Duration: 28 Weeks
Tools: Unreal Engine 5, Google Docs, Google Sheets.
My Roles: Narrative Design, Systems Design, QA.
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Overview
Art by Noble Westbrook
I created the story, world, and characters of Mid-Death Crisis. Using our core theme, light-hearted morbidity as a guidepost, landed on the idea of a depressed lich living in a dusty crypt with his eccentric minions.
At the heart of the story is Almighty Lichlord Zeborius Necroking Doomsinger Lightcrusher Bonemaster Cursebringer Zelgon, The Extremely Terrifying (also known as Zeb). As his minions, the players must help Zeb regain his passion for world conquest.
Creating the characters
The team knew from very early in development Mid-Death Crisis would be a Co-op game. To help foster player's investment in the story, I wanted them to each play as a distinct character with their own quirks. I started this process by creating a list of each character's likes, dislikes, and backstories.
Even if this information never made it into the game, it served to color the characters' personalities and inform my creative process. Having a solid grasp on the characters made scriptwriting a simple task, as I would ask myself how the bumbling but loyal Warrior, the sarcastic and vain Thief, or the terrifyingly deranged Zealot would respond to a given situation.
Writing the script
I had to work under tight limitations when creating the script for Mid-Death Crisis. Cutscenes occur at the start and end of every level, with three levels in the game that's six cutscenes, each of which, it was stressed to me, shouldn't be longer than a minute.
To make each and every word count, I looked over my drafts, cut them in half, then cut them in half again. I carefully weighed what each line added to the narrative against the time it took to do so.
Directing voice over
Having the cast of Mid-Death Crisis be fully voiced was on of my biggest personnel goals on this project. At first, I had no experience giving direction and didn't always have the confidence to say "No, let's do another take". Over time though, I was able to build a good rapport with the actors and we worked together to bring the characters to life.
Another adjustment was having to structure my scriptwriting around our VO pipeline. Needing to plan around the schedules of 6 different people required improving my writing process to be more agile and adaptive to these constraints.
Collaborating with artists
Considering how short our cutscenes needed to be, I wanted to make extensive use of environmental storytelling to cram in as much storytelling as possible. I had long, detailed conversations with the team's artists fleshing out how the world and characters should look.
I also provided extensive reference documentation and images for them to use, particularly for the game's enemies, who have a Roman Empire motif.
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