Notes:

• This game writing project was made streamlined as the level design of Snow Church was made, so the playtesting phase on the level design directly affects the workflow and the game writing progress.

• It's a spin-off based on the Control game made by Remedy Entertainment. While the player character used an original character, Jesse & Dylan were used as important characters in the story that'll become the main plot in the game.

Needs & Ideas

I understand game companies need game writers to make a continuation from their published game, so I made a multiverse of Control by Remedy Entertainment. I used a different approach by making FBC become an evil organization. The player is a PTSD and schizophrenic grandfather with photographic memories. He is an ex-cold case detective, and he tries to save Jesse and Dylan from the FBC.

I realize multiverses are how different everything can be, but there’s always a red string that connects everything. I also notice the detective game’s protagonist tends to be young, mentally stable, and logical all the time, so it’ll be interesting if I make the polar opposite of them—old, suffering mental issues, and emotional. A grandpa who lost all of his blood relatives and tries to save the childhood best friends—Jesse and Dylan—of his grandkid.

Revisiting and being trapped in the past also become key themes in the story, so I incorporate them by giving the player's character the super ability and mental illness that accentuate it. The story progression is linear, but the player will go back to the past a lot, so the story flow will be present → past → present → past → present.

It's challenging to balance the multiverse aspect and the original Control game from Remedy Entertainment while keeping the story feel unique. To differentiate it from Control, I made a new kind of Astral monster, which is inspired by Ahti. It has a human form that differs for each person who looks at it, and it does psychological attacks rather than physical ones. It is also the first creature that roams freely without being noticed by the FBC.

Analyze the Prior Control-related Games

From what I've learned from previous projects (Black Puddle & Future Siren), after the initial ideation process, we MUST do deep research to decide the project's direction and not get lost at the development process.

So, I start the research from the original game, which I'll make the multiverse from: Control by Remedy Entertainment. To make it feel align with the original, I focused on finding the 'recipe' and 'ingredients' that made this game unique. After throughout observation, I found some of them:

1. The backstory of Jesse and Dylan is INTERESTING.

2. The peculiarities of paranatural-related things: astral monster, astral plane, the board, polaris, etc.

3. The responsibilities from someone who came from a normal background which suddenly becomes a director, it's like an imaginational release which feels impossible to achieve in real life.

4. The fun & unique fighting mechanics, which awesomely delivered in the gameplay: adaptive gun, levitating, telekinesis, etc.

5. Amazing & grandiose brutalist architecture, which is rarely used in games.

6. Tons of interactable objects that tell deeper stories about the FBC & paranatural-related things.

Then, I continue the research to the next question: how'll a multiverse look in Remedy's style? Fortunately, Alan Wake 2 expansion packs answer this question, so I studied them from game development perspective.

Designing New Multiverse

I noticed the core concept from Remedy's multiverse is combining different games in a certain ratios inside a new story while maintaining each games unique selling points. So, to make a game which feels Remedy-like, I must follow the same principles. Since the Contol universe has already been unique by itself, I wanted to continue it in this project while a bit twisting it for things related to the moral stances of the FBC and things related to altered world events after The Ordinary Incidents.

Player & Human NPC Concept

Player Name: Milan Cameron

Age: 62 years old

Milan is everyone's favorite grandpa because he’s fun, attentive, and kind. But because he’s an ex-cold case detective, he’s very critical, detail-oriented, and hardheaded about everyday-related things. He’s very sentimental for people he cherishes. He also has photographic memory that lets him remember everything in great detail.

• Curious and an overthinker by nature, so he has a tendency to need to know everything before analyzing things.

• Milan is old so he can't do fast-paced activities like young people, but his intelligence and memory are as sharp as his prime.

• Haunted by the guilt of his granddaughter’s death because she probably wouldn't have died if she hadn't investigated the ordinary case alone.

• Has deep emotional attachment to his late child and grandchild, so he tends to get emotional if there’s something that triggers his memory.

Player's granddaughter: Eva Willow

Age: died at 21 years old

Personality: strong-willed, free-spirited, loyal

Eva is free-spirited, distant, and doesn’t like being told what to do, so it’s very hard to get close to her once she doesn’t like someone. Knows a lot of people but only has a few close friends, and she’s very loyal to them. Absolutely hard-headed.

Granddaughter's best friend 1: Jesse Faden

Age: 28 years old

Personality: protective, helpful, adventurous

Jesse is the kind and protective friend who helps everyone; she has high initiative and likes to solve other people's problems even if they aren't related to her. She’s adventurous and likes to explore new places which rarely visited by people.

Granddaughter's best friend 2: Dylan Faden

Age: last seen when he was 10 years old

Personality: caring, shy, cowardly

Dylan is a friendly and caring friend, but he doesn’t stand out because he’s sensitive and shy. He likes to follow Jesse around and hide behind her if someone bullies him. He enjoys places with fewer people and likes to spend time with his close friends.

Granddaughter’s killer: Will Declan

Age: 32 years old

Will was a talented police officer which refused the offer to enter FBI because he prioritize his family over everything. He has low self-esteem and doesn’t fight back, making him become the perfect person for blackmailing. Eventually, he became tired of running and decided to stand for himself.

Player’s best friends

Age: 60-65 years old

There are 6 people who become lifelong friends with Milan, and they feel like a real family. They care for Milan in their own way and want to help him no matter what it takes.

Wife of the old couple: Lucia Willow

Age: last seen when she was 73 years old

Personality: worries a lot, attentive, strict

Lucia is an old housewife who loves kids; she wants to have a child, but her ovary is removed due to cancer in her younger age. Because of it, she’s very strict about a healthy lifestyle and clean environment. She’s friendly and likes to cook.

