Narrative Designs
Here are some of my narrative design related works.
The Storm Within
(2023)
Summer Slow Jams 2023: Narrative (Theme: Doomsday)
Team size: 4
ROLE:
Lead Game Designer
Lead Narrative Designer
Level Designer
Game Programmer
Game Producer
DESCRIPTION:
The Storm Within is a RPG where players must glide through a solar storm to reach various characters and save humanity. Players evade obstacles, talk to NPCs and play other minigames to journey through space and restore earth back to normal.
TOOLS USED:
Unity, C#, Photoshop
USER EXPERIENCE GOAL
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Humorous - The player should laugh at the characters' antics and the funny scenarios they participate in as they visit the Cloud Nine Circus.
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Hopeful - The message of the narrative should make players feel inspired, feeling that they can also overcome a "storm" of their own.
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Casual - The gameplay difficulty is easy and appeals to a casual audience who plays games for the narrative element.
THEME
When conceptualizing the theme for The Storm Within, my group members and I had many ideas on what we could do for the "Doomsday" theme for the game jam. Eventually, one of my group members thought of solar storms, and how they create power outages. Since solar storms are caused by the sun, the idea became that the player needed to go to the sun to stop the storm.
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Gameplay wise, I thought that flying up to the sun could a fun experience for the player. There could be various types of obstacles the player needs to evade in order to reach the sun.
NARRATIVE
Conception of the Cloud Nine Circus
Since it is a narrative jam, we knew we wanted to create interesting characters for the players to interact with. Originally we planned to create a town in space, where players could talk to the villagers and complete tasks for them. One of my group members noted that the storm had recently started and that we could tie the perils of the storm to the village itself.
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I then wondered if perhaps the storm was caused by these outer space residents instead. They had travelled here which caused the storm. The idea of the travelling circus was born here.
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Later on, when discussing more details about the central theme of the game with the other narrative designer, faerie, we wanted to explore the Doomsday but with a positive spin. We thought about times where one may feel "doomed", this lead to the theme of mental health, where one may feel hopeless or anxious.
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Thinking on how the Cloud Nine Circus was formed and why it amassed such a variety of unique characters, faerie and I connected that to the main theme. The reason why the character have met was that they were all struggling with their own mental health issues, but they were using humor as a coping mechanism.
Characters
Player
The player character was created to contrast the wacky and fun cast of the Cloud Nine Circus. They act as the "straight man" of the comedic scenarios in the game. Where character are emotional and expressive, the player character is the opposite. They are stoic, a realist, logical, and indifferent.
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I created a conflict for the player character, that being they are stressed about finishing an essay for school. The solar storm breaking technology directly effects the player character, making it a personal journey for the player to stop the storm.
Frock, Fountry, Flues
Originally dubbed "Trio of musicians", this musical trio is the musicians for the circus. These characters have gone through some edits, as originally they were supposed to play the trumpet, hand drum, and hand organ. From the beginning, we wanted to create 3 character that would constantly interrupt each other, annoying the player character. To increase that conflict, we decided that it would be interesting if they each played different music genres, which serves as a physical representation of their conflict and inability to cooperate with each other.
Marcissus
Marcissus is the second major character players encounter. To continue developing a humorous narrative, we decided to subvert the common perception of an acrobat. Acrobats are skillful and nimble, and we made Marcissus a fish on out of water. Literally. We decided to make Marcissus a character who lacks any sort of acrobatic abilities, but has a massive ego. Marcissus' issues add towards Cloud Nine Circus' dysfunction as he represents another reaction towards being "doomed", denial.
Saged and Mr. Pink
For the animal tamer role in Cloud Nine Circus, we wanted to create a character that couldn't manage the animals at all. Saged was created to be an old character who suffers from memory issues and hearing loss issues, therefore she could not remember important details. This adds to the dysfunction of the circus, but also narratively explains why she is seemingly is oblivious to Mr. Pink's nefarious deeds.
Mr. Pink, a reference to a popular TV show character, was originally conceptualized as a jaded and secretly evil space worm. We thought that it would be funny if this space worm was a criminal on the run and just happened upon the circus by chance as that explains why they are actively trying to sabotage the circus. In later development, we began thinking about why the solar storm had occurred. We gave Mr. Pink a personal vendetta he wants to settle, his character representing issues dealing with letting go and healthy ways to express anger.
Raynold
Raynold the clown of the circus is subverted as a character as being extremely sad, with the player becoming more sad because of him than happy. Raynold represents the anxious and panicked reactions when one is dealing with "doom".
Staress
The ringleader of the circus, Staress is a character who is meant to act as the final boss for the players. Her perception of doom had been so great that she began to affect those around her negatively. She is representing what it's like to be under immense pressure and bearing large responsibilities, how those feelings can make one feel hopeless and alone.
LEVEL DESIGN - GLIDING
Level 01
Health points: 4
When flying up from earth to the circus, players are introduced to their paraglider, and to the space debris obstacles. In this level, the space debris float at a relatively low speed. Players take it easy as they figure out the controls.
Level 02
Health points: 4
When leaving Marcissus' tent, players encounter a new type of obstacle, strong winds. These celestial winds can push the player forwards and backwards suddenly, causing them to bump into the space debris. This adds a layer of difficulty as players need to be vary of how the wind will effect them.
Level 03
Health points: 6
Players must find Saged's animal's companions that have escaped out into space. In this level, previous obstacles from level 1 and 2 are present, with a new added challenge of collecting the animal companions. I decided to use a springjoint to connect the animals to the player character to create a funny bouncy effect as the player flies through space.
Level 04
Health points: 7
The final gliding level, much more difficult than all previous levels. In this level, a rapid and large amount of space debris is flying towards the player. This level is meant to pose a challenge to the player with the music and atmosphere making the level feel more intense.
GAME MECHANICS
Player controls
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The player have standard controls such as WASD to move around, space bar to jump.
When players hold down space bar, they are able to glide. This enables players to slow down their fall and maneuver to platforms.
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When players hold down shift, they are able to scream. This doesn't do anything (except for one specific quest), but adds entertainment value. It furthers the narrative that the player character is frustrated with their current circumstances.
Gliding
Screaming
Music Minigame
In the music minigame, players press WASD to move around the screen. The orb in the center switches colors between red, yellow, and blue. Each musician from the frog trio will fire random notes of various colors into the center. Players make sure that only the notes with the same color as the center orb hit it. When the correct color hits the center orb, the music progress bar will increase, otherwise, it will decrease. This minigame is designed to capture the incohesive nature of the music trio's ability to work together.
Calm Minigame
In the calm minigame, players must press space bar to move their character further down the calm bar. Players must stay in the green zone in order to increase the calm meter. This minigame was designed to show how Raynold was struggling to catch his breath, and how the player needs to stay persistent to help him out.
