Skytale

Narrative Design: narrative delivery, integration and coordination

Challenges to solve

Within a team of over 80 people, one of the major challenges is conveying complex narrative intentions or large volumes of lore to departments with very different constraints and needs. If coordination methods are not properly adapted, it can quickly lead to misunderstandings or production delays.

Decisions made 

• I set up meetings with each department to assess their needs and answer their questions. 

• Based on their feedback, I implemented solutions to streamline the production pipeline. For instance, several departments required the coordinates of characters, quests, or items that had not yet been defined. I therefore collaborated with the narrative, game, and level designers to lock down the placement of these elements.

• I restructured the narrative coordination documentation to make it clearer and included missing elements, such as event triggers or the coordinates needed by other teams.

• I took charge of narrative design integration to prevent a backlog of elements to implement and to anticipate future needs and issues.

The results 

• By adapting both written and verbal communication methods to the teams' needs, identifying issues that were slowing down production, and taking over integration, I successfully accelerated and even restarted several production workflows.

• My work was praised by multiple department leads during our general meetings!

What I learned!

• I learned how to quickly and effectively integrate myself into an ongoing production. 

• I also learned to identify and resolve issues that slow down other departments, while anticipating future problems to prevent them.  

• As I had already observed at Périple Studio, narrative design is not limited to writing; it is a role with a very broad scope of action that requires both communication and technical skills.

Game Design : mobs, quêtes, équilibrage et implémentation

Challenges to solve

The Last Artifact offers roughly 15 hours of gameplay. The main challenge is to prevent monotony by maintaining fair and rewarding curves of intensity and difficulty. If gameplay segments feel repetitive or if bosses are nothing more than mindless "bullet sponges," players will disengage. Every new enemy type, gameplay segment or boss fight must bring something fresh to the table, without presenting a challenge that is too punishing or confusing for our target audience.

Decisions made 

• To add variety to combat, each mob has its own unique abilities, including peaceful mobs. I’ve also created combat synergies between them. For instance, by pairing slow melee bandits acting as shields with fast but fragile ranged bandits who attack from afar and flee close combat.  

• For the bosses, I divided each encounter into multiple phases, with attack patterns that evolve as the fight progresses. Each fight includes a "signature attack," which is a more complex, story-driven move that often serves as a transition between phases.  

• Furthermore, I designed these boss fights with the player’s past and future experiences in mind. During an encounter, player  will either reuse concepts learned earlier or discover an entirely new mechanic that they will master later on. For example, the boss Aglaée introduces a simple platforming sequence mid-fight. This mechanic is later reused in a more challenging form, such as in the fight against human-form Dragomir. Similarly, the mirror puzzles, which are a core part of the game, are blended into the combat phases against mycelium-form Dragomir. This tests the player's mastery of the mechanic and merges both concepts for the final showdown.  

• Regarding gameplay segments, I made sure to diversify the experiences: from puzzle-based treasure hunts to platforming challenges and various puzzle types. 

• On the technical side, I discovered and mastered the MythicMobs plugin and the YAML language. I programmed all of my mobs' skills and behaviors myself to maintain optimal control over balancing and game feel.

The results 

• The diversity in mob and boss skills successfully enriches both the intensity and progression curves while delivering strong moments of discovery.

• The reuse and evolution of gameplay mechanics across segments and encounters ensures a smooth learning curve, aligning with our goal to create a game accessible to all players. 

• Programming my own mobs and integrating my own gameplay segments reduces the workload for the integration team. It also allowed me to test and iterate on my work in real time, giving me greater control over the final player experience.

What I learned!

• This experience solidified my skills in Combat and Quest Design, as well as my eye for balancing. 

• I learned to design combat and gameplay segments while constantly keeping the global learning, engagement, intensity and difficulty curves in mind.

• Mastering the technical integration of my own mobs streamlined production and guaranteed the precision of my design through direct, hands-on testing.