Ghosts Attack: Developing the Story.
Today’s post is the first in a 3-part series about the story behind Ghosts Attack, written by the game’s Associate Producer and lead writer, Alexander Norris.
A lot of people have expressed interest in the story behind Ghosts Attack, and now that it’s close to being released, we thought it was a good time to share some of the thinking behind the creation of the story and how we built it up.
In the beginning, the story was limited by our capabilities as a very small, indie game developer. Having built an arena in which we could drive or fly around, we knew the game would be a first person shooter. But killing bad guys in a world of walls meant the baddies would need to know the walls existed. This would have required programming their characters to have significant AI and collision detection. And let’s face it — that just wasn’t going to happen with our budget. Which led to a short brainstorming session:
Hmm, what kind of bad guys don’t care about walls?
Ghosts?
Ah, yes! Ghosts could “care less” about a silly wall.
So, at this point in the game’s development, we had a world and enemies to interact with (In the earliest stages, the ghosts were non-animated, little black sprites with scary red eyes that moved toward the player in an intimidating straight line) but we needed something to spice it up…
How about red Boss ghosts?
Sure. How many?
Thirteen sounds good, and not the least bit cliché!
In order to tie the ghosts, the artificial world and the player’s in-game experience together, we created the back-story of a scientific experiment gone awry at Torgan Science. The disgruntled victims of that accident were now our source of exposition and conflict.
Finally, our tale needed someone to not tell it, but, more importantly, to show it. From our antipathy of handholding narrators and our respect for the player’s intelligence, came Karl, the Torgan Science Technician. We felt a snarky IT guy – who actually voiced doubt in the players abilities and was originally cold to any friendship that might develop – could propel the story selfishly, yet allow the player to feel like every new event was experienced “with” Karl – who willfully bucks the rules of Torgan Science, but still absolves himself from any consequences of the players actions.
So this gives you a bit of insight into how the story of Ghosts Attack came to be. We had a lot of fun coming up with the storyline and integrating it into the game to give a true ARG (Alternate Reality Gaming) experience. We hope you enjoy the game as much as we enjoyed making it. We have a lot more surprises and twists planned in the coming months as we release additional episodic content for the continuing story of Ghosts Attack and the mysteries of the Torgan 13.
Stay tuned for part 2 in this series: How the Story Affects the Design and Vice Versa.
