Honorable Mention

“Honorable Mention” is a single-player, standalone quest in the world of Starfield that takes place in Solar Slope. The town is in a beautiful coniferous forest environment on Jemison, characterized by sloping terrain and lots of natural light. However, the town has recently been exposed to a rapidly spreading toxic plant, causing citizens to become extremely sick.

The player is originally tasked with finding Karina, who gives the player the mission to take down Tobius and his robots who are further harming the people. However, as the mission continues, the player comes to further unravel the narrative and find out the robots may be the key to ridding the town of the poisonous plants, The player will face combat with Tobius' security and robots on their journey to save the town. Opportunities are also present for classic Starfield features, including the use of persuasion, security, and stealth in given scenarios.

Design Overview

Details

Team Size: 1 Developer

Software: Creation Kit

Platform: PC

Responsibilities

Quest and Narrative Design
Level Design
Combat Design

Design
Goals

Interactive, Visual Narrative

Ensure narrative beats are visually depicted and allow a player to interact directly with the narrative when possible.

Opportunity for Narrative Exploration

Have narrative not only support player choice, but allow further exploration of details through NPCs, embedded narrative, and environmental storytelling.

Strong Player
Flow

Use design techniques to help provide smooth level progression and clear affordances to the player.

Variety in Combat Experience

Emphasize different qualities in each combat experience to avoid repetitiveness.

Design & Implementation

Showing the Narrative

I wanted to make a level where the player could feel they were actively participating and witnessing the narrative.

I visually depicted key information, such as the robots' scanning abilities, to where players could see what was being told to them
I set up encounters for the player to be victim to the robots lashing out and set normal scanning robots to randomly start hunting down two citizens, which the player can interfere with
The town is set to reflect player choice through conditional outcomes, which extend to plant presence, citizens and health status, robot behavior and attacks, and props/ vfx

Narrative Depth & Details

In addition to experiencing the larger narrative beats first-hand, I wanted to allow for deeper exploration and detail of the narrative.

I used environmental storytelling to help satisfy players who like to explore - dead bodies littering the lab; trees dying from nearby toxic plants
I included written documentation and support materials that added to the history and realism of the town
I also created opportunity for follow-up questions in key dialogue scenes and supporting, interactive NPCs

Techniques to Shape Flow

For this level, I wanted the critical path and goals to be clear and straightforward, so even when exploring or visiting a sub-goal, the player would have a good sense of orientation and general ease navigating.

To draw attention to goals and paths, I used framing, as well as leading lines, that naturally guide the player where intended
I also used the sloping quality of the town to have the large facility stand out

Differing Experiences in Combat

With several combat encounters, I ensured they felt different and called for different player actions to make them interesting.

Side-yard combat gives enemies the height advantage and ability to hold more stationary positions
The interior, upstairs combat calls players to move along the sides of the room while periodically taking cover
The facility's downstairs combat has multiple vertical tiers that player and enemies can easily switch between, which naturally requires continuous movement and an easy switch of who holds the advantage

Postmortem

What Went Well

Iterative passes on all components allowed for a consistent experience across the level and implementation of all desired features
Solid support of narrative through environmental storytelling, embedded narrative, and player interaction
Ample playtesting and feedback analysis to ensure clear direction and conveyance

Combat could be modified to create stronger challenge for the player
Small bugs that would benefit from timeboxing more QA and buffer time into my process
The interior could use some more open navigation, as the space currently is more linear and does not provide a high sense of player autonomy

What I Learned

Strategically scheduling the order in which I approach tasks allowed me to tackle dependent and related areas, which made production more efficient
Incorporating foreshadowing in narrative beats to enhance narrative connection and flow
How to establish narrative in multiple ways to suit different player types

PEYTON WALKER

Narrative & Level Designer

Honorable Mention

Design Overview

Details

Responsibilities

Design
Goals

Interactive, Visual Narrative

Ensure narrative beats are visually depicted and allow a player to interact directly with the narrative when possible.

Opportunity for Narrative Exploration

Have narrative not only support player choice, but allow further exploration of details through NPCs, embedded narrative, and environmental storytelling.

Strong Player
Flow

Use design techniques to help provide smooth level progression and clear affordances to the player.

