Embedded Files
Trailer:
Trailer:
Gameplay Sample:
Gameplay Sample:
NYU Game Center Showcase 2019
NYU Game Center Showcase 2019
IndieCade 2019
IndieCade 2019
Don't Split the Party is a choice-based, branching narrative visual novel centered around a group of friends playing Dungeons & Dragons despite interpersonal issues threatening to tear them apart. Throughout the game, characters will alternate between speaking "out-of-character" as themselves and "in-character" as their fantasy personas, mimicking the multi-layered social interactions that take place in a real tabletop setting. While controlling Brynn—the group's Dungeon Master—players must negotiate between these two social layers, and ultimately influence the group's fate.
Don't Split the Party has been praised for its novel premise and emotionally engaging story. It was presented and playable at the NYU Game Center Showcase and Indiecade 2019, and was also featured in a Kotaku article written by journalist Gita Jackson who detailed her own experience with the game (linked below). Since its completion, the game has been downloaded 2,000+ times (and counting!).
Don't Split the Party was a collaboration between Nick Carbonara (programmer/writer), Snippy Nguyen (artist), Lonnie Jordan (composer), and myself.
For This Project I:
Concepted, designed, and developed the game's story as a narrative designer on the project
Created character bibles, world lore, and dialogue for the game's branching narratives
Directed, recorded, and edited all voice overs featured within the game using Adobe Audition
Playtested weekly for bug discovery, documenting their impact and how to best to recreate them
An Interesting Problem We Faced
An Interesting Problem We Faced
From the beginning, we wanted Don't Split the Party to be a relatable narrative experience, which meant keeping the world grounded with believable characters, a common setting and portraying the on-screen drama realistically. Ironically, this simple design pillar put us up against our most interesting problem: figuring out what the player should actually be capable of doing in the game.
In a game so rooted in (and limited by) realism, the player's actions would have to follow suit. Players couldn't play as the "savior" of the group since such an outcome seemed farfetched. How could a character who hasn't seen her friends in months come in and solve an issue she knows very little about just by playing a game of D&D? But, if players weren't supposed to be "saving" this friend group, what were they supposed to be doing?
To tackle this question, we first determined what types of actions the player would have access to and worked up from there. As the DM character, players would have the ability to control the D&D game's plot and setting, indirectly influencing their friends but rarely overtly. From there we landed on what kinds of endings would be possible. The player shouldn't be able to save the friends from their problems, but they should be able to at least help. Perhaps by providing the group with a good experience, the player could help rekindle some of the camaraderie that the group used to share, leading to a better outcome. And of course, they should be able to fail to do so as well.
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