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UNIVERSITY: HONOURS PROJECT

GUIDE is a narrative-focused, 3D game project that explores storytelling in games and how designers can enhance the player’s narrative experience through gameplay design. Topics investigated also include the history and evolution of game narratives, and what elements from other storytelling mediums can be adopted into game design. Research questions that were asked are:

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  1. How do games use their mechanics to tell stories and support the narrative?

  2. In what ways does interactivity affect storytelling?

  3. How can we measure the quality of an immersive narrative experience?

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The design and development of the game were conducted as a part of practice-based research and the designs were informed by data gathered through a literature review.

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In the game, you play as a Guide, a spirit whose job is to find lost souls in limbo and lead them to their afterlife, learning more about them, and yourself, in the process. The core themes of the game are identity, grief, and coming together, and everything from the story to the mechanics was designed to reflect them. Conversation and travel are the main actions of the game, and the obstacles and challenges the player faces during their journey are built around emotional and intuitive challenges rather than more typical strategy or dexterity based ones.

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The full portfolio of work, as well as the dissertation, can be viewed through the links, but the design is summarized below.

Gameplay Design

Gameplay was built to support the three main concepts of the game: conversation, getting to know another and moving on.


There are two stages to the gameplay: first, the game lets the player talk with the NPCs and learn about them through dialogue, and then it tests the player's knowledge by placing obstacles in front of them and asking them to make decisions based on how well they know the characters.

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Dialogue

The dialogue system was built to record the player's previous choices and to respond accordingly. The system doesn't only care about what the player says but also how they say it. There are several attributes like 'indifferent' or 'caring' attached to the player, and the values increase or decrease based on their actions. These together work to record the player character's personality, which the dialogue then attempts to reflect. (e.g. the same dialogue option might lead to two different outcomes based on the personality of the player character)

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There are multiple conversation paths that each of the NPCs might follow, the main divergence coming from whether or not the player tells the NPC that they are actually dead. As the player talks with them, they will learn different things about the backgrounds and personalities of these characters; information that the player can later use to overcome the obstacles they face.

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Obstacles

The obstacles the player will encounter are events where the game asks them to pick an NPC to led the group to overcome the present situation. These obstacles describe ghosts or other dangers and quirks of the City, and then the question is put forward to the player: Who should take the lead in this situation?

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The idea behind these obstacles is that the player character is just a spirit, a being without a solid body so they cannot do anything but just try and advise the NPCs. The souls themselves have to get through the challenges on their own. The player needs to remember the conversations they have had with the characters in order to set the right characters against the right obstacle.

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Writing & Character Design

The characters, The Ruler, The Lover, The Mother and The Soldier, are based on the twelve Jungian archetypes, characters commonly found in stories. These archetypes are categorized based on what drives them: for example, the lover seeks to connect with others while the mother and the ruler both seek to provide structure, the first through service and the other through control.

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Each NPC and their stories have been written to evoke empathy and create assumptions in the player. Meeting a character named only 'The Mother' is bound to instantly create expectations in the player, which the game will then proceed to meet or subvert. These assumptions will then form the guidelines for the player when choosing how to interact with the NPC in question. 

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Level Design

The game is split into three sections, each with its own architecture and goals:

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  1. The Road where the player meets the NPCs for the first time. As it is the introduction to the setting the architecture emphasizes the City, and the endless road the player travels through helps to convey the surreal, dreamlike atmosphere.

  2. The Rest, which serves as a breather for the player and the NPCs, where the player gets their first real chance to get to know the characters and begin establishing their relationships. The area has signs of humanity and life in it, with only a few hints of the world that exists just around the corner

  3. The Walk takes place on the streets of the labyrinthine city where the most "gamey" parts take place. This is where the player encounters the dangers of the city and has to successfully lead the characters through them.

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