Contents

Intro

With all of the required exposition already laid out in Day 1, I found the process for writing Day 2 to be a lot quicker. Each part was considerably - but not super noticeably - shorter than those of Day 1, which proved to not only lend well to the pacing of our deadline but to the pacing of the story.

Also, now that we’re well into ‘spoiler territory’ I am going to begin discussing the narrative more broadly as to not give any huge plot points away for those reading these updates as they come out. However, if you would like to see my narrative plan please either refer back to Finalising the Narrative or visit our Figma at https://shorturl.at/dio9s.

Tension and Pacing

The events that caused the conflicts/motivations in Keeper’s Veil all occur before the game even begins. An advantage of this is that the player is thrown right into the ‘action’ and, without knowing it, is placed in the exact state of disconnect that the Keeper is experiencing. Whereas the downside is that there is a lot of catching up to do so that the world is fleshed out enough to the point where the player isn't completely lost.

However, now we’re past all of that, and if the ending of Day 1 - Part 3 was any indication, this is where the Keeper’s downward spiral becomes more apparent. To reflect this, the writing will be much more emotionally charged and fast-paced; creating tension that will only continue to rise. As the Keeper feels increasingly trapped, within the lighthouse, his mind and his lies, so too will the reader as they sense things speeding up.

Varied Responses

As the Keeper begins to mentally devolve, the dialogue choices presented to the player will become more varied. Whereas before, the ‘negative’ options were mainly a less diplomatic version of the ‘positive’ choice, now they are overtly nasty.

Example of varied dialogue options, made on Inky

This serves two purposes:

1. The player gains more agency, albeit only the illusion of agency, as their choices feel more impactful.
2. Even if the player chooses the ‘nicer’ options, they still get a glimpse into what the Keeper is capable of saying/what he is thinking. This gives the effect of the Keeper having intrusive thoughts or that he is biting his tongue from what he actually wants to say when the more positive option is picked.

Next Steps

Now that we are using Inky, it will be harder to quickly playtest the dialogue as the software must be downloaded to play - unlike Twine which can be used in a web browser. Although, we are awaiting some feedback from an English professor from our university which we are eagerly looking forward to! Our first gallery exhibition is also coming up soon which will be a great opportunity to gain some feedback. I am slightly apprehensive however as I feel as though with how crowded and loud the venue will be, it will be difficult for players to fully immerse themselves within the story. But, either way, no testing is bad and we hope to see you there!