Variety in Combat Experience

Emphasize different qualities in each combat experience to avoid repetitiveness.

Design & Implementation

Showing the Narrative

I wanted to make a level where the player could feel they were actively participating and witnessing the narrative.

I visually depicted key information, such as the robots' scanning abilities, to where players could see what was being told to them

I set up encounters for the player to be victim to the robots lashing out and set normal scanning robots to randomly start hunting down two citizens, which the player can interfere with

The town is set to reflect player choice through conditional outcomes, which extend to plant presence, citizens and health status, robot behavior and attacks, and props/ vfx

Narrative Depth & Details

In addition to experiencing the larger narrative beats first-hand, I wanted to allow for deeper exploration and detail of the narrative.

I used environmental storytelling to help satisfy players who like to explore - dead bodies littering the lab; trees dying from nearby toxic plants

I included written documentation and support materials that added to the history and realism of the town

I also created opportunity for follow-up questions in key dialogue scenes and supporting, interactive NPCs

Techniques to Shape Flow

For this level, I wanted the critical path and goals to be clear and straightforward, so even when exploring or visiting a sub-goal, the player would have a good sense of orientation and general ease navigating.

To draw attention to goals and paths, I used framing, as well as leading lines, that naturally guide the player where intended

I also used the sloping quality of the town to have the large facility stand out

Differing Experiences in Combat

With several combat encounters, I ensured they felt different and called for different player actions to make them interesting.

Side-yard combat gives enemies the height advantage and ability to hold more stationary positions

The interior, upstairs combat calls players to move along the sides of the room while periodically taking cover

The facility's downstairs combat has multiple vertical tiers that player and enemies can easily switch between, which naturally requires continuous movement and an easy switch of who holds the advantage

Postmortem

What Went Well

What I Learned

What Needs Improvement

Full Gameplay

PEYTON WALKER

Narrative & Level Designer

Honorable Mention

Design Overview

Details

Responsibilities

Design Goals

Interactive, Visual Narrative

Ensure narrative beats are visually depicted and allow a player to interact directly with the narrative when possible.

Opportunity for Narrative Exploration

Have narrative not only support player choice, but allow further exploration of details through NPCs, embedded narrative, and environmental storytelling.

Strong Player Flow

Use design techniques to help provide smooth level progression and clear affordances to the player.

Variety in Combat Experience

Emphasize different qualities in each combat experience to avoid repetitiveness.

Design & Implementation

Showing the Narrative

I wanted to make a level where the player could feel they were actively participating and witnessing the narrative.

I visually depicted key information, such as the robots' scanning abilities, to where players could see what was being told to them

I set up encounters for the player to be victim to the robots lashing out and set normal scanning robots to randomly start hunting down two citizens, which the player can interfere with

The town is set to reflect player choice through conditional outcomes, which extend to plant presence, citizens and health status, robot behavior and attacks, and props/ vfx

Narrative Depth & Details

In addition to experiencing the larger narrative beats first-hand, I wanted to allow for deeper exploration and detail of the narrative.

I used environmental storytelling to help satisfy players who like to explore - dead bodies littering the lab; trees dying from nearby toxic plants

I included written documentation and support materials that added to the history and realism of the town

I also created opportunity for follow-up questions in key dialogue scenes and supporting, interactive NPCs

Techniques to Shape Flow

For this level, I wanted the critical path and goals to be clear and straightforward, so even when exploring or visiting a sub-goal, the player would have a good sense of orientation and general ease navigating.

To draw attention to goals and paths, I used framing, as well as leading lines, that naturally guide the player where intended

I also used the sloping quality of the town to have the large facility stand out

Differing Experiences in Combat

With several combat encounters, I ensured they felt different and called for different player actions to make them interesting.

Side-yard combat gives enemies the height advantage and ability to hold more stationary positions

The interior, upstairs combat calls players to move along the sides of the room while periodically taking cover

The facility's downstairs combat has multiple vertical tiers that player and enemies can easily switch between, which naturally requires continuous movement and an easy switch of who holds the advantage

​

Postmortem

What Went Well

What I Learned

What Needs Improvement

Full Gameplay

Design
Goals

Strong Player
Flow