Trailer of Divided Skies
OVERVIEW
Fly through the slums of futuristic Mumbai and complete various missions as Kyra - a member of the Nandaka gang. Transport illegal tech and mechanical enhancements, fight off rival gangs, chase down foes and explore hidden areas as you uncover the secrets of the metropolis.
SATISFYING VTOL FLIGHT MOVEMENT
Experience the thrill of fast and easy-to-control VTOL flight movement as you speed through the vibrant slums of New Mumbai on Kyra's Hoverbike.
CLEAR MISSIONS AND PROGRESS THE STORY
As you play the game your main objective will be to clear various objectives to progress through the story uncovering more secrets of New Mumbai and Kyra!
PROJECT ROLES
Writer
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Writing world-building documents that describe the backstory of the world, the economic state and the struggles of the people in this dystopian world.
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Developing character profiles which describe appearance, backstory and motivations. Keeping the cast small, reflecting the size of the project.
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Writing a synopsis and an outline of the story, splitting it up in specific mission beats.
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Researching mission design in AAA video-games, taking in account pacing, progression, rewards and types of game-play beats.
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Writing multiple missions that include a variety of game-play types dialogue and 'actions'.
Technical
Narrative Designer
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Researching the design of a variety of Mission Systems and Dialogue systems, figuring out what fits our project.
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Developing a Mission System together with teammates that let us easily create new missions and put these in the open world.
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Developing a Modular Dialogue Call System which lets us store different conversations, assign audio & NPC names and let us use metahumans as camera.
- RESEARCH -
MISSION DESIGN
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Conducted research on quest structures in AAA games, focusing on game-play and narrative elements & Mission pipelines in Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt.
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Broke down examples of immersive and non-repetitive quests to create conclusions that we could use in our own mission design.
Research on a Mission in RDR2
General results from research into Quest Design
Research into Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt quest pipeline
PROGRESSION
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Explored the use of progression systems in open-world games. How do people level up? What are the restrictions and requirements?
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Examined similar progression systems in games relevant to the project.
DIALOGUE SYSTEM
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Researched Video-calling Dialogue Systems in video games, focusing specifically on the Call-system in Cyberpunk 2077.
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Analyzed the layout, purpose, and the use of these dialogue systems in the game.
Observations of research into Progression in similar games
Research into Call Systems
- MISSION DESIGN -
DESIGN
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Crafted 3 missions that offered a balanced and engaging game-play experience.
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Ensured each mission presented unique situations and gameplay challenges.
Hard-coded mission used in our Vertical Slice pitch
The mission I wrote for the Vertical Slice
SCRIPTWRITING
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Wrote scripts for several missions together with another Narrative Designer, using proper scriptwriting techniques.
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Crafted concise and informative dialogue to enhance player understanding of the game world.
The script of a MM: The Heist
The script of SM: Graffiti City
'The Heist' & 'Graffiti City' missions in Pre-production phase
IMPLEMENTATION
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Implemented missions into the game, coordinating with the rest of the team and ensuring careful planning to minimize pressure on the project.
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Collaborated with various team members to incorporate mission elements, such as way-points, shootable objects and enemy spawners into the mission creation workflow.
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Assisted in the development of a Modular Mission System, addressing any shortcomings to enable flexible feature additions.
- INTERACTABLE -
OBJECTS
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Designed an interact-able system allowing players to pick up and interact with specific objects, enhancing immersion without introducing unnecessary UI elements.
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Implemented this system and used it for certain actions in the game(e.g. Spraying Graffiti, picking up spray cans, starting a mission).
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Collaborated with visual artists to create a Graffiti event.
The graffiti feature of the Interactible
The adapting UI of the Interactible, heavily inspired by Forza 5
- DIALOGUE -
CONCEPT
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Created a concept video of what I had imagined the Dialogue & Quest system could look like. Obviously, heavily inspired by Cyberpunk 2077. This video helped me give a mental image to the team, and hear their thoughts on this direction.
A quickly-made concept to showcase the game-feel in combination with the Calling System
THE SYSTEM
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Developed a comprehensive dialogue system to enable player-character interactions with characters of diverse personalities, backgrounds, and goals.
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Implemented the storage of different conversations, assignment of audio, and NPC names.
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Created & Implemented moving elements within character portraits for enhanced immersion.
Calling Dialogue System
Idle animation for Viktor
Widget used for the Dialogue System
PORTRAITS
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Created a Meta-human Character to use for the portraits during the missions, matching the character description.
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Used mo-cap software to create an 'idle' animation that we could use to create a more immersive talking with the NPC in the call system.
TEMPORAL AUDIO
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Recorded lines of dialogue using an external text-to-speech program, in order to create a feeling for what the missions would feel like to play.
Temporal dialogue lines used in concepting & pre-production
- WORLD-BUILDING -
DOCUMENTATION
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Created documentation in both presentation and Confluence formats.
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Wrote down all narrative decisions, including the state of the game world, the story, its synopsis, and character profiles.
Some slides of the Worldbuilding Document
One of the companies backstory pages
THE STORY
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Crafted the main narrative of the game together with the other narrative designer. Focusing on a story that incorporates Indian traditional themes.
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Broke down the narrative into missions, establishing connections between the story and specific in-game events.
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Focused on portraying a dystopian world and its consequences, emphasizing the experiences of the characters living within it.
THE WORLD
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Collaborated with the team to collectively create the game world. Aimed to develop a world that felt immersive, lived-in, and realistic.
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Facilitated the realization of the team's ideas, ensuring a collaborative and inclusive world-building process.
THE CHARACTERS
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Developed concise character descriptions, detailing each character's connection to the protagonist (Kyra), their identity, and motivations.
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Created a diverse cast of characters, featuring individuals from various backgrounds, ages, genders, sexualities, and races.
