As per my previous blog, I blocked out the beats for the narrative of this idea and developed the fables, characters and circumstances to go along with them. However, when it comes to narrative, there was still a lot to do.
As I want this narrative to be character-centric, my first port-of-call was to address character design (in terms of story, not visually), which I did by creating a bio for each of the characters. I broke these down into name, species, personality and backstory. Of course, this won't all be included in the final game, and players won't experience everything I have designed, but as mentioned in Game Writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames by Chris Bateman (2007), I am aware that a solid narrative backdrop comes from understanding every aspect of the world the creator is building, whether that is communicated to the audience or not.
The full document of personalities and backstories is available here.
Maive
I began with the project's titular character: Maive. As her character is what drives the whole narrative, down to the fables she tells reflecting her own experiences, making sure she is a 3-dimensional personality with relatable depth is pivotal to the project.
Unlike with other characters I have designed this year, Maive's personality is not influenced by her species, rather, the opposite it true. I wanted Maive to be a flawed but likeable character, as the Mary Sue stereotype of a perfect leading female is a tired and unimaginative one. Her experiences in the narrative would have an inherent effect on her personality - her failures have given her depth of understanding, meaning her character leans away from idealism. However, I didn't want this to make her cynical and pessimistic, as she has learned from her mistakes and grown through them. I believe it's important to endow her with mercy and compassion for those who make mistakes, as she has an empathetic understanding of their situations. This complex personality will be evident predominantly in dialogue, however should also translate to her movement, such as animations that can express both her moments of self-assurance and self-doubt.
Inspired by A Short Hike (2019), I also added a dry, candid humour to her personality. The dialogue in that game is so entertaining, without being "comedic" to the extent that it feels pushy. Thus Maive has a sense of humour about herself and her surroundings, giving us as a development team an opportunity to lampshade aspects of the fantasy world we are setting the story in.
Her backstory remains as it was previously, with a little more fleshing out that takes place in the document accessible further up in this blog.
Maive's name choice is instinctual, something that Sid and I felt out together based on emotional response. When it came to picking a species, however, I experimented visually with the designs of different animals. The three I originally devised were a fox, a red panda, and a wolf. Whilst open to other ideas, we discussed this as a team and decided that the fox was too stereotypical and overdone. The wold provided an interesting opportunity to break some stereotypes, as wolves are often the "bad guys" of children's stories, however we all agreed that the red panda was the most unique and interesting suggestion. Research on the red panda also showed that they are solitary animals who dwell in forests, which matches Maive's personality well.
Secondary Characters
We decided that in keeping with fable tradition, the characters in the fables would be identified by their species name, and have 1-dimensional, compact personalities. Thus, the other three characters left to develop were those that Maive interacts with in her world: the teenager, the proud creature in a trap, and the little lost creature. With these, I developed the personality and the species simultaneously as co-dependent aspects, with the backstory being built in gradually as explanation for certain wants/needs.
Lennie:
When deciding a species for the teenager, I was initially drawn to a skunk. The colouring fitted the classic image of a rebellious teen - a dark and moody colour palette. However, as I developed the personality of this malcontent, adventurous teen, the visual of a skunk didn't fit properly. I tried to expand my thinking outside of just mammals, looking to reptiles as a potential area to explore. In doing so, I came across the leopard gecko, and discovered they are prone to biting and are vocal and expressive creatures. This fitted well with the personality I was creating for this teenager - opinionated, loud and a little aggressive. The personality informed the species, and the species further informed the personality.
The backstory I kept simple, doing some research into the size of clutches that leopard geckos produce, finding they produce two eggs per clutch, but can produce multiple clutches over short periods of time. From this I made the decision to make the teenager the oldest of six children, adding further to this idea that he feels trapped by his surroundings due to being essentially a third carer for his siblings.
When researching a name, I looked first into Middle Eastern names as this is the natural habitat of the leopard gecko, but found nothing that jumped out at me. I looked instead at choosing a name based on meaning, hoping to find something related to bravery, being a visionary or dreamer. I came across Lennie, fulfilling the satisfaction of having an alliterated name, and felt it suited the personality of the character well.
