summary

A military shooter with examples of:

- Opening briefing script

- In-game briefing

- NPC dialogue

project Overview

Disclaimer:

Due to NDA stipulations, I am unable to share content samples written for this title. In their absence I have written entirely new samples that give a good example of the kind of work I created on this project as Narrative Designer.

Initially working in a freelance capacity, I was bought onto the project full-time to shape the story and implement the narrative, with many of the game’s missions already in an alpha stage of development. I worked on a series of overall story pitches, the main goal being a relatively realistic contemporary military setting. With the story finalised, I used articy:draft software to develop the screenplay throughout each mission. Following this, I liaised with the producer to prepare documentation for scoping voice talent requirements and with art department on character designs.

Unfortunately, the project was cancelled and the studio was closed down before any material was publicly revealed.

opening briefing script

Below is an example of a sequence similar to the opening mission briefing and cutscene.

in-game briefing

Following the opening cutscene, each mission is established through expository dialogue on the return flight from each previous mission (where applicable) and then in a short briefing sequence that would play inside our helmet. This sequence was planned to be a motion graphic cutscene with single line subtitles and voice-over. I was part of the consultation process with the production company hired to develop the art for the user-interface, alongside the senior designer in charge of developing the HUD in-game. One of the biggest challenges was the resolution limitations of what we could render in VR, as well as screen real estate and accessibility concerns.

With each briefing lasting no longer than 30 seconds, it was imperative that the briefings were clear and concise.

The following are similar to images we used as visual references during consultations for the mission briefing design.

NPC dialogue

The player character in Fighter Pilot is never identified by their name or gender and are referred to simply as “pilot”. As a result, it was important to use the supporting characters to bring life and personality to the story.

Below is an example of a short dialogue sequence that takes place at the closing of the second mission, following the rescue of an important supporting character. With combat over, the player flies from the mission location to the aircraft carrier base. With frequent intense action, I found that the travel times between different objectives (when out of combat) were good opportunities for character development and story exposition.

With frequent changes to level design, travel times would often change, limiting the amount of narrative real estate I could work with. To make the editing process easier I used dialogue nodes within articy:draft and exported them to script formats (allowing me to edit or delete nodes and then re-export with all reference data intact).