Narrative Design and Sound Design Week 2/3

Candy's Dev log: (Week 2 and Week 3)

Photo by Sandra Ahn Mode on Unsplash

Narration progress:

This week, I wrote a script to introduce the table leg as an official character. It also includes the princess's response to its sudden appearance. Along with the table leg’s introduction, I was also tasked with creating sexist character AI dialogues that will be repeated throughout the gameplay. The reason this was necessary is because without the dialogue the game lacked subversiveness, which was one of the requirements we needed to achieve. The idea behind the dialogues was to show society’s expectations of what it means to be a woman. By having the princess bash her enemies with a “Lady-Like” table leg, forcefully cutting off all dialogues mid-sentence, shows her subconsciousness rebelling against a women’s norm. After all, the table leg is only something made to represent her battle against herself since she is the only one who can see and hear it. My job is to make these offensive dialogues (without curse words) just so our princess can hush them by smashing her enemies in the face with a screaming table leg.

Narration challenges:

My only challenge was that this was a last minute decision made by the group. So now I only have one week to create this script, the different dialogues and have our voice actors(our colleagues)record them so I can clean up the soundtracks. It is manageable. I just wish I could have a bit more time to breathe life into these characters. 

The Script and Dialogues in progress:

Intro First Appearance(Dining Room after the kidnap)

The princess rips off a leg from the table and it transforms like an anime magical girl.

Table Leg:

“Hey! That was not very ladylike. Now that I have a look around...Good Golly, this place is a mess.”

Princess:

 “Wt-….”

 *Makes this kind of face*

Why would she keep the table leg?

• Answers: She is forced too

- Table leg acts like a magnet. When she acts like society's expectations of her it leaves her but she acts like herself it glues to her.

Table Leg:

 “Young Lady! Watch your language. How can you say such foul things?”

Princess: …

*Swings her arms to try and throw away the table leg but fails.*

     Table Leg: 

“Pause! Pause! What on earth are you doing? I’m starting to see stars. Ughhh…”

Princess: 

“Why can’t I get rid of it?!”

*Thinks to herself* 

Table Leg: 

Ah! That’s because I’m part of you. 

           *Winks*

Princess:

 “What did it just say?”

 *Thinks to herself*

Table Leg:

“Silly girl must still be in shock. Poor thing. It’s ok. I’ll answer all of your questions. I’m part of you after all.”

Princess: ….

*About to smack the table leg on an object nearby to get rid of it. Sounds of banging.*

*Bang Bang Bang*

Table Leg: 

“Kyaaa! You can’t break me now! If you break me, you will die too.”

Princess: 

“Let’s test that theory.”

*Pause for a bit and Smirks. Banging starts again.*

*Bang Bang Bang*

Table Leg:

 “Kyaaaa! You can’t bre-break me this way either!”

Princess: 

“Explain.”

*Stops all movement*

Table Leg:

 “Hmf. I don’t want to talk now. At this moment I’m very upset.”

Princess:

 “Fine. Don’t talk. It’s a waste of time.”

*Made up her mind to just roll with it.*

Table Leg:

 “That right you should feel sorry- Wait what? Hey- Where are we going?”

Princess:

“If I can’t get rid of you, you might as well make yourself useful.”

*Smirks and smacks the enemy with the table leg*

Table Leg lines from now on in action. All can be cut off as soon as the player swings:

“Oh my god! You just murdered someone!” 

“Kyaaaa! I’m so sorry! Are you alright sir? Please tell me he’s still alive.” 

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! You should apologize too. Where did your manners go?”

“Ah! Please forgive me! Will a kiss make it better? Oh goodness what should I do?”

“Oh dear heavens I pray you forgive my sins and hers as well. I have failed the lord and for that I have sinned.”

“How can you do this to me? To these people? We have to be kind. You betrayed our people.”

“Is there a handkerchief nearby? I have the sudden urge to weep for a bit.”

“I can’t look. There’s blood everywhere! Blood on the floor, Blood on me! Quick, wipe it off! WAIT! There’s blood on you too! No! We can’t show our faces like this!”

“Where’s the sewing kit? I need to destress… Oh! Maybe we can help sew up their wounds….No? Ok. *sighs*

“At least tie up my hair. It’s getting winded. Oh what a mess.”

“Don’t step on that! (the blood) Your pretty dress will be dirty.”

“Oh dear! Where’s a doctor when you need one? Is he at least breathing?” 

“Sigh… Where’s the knight when you need one? What’s the use leaving behind the shiny armor?” 

The rest of it is just a bunch of rude bikers remarks. I can also send a better format once I find a place put these documents so that the public can view them.

Level Design Progress:

I basically brain stormed a bunch of ideas and rough sketches. Then I showed it to the group. From there we agreed on what should be implemented in the game and what shouldn’t. We also jot down other ideas the group came up with. Afterwards, Amber, Jassiel and I took the group's ideas along with the rough sketches and polished them so our programmers can understand the layout better. This was all done a week before Thanksgiving(So two weeks ago). We met at least 2 times online to visually plan and add more stuff to the level. And 1 last time was to finalize everything, getting it ready to present to the people involved with level design. 

My rough sketches:

The final version is with Jassiel

Level Design Challenges:

I had most trouble with the spacing and measurements. I didn’t really notice until Jassiel told me. He is much better when it comes to organizing and did a fantastic job turning my abstract art into something that made more sense. 

3D Design Progress: 

I still have no Idea how and why I ended up with doing a 3D model. I think since I was done with my part on level design I asked the group if someone needed help. That is when Nicole said I can help with doing the thrones. So that’s exactly what I did. Also the 2D concepts are done by Amber(our lead narrative designer, game director, and art director). 

Here’s my attempts at the thrones:

3D Model Challenges: 

I had the most trouble with this one. Not only did I have to redo the throne twice, rescale the thrones because there were sizing issues in unity, I also messed up the animation of it falling and breaking. So after I built the model JC offered to help with the animations. He did fantastic! The animation turned out very smooth and satisfying to watch.

Sound Progress:

None this week but there are plans to get something in for next week.

Next Steps:

• Get all the files from the voice actors and edit/cut/clean them up.
• Start making sound effects like banging, throwing, swinging, ect.

Extra:

• Start the character’s background stories, descriptions, and histories. 
• Get/calculate the actual measurements for all objects and characters. I was supposed to do this during turkey week but I got a turkey brain so I'll do it next week. 
•  I can help with anything else that couldn’t be done but needs to be.