Morbid
About
Role: Creative Director, Narrative Designer, Technical Designer
Challenges and Design Process
Morbid was a big challenge not only because it was an ambitious game concept to execute but also required the management of a team of more than 10 developers including Designers, Artists, Programmers and Sound Designer. Working closely with the game’s producer, we were able to oversee the team, trying to keep every member motivated and involved. In the end, we were able to overcome all obstacles and collaboratively get the project to fruition.
As a Creative Director, I was constantly challenged with having to keep the creative vision as intact as possible and being able to delegate work efficiently at the same time, trusting my crew members and incorporating new features and mechanics while keeping the game from deviating too much from the core gameplay pillars.
Throughout the development of the game, due to time constraints, many corners had to be cut and it was essential to be flexible with letting go of the more gimmicky mechanics that didn’t contribute almost 100% to the core game experience. Coming from a filmmaking background, this time as a narrative designer, I encountered the difficult task of having to keep the story short enough to be implemented only at key moments, although building detailed characters descriptions and backstories helped communicate the concept easily to my team members.
Trailer
Intro Cinematic
Features
Clues
Several clues scattered throughout the mansion would serve as a tutorial for the basic actions that can be performed as well as give the player information about Game Story and Lore. This clues are in the form of notes, written by the main character’s father and never seen before by Jeff. These notes are the key that connects the previously unknown dark past of the estate with the bizarre events currently harassing the property.
Enemies & Traps
The former workers of the house, including the gardener, caretaker, butler, several maids and chef have been turned into demonic creatures that now wander the house guarding the leader of the cult known as “The Mother”. The only way to fight these entities is using magical traps that would weaken them enough to be then either killed or saved and turn back into their human form. This decision would determine, from 3 different story endings, the fate of the main character.
There are 3 types of enemies and 3 types of traps. Each trap has different efficacy against each enemy.
Rituals
Throughout his journey, Jeff learns that the cult that has taken over the mansion, have sealed most doors using magic. The only way to break this seals, as thought by one of the workers that decides to disobey and help Jeff, is performing “Magic Rituals”. These Rituals require a set of Items that can be found in different rooms of the house. After all the required ingredients are gathered, the door can be approached and the magical seal released.
Puzzles
Physical puzzles such as pushing certain objects or cutting the electrical power would help the player traverse the mansion safely and unlock access to new rooms.
cinematics
Cinematics play at key narrative moments during the game. Filling important story elements and connecting the player’s actions with the rest of the characters.
Story
It was essential that the game’s story was consistent and carefully crafted since it would be the element that ties all the game features together, allowing for all items, clues and even the design of the mansion itself to be cohesive and believable as part of the same world. For this reason, several pages of game lore, cinematics and key story moments were developed early on in the process. Initially using a traditional film script structure to get a sense of the flow and progression. This gave me a solid base to then grab this script and “tare it into pieces” to later carefully place them into the game as bits that would give the player “hints” so that they could piece the story back together themselves just by being exposed to these gameplay elements.