Hello everyone!
In the previous devlogs, I shared insights into the game - the main protagonist, the art and animation, and the beautiful music by Laryssa Okada. In this instalment, it's a good time to share how we worked on the dialogues and the references we used when writing them.
For this task, I had the incredible help of Raquel de Miranda (previously DontNod and Ubisoft), who joined the team as a narrative consultant and also helped me flesh out most of the dialogues in the game. While I wrote the story and dialogues myself, Raquel helped by checking everything I'd written, proposing new scenarios, improving and adding new lines to improve the flow and pacing of the game.
One of the things I’ve learned working on Last Time I Saw You is that if you want to talk about something very personal (and I'll explain what I mean in the next DevLog), it can be difficult to convey as everyone has different backgrounds and life experiences. That’s why this process of working with Raquel has been like putting everything I wrote through a filter, so that at the end of the process everything ends up being more relatable and comprehensible - even by people who haven't gone through the experiences which inspired me to write this story.
A key game reference point - both visually and gameplay-wise - and a source of inspiration to me was Night in the Woods. It's a game I really enjoyed when I first played it in 2017 as it dealt with everyday personal issues, something I hadn't seen represented in games at that time.
Night in the Woods, developed by Infinite Fall.
While Night in the Woods acted as an initial guide when creating Last Time I Saw You, in 2020 I played Mutazione which - for the first time in a long time - made me really care about the characters in a game. All of them had relatable, everyday problems which are often depicted in movies and books, but not so often in video games. Playing Mutazione made me realize that I could talk about mature themes and subjects in a video game, such as complicated romantic relationships, breakups, family problems, etc. It was the push I needed to speak freely about what I wanted to.
Mutazione, developed by Die Gute Fabrik.
When the story was already plotted out and the narrative style was defined, I started working with Raquel on fleshing out the dialogues of the demo. She then recommended that I play Disco Elysium. What a wonderful game it is! It's hard to put into words my admiration for what the game accomplishes on a narrative level! It instantly became a great inspiration for Last Time I Saw You, and if Mutazione had given me a little nudge to tackle more mature material, Disco Elysium just completely threw me out of the window (yes, I’m talking about Cuno and Cunoesse😅). Last Time I Saw You doesn't have the tone of Disco Elysium nor deal with the same same subject matter, it is nevertheless a great source of inspiration.
Disco Elysium, developed by ZA/UM.
So this has been a small glimpse into our narrative design process and the references that have inspired us. I should also mention A Space for the Unbound, which came out when we were already working on the game and it was wonderful to see how the writers dealt with difficult themes. They did a beautiful job, especially in the final movements of the game.
A Space for the Unbound, developed by Mojiken.
I hope you enjoyed reading about which games inspired me on a narrative level. Which one has had the most impact on you narratively? If you have any other mature narrative games you'd like to recommend, please leave them in the comments!
🕹️ STEAM DECK SUPPORT 🕹️
Oh! And before I go, I wanted to let you know that both the main game and the demo are fully playable on Steam Deck, so if you have one don't hesitate to play there! The Steam Deck screen makes everything look incredibly beautiful! 😍
Until next time! 💙
.Juan
Make sure to wishlist and follow Last Time I Saw You!💙
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1909750/Last_Time_I_Saw_You/
And leave a review on the Demo page!💚
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1986140/Last_Time_I_Saw_You__Demo/
