Hannah Pollow | Hanndragggon

Narrative Design

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Narrative in Games

Beholder 3

Released on 03/03/2021 

Main Tasks: 
- Writing Quests (including all logic) and Dialogues
- Creating Item and Object Descriptions 
- Writing out Characters fitting to the game world 
- Proofreading and adjusting existing dialogues 
- Setting up Schedules for NPCs

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The Darkest Files

The Darkest Files

The Darkest Files

Currently in Development

Main Tasks: 
- Writing Dialogues
- Adapting the scripted, written scenes into Unity 
- Adjusting Game Logic with the Narrative Tool
- Proofreading and adjusting Dialogues
- Creating narrative interactable Objects in the game

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The Darkest Files

Beholder 3

Summary
My Work
Summary
My Work
Awards

Summary - what are the games about?

Beholder 3

You are Frank Schwarz, a husband, and father who lost his cushy office job at the Ministry after someone set him up. The only way to avoid jail time was to make a deal with a high-ranking security officer. Now, as a government spy working undercover as a landlord, you must break into tenants' apartments, search them for contraband and eliminate anyone your boss wants out of the picture.

The Darkest Files

World War 2 has ended. Yet Nazis can still be found in high ranking positions all across Germany. Hesse's Attorney General Fritz Bauer establishes a special unit of young, unencumbered public prosecutors to pursue and investigate Nazi crimes and to prosecute the perpetrators.

Narrative Work in Beholder 3

Find a collection of what I have done in Beholder 3 as a Narrative Designer
October 2021 - March 2022

Creating Quests

I created and adjusted Quests all along the game and designed two of the four finale quests.

Finale Quests: 

  • High Frequencies
  • Cost Cutting 
  • Errands for Lotte 
  • Package for Victory
  • Arrest Them All

All Quests contain all related dialogues and the whole logic for the player, done in ArticyDraft 3

I had a lot of fun creating a quest and then playtesting it, seeing it coming to life. I also inserted quite a few references in the game ;)

Quest Logic, Cheatjumps and Dialogue Hubs

We had 45 Characters in total.

For each character we created DIalogue Hubs so they would answer to the main character in a generic way along the Story. And that we could access all Dialogues of a single character at once.

I also created and adjusted CheatJumps for easier testing regarding game logic and narrative flows. 

Here is an Interview with Paintbucket Games how we created the narrative inside of ArticyDraft: Link to Paintbucket Interview

Reading and Fixing

To get the Dialogues ready for the Localisation, we had to go through every single dialogue and adjust all issues we would encounter. 

Our work was separated in several "Loca Batches" to get several batches (parts of the game) done week by week. 

Writing Dialogues

Writing all kinds of Dialogues for differenct characters for different occasions

The Porter was one of my favourite characters along the game due to his grumpy mentality.

Working in Engine

We worked in the Unity 3D Engine. Assigning Items, Descriptions and placing objects into the game were some of my tasks. 

In Engine Work contained: 
- Playtesting 
- Adjusting and Placing Game Objects 
- Expanding Scriptable Objects (e.g. for Helpscreens) 
- Placing NPCs and Interaction Zones 

NPCs and Schedules

I took care of many NPC schedules, so all different characters  move around in the game world, go to bed, go cooking, take a smoke break and more. 

The Schedules had to assure that NPCs are reachable from time to time and that they (do not) contain any illegal activities. 

I also created schedules for the Cars driving on the streets. 

In additon to that I created new characters and wrote some of the dialogues for them. For example the "Blackmarket Guy" is a Stranger who appears during the night and offers the player forbidden items. Or the Cantine-Lady, who would offer something to eat during working-breaks.

Creating Achievements

In the team we collected a few Ideas for the Achivements, what kind of descriiptions they could involve and what exactly in the game could trigger an achievement. 
I collected all these ideas and wrote down the Achievements, giving them a title and deciding where to trigger them during the game. That was a fun task with every department being involved. 

Love all the references in here!
And don't forget: The Cake is no lie! ;) 

Narrative Work in The Darkest Files

 Find a collection of what I have done in The Darkest Files as a Narrative Designer
March 2022 - June 2023

Writing and adjusting Dialogues

The Game is separated in different cases and me and my narrative colleagues write Dialogues for different characters along the game, always respecting the overarching story.

Creating and implementing features fitting our Narrative

I am often involved in the Brainstorm Process of how we could improve our narrative gameplay-wise. For that we create features which support our narrative and work with them. 

One special feature I pitched was the "Interruption"-Feature.

Overviews and Orga

I like to work structured and to keep up to date on the work the colleagues do. For keeping an overview of the whole Story, of the status of every coworker, I create excel-sheets for easier organisation.

Visualising the Memories

A core mechanic in our game is that we move inside the lived through memories of interrogated witnesses. I help to set up the technical side and then marry it with the Dialogue in our Narrative Tool "ArticyDraft", containing all logic. 
With the help of our great artists these scenes turn out intense and exciting to experience. 
I also brainstorm optional Interactions and make them work inside the Engine (Unity3D).

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