Game writing… Does that mean that it's already my turn?!
Let me re-introduce myself, then. I'm Lasheli, the lead writer and narrative designer of My Lovely Wife. My Lovely Wife is my first project as a game developer/writer!
(It's a-me showcasing the game for an event.)
In this devlog, I'm going to talk about how I modify and build up the game's lore, as well as the character creation process. You can read about the characters' visual development here in the previous devlog.
Building Up the Lore
As mentioned in the first devlog, the alpha version of My Lovely Wife was released for public in 2019. That's when I first tried it out. In 2020, I officially joined the team as the lead writer & narrative designer for the game, and I can say that the lore has been polished significantly.
It still has the same premise: a husband who lost his wife and tries to resurrect her by performing otherworldly rituals. However, since I was given the freedom to modify it, I added new characters such as Phillip and the Hallowed to the main plot. Both act as players' guides throughout the game.
(Phillip showing clickable buildings in the town to Jake.)
As of the Hallowed… you'll see them in the full game, so I won't spoil anything about them now!
Outlining the Dialogue Acts
So.
Not only the lore but the game design was being modified as well. To create dialogue that can follow the flow of this simulation-management game, I had to make an outline for each chapter. The game has four chapters in total, by the way, I can tell you that at the very least. I found that outlining helps me focus on what I have to achieve in each chapter. The outline contains:
- Events and objectives of the chapter
- Settings where the events take place
- The characters that appear in the chapter
Here's what it looks like in my worksheet (top secret!):
I worked with Dodick, the game designer, to set the events and objectives of each chapter.
(New prologue chapter flow discussion with Dodick.)
(The list of things I had to do… which still goes on… #endmysuffering)
Succubi's Branching Dialogue
Now let's head to the next topic: character design! Before I joined GameChanger Studio, I was told that there will be 20 kinds of succubi appearing in the game, and the players can sort of "date" them - since the plan was for the game to have a dating sim element as well. So, naturally, I had to write the dialogue for each of them.
Did I get overwhelmed?
Of course.
But here's where the help came! Verencia and Adhitya "Nyasu" to the rescue! Verencia was in charge of writing for 5 succubi, while Nyasu took on 6. To make the writing process smoother for them… and for myself, setting a topic/theme for each of the succubi's dialogue sets is a must, since all of them have branching dialogue. The branch more or less looks like this:
Each set has two different options which will take the player to the next pre-determined set/endings.
To determine the topic/theme for each succubus, I'd always refer to their characteristics and backstory, which I'll be talking about next:
The Base for Character Creation
Before writing a story, it's important to know the characters who will be in it, since the way they think or talk will affect where and how the dialogue goes. To create the characters in My Lovely Wife, including the succubi (especially the succubi), I'm using the Personality Archetypes diagram.
For example, I assigned "The Imperial" personality to the Berith. Determining a certain personality to them also helped a lot to shape their backstory.
(The Berith's archetype)
(The Berith's backstory)
… and it applies to the rest of the characters!
That's about all that I can spill right now. What I can highlight from this devlog is: don't forget to outline before writing! Trust me, the writing process will go a lot smoother with it.
My Lovely Wife is planned to be released in early 2022 on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox.
Follow us on twitter for more development trivias: @MLWthegame
Thank you for reading, and see you on the next devlog!