Bridge Command
Project Overview:
Parabolic Theatre’s immersive/interactive episodic space opera theatre games for a “crew” of live players
Roles and responsibilities
Design
Nonlinear & linear narrative design, quest design in EmptyEpsilon, design documentation, directing other actors, bug fixing, analysing playtest data and feedback, gameplay scripting, narrative quest design
Writing
Writing scripts & all supporting material including lore, NPC dialogue, failure/success systems, and extra narrative materials (posters, puzzles, “peace treaties”), audience management, topic research, pitching, image editing, iterating in collaboration with other performers departments
Process and approach
Process
Devised plot with another performer, wrote down key inflexion points for narrative to branch, developed and designed characters, shared with the rest of the team, iterated based on company directors’ feedback, opened to audiences, iterated off of audience feedback
Approach
It was important to me to build a “diplomacy” game and to share that there are more perspectives in the fictional world than the US and UK-centric space ships. It was an opportunity to do more worldbuilding and expand the “verbs” of the game away from “shoot” and “shout”. I was able to use my real-life work in the International Committee of the Red Cross, Houses of Parliament, and the Legislative Council of Hong Kong as a basis for storytelling.
Tools and technologies
Improv, EmptyEpsilon, Cantonese
Sample of work
SAMPLE
Team collaboration
Internal
Co-developed all content with other immersive creators/performers in the company, directed and was directed by other performers, was trained on how to create space battles in EmptyEpsilon
Client-side
Rapidly responded to player choice in live interactive/immersive spaceship set, time management to ensure show runtime was consistent, trained players how to play EmptyEpsilon
Result and impact
5 Star reviews, built out the world beyond the established conflict between American vs British approaches to space exploration, fan reception very enthusiastic in forums, sold well
Reflection and improvement
This was a great way of bridging the gap between live performance and video game, as it relied on improv from the actors, clear design documentation from the creators, and the instanced EmptyEpsilon spaceship battles! It used all of my skillset at the time - and I have gone on to create branching narratives and cool sidequests ever since.