Where to next?

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Project Description

Where To Next? is a solo-developed text-based narrative game about abrupt loss, missed opportunities, regret, and acceptance.

Two close friends die together in a car crash and become lingering spirits. Realizing that they have one last chance at "living", the two attempt to figure out what's worth doing before they pass on.

Made using Articy: Draft 3 and Unity.

Process Work

Where To Next? - Story Bible

Where To Next? was concepted and pitched with a story bible. This document includes basic details on the setting, characters, and plot. All of the endings originally planned for the game were also created here.

Where To Next - Story Bible

Articy: Draft 3 - Beat Chart & Summaries

Articy: Draft 3 was used to plan the narrative progression of Where To Next? Using this format, I could see at a glance how chapters would connect to each other using both colour coding and spatial arrangement. Additionally, breaking up the narrative into nodes let me quickly rearrange or cut beats from the story.

Articy: Draft 3 was also chosen for its Unity integration.

Where-To-Next_Flowchart-Outline.pdf

Excel Spreadsheet - Task Progress & Content Tracking

Excel was used to track my writing progress and total content. Red indicated no progress made (no rough summaries, no rough draft), yellow indicated a finished summary, and green indicated finished dialogue.

Where To Next?'s final script ended up being approx. 15k words.

Assets

Cara Icon

Cara Sketch

Death Icon

Death Sketch

Mireille Icon

Mirelle Sketch

Narration / Action Icon

Unknown Voice Icon

Challenges

scope

Where To Next? was my first experience with narrative design and development. I had no preconception of my capabilities as a narrative designer and writer. As I made progress on the project I quickly realized those limits when I started to feel the impact of having overscoped on promised content. Fortunately, I had put enough effort into project planning and that gave me a clear idea of which endings and chapters could be cut to reduce my scope. Music, sprites, and CGs also had to be cut from the game.

Articy: Draft 3 & Unity

At the time of making this game, I recall documentation for Articy: Draft 3's Unity Importer having been limited. As well, the package hadn't received support for some time.

That's no longer the case with Articy having released a new version in January 2024. Articy also uploaded new tutorials on their channel 1 month after this game was finished.

It was difficult learning a new tool during a project's development. If this project had monetary risk it would have been smarter to use a familiar tool. However, I'm glad I took the risk and used what I knew about Articy to deliver a final product regardless.

Takeaways

Choice

When writing narrative games, it's important to design choices from both a design and narrative perspective at the same time. This was my first time writing a narrative game. I ended up focusing heavily on the outcome choices had on the narrative without realizing some paths were difficult to obtain from a design perspective. This was an important realization that made me realize I needed to develop both in tandem.

Planning

Extensive planning is a time saver and life saver when it comes to game development. Planning my game out ahead of time allowed me to work faster and cut content when necessary.

Writing

Your writing will improve over time. You may look back on old works and see changes that could be made. You don't always have the time to develop those skills in a short time period however. The best thing you can do for yourself is get someone to proofread your work or write multiple drafts.

Developed @ Sheridan College - 2022

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