Story matters. - creating a story for a video game
Interview with Beate from This World of Mine
by Jenni K.
The storyline of a video game is one of the most important factors in building rapport with the players and in turn creating a successful and engaging gaming experience. You know those games that you have the urge to keep playing because you want to know what happens next, are exactly why good storytelling and world-building matter. Beate, Writer for This World of Mine (TWoM), started her gaming experience early with games such as Pokémon and Zelda (her all-time favorite) however she seemed to be the only girl that showed a passion for games in her friends’ circle. Unfortunately, she never got involved in an online community of gamers - until now! With This World of Mine, she got the opportunity to switch sides from being a player to being the writer of a game’s story and at the center of a gaming community.
Beate began her writing journey with screenwriting for the film industry. She has graduated with a Screen Writing Masters in the UK and has been successfully working in the film industry in Austria for the past few years. When Mark, Founder of This World of Mine, reached out to her last year, a dream of hers came true.
“During my master’s, I had the chance to write a game too but since I didn’t know anyone to develop it I decided differently”
With This World of Mine, she got the opportunity she always wanted. But writing for a game differs significantly from writing a script for a movie. She points out that the world-building in a game is much more extensive, there is more time to build up a story and to go even more into details. That is what makes writing a game for her so special.
“You have this overall story that goes on for several years and a backstory that your whole world is being built around and then you can go down into every single detail and say it looks like that or this comes from here because it has special reason connected to this.”
Besides the aspect of being able to work in more detail on the story, a whole new factor came into play when Beate started working with This World of Mine - the team. She expressed that it took time to get used to a team looking at her work from the very early stages on and giving her feedback before the first draft was ready. It put some previously unknown pressure on her which however has its advantages to it as well.
“I was not used to the process but it also helped me to put my work out there because I think that is always a difficult part for any artist — not just writers — because it is always something that comes from deep within you.”
While it can bug her if someone does not like her work, so far the feedback she has received from the team and community has been positive and supportive. She was very excited to see the involvement and the motivation of the gaming and NFT community for getting to know more about the process and the lore itself. But what does the process of writing a game look like? As it is with everything that she writes she says that it is a lot of back and forth between writing down an idea or a part of the story and editing and rewriting it.
“Usually I think about something, a character or scene, and it just spins around my head for days or weeks. I keep going back and do some little writing down in my notepads.”
With This World of Mine, the process started with meeting with the team where they talked about how they all imagined the world and created it. It was very important for her that everyone felt comfortable with how the story is set and should develop. Afterward, the process of putting words into visuals has come easy as Mike, Creative Director of This World of Mine, and Beate agreed on many occasions instantly. They have created mood boards for the setting as well as the androids, the Elite Mining Units (EMUs) that also matched her ideas of how the story should look like.
The game itself is set in a futuristic dystopia to which she says we are most likely headed if everything goes wrong. It is set on Earth, which in the time of the game is a dangerous but still exciting place to live and with crazy adventures to be discovered. Setting the story in the future gave the team creative freedom as anything can be possible. However, still placing the story on Earth and not on a different planet had a special reason. She wants the players to have a connection to the story that “feels like home” even when set in the future.
Players will be experiencing the story with their EMU which are androids that are designed to mine.
“Mining is everything. That’s where the economy thrives and finding a new metal called Tegmentium, the most expensive and most prestigious metal in the world. The goal of every Elite Mining Unit is to mine because that is what EMUs do and that is what the world does.”
The history of every EMU being different and why they changed over time is not only because they have adapted to different biomes but also different climates or endangerments. They have existed on Earth for a long time and are powered by the very same metal they are mining. Tegmentium is also the source that gives EMUs consciousness and awareness. This also comes into play when the androids face the decision in the campaign setting of whether they are working for themselves or the greater good.
Overall, Beate reveals that the story has been set on where it should lead over the next years. There will be story and campaign modes as well little stories within them that the player can experience. Even the community is involved in parts of the process and can decide on several things such as deciding for the last biome of the game which ended up being the nautical one set in the deep sea.
“It is super exciting to see what the community thinks and what we think and how it comes together, we have also had this with the gameplay suggestion in Discord. It was kind of funny to see that there are already some links to see with what the community wants and what we already planned. So that’s a good sign!”
Lastly, Beate was excited to share a little bit of what players can look forward to. Not only will there be Twitter Short stories published up until the first version of the game is finished, but also the players will be introduced to a special character that will accompany them during the game - MICHA. More than that, MICHA, who itself is a little android, will play a significant role in the world and will be the link between the player and the game world. We hope to get to know more about the little android and its self-serving mission soon.
“Compared to other crypto games, the special thing about TWoM is that we have a coherent world from a story, visuals, audio, and gameplay aspect and it is all coming together in a game that will be fun to play! I am looking forward to working on this long term because it is already so much fun to work with so the game will be too!”
