Cyte

Beginning in March of 2023 - Present.

1st Person Melee Action Adventure Game

Project Details

Project Length: 18 Months

Software Used: Unreal Engine 5, FadeIn, Jira, Confluence, Github

Group Size: 9 -> 6 People

Experience Level: Intermediate

Responsibilities

Narrative Design:

- Scriptwriting

- World Design

- Mission Design

- Art and Level Coordination

Enemy Design:

- Boss fight prototyping

Cinematic Design:

- Greyboxing

- blockouts

Storyline Pitch

The Cyte, a mechanical agent of Time, must hunt down a being known as the Overseer before it can ruin the very flow of Time. Race throughout time to destroy this would-ve mechanical god as it does its very best to tell you its side of the story.

Narrative Design

My central role in the Cyte team is as the Narrative Lead, helping to coordinate efforts between what our level designer, art director and modellers create to ensure it fits within the story we're trying to tell. Additionally, I've acted as our Game Writer for the cinematics and in-game dialogue during our narrative sequences.

To supplement the cutscenes we wound up having to remove due to adjusting our project scope, I spent some time workshopping new methods of delivering story content to our players in a process that would be much easier for our team to implement, which led me to divide story content into three distinct sections: Cutscenes, Plunges and Interruptions.

Cutscenes

Throughout the process of creating Cyte, we've scaled down from our original plan to have multiple cutscenes instead of a singular introduction and end scene. I worked to develop blockouts, write the scripts, and help storyboard each using Unreal Engine and FadeIn.

Plunges

A Plunge is a narrative sequence created through simple animatics using a set of two primary colours as inspirations. Inspired by Remedy's Control, the sequences use dialogue, colours and imagery associated with central villains who wound up cut from the final game product, acting as background exposition for explaining the events that led to the beginning of the game while informing the player's current actions.

Interruptions

An interruption is a way of giving the central villain time on screen without being overbearing. They're narrative sequences in which the main enemy, The Overseer, disables and glitches the player's UI while speaking to them. These increase intensity throughout the game as Overseer becomes more angry and frustrated with the player's character.

Storyline and Villains

Cyte's original storyline incorporated a set of four antagonists, with the fourth and final being a last-minute betrayal from the player's main helper. The story revolves around the Cyte, a mechanical being that acts as a white blood cell or Leukocyte for Time itself, destroying entities deemed "anomalous" before they damage the flow of time permanently. In the world of Cyte, universal constants like Time, Space and Gravity all contain some form of consciousness and react to defend themselves.

Our central antagonists were planned to be three explorers who ventured through time but were swept away by the current of time (time being represented by ethereal water in this world). Lost and alone throughout time, they slowly were driven mad by what happened to them and began each attempting to enact their own anomalous goals. These villain's names reflected their interests: The Perfectionist, The Realist and The Nihilist.

The Perfectionist

A scientist turned mad prophet, the Perfectionist built a cathedral at the Beginning of Time in an attempt to control the power of the Big Bang to reshape reality in his own image.

Original Cyte Narrative

The Nihilist

Imagine if William Shatner grew to have Harrison Ford's disdain for Han Solo but kept playing him for years and years until winding up playing that role in a situation that got a little too real. The Nihilist washed ashore at the End of Time and seeks to bring the end to all things in one final thespian act of performance.

The Realist

The Captain of a vessel meant to explore time alongside the future Perfectionist and Nihilist, the Realist stared oblivion in the face and realized that to fix her past; she needed to become a monster like the one that stranded her and her crew.

Character Sheets

Adjustments and Scope

As we rescoped our project after slow development due to our entire team working full time elsewhere, cuts had to be made, and storylines refocused. I took it as a challenge to improve what we already had by scaling back to one main villain: The Overseer. Initially, he would have been a surprise betrayal built up through the game, but upon further reflection, it was nearly identical to the game Ghostrunners story...of which we were making a very similar style of game.

So, the Lost Crew (Perfectionist, Nihilist, and Realist) were moved to the Plunges to show the Overseer's evil plans, and the Overseer was made the in-your-face arrogant villain whom you'd want nothing more than to punch in the face.

Rescoped Narrative