Dynamic narrative design

It was a really interesting challenge to try and create a Bioshock-style narrative experience in a game with a rogue-like foundation and level design — where so many factors can change from one playthrough to the next based on player actions, as well as working within dynamic procedurally-generated levels — and something that hasn’t really been done in games yet. I worked to architect and implement Judas’s unique narrative and content delivery system alongside engineering, using a combination of metadata tracking monitoring game state, player actions, and a suite of other statistics in coordination with prioritization and traffic control to create a narrative game that was highly player-driven and dynamic, with each playthrough feeling like a unique experience and story.

In addition to designing the tracking, validation, traffic control, and delivery systems, I also worked to design and implement content structures and templates to support future development needs, allowing even non-technical designers to implement gameplay encounters and narrative beats quickly and easily.

Taking stories from page to playable moments

I worked closely with creative leadership to take writers’ visions and craft them into radically player-driven experiences. I worked closely with other disciplines to drive narrative and mission design within the game, to bring more player agency and enhance narrative from writers, and create unique, handcrafted moments to excite and surprise players, and to implement narrative moments and gameplay missions end-to-end.

I served as the bridge between disciplines to unify narrative, gameplay, AI, UI/UX, and mission design into a cohesive experience; helping to create and refine the system of player verbs, narrative tropes, and objective types used across our game. I worked closely with the writing team to tie narrative and gameplay together, as well as when and how to best utilize the dynamic narrative and encounter systems at our disposal.

Unreal development

My work was done primarily through UE4 Blueprint scripting, level scripting, and level sequences to create data-driven narrative systems and content throughout the game — everything from small narrative events in response to player actions, to the large scripted cinematic moments and gameplay encounters.

I’ve also worked alongside engineering to help design and implement or refactor various core game systems, including those tracking all of the player data and game states used by narrative, audio, and progression systems which are used to create a dynamic and above all player-driven experience.

I worked to create systems for narrative, gameplay, and level encounters which would easily be adapted for future development needs as well as easily organized and debugged by QA. This included a large amount of work creating blueprint hierarchy structures and function libraries, as well as templates for designers to quickly throw together elements and gameplay setups to prototype. In addition to rapid development, this structure fed into the ultra-dynamic design of Judas, allowing us to build content that would make every time visiting an area or encounter feel fresh and exciting to players.