rivalry with this one. In a situation like Overwatch, the narrative tends to be more like the glue that holds the bigger parts of the game together - it's decided on later once the big decisions have been made (e.g. we are locking in a flying rocket character and a fast teleporting character).

The important thing to think about when it comes to development is that we can't build the game sequentially, we have to build as much of the game in parallel as we can. This means we have to start work on the things that take the longest as early as possible (e.g. building environments, creating animations and rigs, building the technology), and then do the things that take less time to complete later. For features like cutscenes, it depends on how much difficulty it takes to build the cutscenes. In the original FF7, the FMV sequences were set in stone. Making changes to pre-rendered FMV was untenable, so everything in the FMV sequences had to be locked in very early on in order to get it all done on time. The in-game bits - the low-poly characters moving, talking, and animating - were cheaper and easier to build, so they could be changed significantly later in the dev cycle. Today such things would be much more difficult due to the necessity of voice acting and the difficulty of getting the voice actors back into the recording booth.

When we're in deadlines, we have deadlines - this is the last day for us to make changes to the feature we're working on. That could mean combat, it could mean itemization, it could mean summoning magic, it could mean narrative, it could mean cutscenes/cinematics. After that deadline passes, we commit to fixing bugs with what we have and not making any more changes or additions, no matter how good the ideas are. If we can always make changes forever, we'll never ship the game. As the inestimable Dolly Parton said, "Sometimes you need to to tinkle or get off the potty."

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#game production #narrative design #how things work

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midautumngame · 8 months

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Introducing Chaos: Let's Build Some Procedural Narrative Systems! #GDoCExpo

Here's our project lead, Sherveen's talk from last year's GDoCExpo about building procedural narrative systems, which is a big part of the development of games like Hades, Wildermyth and Midautumn!

#procedural generation #narrative design #hades #hades game #game design #video games #Youtube #game dev #indie dev #gamedev #indiedev #indie game #game development #indie games #game devs #midautumn #midautumn game

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jarkonian · 5 months

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Idk I’ve got a migraine and a bone to pick rn. I used to be a big proponent of “roll with the punches” when it comes to how a game can change depending on your actions, but after Baldurs Gate 3….. gotta say I’m not so sure anymore.

Spoilers, I guess, but… Last Light Inn? My first playthrough, Isobel got kidnapped and everyone died. And it just sucked.

And I don’t mean that the feeling I got sucked, that parts fine. I mean the game just got less good because I let that stick.

Narratively, it wasn’t really treated like the massive “low point” it should be. Next to nothing acknowledges it outside Jeheira and like one dialogue option.

In game, not much changed either. There was a big fight and my main memory of it was carefully knocking out Damon (to no avail, of course).

And in exchange for that? My main goal of Act I was rendered pointless. I didn’t get to see the adorable interactions between Isobel and Aylin. And now I’m constantly seeing gifs of interactions with the other tieflings in Act III that were just erased for me.

So many details and interactions wiped off the map cuz I trusted the game to provide something more interesting in their place. I guess making me mad enough to rant about it after finishing the game should count for something, but I’m only mad because it wasn’t clear to me how objectively hollow “rolling with this punch” would be.

Idk. On me for not reloading I guess, but I feel like for a crucial moment like that one, if you’re going to be just flatly removing parts of the game because of one battle, then there should be some kind of interesting new stuff added to even that out.

As it stands if Isobel is knocked out the game becomes notably less interesting in numerous ways, and doesn’t do a good job of making it feel like anything else

#idk I’ve got a migraine and a bone to pick #for the record I’m comparing this to when I rolled a crit fail and got Kim shot in disco Elysium #and got to do an entire alternate endgame cuz of it #like do you see what I mean that sucked narratively #but the devs used it to create a super fun and interesting alternate scenario #where’s bg3 just filled that fail space with nothing #woof ok I’m done just miffed about that #bg3 #baldurs gate 3 #disco Elysium #game design #narrative design #dame aylin #Isobel

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