REIM ENTERTAINMENT

Narrative Designer
August 2019 - April 2022

Anzen is a hack-n-slash ARPG with a focus on story, gameplay, and a multiplayer experience. It is made with the Unity Engine, with multiplayer networking, in-engine cutscenes, and a robust combat system.

As A Narrative Designer:

Created and maintained narrative and world building documentation for an expansive fantasy world
Designed and implemented quests and objectives inside the Unity engine
Worked with a multidisciplined team of 6-8 developers to create a shared vision.
Wrote, produced, and implemented in-engine cutscenes using Unity's timeline and cinemachine
Wrote and implemented triggered dialogue
Directed, edited, and implemented voice over performances for in game dialogue

ANZEN

Narrative Designer

Anzen is a hack-n-slash ARPG with a heavy multiplayer and gameplay focus. As a project's sole narrative designer, I worked on everything from world building and script writing to voice direction and cutscene implementation.

Anzen

NARRATIVE DESIGN

My primary responsibilities at Reim Entertainment revolved around the game's narrative design. Worldbuilding, character briefs, triggered dialogue sheets, and cutscenes were my primary contribution.

I worked closely with artists, audio engineers, gameplay designers, and programmers to create the game's narrative tools and reinforce the world's setting and history.

SCRIPT WRITING

A large part of what I was tasked with once finishing the game's initial worldbuilding was writing the game's cutscenes and other narrative content. This started out with me outlining the game's story and refining that as much as possible, then breaking the story into scenes, separating what would be told in non-interactive cutscenes, and what would be told during gameplay and quests.

Anzen's cutscenes were extensive. The script, unfinished as of the time I left the project, was around 120 pages, with another 30 or so yet to be written, and consisted of 64 unique cutscenes, with a projected 80 by the time the script was finished.

This did not include triggered dialogue and story told through gameplay. This story content was taken note of as the cutscenes were written to ensure plot consistency.

CUTSCENE PRODUCTION

As the project's narrative designer, I documented workflow and production lists for the cutscenes I wrote, encompassing any artwork, audio, voice acting/text, and other elements needed for the cutscene's creation.

This workflow involved the creation of storyboards and animatics for designers to reference as they built their assets. I worked closely with one of our artists to create the storyboards from the script, then put the animatic together with placeholder audio to give designers the full desired experience of the cutscene.

CUTSCENE IMPLEMENTATION

Finally, I would create the game's cutscence inside of Unity by bringing together all of the created assets, including audio, 3D models, characters, animations, vfx, cameras, and more.

I utilized Unity's timeline feature, as well as the Cinemachine plugin to create interesting and dynamic camera angles. I followed the animatic created previously to achieve the original vision of both the artist and myself as the narrative designer.