Launch day is here for the indie game Rogue Wizards by Spellbind Studios! This was my first foray into the world of game writing, and it's been a great experience.
For Rogue Wizards, I wrote the story and most of the character dialogue, which turned out to be an interesting challenge when compared to writing narrative fiction. In this game, the primary vehicles for telling the story are text-based dialogue, scrolls, and letters. The dialogue happens on-screen, but the scrolls and letters are written by characters who spend most or all of their time off-screen. I chose to use the scrolls in combination with the dialogue to advance the plot. The letters, however, were my backstory delivery mechanism and weren't necessary to the main storyline.
My greatest challenge turned out to be presenting the right information at the right time to the player. Unlike a piece of literature, this game requires the player to receive and retain critical pieces of information in between long stretches of gameplay. This meant presenting only the knowledge that the player needed at the moment but also making sure it was understandable. On top of that, there has to be a hook - as with any story, you want the reader to be engaged and asking questions that keep them wanting more.
A particularly enjoyable part of working on this project was delving into a genre that I don't usually explore: medieval fantasy. In addition to building a world with swords & sorcery, I had to keep the tone of content fairly light. The story has some weighty themes (in line with my touchstones), but the style of the game is cute and fun, so I tried to balance the two elements.
The game itself is a combination of RPG and rogue-like. It's a lot of fun to play, and it's available today on Steam: Rogue Wizards. I hope you check it out!