Garveet:
The species of the second character I picked based off of classic associations between animals and personality traits. The phrase "proud as a peacock" with both lyrical and allowed my to choose a bird rather than another mammal, further varying the cast of characters. A peacock developed the personality of the trapped character from simple pride to pride that was visually apparent - the trapped peacock would be a pompous, holier-than-thou character who perceived himself too good and beautiful to accept the help of others. The trouble with this was that it made the character inherently unlikeable, which wasn't something I wanted. Fixing this came in the form of creating the backstory. I devised a reason for his standoffishness which stemmed from the research I did into peacocks, that as solitary birds he received no help or friendship from others when he was young and developed an abrasive exterior as a defence. He became attached to beautiful objects, seeing them as something that would always be loyal to him. His disregard for Maive and her help is to cover distrust and past hurt, giving the character more complexity than a simple fable character.
The name Garveet arose from research into natural habitat, as peacocks are found in India, Garveet is a male Indian name meaning "proud".
Nomena:
The lost creature was the easiest to choose a personality for, considering they are child and therefore their actions are based more off of instinct rather than experience. Whilst leaning into the idea of vulnerability for the character, I kept in mind the discussions we had with Emma Joy Reay about stereotyping child characters as helpless, and simply a tool to show bravery in the adult character caring for them. What is important about this character, like all the other characters, is to draw a parallel between them and Maive. With the other two, they demonstrate Maive's emotional state at varying points in her past life. What's interesting about the lost creature, however, is that they represent Maive in the moment that the player is experiencing the narrative. Maive is unable to finish the story she tells to the child because she herself doesn't know the ending. Her journey has reduced her to a child state under her anxiety of returning to her family. She is vulnerable, but still adventurous, opinionated and brave, and this is mirrored in the lost creature.
With this in mind, I wanted to find a creature that visually represented the vulnerability felt by both characters. I also wanted the creature to be a mammal to highlight the similarities between them. In researching the world's smallest animal, I came across the mouse lemur, which can grow up to around 28cm. From Madagascar, I researched into Malagasy names to see if the meanings of any jumped out at me. Nomena means "gift", which felt fitting for this final character. Nomena's backstory is limited, as are her experiences, as she is only a young child who went out in search of adventure.
Fables
I tightened up some of the fable narratives so they were as simplistic as possible. I also assigned species to the characters based on classic stereotypes as per the fable tradition.
Fable 1:
The treasure seeker: I made this character a magpie, as they are creatures motivated by shiny things.
The foreign creature: To juxtapose this, I chose a dog as the opposing character due to the less "sophisticated" (i.e, classically fancy) desires of the animal. It makes a stark contrast to have the magpie flying off in search for shiny treasure, and discover a chest full of bones that the dog would like.
Fable 2:
The great king: When I think of great, strong animals, the bear is what comes to mind. I chose this species for the king because of this and the size of them. They are physically strong, as well as a symbol of personal strength.
The tiniest creature: For this role, after some thinking, I chose a praying mantis. I knew I wanted this character to be an insect, I thought the stark difference in size would create a The Lion and the Mouse sort of contrast between the characters. Also, the praying mantis appears visually wise with his folded hands - hands that could also be used to unpick a lock in a fantasy setting.
Fable 3:
The lost creature: This character took the most research. I needed an animal that can't see well in the dark, and those are few and far between, unless I chose a blind animal, however I feel that defeated the point of ignoring the mother's heeding of not going out in the dark. The animal I ended up finding was a cat, which doesn't have good eyesight, especially in the dark. Cats stereotypically love fish, and so I made the trail to lead the cat home a trail of fish, feeling that this was classic and simplistic enough to be considered a fable component.
Lore
For this project the world-building is almost as important as the character development when it comes to the narrative. I had been asked by my team to outline the world in which I was creating these characters so that they could be better informed when it came to designing their aspects of the game. Whilst I had pictured the world in my head, I hadn't written down or conveyed what I had envisioned. So I went about recording and developing the lore I had already come up with so the world in which we are setting the game in was understandable to all.
Magic:
Within fantasy there is a spectrum of magic systems with extremes on either end: hard magic and soft magic. Hard magic refers to a magic system with specifically outlined rules that cannot be deviated from. This type of system commonly appears in anime, such as Fullmetal Alchemist. Soft magic is harder to define and unexplained to the audience - J.R.R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings series falls on this end of the spectrum. Some fictional titles fall halfway, such as the Harry Potter series or Avatar: The Last Airbender.
In order to examine these systems and where on the spectrum Maive should fall, I thought it was important to weight the pros and cons of hard and soft magic.
