Maliki Poison of the Past:
Narration and other creative contributions

Credits:

Developed by Blue Banshee Games

Creative director: Maliki

CEO: Etienne Jacquemain

Producer: Maël Guérin

Game designers: Clément Gastaldo, Aurélien Lubecki

My role on the narrative aspects

Maliki - Poison of the Past’ story takes place in the rich universe of Maliki, a 20-year old comic book franchise, telling a new story but deeply rooted in the existing lore.

The author wrote a step-by-step synopsis that could easily involve a player that knew nothing about Maliki, and at the same time bring satisfaction to the people familiar with the comic books.

My work here was to manage all the interfacing between story and gameplay, making sure the story was well paced, and thinking about how to convey positive emotions to keep the player engaged.

My background in roleplay and long-form improv theatre helped me a lot: I have strong knowledge of the hero's journey, how a story is paced, and how to build characters.

Building the timeline

My first mission was to detail all of the player’s progression, by creating a comprehensive timeline where I included every step of the progression, always associated with the following elements:

Chapter and location: dividing the timeline into very small sections
- How this section is finding its place in the whole canvas? (narration-wise, gameplay-wise)
- What does it bring (pacing, reward, info...)?
Elements/rewards unlocked (powers, characters…)
- Are the rewards frequent? Expectable or not?
Access to new area / subzone
- Are the access conditions clear? Does it involve backtracking?
Gameplay general comments: tutorial or equivalent, mechanic I want to see developed here, enemy gimmick, etc…
Cutscenes / dialogues: need for cutscenes, dialogues, their length, tone, level of importance, etc….
Last but not least: asking all questions related to mood, atmosphere, emotions, symbolism, references... to understand and give life to the creative director's vision.

All of this work has been done while leading meetings with my fellow game designer and the creative director (and author of Maliki), so we can argue and agree about all aspects related to story, narration, level design... The challenge here was always to find compromises between the author’s vision and the game requirements (relative to the game experience… or the budget!).

I often remind the previously defined game pillars (see "combat system"), here to anchor and refine the creative vision. If we have a doubt about an element's interest or the way it has to be formalised, it is good to check if it is serving one or two pillar(s).

This timeline quickly became the source of a lot of other structuring documents, and a point of reference for all the team.

This detailed timeline evolved during the production, with several dependent documents I created at its side:

Optional content: detailed document for all quests, optional rewards, and associated conditions.
Cutscenes: a complete document with all the main and optional cutscenes of the game, the conditions to trigger them, their level of importance, their implementation status…
Tutorials and encyclopedia

Timeline document

Cutscene production

Level preproduction

Character production

Character design

Gameplay progression

Event descriptions, story pacing

Main characters' roles and milestones

Atmospheres and description of places

(gameplay specificities and progression)

List of NPCs, main enemies...

Temporal placement of all gameplay elements

(non-exhaustive list)

Teaching the player: tutorials and encyclopedia

I also managed the pedagogical choices of the game - how a mechanic is explained ? Are the explanations consultable later and where / how ?

There are three ways an element is taught in the game:

Hands-on tutorial: rarely used, but perfect for the basics of farming and combat
“Mini-guide” stored in the encyclopedia: a few texts and illustrations of explanations. Some mini-guides pop when obtained, others just trigger a notification for consultation. All mini-guides are stored in a category: Combat, Domain or Puzzles.
Additional info within dialogs: chatting with two characters in the Domain gives access to additional info, more related to tips and advice. Every dialog arborescence is made so that lore details and gameplay info are easily distinguished.

These different treatments ensured that:

Critical info / knowledge cannot be missed
Important info is stored and always accessible
Less emphasis is put on minor info and tips, but the player understands the Domain's characters have things to share.

Maliki PoP is short but very dense (gameplay-wise, dialog-wise…), as soon as the game starts, following a (criticisable) trope of J-RPGs. The author was very precise about how he wanted the game to start and which elements should be quickly introduced to the player.

For combat-related explanations, I designed two hands-on tutorials, by first giving a “feeling” of combat (UI, structure, simple actions, only controlling the main protagonist) and later a more detailed explanation (timeline mechanics and associated healing system, techniques, elements…). Then, as soon as the adventure really begins, the player is given the encyclopedia, including several combat miniguides on other topics (stats, status effects…). My idea was to only bring emphasis on the most important elements, as there were so many other gameplays to introduce. Finally, subtleties and tips related to combat were presented in dialogs with a Domain character.

Creating written content for the game

The author did not have time to write all the text of the game, and I convinced him to let me give a hand! I analysed his style and successfully presented a few tests on sidequests and item descriptions. From then, I was appointed with the writing of the following elements:

Most of the descriptions found in menus: I love when games have menu texts not related with gameplay. Here in Maliki, their purpose does not serve lore building (like in From Software’s games, for example), but is more about creating a mood and bring comic relief. I wrote most of the descriptions for items, tools and techniques.
A lot of sidequests : by writing and reviewing sidequest dialogues, I have understood the characters’ dynamics (what a character should or should not say, how to make them evolve throughout the adventure, etc…)
Main quest segments: I was also able to write a small part of the main quest dialogues, especially around the endgame, where I had full control of a level design.

My job also included part of the management of localization (EN, ES, PT), alongside the game’s producer.

Managing music and sound design

Throughout the project, I've also been helping managing music composition and sound design, translating the overall creative vision into concrete propositions. My background in music and sound design greatly supported this work, which included the following responsibilities:

Establishing creative guidelines and musical references for the composer, and contribute to supervision alongside the producer and the creative director.
Writing detailed SFX documentation for UI and combat, intended for the sound designer and the developers.
Producing detailed character audio documentation for the voice acting team, to record "barks" for combat and cutscenes.
Integrating sound effects and soundtracks in Unity