Narrative Sprint
This is my submission for Into Games Narrative Sprint course, which I participated in January 2025. During the three week course, I designed a story for a game and wrote narrative documents.
The game: A fantasy and comedy adventure RPG set in a medieval land filled with danger and magical creatures. The player embodies Kalista, a rebellious and chaotic witch who is suddenly, and reluctantly, in posession of an artifact powerful enough to break or save the world.
Synopsis:
Kalista is on the run after stealing a powerful dark artifact from the collection of a dangerous dark elf. Despite her best efforts, she can’t find anyone willing to buy the cursed object. Desperate to rid herself of it, she tries to abandon the artifact, only to discover it won’t leave her side unless it finds a new owner. A bond she can’t break no matter how hard she tries.
Now Kalista is stuck with a target on her back, and a stubborn magical object that could destroy the world as she knows it. For the first time in centuries, Kalista is forced to put her trust in others to save her own life. She is not pleased.
Dialogue System:
Brief - Create a mission for your character and write a list of possible triggers and corresponding dialogues on a spreadsheet.
Mission - Kalista is attacked by three waves of zombies, each wave increases in difficulty. The zombies are most vulnerable from behind where her spells are effective, except for her fire spell which won’t cause any damage. If the player is bitten they have 30 seconds to drink an elixir to rid themselves of the infection or die.
Goal - For this task there were several aspects I needed to consider simultaneously:
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Coming up with actions and events that made sense with the worldbuilding and my character's abilities.
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Writing dialogue lines that were short, informative, and still represented my character's personality.
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Organizing the information in a way that it was clear, easy to read and understand, and with the possibility of exporting easily to an engine.
Documents:
Click on each of the buttons to view and download the work:
Cinematic:
Brief - Your character wakes up in a room with no idea how they got there. There is at least one other character in the room and they are not friends, yet they must use their strengths and weaknesses to escape.
Context - The scene occurs after Kalista is discovered and apprehended by castle guards while trying to pass through the Tourian Kingdom, a place ruled by a king who prohibits the existence of witches. Because of their strict laws, Kalista attempts to hide as a human and go unnoticed, but she accidentally reveals her true nature, and is thrown, unconscious, into the palace dungeon.
Character Bio:
Brief - Create a character biography for your main character / player. Include the following:
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A few sentences of who they were before the game
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The inciting incident
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The themes you plan to explore
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A voice print of simple dialogue lines
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A conversation between MC and npc
Goal - My favorite type of character is an antihero, an imperfect person who makes mistakes and frequently toes the line of right and wrong, with the possibility to tip over to any side, at any given time.
This is what I aimed to create for this exercise: a strong but flawed female character who the player would find funny to embody, and even through her many flaws, still find redeeming qualities that make her worthy and special.
Location Bio:
Brief - Write a one page document describing a building or an area that fits in the world of the game and the character.
Goal - Writing a short but descriptive document about a location that designers, artists would quickly understand and find inspirational to create both the visual aspect and level design of this part of the game. I aimed to create a specific atmosphere and overall tone without getting caught up in visual details.
I chose to describe the location where the beginning of the story takes place. This is the lair of a powerful dark elf, where the player breaks into to steal a dangerous artifact. This location is significant because it's where the conflict and the player's adventure begins.