00:00www.mesmerism.info
00:05Right, so this is where I do most of my story work.
00:09There's a lot of things going on in this room
00:11and it would have been a very difficult thing
00:14to actually just sit down with a blank piece of paper
00:17and just start writing a story.
00:18It's only by visualizing everything in a physical space
00:22that it starts to slowly make sense and coalesce.
00:33Hellblade was always conceived as a story-led experience
00:37punctuated by moments of intense combat.
00:40Unlike our previous titles, Hellblade is not a linear game.
00:44So creating a story required a different approach from us.
00:48Games don't need stories to be entertaining.
00:51So if you're going to do a story-driven game
00:53then you have to ask yourself why is this story worth telling?
00:57Why does it deserve to exist?
00:58I've always been interested in how the mind works
01:01and I was reading about people's experiences
01:05with severe psychotic mental illness
01:08and I was really horrified by what I was reading
01:11and video representations of what it can be like for some people.
01:34I started to think about the role video games could have in representing that
01:40and it occurred to me that in games you embody a character
01:43and you see things visually and orally and you're involved in navigating worlds and decision-making
01:49and actually this is a profoundly good medium for representing those kinds of experiences,
01:57at least attempting to represent those kinds of experiences.
02:01We will die then.
02:03We'll all die someday.
02:05We'll all die someday.
02:06Except in the dark.
02:06I'll continue tomorrow.
02:08You're afraid of the dark.
02:10I'm being patient.
02:14Getting closer to him.
02:17I hope so.
02:18For me personally when I start developing a story I start with research, a lot of research
02:25and speaking to experts.
02:26So in this case we got in touch with Paul Fletcher who is a psychiatrist
02:31and professor of health neuroscience at Cambridge University.
02:35It's very important to get both a scientific understanding of the subject and also a very personal
02:43and human understanding of the subject.
02:45A big helping hand came from Wellcome Trust who are a global charitable foundation
02:50dedicated in part to broadening the understanding of science.
02:54One of the great strengths of games as a medium is that allows us not just to read
02:59or hear about other people's lived experiences but allows us to actually explore other worlds
03:05and experience other perspectives first hand.
03:09That offers particular opportunities when it comes then to trying to advance understanding
03:13of conditions related to the mind.
03:15Support from Wellcome Trust meant that we could engage deeply with researchers
03:18as well as have access to patient groups who would tell us directly about their experiences.
03:23This is how you create a character that feels real by basing her on real people
03:28and real stories.
03:38I see you.
03:49On this wall here we've got Senua's character.
03:53So she's placed centrally here and around her are the different voices in her head that go on this journey
04:01with her.
04:03And each of them has a distinct personality and character and represents something to her.
04:08I often use pictures of famous actors or people I know because it helps me visualise a voice and a
04:16face when writing the story.
04:22This is where I'd lay down her backstory.
04:26So I often start, well on this game I started with tons of these, lots of little notes that represent
04:35moments in her past.
04:37And I'd come up with a couple hundred of these and you can see them all here in a big
04:41pile.
04:42And I'd stick them all on the wall and see if I can start seeing patterns, see if I can
04:48start building a narrative.
04:50And in this case I split her story into four phases of her life, childhood, girl, teen and adulthood.
04:58I distilled each of the posters down, each of the periods down to the bare minimum I thought I could
05:04get away with.
05:05Each representing a complete story for that part of her life.
05:11At this point I'm not even thinking about how you tell the story in the game.
05:15I'm just trying to define who she is.
05:18I want to believe that she's a real person and that the things she goes through in her life makes
05:24sense.
05:25Make them unique.
05:27Get on and fight.
05:29You're pathetic.
05:30Control the faith.
05:31Let it pass through.
05:33Remember this.
05:35To find the way the light is your straight line of growth.
05:37Open your eyes.
05:40Games are not like movies which generally have a standardised three-act structure that's told linearly.
05:46Every game has its own structure.
05:49So there's an additional dimension that has to be worked out before you can begin to write the story.
05:56So on this tabletop I've put a representation of the structure of the world.
06:01So it's a big volcanic caldera with an island in the middle and various pathways out.
06:07And I started to put some of those post-its on this table and try, you know, just try chucking
06:16them out in different areas
06:17and trying to figure out how the flow of the gameplay might work.
06:23This isn't a linear game like Heavenly Sword or DMC.
06:27It's actually got a semi-linear or semi-open structure.
06:31So the idea is that as you're travelling deeper and deeper into Helheim, you're uncovering these memories, these backstories,
06:41and they appear to her as hallucinations, as sometimes frightening hallucinations.
06:47But they're linked to her past.
06:48And if she can overcome those challenges, she can go deeper into Helheim, into her quest,
06:53but also deeper into her own psyche.
06:56And so she starts to understand herself better.
07:02Maybe...
07:04I must help them.
07:09Come come in for me.
07:11The story can't be just something that happens in cutscenes.
07:14It has to be present in everything you see, touch, hear and play.
07:18The entire world structure is the story structure.
07:21Here are just some ideas on how we tell the story, how we replace things like keys and doors and
07:27locks and collectibles that you see in many games
07:30and change them up, change them into things that are more about human perception, apophenia, seeing patterns and faces in
07:39the world
07:39and illusions to create new pathways and unlock new parts of Helheim.
07:48Over several weeks, the story and the structure of Helheim started to coalesce and make sense.
07:54But even so, it was very difficult to know what this would play like and feel like.
07:59So we took a small section of the map and made this the basis of our first playable.
08:03The darkness. It gathers in the wind. It's getting stronger.
08:10This process has taken a year and only now are we at a point where we can start to embark
08:15on the full script development
08:17and really write the story in script form as the player would experience it.
08:21Over the coming weeks, members of the Helblade team will be fleshing out the details of the story and gameplay.
08:27Ultimately, creating a story experience is a group effort across many disciplines.
08:39One last thing, we're looking for an accomplished sound lead to join the Helblade team.
08:44Given that we only have one sound position on Helblade, responsibilities will include all aspects of sound creation and implementation.
08:51If you think this could be you, then please visit ninjatheory.com forward slash jobs for more information.
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