For our team’s upcoming game, three emotions I wanted to evoke are:
- Tension – like the heightened state of awareness you feel when you know something isn’t right. The feeling that it’s important to be focused.
- Humbled – like the feeling of stepping into a medieval church, and the light from its towering stained-glass windows are illuminating you. The feeling that you need to learn and listen.
- Explorative – like curiosity! The feeling of wanting to know what is around the corner, because not knowing is frustrating!
Moodboard and Playlist:
The Spotify playlist I created accordingly is:
- Slug (Explore) – Ben Prunty | 2:20
- Linger Longer – Instrumental – Cosmo Sheldrake | 5:37
- Loops – Jim Guthrie | 3:13
- Caves Beyond – Cameron Paxton | 1:55
- Scarlet Forest – Toby Fox | 2:07
- The Hamlet – Stuart Chatwood | 2:58
- A Brief Respite (Camp Theme) – Stuart Chatwood | 2:17
Moodboard: (with games Darkest Dungeon, Undertale, Jak 2, Into the Breach, and Metro: Last Light)
Narrative Ideas:
Direction 1: Top-Down, Narrative RPG (Like Undertale!)
The player would experience the story as they progress through a narrative-rich world, collecting items, completing tasks, and occasionally battling. The story is somewhat linearly driven, with it advancing upon the player completing important quests/action items. Some optionality can be implemented with differing choices at important quest action points. Information is given to the player through both interacting with NPCs and explicit lore items, and through subtler environmental storytelling. The player hopefully can have fun through not just fantasy and narrative, but also in some challenge.
Direction 2: Turn-Based Strategy (Like Darkest Dungeon!)
The world here is also lore rich, but encounters with it are more combat-heavy. Quests now more so are missions, with enemies defeated being a primary aspect to the game. Lore is given more through explicit lore items and entries, rather than with lots of NPC interaction. Challenge becomes a much larger player in the type of fun this game is, with narrative elements helping to bring meaning to the game and the player’s choices.
Direction 3: Interactive, Evocative Walking Simulator (Like Firewatch!)
With game mechanics less numerous and more controlled, the player experience can be more tailored to provide a richer and evocative experience. World-building will be our primary focus, as challenge disappears and fantasy becomes less relevant as player agency diminishes in aspects other than exploration. NPC dialogue and environmental storytelling elements will be essential to provide the embedded narrative walking simulators can so well provide.
