OVERVIEW
Description:
Omnimancer is a fantasy interactive fiction game featuring RPG elements such as player customization, branching dialogue, skill checks, turn-based combat encounters, and a diverse cast of companions and factions. The game’s narrative follows a customizable protagonist and their party members as they investigate a string of unexplained attacks and their connection to the continent’s oldest legend.
Currently, the prologue and one of eight chapters have been completed, constituting 50,000+ words of content.
Role:
Solo Developer
Platform:
PC
Year:
2023
RESPONSIBILITIES
Narrative Design:
Wrote all characters, dialogue, descriptions, codex entries, and combat barks
Designed and scripted branching dialogue and stat-based dialogue checks
Game Design:
Designed and scripted turn-based combat system, incorporating physical and magic attacks, healing, buffs and debuffs, stat and weapon-based damage calculation, and contextual barks
Implemented various menu screens and associated systems, including a Journal, Inventory, Party hub, and Codex base
General:
Modified CSS to customize template by a.w. morgan
NARRATIVE
Narrative and RPG Design:
The narrative design of Omnimancer was influenced by numerous RPG classics such as Dragon Age or The Elder Scrolls, in which the player can customize their character and have influence over their actions and appearance. Given this is a text-based project, I focused on player attributes, ancestry, and background rather than visual elements. This resulted in the prologue, where the player’s choices in various scenarios dictate their stats as they transition into the main story. These stats, in addition to their chosen ancestry and origin, then influence the dialogue choices available to them going forward. As with any RPG or branching narrative, there was a constant balancing act at play as I sought to make choices meaningful while keeping the overall story in scope. It was also a challenge to weave in exposition as I was setting up an unfamiliar world and characters. Ultimately, I took another cue from existing RPGs and made the non-critical content optional, fitting it into optional conversations, auxiliary dialogue choices, journal entries, character and item descriptions, or collectible codex entries.
Story, World, and Characters:
The story, world, and characters of Omnimancer stem from ideas I’ve been toying with since I first started making games. In fact, a majority of the plot points, character backstories, and world locations are unchanged from a game design document and lore book I created as part of a personal creative exercise back in college. While not everything could fit into this project, especially with it only covering the prologue and first chapter of what was originally imagined as an eight-chapter epic, I still wanted to honor those early days and adapt the story in some capacity. In both the original document and this project, the goal was to establish a unique world and magic system the player will want to explore, introduce unique characters they’ll want to get to know, and set up an engaging plot they’ll want to see through to the end.
COMBAT
Overall Design:
For Omnimancer’s combat, I set out to make a competent turn-based system despite lacking visual or audio elements such as character models, particle effects, or attack SFX. I also wanted the combat to have stakes that force the player to stop and consider their actions. Another challenge came with adapting Twine’s scripting language/development environment to support this system, which it is not built for.
Through much trial and error, I eventually arrived at a system that I’m quite proud of given the restraints — complete with stat-based damage and accuracy calculation, magic and physical actions, buffs and debuffs, an action log, item usage, and contextual barks. I also realized my vision for stakes with mid-battle pop-up windows that present the player with choices with both combat and narrative implications.
Twine (Sugarcube), CSS
Tools:
