Spirit & Steel
Type: 23-person Team
Role: Design Lead, Narrative Designer, Level Designer, UI Designer
overview
This action-packed, 3rd person combat game centers on an old Island shaman named Ila as she battles the invading Antagonist, William Von Pingelton III, and his robot army. The player will use three elements: air, water, and fire to defeat enemies and platform through three levels, learning more about the island’s culture, Ila’s history, and the natural magic that sustains the island. Her battle ends in a climactic battle where she defeats her foe and achieves her lifelong goal of becoming a spirit.
Research
I worked on this game from beginning to end. As we were solidifying our vision, one thing was for certain: it was a game about a shaman drawing powers from their environment. I researched other cultures that practice shamanism, learned about shamanic rituals, and compiled a document with potential mechanics inspired by the cultures I learned about.
The blind, old Itako women of Japan spoke to the team, so we based our protagonist after her. The shaman became our own creation, just like the culture of the fantastical island in which she resides on. Most mechanics implemented were inspired by Inuit and Hmong shamnaism, so I made another document for character artists to reference.
After this, we took another couple of weeks to cement our vision. In those weeks, I was moved to UI and split most of my time between leading the design team and implementing UI work. Another designer pivoted to the narrative design.
Worldbuilding
About 2/3 of the way into production, the worldbuilding for the island was sparse, and there was not much information on who the characters were and what their motivations were. Noticing the opportunity for improvement, I stepped up as a narrative designer and added some changes to it.
To improve the beginning, middle, and end of the gameplay, I built out the world, characters, and magical forces of the island. I created several documents, like character sheets, high-level game arc overviews, cultural references, and island culture and magic explanations.
Dialogue & Cutscenes
One of the main concerns regarding the new narrative was the expository cutscene. This took dialogue iteration, which delayed the production of the art.
The dialogue went through three iterations. The first was written from an omniscient character without a personality. The voice suffered as a result.
The second iteration featured the protagonist’s parents as they attempted to convince Ila to get up and fight her boss. This version doubled the length.
The last iteration refined the voice and utilized subtext more. This is the version that was made into a script and voiced, as it was concise and digestable. I hosted auditions, and, with the help of an audio designer, recorded the voices using professional recording equipment. This was my first experience with voice direction.
I was also able to experiment with Level Sequences and dialogue implementation in Unreal Engine 5 from this project. While the dialogue system was already made, I added to it by creating a system that plays a level sequence alongside dialogue boxes, while also stopping at certain frames to emphasize certain textboxes.
Reflection
Most of the work I did as a narrative designer happened towards the end of the project. I made many major necessary changes to the world to develop the story more. With that came another level, new art assets, and more cutscene work that demolished most polish time we had, but contextualized the player’s actions better and allowed the player to feel more aligned with their goal. I improved my understanding of scope from this project, as I have a better understanding of how my work impacts other departments. From this project, I have developed more technical skills and strive to work within the scope more.