Creation and Iteration of a Cohesive Narrative
Overarching Narrative
From the start, our team put a large emphasis on narrative as the main motivator for the player to explore the city of Idra. Therefore, I created a narrative for the game which situated the characters within the world and provided context as to their motivations. The story helped dictate the level design of Idra, as environmental storytelling was needed to further convey the narrative.
Dialogue & Secret Audio Tapes
Since our game was narrative driven, voice actors and dialogue were key in delivering the narrative in an engaging way. I wrote the dialogue between the three main characters of the game: Terra, RB60, and IRIS. I also created secret audio tapes and scattered them throughout the underground city. These tapes (see left image), were optional story elements that could be found by particularly keen eyed players. These secret areas were always accompanied by a pink crystal light, to help communicate to the player that these were important.
Countless Iterations & Recording Sessions
After writing the main script, our team discovered there was too much dialogue to fit into the 15 minute experience that was our game. I then made many cuts and edits to condense the story into its most important parts. We then selected voice actors from the VFS acting campus to voice the characters in Echoes of Idra. I then attended and helped guide the recording sessions, ensuring the voice actors stayed within the original narrative vision of the game.