Farlands

Follow Felix as he struggles to hide his dangerous secret from those he calls family and make the ultimate decision to decide the fates of everyone.

Team / Duration: 3 / 7 Weeks
Genre: Story-Driven RPG

Focus: Narrative design & production

Role: Mechanic Designer, Narrative Designer & Plot Creator

Engine: None

Purpose: University BSc Project (2019)

Software Used: Articy Draft 3, Adobe illustrator, Microsoft Office (Excel / Word)

About

Farlands was a practice in game narrative creation made in University by a 3 person team. The project included a brief which simulated a realistic brief given by a company and it was our job to follow the brief and produce a narrative for a game. In order to do this, we had to create an outline for the game and budget resources for what would be needed during development; the budget had to take care of things like models, cutscenes, CGI animations, characters and other assets that we would need to be present in the game for the story to work. I mainly worked on creating the overall plot skeleton & designing mechanics for the narrative to be based around.

The Brief

Brainstorm

After brainstorming some initial ideas, we narrowed it down to either the US Prohibition, which would focus on gang crime and would be designed for a top down city builder game, or the Roman invasion of Britain, which would focus on the conflict between the Celts and the Romans and would be designed for a third person action RPG game.

We decided the narrative was going to focus on the more mystical side of the Celts, so the druids would have supernatural powers and mythical beasts from Celtic folklore would roam the forest on Britain. As there is not much information surrounding the druid way of life, having a factual game about druids and druidic life in ancient Britain would be hard, so the player would have to play from the perspective of the Romans to play on the mystery of druids instead of the threat of the Romans.

I came up with the overall skeleton for the plot and as a team we fleshed out each act and created specfic scenes for the game that may take place. Aswell as the overall skeleton for the narrative, my main role was to define the overall game experience and design the game for the narrative to fit within; this includes: gameplay features, enemy interactions and player character actions and AI behaviour. I also took the main role in budgeting for each of the assets we included within the game. Find the spreadsheet here:

DESIGN DOC: EXCEL DOC

Research

Researched Characters:

Some main characters will be influential historical characters that were present during the first invasion of Britain, as well as fictional characters implemented to support the narrative.

Main Character – Roman Legionnaire (Fictional)
Druids (Fictional/Historical)
Celtic mythological monsters (Fictional)
Emperor Claudius (Historical)
General Aulus Plautius and his legions: (Historical)
- Legio II Augusta – The Second Augustan Legion
- Legio IX Hispana – The Ninth Spanish Legion
- Legio XIV Gemina – The Fourteenth Twin Legion
- Legio XX Valeria Victrix – The Twentieth Legion Valiant and Victorious
Vespasian (Historical)
Cassius Dio (Historical)
Gnaeus Hosdius Geta (Historical)
Titus Flavius Sabinas the Younger (Historical)
Eutropius (Historical)
Gnaeus Sentius Saturninus (Historical)

Beasts/monsters:

The non-humans consist of standard wildlife aswell as monsters that all have a basis within Celtic mythology & Folklore.

Wildlife
Vampires (Leanan Sidhe, Dearg Due)
Dullahan (Headless horseman)
Banshee
Demonic creatures (Balor, Sluagh)
Carman
Questing Beast

The Concept

Characters

Locations:

England and Wales

Scotland and Ireland

Tone and attitudes:

Dark, Survival Horror Feel (tense), Mystical. Want to capture the fear and feelings the romans had for the druids during the invasion.

Type of Game:

An Action Adventure RPG with melee based, tab targeting combat. Dark Souls-esque combat with more fluid actions & animations. Fighting with the Gladius (Sword), daggers, and spears.

Player Actions:

As the player is a roman legionnaire, his main loyalty would be to Rome. The player would be tasked with hunting monsters, ensuring the new settlers are safe from threats, he would also be tasked with scouting and hunting enemy forces.

Occasionally the player would be involved with commanding groups of soldiers.

Main Character:

Felix Dominicius

(Hero/Villain)

Celts:

Anwyl – Hero / Villain

Caswallan - Hero

Ganna - Hero

Veleda - Villain

Ferghus – Villain / Extra

Romans:

Lucius Aramaius - Hero

Octavius Manus – Villain

Caeso - Hero

Marcus Ornelius– Extra

Remus – Extra

Suetonius Paulinus – General

The Gameplay

Gameplay Features:

Passing commentary feature – As Felix walks past the NPC’s in the world, they will comment on how they feel on the players actions / character
Walking past Celtic members, at the start they will dislike Felix and make unfavourable comments towards him, later on if Felix performs actions to help the Celts they will start to greet and congratulate Felix.
The Romans will be a mixed bunch, if they are friends/followers of Remus and Octavius they will spit on the ground and insult Felix as he walks past.
Collectibles – Items around the map can be found, artefacts from both Roman and Celtic civilization allowing for the player to learn more about the lives and the times surrounding the Roman conquest.
Inspect item feature – Upon inspecting an item in the world the view changes to the inspector interface. The model of the item shows up central to the screen and the player can rotate the item around to find additional information (similar to Tomb Raiders artefact inspection).
Investigate Feature – Upon activation the screen will turn dark and objects of interest will glow bright green (similar to the Witcher 3’s Witcher sense). As Felix is a scout he is able to notice things that most people would look past, this skill allows him to examine objects in detail.
Hybrid Skill tree – Roman based skills focused on dealing physical damage with weapons, Druidic skill tree focuses on magic abilities e.g. more imbuement weapon damage, more types of imbuements, better buff abilities and better cooldowns on abilities. This is the players choice and can show their alignment to either faction, the Romans will get too suspicious if Felix performs over the top magical abilities and could risk being attacked. XP is earned from completing missions, killing monsters and from exploring.
Side Missions – Side missions can be taken up for either side and involve helping local communities and killing monsters that threaten them aswell as hunting for food for the outpost. Again, improving his favour among the local populous.
Alchemy – As Ganna is a very skilled alchemist, after getting to a certain point in the story they can complete side missions for Ganna and learn alchemy, this will provide the player with the ability to craft smoke bombs, poisons and traps.
Limited inventory system – Limited space for carrying herbs and alchemical ingredients are provided to Felix, as Felix is a scout he needs to stay nimble and move quickly, this will cause the player to manage their inventory.
Bestiary – As the player fights and discovers different types of monsters or collects items in the world, they will be added to the bestiary menu and will describe their appearance, their weaknesses and what people should do if they were ever encountered.
Equipment upgrades – Felix can choose to upgrade his equipment in the Roman camp, he can improve his sword damage and durability.

The Story

Main Conflict:

The narrative was based around how the game would play, therefore we made sure not to include any wild ideas that would ruin continuity in the story and during gameplay, which in turn helps to negate any player confusion & plot-holes that may occur whilst writing.

The soldier is in a fight with a beast, before succumbing to a fatal wound, the beast poisons the soldier and knocks him unconscious.

Because of the poison, a druid must infuse the soldier’s body with magic; this infusion allows the soldier a catalyst to be able to use lesser magic and allows the soldier to see and resist certain abilities the mythological monsters may use on other people, such as mind control or poison.

The story shows how the soldier deals with his new powers (both using them to defeat new threats and hiding them, in fears he may be killed by his fellow Romans) and how he will choose to act to those who help him. The player can choose to embrace his new powers and learn to become a druid, or he can reject his new powers and stay loyal to Rome

DANIEL MERCER