The Overlook
The Museum | Finding Strings | The Chalet | Dialogue Scripting
The main tutorial and Abby’s Introduction.
This the first time the player meets Abby, so this level had to teach the player how to play while aligning them with this totally new character.
After my previous successes in other levels, I was given even more control over the narrative design of this sequence. Other than one pre-planned cutscene, the location, and a list of mechanics to teach; I was given a blank canvas. I outlined and later implemented all of the in-game dialogue between Abby and Owen.
Contributions:
Principal Level Design
Narrative Design
Blockmesh/Layout Creation
Production Management
Gameplay and Dialogue Scripting
Polish and Bug Fixing
Layout and Narrative Design
In the first half, we have Owen lead the player through the movement basics while showcasing that he and Abby have an ambiguously close relationship, letting people lean in and fill in the romantic blanks. Then we spike the intensity by exposing Abby’s vulnerability, a fear of heights.
Then as the player is processing and empathizing with her, we immediately slam her with a barrage of painful revelations. Owen wants to turn back, the city they came for is much larger and more advanced than they expected, the others are doubting the mission that Abby seems so driven to complete,
and his girlfriend is pregnant.
This cuts Abby to the core.
Reeling from the pain, Abby sets off on her own to a lit ski lodge across the mountainside, hoping to find something that will let her regain control of the situation.
What follows is an ever-escalating test of Abby's resolve, where she gets thrown down a cliff by infected, lost in a snowstorm, and fights her way closer to her goal, gleaming in the distance. At the same time, the player is taught all the fundamentals of infected enemies, melee, evasion, health, medkit use, crawling, gun use, stealth, listen mode, and more.
In the end, while still not at the Ski Lodge she finds a lead, a trail of fresh horse tracks.
Dialogue Showcase
I worked with the co-writer of the game, Halley Gross to plan out the VO script for the first half of the level. Once that was finalized, I helped implement the progression of the dialogue and programmed all of the animations that make up each character’s performance, using our facial expression and gesture library.
I was also in charge of developing our standards and practices for these dialog animations. These scenes were used as our reference standard for the rest of the game.
The details of that process can be found in the “Dialog Scripting Section” next to the other level showcase links.
Blockmesh Gallery
Starts at 34:55 - Ends at 54:20