Embedded Files
Narrative Lead
Narrative Lead
May 2023 - May 2024
Team size: 50+
The Veiled Ones is a first-person horror stealth game about a Muslim exorcist trying to save his son, who has been taken by invisible beings known as jinn. Using a looking glass to spy into the alternate world of the jinn, players must explore the environment, avoid jinn, and find hidden clues to uncover the truth of why their son was taken.
Main Responsibilities:
Main Responsibilities:
Writing narrative content, including cutscenes, character dialogue, barks, object interactions, and diegetic notes
Planning all sequences and laying out the narrative beats for the storyline
Creating narrative documentation including character sheets, beat sheets, worldbuilding, and lore guides, as well as doing research into the cultural influences for the game
Collaborating with the other members of the narrative, as well as providing feedback for the narrative work they've done
Casting and directing professional voice actors, along with selecting appropriate takes for the final product
As the Narrative Lead, I led the narrative development of the game, working with a total of 3 other narrative members over the course of the year.
Our team had a total of 50+ members. Among the other departments, I worked the most closely with design and audio. There was frequent communication with the design team to help plan gameplay sequences, as well as to ensure the game's level design supported the narrative experience. Audio and narrative had a close relationship when both recording and implementing the voiceover, working together to recruit professional voice actors, record voice lines, and choosing selects afterwards. During the recording of the voicelines, I took charge in providing extensive but efficient voice direction for our actors.
In order to ensure that player interaction with key narrative elements flowed smoothly, I spent time in-engine in Unity to edit readable objects, test dialogue, and scope out pacing.
Because The Veiled Ones is a heavily culturally inspired game about Jinn, drawing from both Turkish and Islamic mythology, I spent a lot of time doing research on these subjects and adapting them to our game in a respectful and accurate manner.
Below are some examples of my work for the game:
Below are some examples of my work for the game:
I wrote the large majority of the script for The Veiled Ones, collaborating with other members of the narrative team for certain lines, and editing their work. This script includes multiple cutscenes, as well as all the comments and conversations the characters say throughout the game.
To the right is the script for the final cutscene of the game.
For this final cutscene, we spent a long time workshopping it based on both player feedback and design needs. We had to balance emotional payoff and impact with the art scope we had for animated cutscenes. We also spent a lot of time editing and cutting the dialogue to make sure it fit within around a minute, while still achieving the emotional impact we wanted.
Click the button on the right to view the entire sequence dialogue script of the game, formatted for Yarnspinner implementation.
The Veiled Ones Final Cutscene Dialogue.pdfIn addition to creating a general macro that goes over the outline of the game, I also created a detailed macro that goes through the entire game's beats and sequences, play by play. This macro is shown to the right.
The macro covers every event that happens over the game's average playtime of around 30 mins to 1 hour, explaining the goals and player mechanic needed for each step.
I created character sheets that describe each main character and their backstories, as well as their motivations.
These served as documentation for the established tenets and personalities of each character, as well as their roles in the story.
They served as references for other narrative team members in terms of both information and characterization, as well as providing information to other departments seeking to learn more about the narrative.
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