Husband of the old couple: William Willow

Age: last seen when he was 78 years old

Personality: carefree, independent, adventurous

William is a retired nature photographer who was famous in his time. Beside his adventurous nature, he’s independent and carefree. He likes to go to the local community center and have a lot of friends there. Like to do harmless pranks on people.

Characters Backstories

Milan is the main character in this story, so his background is deeply explained to give a full grasp of how he related to this multiverse of Control.

Eva is Milan’s granddaughter, who became the key that connects Milan with the Contol multiverse. She’s already dead, but the memories of her and Milan’s guilt are the ones who push him deeper to investigate the FBC.

Eva’s biological parents have died since he was a child, so she spent her childhood with her adoptive parents. They disappeared in the ordinary event, and they’re one of the main causes who made Eva solo-investigate that event, which later leads to her own death, and Milan decides to take revenge on the FBC.

Jesse & Dylan are another key factor that caused Eva to investigate the ordinary events. They’re the only friends who helped her through her childhood, so they feel like her own family. Eva, Jesse & Dylan like to play together with Milan, so overtime, Milan thinks of them as his own grandkid.

Inspiration From Musics

While writing the story, there are some songs that give me inspiration on how the storytelling should be delivered and what emotions must be present in it.

Livingstone - Half Life

Inspiration for: the old man's determination and kindness to save Jesse and Dylan before FBC kill them, even if he has to exchange his life to let them live a day longer.

Martti Suosalo & Petri Alanko - Sankarin Tango

Inspiration for: the multiverse where Jesse becomes powerless and needs to be saved instead of becoming so powerful and saves everyone else.

I Prevail - Bad Things

Inspiration for: old man's photographic memory, where he can simulate and remember everything in his head, making it become it's own hell he can't escape from.

Figura Renata - Serdadu

Inspiration for: an old man who instead of peacefully enjoying his old days after lifelong hardship, he enters a path to hell to pay for his guilt's redemption.

Dax - Depression

Inspiration for: the hardship of an old man who has mental illness and can't fully accept nor let go of his past, so he clings to it even when it slowly kills him.

Story Progression

After the backstories have been made, it's time to design the story that happens when the player is playing the game. For the Intro to Act 1, it's focused on introducing the urgencies of the player, anomalies that happen in the ‘normal-looking church’ and other game hooks in general. So, it has linear storytelling and no flashback scene.

Areas Scope

This part of the game (Intro to Act 1) is combining two different timelines: the past and the present. And the way it's connected is through gathering clues in the present to reveal stories and flashbacks from the past.

Because in the past, the player was investigating the death case of his granddaughter, which later led him to know about the location of Jesse and Dylan (best friends of his grandkid's), there are many areas used throughout the flashback story to deepen the ‘investigation feeling’ from an ex-cold case detective.

As for the present time, because it tends to act as a trigger to the flashback, it was purposely made to have lesser area variety, so the similar surroundings before and after the flashbacks intuitively tell the player they're in the present moment.

From Future Siren and Black Puddle, I realize I need more experience in making nature-theme level, so I decide to make the story of the present time happen on a secluded mountain area, while the minor part of the story happens inside a brutalist church made by an Astral Monster.

Mission Flow Version 1

In this iteration, I wanted to highlight the flashback part to make sure the player understood the backstories in one go.

To introduce the player with the ‘flashback time’, I used the re-living the memories method as the trigger: making the player do things that he used to do when he came here with his granddaughter. This way, it also shows how the player treasures this place deeply in his heart by being nostalgic.

Even though the story was designed to be full of flashbacks, the game beats were made to specifically be used in the blocky area that will be the mountain area in the present day.

The story progression is focused on triggering a flashback, so it's a very straightforward story flow, with some surprise when the conflict arises.

Game Beats Version 1

Mission Flow Version 2

The mission design also considers the level design aspects, and since there has been a lot of blockout iteration to refine the gameplay experience, the mission design has changed a lot.

Environmentally engaging problems were solved by making the player interact with the environment itself, and it's delivered in a way that deepens the story's intention of reliving the memories. Lots of new missions were also added to give the player reasons to explore the mountain deeper.

Some of the story flow changed to adapt to the improved version of the mission flow. Other than that, there are no major changes in the tension development.

Game Beats Version 2

Script & Barks

These are some brainstorming notes that I made while making the script.

Things I’ve Learned

• Making a spin-off story from a pre-existing game has different development curves than making an original story. Same vibe & continuity is the key. Doing deep research to fully understand the original game is mandatory.

• Finding the balance to make the story feel continuous but new & memorable is tricky. Explore different possibilities to find the most interesting and feasible ideas. Don’t get too stuck with the original story’s limitation.

• The way the story is written and narrated is crucial. Don’t think the player knows everything, so we only need to point out key events. Think of them as someone who knows nothing, so we must deliver everything precisely to make them fall into the story without overwhelming them.

• Depends on the development system inside the team and their skill set; the story might get directed based on other divisions, especially because the writing aspect is one of the easiest things to change compared to other aspects. Brace for merciless revisions.

• Going back and forth between the story that happened in the past and the one in present time needs delicate control of pacing and subtle reminders between each timeline transition so the player won’t feel lost in the story.

• A shorter script doesn’t always translate to a better story. First, focus on delivering the experiences of the story. Then, trim and refine the ideas to match the technical aspect of game feasibility & development process.