Hello! I’m Robert Brown, narrative designer of Stargate: Timekeepers. I wanted to take a break from our hard work on Part 2 to share some of my reflections on helping craft the game’s narrative.
Writing for a beloved franchise like Stargate – which we devs also love – is a privilege that comes with opportunities and challenges. In creating Stargate: Timekeepers, we wanted to tell a Stargate story that would delight fans and newcomers alike; this meant making something that felt true to the spirit and legacy of the franchise, drawing upon its vast lore in a fun and respectful way.
For my part, I can say that working on Stargate: Timekeepers has been a blast. It was important for us and for MGM that the narrative matched the tone and canon of the franchise, and trying to write in a way that honors Stargate SG-1 – with its thrills, its humor, and its warmth – has never been dull.
I had particular fun exploring the show’s fictional languages. This process included watching umpteen episodes of SG-1 to find little-known Goa’uld phrases for our Jaffa NPCs. How many people get to watch TV for their day job?
I never thought that I’d be writing prayers to the Goa’uld when I grew up, but here we are.
That said, narrative design for games isn’t without its peculiar challenges. One such challenge for this project was trying to deliver TV-like characterization without some aspects of TV pacing.
Gameplay-wise, Stargate: Timekeepers provides a fresh and faithful Stargate experience by focusing on missions inspired by those of SG-1 – sneaking behind enemy lines on alien worlds. Anyone who’s watched the show knows that these missions lend themselves well to compelling storylines. But on TV, we also got to know characters in quieter moments, during their off-hours on Earth or exploring other worlds; Stargate: Timekeepers gives players space and time to strategize, but this isn’t the place for lengthy chit-chat.
So that you get to know your squad, our solution was to find moments for short, mid-mission interactions that (hopefully) complement the game’s mood and reveal more about our characters’ personalities and back stories. That was tricky at times – especially when we’ve also got mission- and lore-related info to provide – but we hope that we’ve struck the right balance.
It’s nice to shoot the breeze, but sometimes you’ve just got to focus on the mission.
Another challenge was our responsibility to the canon. When we implemented anything from Stargate lore, we had to think carefully about how we depicted it. Players have been naturally curious about some of our choices – for example, why does A’ta use her staff weapon differently to the Jaffa in the TV series, and why does Sam’s mimetic device seem to have broader capabilities than the devices we’ve seen before?
When we built upon this lore, and showed familiar things in new ways, we strove to do so respectfully and believably, using our game’s narrative to help explain our decisions. You’ll find little drops of lore strewn throughout the game’s script that should answer some of your questions.
An element of Stargate lore that is crucial to the story of Timekeepers was featured at the end of mission 7. You’ll be hearing more about that in Part 2!
We hope that you’re looking forward to Part 2 of Stargate: Timekeepers! Not only does the second part contain more missions than the first, but you’ll also get more opportunities to pick the team members you want to deploy. Different team compositions mean different narrative situations, so you might hear different dialogue when you replay certain missions. I hope you’ll enjoy returning to these adventures and seeing them in a new light.