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Welcome back to another narrative-dedicated blog post! In this post, I will be talking about the process of writing the ‘Northern Lighthouse Board message’ which is the first thing players will read in Keeper’s Veil.
Starting off, the Northern Lighthouse Board is a real-life general lighthouse authority for Scotland and the Isle of Man, responsible for marine navigation aids around coastal areas. I first heard of this when researching the Flannan Isle case and thought that it would be interesting to add an authority figure character.
Since this is the first piece of text players will read, it is imperative to establish an oppressive tone. This message, which will be sent to the player on the monitor, will be a letter of reprimand. This will hint towards events that transpired before the game even began and establish that the lightkeeper is not well-liked by this person representing the NLB – his direct superior. Through a writing style that could be interpreted as passive-aggressive while trying to maintain professionalism, the player should, hopefully, start to question the type of person they are playing as or even rush to wanting to defend the lightkeeper; and by extension, themselves.
Plan outline for the Northern Lighthouse Board message, made on Figma.
The types of questions I aim for players to ask themselves include: