Idea Generation

To begin my idea generation, I started making simple ‘What if’ statements and started thinking about how possible the idea was to turn into a full story, whilst still making a generic story. I found it very difficult to come up with many ideas that was not only generic but also possible to turn into a full story that could be told through a digital platform. Eventually, I came to the conclusion I wanted to set my story in a fantasy-medieval setting with most of my inspiration coming from George R. R. Martin‘s, Game of Thrones, along with some creature inspiration from Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.

The way I was going to tell this story was by writing a comic book as I had been debating the idea of trying something new for me as I had never experimented, nor read comic books but liked the style in which they tell stories. However, upon research, I found that this would involve a lot of time commitment to draw each comic book panel to get 10 minutes worth of reading time. before I decided to tell my story through a Visual Novel, I considered creating a walking simulator where the ‘reader’ would play as one of the characters, walking around a 3d environment and being told the story through dialogue and environmental storytelling. Due to previous experience, this would also involve a lot of time commitment to model 3d assets, characters, and other aspects of the walking simulator. In conclusion, my story will be told through a Visual novel which is new to me as I’ve never created one before but have breifly played a few such as Emily is away too. Therefore, I will be creating my story using Twine or Unity which i have the most experience in.

The (Main) Characters

The Backstory

The story is set in a fantasy medieval world where weapons are primitive (Swords and bows) and follows a family of 4 who lost their father in battle against a mythical foe. Once their father was defeated in the battle, the king failed to support the family and cast them aside. The story is set three weeks after the death of the father where all the support they received was a letter of consolation from the King and as the castle they live in is small in comparison (about 50 people, including the family) they struggle to make a living after supplies from the king ceased. The main characters are the mother (Alessa, aged 31), the oldest son, (Donovar, aged 15), Brydan aged 11, and the youngest daughter (Willow, aged 6). They all have not seen their father for 5 years as he was summoned by the king to sit on the King’s Silver Council and fight his battles. The story begins as Brydan is about to set off on his first hunt with his older brother and a few of the residents, they come across some mysterious eggs that no one has seen before.

World Building

The family lives in a castle called Galadhor Castle which is situated in a forest, next to a lake and river. All residents live within the castle walls and only venture out to hunt during the day as hostile creatures roam at night. There used to be over 100 residents living in the castle, however, since the king started a war 5 years ago, most of them were sent to fight against the enemy. Due to the lack of people to defend, they were forced to retreat within their walls as it was no longer safe to live outside the castle. I used Inkarnate to build a simple overview of the castle.

This is the beginning of my world-building which gives an idea of where the locations are on the map. (Names are not final and may be changed). My Visual Novel will be mostly told within or around Galadhor Castle which is only a small section of a larger novel that would be told in different locations and unlockable after reading the previous sections. However, due to my time frame, I have decided not to make my scope too big and therefore contain my story within one area and one section of the larger game. The castle’s weather is mostly mild year round with snow falling in around 1/3 of the year. This sometimes freezes the lake on which Galadhor castle is built next to.

Sketches

This is just a basic sketch of what my visual novel will look like. The background will be a static picture that only changes once you move locations, and the foreground will consist of the character who is speaking or being talked about and a text box at the bottom. Currently, I’m planning on telling the novel in 3rd person where the characters speak to each other rather than the player, ‘playing’ as a character. However, Once I begin creating the novel, this could change to 1st person.

Project planning

For my project planning, I will be using Trello which I have found in the past to be a good way of organising what needs to be done, and what has already been done. For now, I have organised my planning into three lists as shown below to allow myself to see what needs to be done.

Within the ‘backgrounds’ card I have a tick box list where i can tick off when i have completed one of these backgrounds which will be the static image behind the foreground elements. I can also add onto this later if I find i need to add more backgrounds. I have also done this with ‘characters’ and ‘objects’.

References

Inkarnate (2009) Available online: https://inkarnate.com/ [Accessed 15/11/2022]

Game of Thrones (2011) Directed by David Benioff. Written by George R. R. Martin [TV Programme]. HBO

George R. R. Martin (2011) Game of Thrones [Picture] Available online: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0944947/

J.K Rowling (1997) Harry Potter [Picture] Available online: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0241527/

J. R. R. Tolkien (1925) Lord of the Rings [Picture] Available online: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120737/