Project Description
The Amsterdam police have asked for your help to solve what seems to be an unsolvable case. There has been a rash of murders that seems supernatural. All of the victims are void of skin, but their clothes remain in tact. Your supernatural ability to see the unseen, is the only way these cases will be solved because these women have been murdered by something very supernatural. You weren't born with this ability, it was given to you as a child, by a Guard creature, Khepri who saved you from drowning. Khepri taught you how to see what no one else could, and that you need to use your abilities to protect these who are weak and helpless and hunted, but he disappeared one day as quickly as he appeared. Perhaps these cases are related to the disappearance of your cherished mentor, perhaps your search for answers lies within this case. Your Seal, the token of your psychic gift, is used during the investigation, to activate your supernatural abilities, and see the unseen.The Unseen Fears: Body Thief
Roles:
Lead Game Designer Narrative Designer Producer
Responsibilities:
♦ As a Lead Game Designer and Product Owner I created the whole concept and core features for the brand new “The Unseen Fears” series of future games (which now has 5 released games in their portfolio, all following the basics which I developed in 2016).
♦ Pitched the highly innovative core mechanics of the future series to the stakeholders and publishers in the USA.
♦ Created the story concept, made presentation and pitched it to the stakeholders and publishers.
♦ Negotiated with producers from USA via e-mail, skype, organized meetings in Kiev.
♦ Created tasks for artists, animators, programmers, composers, QA team, controlled all the production cycle, made play test of the game during all the development stages.
♦ Made the full GDD with all quest chains, objects, puzzles, mini-games, locations descriptions, dialogues, narrative information, sound specifics, game atmosphere.
♦ Designed 40 fullscreen locations with 4-5 interactive zoom-zones in each, created basic schematic wireframes for them.
♦ Designed mechanics for 17 puzzle mini-games, created schemes for artists and flowcharts for developers.
♦ Designed 15 hidden object fullscreen scenes with lists of interactions and items to be found.
♦ Provided location maps with all possible player interactions and sequences for developers and testers.
♦ Concepted the game features mechanics.
♦ Together with developers team designed highly innovative methods to present brand new mechanics and effects of the game.
♦ Designed the map for the game, concepted “map teleportation” feature, locations unlocks and hint marks on the map.
♦ Concepted game UI, including new UI elements connected to the core “magic search” features.
♦ Designed first-in-the-genre feature which allows the player to choose “layers of fear” for his walkthrough to avoid the most gore visuals or to make the game as grim as it was intended to be.
♦ Made periodical gameplay test sessions.
♦ Processed publisher’s feedbacks and also alpha players’ surveys to improve the game on all stages of development.
Research
♦ Made a wide research of the chosen period and location, which was “dark side of Amsterdam”.
♦ Performed a trip to the Amsterdam to view the locations and gather visual materials (photos, videos, historical archive materials, old and modern maps etc) for the most precise further work on the project.
♦ Researched the theme of modern supernatural thriller, prepared list of references from literature, movies and games for the team.
♦ Created representative mood- and reference boards on Pinterest to help the team with general understanding.
♦ Assisted Art Director with creating palette and style board for Art Guide.
♦ Conducted research into motivation and engagement mechanics fitting our target audience.
Text and narrative elements
♦ Wrote the whole scenario, including the main plot, global quests, side quests, characters, their nature, motivations and relation to the PC, dramatic moments and cinematic descriptions.
♦ Wrote all in-game texts including player character’s sentences (in response to any interaction), dialogues, item descriptions, puzzle games instructions, songs, player character’s notebook, quests, tasks and objectives.
♦ Made huge work in building narrative connections between all game elements, so that all interactions, puzzles and hooks appear in the perfect moment, empower the story and lead player from one objective to another in a natural way.
Characters
♦ Created the narrative concept for 1 Player character and 8 NPCs with their background, behavior patterns, motivation and visual references.
♦ Visualized “relations map” for the characters.
♦ Created tasks for concept artists, character artists and animators to bring the characters to life.
♦ Created tasks for voice overs for outsource company, had chosen voice actors from provided candidates, made feedbacks on results.
♦ Was casting the actors for photoshoot to provide artists with appropriate material for matte painters.
♦ Wrote detailed posing map for each character and actor through the whole game in advance.
♦ Performed several photo shoots on my own (as photographer and designer) to get correct poses, foreshortening, compositions and close-ups for the artists.
♦ Prepared basic storyboard for all in-game cinematics and animations, performed stage direction for artists and animators to get correct frames and solid cinematics.
Work examples
Please contact me if you wish to see more examples of my work, including GDDs and Game Writing.
This game can be purchased on:
- Period : 05.2016 - 03.2017
- Company : GrandMa studio
- Publisher : BigFish Games
- Team Size : ~45
- Duration : 8 hours
The Hunter
"You! You're that amateur who always sticks his nose in places it doesn't belong. We Hunters have tolerated you because you pose no threat to us, but our patience is wearing thin!".