| Description | This talk will discuss the role of narrative and text in achieving Outer Wilds' original design goal over the course of its development, beginning in with its inception in 2012 as a student thesis, through its development at Mobius Digital after winning the Seumus McNally and Best in Design awards at the 2015 Independent Games Festival, and finally ending with its 2018 release through Annapurna Interactive. In particular, this talk will address the challenges of writing for an open-world game and in telling a linear story through a non-linear delivery, given a lack of control over players' entry point into the game's main story. It will break down specific design choices, including how we were able to gate text we wanted players to encounter later on using the star systems' layout and planetary terrain. |