Hard Magic pros:
- the magic within the world is fully understood by the audience
- predictability of solutions to magical problems that arise - narrative has believability
- avoids "deus ex machina" moments - audience can feel empowered by figuring out solutions themselves
Hard Magic cons:
- system must be complicated enough to maintain audience's interest but simple enough to be understood by audience
- system can limit ingenuity of characters in finding solutions to problems
Soft Magic pros:
- air of mystery - writers do not have to explain everything to audience
- information about magic can be held back to create surprise solutions to problems within the narrative
- can create a greater sense of wonder
Soft Magic cons:
- "jump the shark" moments - writers can rely on unbelievable solutions that insult audience understanding of the world
- magic system does not feel as hands-on, can often feel like a distant omnipresent force that audiences can't comprehend
When it comes to the media that I enjoy consuming the most, I prefer hard magic systems as I enjoy the puzzle of being able to figure out solutions to the problems that arise alongside the characters in the narrative. There is, however, a place for soft magic systems, or systems that fall in the middle of the spectrum, especially if the main focus of the story isn't on the use of magic directly. Thinking about Maive, the titular character has a magic book, however how the book works isn't the focus of the story, so much as it is the stories that are told with the book. Due to there being no conflict involving the use of magic at the centre of this narrative, I think a hard magic system would be wasted in this context. However, a completely soft magic system could also be frustrating, as the audience may want to know how Maive came into the possession of the book and why she can use it and others can't. Therefore, the magic system cannot fall completely on the soft end of the spectrum, but should be more towards that end.
With this in mind, it was time to start forming the world with this soft magic system. My worry with positing Maive on this end of the spectrum was that it would make it easy to justify decisions about the lore and world building with a "just 'cause" attitude, which I didn't want. I wanted the world I made to be informed by all the competing components of the game.
When we discussed the world together as a team, Kerris had suggested making the books magical due to being made from magical trees. We also discussed the idea that the book chose Maive, however, while I appreciated this, pre-destination often makes me uncomfortable in stories. "The Chosen One" trope is worn out and assumes that we have a lack of control over our own lives, something that I don't want to promote with this world. This then ruled out the idea of special individuals with powers given to them at birth, and made the idea of being a travelling storyteller a profession rather than a chosen calling, which I much prefer. This had ramifications on the travelling storytellers, which I had already ideated as being part of a guild or organisation. It opened the profession up to everyone and would be like any kind of job - in the same way a carpenter works and studies for years to hone their craft, so a travelling storyteller works and studies to hone theirs.
Alongside this development, what became clear to me is that magic is inherent in the world, but not the people. This is something that appears in lots of existing material - the Star Wars franchise has the force which exists in and around all things, His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman has dust which serves a similar purpose. In The Magicians by Lev Grossman, anyone is able to use magic, just some are pre-disposed to be better at it than others. This example shows that "magic", in whatever technical form it comes in, is its own element that people can interact with. This type of magic system is accompanied by themes of meditation, co-operation/collaboration with the magic, patience and hard work. This felt perfect for the second beat of Maive's story and Maive as a character, giving her a very classic character arc that sees an unwise, impulsive character learn to master their emotions and respect a force that's greater than them (see Batman Begins (2005), Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back (1980) and The Name of the Wind (2007)). I decided, based on this, that magic existed mysteriously in the world, but not the people who lived in it.
From here I began to develop the travelling storytellers themselves, alongside the guild that they operated from, which I named the Storyteller Guild. I determined their principles, which was easy to do as I dropped the negative aspects of Maive's qualities in the first beat and carried through the good aspects. For example, the Storyteller Guild value experience and travel (I did not want Maive's homecoming to be perceived as giving up on adventure or settling for something easy, rather that the reconciliation would be a choice that would enrich Maive's life).
Developing the storytellers had a knock-on effect in developing the magic books - I still liked the idea that the books chose people and were made from magic trees, however this is more of a personal relationship developed between storyteller and book that happens during the storyteller's training. The books themselves would be sentient things, though not actual personalities so much as they would have their own wills. However I saw an issue in the books being made from magic trees. I wondered why it would make sense for enough magic books to exist to justify an entire profession of people, and in doing so helped develop the history of the books. This is that they were cut down and bound into books before anyone knew they were alive, and it was only after many had been produced that people realised what they had done. Upon realising the books have "souls", the cutting down of the trees became outlawed. I liked the idea that the books were wilful and uncooperative to being written in, and that a storyteller first realised telling a story to the book would give it magic. I also liked the idea that the books could sense intention - explaining why they chose specific storytellers, and why it took so long to train to be able to use one. My full write-up and explanation of this can be found in this document.