Writer and Game Designer

Renegation

The Project

An interactive narrative project that I developed entirely solo.

This is a story about returning home after a long trip overseas, and facing the aftermath of a war-torn nation on the verge of falling apart. This is a story about lashing out in the face of inevitable destruction, and the ways we cope with unfathomable loss.

In short, this is a story about living.

Inspired by the stories of the Khmer Rouge my mother told me, and the various wars that dominated the news at the time of writing.

Writer

  • Wrote and revised the story over a several month period.

  • Utilized articy:draft to plan various branching conversations.

  • Wrote over 60 hidden or flavor dialogue lines to enhance immersion.

The Work

Game Designer

  • Utilized Cinemachine and Timeline for various cinematic scenes.

  • Implemented audio and art assets from various free libraries to enhance the experience.

  • Developed several interactive mechanics to enhance immersion.

The Lessons

In Fall of 2022, I developed a prototype of this game including a rudimentary outline of each scene. I knew that I wanted to create a game about the fallout of a devastating war, and I knew that I wanted to explore different types of ‘denial’ through the lens of that war. At the time, I was not skilled enough to do this vision justice, and so I put the project on the back-burner and focused my time on other projects. I returned to the project in early 2024, confident now in my ability to do my game justice.

I began work by revising and rewriting the story, focusing mainly on adding more of a branching narrative. Although I knew from the start that there would only be 1 real ending, I wanted the player to reach that ending in their own unique way. I utilized articy:draft to visualize this, and began to plot the different paths that each conversation could take.

I then worked in-engine to implement art and audio, adding footsteps that detect the surface the player is walking on alongside various models from itch.io and other sources.

I took cues from developers like Puppet Combo, utilizing a retro-horror aesthetic to reflect the darker and more unsettling tone I wanted the game to emit. I spent a few weeks working on ensuring the game looked how I wanted it to, refining the pixelation and color grading until I was happy with the results.

By the end of this project, I focused mainly on ensuring there were no major bugs with the dialogue system, and improving several quality of life issues. As my first ever solo project, I am quite proud with how it turned out.