WRECK-IT-RALPH

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Story Artist as Narrative Designer

I was brought onto Ralph as a Story Artist with the additional task of serving as our defacto Game Designer. The worlds of Hero’s Duty and Sugar Rush already had killer visual development by our art department, but the story reels and how they were used/shot were getting criticized beyond normal story notes as feeling like movie worlds (Starship Troopers, Days of Thunder) and not video game worlds (Halo, Mario Kart).

The first thing I did was get permission from our Producer Clark to institute “Gamestorming” sessions (having the story team play and discuss games mentioned in story meetings).

Then for my Story assignments, to create story sequences at the same time as designing them as games, I approached it as a narrative designer.

– HERO’s DUTY –
Sci-Fi FPS ‘Run n Gun’

“BUG SWAT” Mechanic.
Super Soldier Toads (T.O.A.D.)
The first world I was tasked to develop was “Hero’s Call” (aka Hero’s Duty), but before diving into the scene I wanted to step back and figure out what actual game it was. An FPS Swat team who exterminates bugs, so I developed a theme of “Toads/Frogs”(who eat bugs), then a core mechanic based on that where they leap, swat, and zap (Guns as Tongues) bugs.

MISSION NARRATIVE
Story Points as Level Design
With that, I outlined the story beats and arranging them as an introductory level design of an FPS. Ralph wants a medal (Establish his Goal), but in his way are a swarm of bugs (setting up our Stakes). The front end was for all the exposition of introducing Calhoun as a badass leader/NPC, and our foil for Ralph to contrast with. First half of the level is quiet and calm for setup, and latter half is the bugs breaking free to swarm them and clearly establish the unstoppable force we needed. Beyond that, then at the Meta level figuring out how that game loop worked within the mechanics of the arcade cabinet itself to help tie to the logic of traveling between games more organically.

STORYBOARD as PLAYTEST
With all that, I began the normal story process but with a game that felt authentic, though I really wanted to start building a rough play through at this point.

ATTRACT SCREEN
World & Lore Dev

After that I was also asked to develop an “Attract Screen” for the game which was an opportunity to  expand the design doc I was building out for the game. Script and Storyboard below:

- SUGAR RUSH -
Candy Kart Racer

Track as Story Outline

For Sugar Rush, first I did a breakdown of iconic visuals from racing films and kart racing games to highlight distinctions. Beyond the obvious of power ups, weapons, and obstacles it was clear that the exaggeration of the tracks themselves were central and breaking down the framing of a race into pure B&W shapes revealed an underlying game mechanic using the horizon line to hides or reveal how much players see what’s coming, as well as timing of how early or late players have to assess and choose how to navigate.

I then outlined our story beats and began applying track designs that would complement those story points, and began blocking out a track that would organically tell our story.

Exceptional vs Cheating

One of the big challenges of this sequence was that it had to clearly demonstrate the game for the first time, not only so we understood what was happening, but so in contrast we knew the difference between Vanelope as a Glitch (a handicap to rules), and King Candy as a cheater (abuse of rules). How do you know what doesn’t belong when you don’t even know what does belong?

I also wanted to show Vanelope’s glitch first as a handicap that she overcomes and learns to work with - demonstrating her above and beyond mastery of Kart Racing, and ensuring it makes sense when she’s revealed as the Princess of Sugar Rush.

Next I began brainstorming ways of integrating candy world ideas into the track mechanics, as well as power-up and obstacle opportunities that would help accentuate storytelling. This was a lot of fun coming up with multiple candy concepts for each area so the director would have options to choose from.

Using the list of track ideas I worked those into the story for the sequence then thumbnailed and pitched everything together as a story sequence. I also pinned sketches of all the alternate track ideas and power ups above the story sequence itself as a second row. This allowed the director to review the sequence narrative and gameplay individually, and I could easily swap ideas in and out.

As we refined the story and track ideas down, I created a more refined narrative design of the ones he liked, listing out how the games track areas could more specifically serve those story points, as well as cinematic opportunities to capture iconic kart racing moments.

With that, I began storyboarding the sequence and, well we still couldn’t afford to do everything we wanted (pour one out for Taffy Lift Bridge, and Sugar Comet Starway…).

Here is the completed story reel of Sugar Rush’s Final Race from Wreck-It Ralph.