DEVLOG #5
30 May, 2024
Author: Sean Dixon, Editor: Alex Crean
This spreadsheet was very effective at fulfilling its purpose of breaking down events, timings, mechanics, and dialogue topics. It also served to keep track of important details such as when each guest arrives at the Lodge, their motives and reaction to the murder. These details were vital to keep in mind and small details can go unnoticed which many players would find to break immersion or consistency.
Ski Lodge Murder Dev-log #5: Planning a Murder
Character Ideation Stage
Some Early Prototype Feedback (Pre-Production Stage)
SO TO CONCLUDE?
Through these methods and narrative choices, we found testing and refinement to be most valuable throughout the ongoing development of the Ski Lodge Murder narrative.
The excel spreadsheet method of tracking events was key for the entire team to always have a mutual base of the story. We recommend this method of tracking for any indie team, small or large!
BUT DOES ANY OF THIS TRULY WORK?
A very important step in narrative writing is playtesting. It is crucial to get the player’s feedback and responses to the narrative as it's built. We completed this through private alpha testing and Text Based Adventure style mapping. While collecting feedback through forms that highlighted errors or areas of improvement.
INTRODUCTION:
Narrative writing can be fun and creative but also very complex at times. So, we thought it would be best to share the methodology behind how we went about crafting our Murder Mystery. Let’s start by answering the broad question; What is Narrative design? Narrative Design is where game designers and storytellers collaborate to focus on elements in the game that have the most impact when trying to communicate a sequence of events or messages to a reader, or in this case, the player.
Spreadsheet on narrative composition, inspired by ‘Journey’ V&A Exhibition
OUR METHOD TO THE MADNESS:
Our methodology began with highlighting which of these elements had the most impact and was most prominent in our game concept. We knew that we wanted a murder mystery, based in a closed environment, and set in the 1970s. These variables are heavily impacted by the characters in the scene, their dialogue and most importantly how they interact with the player and each other. From here we wanted to establish a long list of potential characters. Each member of the team designed 3-5 surface-level characters with some background. After narrowing these characters down, ideas and links began to form between characters making them work more cohesively. The overall goal within the characters is to complement each other’s roles within the grand story we wanted to tell.
After collecting the list of characters, we began expanding on the idea of the Dialogue, and any Quests- all of this can get very messy, very quickly, so we needed a way to keep track.
We designed a form of documentation that could keep every team member on the same page and understand the sequence of events throughout the story. The story was split into 5 distinct acts to maintain a steady momentum and tasks or quests were spread out to help break up the repetitive character interactions. This had a drastic positive effect, giving the story more meaningful dialogue and build-up to the murder.
Overall, player feedback was critical to the development and cultivation of ideas. We got absolutely roasted the first time around! Just look at some of the feedback.
But that’s all part of the process. This early prototype feedback was so key to developing towards what our player audience likes.
WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD...
Early Text Based Adventure in Twine.
HOW WE KEPT TRACK...
