Game- & Narrative Design
This page contains a compilation of my work in Game- and Narrative Design within Game- and Passion Projects during my Bachelor and beyond. For more information about the development process and how I made the features in the games, please see Programming.
The Bewitching Brew
The Bewitching Brew was the sixth-semester game project of a friend of mine who studies at a different location of my university, for which I helped out.
The Bewitching Brew is a first-person, Cozy Café Simulator, in which you take care of the most curious customers as Aurora, the Witch. Not only are you taking orders but you also provide a safe space for your customers to vent their emotions, for which you always have the right potion in mind, of course.
After my internship at CoreCraft UG concluded, regular university life started up again. My friend, Valentin Nollau, asked me for help with Game Design and Narrative Design for his term project and I was happy to help.
Game Design was something I was relatively new to at that point, so I was happy to try something new. I designed the mechanics of the game, including the Brewing, Gathering of Customer Information and the Core Gameplay Loop.
Narrative Design on the other hand was more familiar to me, having been a big passion of mine for the last projects. I wrote the General Narrative of the game and the Characters, alongside their Personalities, Wants, Needs and Allergies. I also wrote the Dialogue Options for each of the interactions with the Characters.
Railroad 9
Railroad 9 started off as a random Idea I had one day and turned into my First Solo-Project under the name "Infinity Reborn Games", an homage to Lands of Infinity.
The Game is a first-person horror game with a focus on completing tasks and surviving. The idea for the Game came from me sitting in a Subway Train and looking out through the front window and thinking: "This would make for a great horror Game". It, like the other games I worked on before , was built in the Unity engine.
The Main Character of the Game is a nameless Subway Train Conductor who, after a mistake on his last shift, has been reassigned to the remote Railroad 9.
This Railway is rumored to be haunted by Evil Spirits that try to sabotage Trains and in a Moment of uncertainty, kill all of their Passengers and the Conductor.
You, now working on this Railroad in your Train, must try to keep your Passengers satisfied by fixing any Malfunctions caused by the Spirits. If you figure out who of your Passengers are Spirits, you can purge them using a Charm your Grandmother gave you for your protection.
Reflections
Reflections was the third game project that was created during my fourth semester studies.
The Game is a Reimagination of the World from The Journey Above, but changed to fit the new concept we came up with. It is a third-person action-adventure game with a focus on stealth and combat. It, like the two games before it, was built in the Unity engine.
As the main character of the game, Tian, you have to explore the beautiful nature-filled world on the back of the giant whale you live on. When Tian gains mysterious abilities during a ceremonial rite, his village is attacked. Now he has to stop the invaders from destroying his home. As the game progresses, the player unlocks five skills that he can use to overcome to evade, confuse or destroy enemies and interact with the world around him. There are also NPCs in the world with which the player can interact to find out more about the world's history and a Quest System that guides the player through the game.
Reflections was one of the projects where I put the most effort into Narrative Design. The world, in which the game plays, meant a lot to me so I handcrafted every aspect of the world from scratch.
I developed an ecosystem of animals and plants, each unique to their specific biomes. I created different tribes and civilizations each with their own cities, rites and cultures. I even developed a language for them, which would later mostly be found in lore-codexes.
The magic system was developed further from The Journey Above alongside the gods of the world, who I called "Spirits".
Since we had plans to one day make Reflections into a full game, I wrote a first draft of the overarching story of the game in the form of cutscenes, dialogue and more. This included writing the script for the first cutscene in the game, "Projemis-Fluminae", which was later actually animated for the prototype we made.
The Journey Above
The Journey Above was the second game project that was created during my third semester studies.
It is a third-person action-adventure game with a focus on puzzle and platforming elements. It was once again built in the Unity engine.
As the main character of the game, you have to explore the beautiful nature-filled world on the back of the giant whale you live on. The player's goal is to uncover the mysteries of the factory and the conspiracy surrounding the whale's impending death.
As the game progresses, the player unlocks five skills that he can use to overcome increasingly complex puzzles and parkour sections. There are also NPCs in the world with which the player can interact to find out more about the world's history.
In addition to streamlining the story concepts our team had, I also wrote the dialogues for all of the NPCs in the game, alongside the announcements played on the speakers throughout the game, which give out more lore about the nautre of the factory
This Trailer was not made by me
Prisoner's Curse
A Mystery in Notes
For contractual reasons with my university, I am not allowed to provide the download link for this project.
Prisoner's Curse: A Mystery in Notes was the first game project I worked on as part of my second semester studies.
The game is a First-Person Horror Game created using the Unity engine.
You play as a researcher stranded on an abandoned prison ship and have to try to escape. To do this you have to find 10 hidden objects, while you can also find notes by exploring the area that tell the story of the ship.
In terms of Narrative Design, I wrote most of the lore entries and notes scattered around the ship.
Using these notes, I was able to convey the situation of the passengers aboard the vessel rather well without any direct dialogue or cutscenes.
This Trailer was not made by me