[h2]Welcome back, listeners! We're here with another special feature on KFAM - Killer Frequency: Designing a Narrative![/h2] [h3]At its heart, Killer Frequency is a narrative focused game. The story, characters and mystery of the Whistling Man are the driving force behind every decision players will make. We sat down with one of Killer Frequency's game designers, Harry Scholefield, to talk about its narrative design.[/h3] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42505330/064e7f9b541fdaf9d0035cb1a04d6a584885e80e.gif[/img] [h3]Inheriting the narrative[/h3] [i][b]Harry:[/b][/i] "Inheriting some of the narrative from the Game Jam version of Killer Frequency was interesting, because I think when you get different people working on any creative project, you can't really recreate what someone else has already created. It's just impossible. I don't think it's possible for the design team or narrative team to create the exact same kind of story and feeling that was there in the original version. It's just that way with different people. Say you asked five people to draw a dog. You'd get back five different dogs. "So we started off with the bones of what was there already and asked 'what needs to be carried over?' Things like the killer, the town, Forrest and the producer, Peggy. But then we had free rein to develop each of those elements. Adding elements like the background of the killer and their relationship to the town." [h3]Creating the mystery[/h3] "Part of what was tricky about expanding the game jam version, was that we needed that hook to run throughout the six or so hours of playtime. A mystery. We needed the players to want to know something and want to find out something. And obviously with a masked killer, it immediately begs the question of who's under the mask. "We had to make that answer satisfying for the player. If the answer came completely out of the blue, then that sucks the fun out of the whole experience. So it's about having that mystery develop so that it has a direct relationship with the story the player is going through. "There also has to be enough seeds planted early, that the player can figure it out retroactively. We have to give them enough information, both hints and red herrings, that they can tie it altogether before the reveal. "One of our original ideas was to only reveal answers to the game's mysteries if the player did well and saved most, if not all, of the callers. We ended up scaling that back so everyone finds out most of what's going on, but if you do really well in-game, you get the full and complete resolution." [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42505330/9121336eeab587a9e5c1479027fa2232ad79d158.gif[/img] [h3]The Killer[/h3] "We actually went for a long time without nailing down the feeling of the killer. They were just the killer. It wasn't too long into production when I turned to Matt, another game designer, and jokingly said that it'd be funny if it was the one-man band killer, because you'd always hear him coming. "And then later on, we realised that the killer needs to tie into the audio-based gameplay somehow, with a characteristic hum or whistle. When we started thinking about the whistle, we realised that it's just really creepy. It's creepy in the sense that it's something that's so normal, but it can be done in such an unsettling way. And it's unspecific, so anyone can be whistling. "Then the name came from that. We were thinking something like the Whistler, and then eventually the Whistling Man. It has an urban legend feel to it. And because of the way the townspeople react to the Whistling Man, making him sort of a joke and stuff over the years, it adds to that urban legend come to life feel." [h3]The Characters[/h3] "Introducing the DJ, Forrest as a newcomer to the town solved that classic problem of how to teach players about the world. If he's new to the town, then we get to explain things to the player. And he also gets to comment on events as an outsider. The town's a little absurd in places, and Forrest gets to react to that in a fun way. "We wanted to have a solid reason as to why he was in town. So we built up his background to where he was a big city DJ. It's something people can reference and it informs on why he's there, how he acts and how he reacts to things. And we allude to the fact that he's disgraced as well, which opens up his redemption arc as he goes from disillusioned with the town to starting to care about the people there and wanting to save them. "We tried to reflect that in his relationship with Peggy too. Peggy is almost the other side of the coin. She's been in the town forever. She knows everyone, and she's upbeat and optimistic. But she also reflects some of the horror and sadness that the town has been through, and we're excited for players to explore that." [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42505330/28c906f3ca893f72dfb8bfa641cd80f7e382e02b.gif[/img] [h3]Dialogue[/h3] "A lot of the inspiration for character interactions came from games like Firewatch, because it's a unique design where two characters spend a lot of time talking to each other without actually being together in person. "But we also had to keep in mind what the puzzle for each caller was going to be and how it would work. And then you build the dialogue around it. But whilst the dialogue would initially be written to support the puzzle, we'd also keep in mind the characters themselves and how they'd joke around or react to the situations we've put them in. "When developing the dialogue, we'd mostly bounce stuff back and forth between the whole design team. We'd do different pass overs, edit it, add more dialogue and then do it all again. Because, we found that it's impossible to write it on your own." [h3]Environmental Storytelling[/h3] "Some of the environmental design is driven by the puzzles, but we used a lot of the set dressing as environmental storytelling as well. We had a character spec for each character and we'd explain on it what they like to do, what they're like as a person, what they think about, and so on. Then we'd use that as inspiration for the location dressing to help sell those characters as people that actually exist in this space. So for example, each of the radio station's employees has a different desk space and they're all different depending on the character that uses it." [h3]Final Thoughts[/h3] "I'm interested in seeing how people react to the narrative of Killer Frequency and what their takeaways are from it. Especially the developing character relationship between Forrest and Peggy, because a lot of the game hangs off of that relationship. They do 90% of the talking and I think it's kind of the heart of the story there with them. I hope people enjoy it." [h2]Killer Frequency hits the airwaves on 1st June. Wishlist today![/h2] https://store.steampowered.com/app/1903620/Killer_Frequency/