player OBJECTIVES
I started worldbuilding a year before the game itself. The planet Iteris is based on an actual planet Gliese 581c. I went deep into astronomy and astrophysics to build my planet scientifically correct. I invented the two languages of the planet and their alphabets based on several earth languages. I also did research on biology, anatomy, paleoanthropology, anthropology, ecology, history, and military science.
Reveal the mysteries of the planet, the roots of the two races, the past of the characters, the true origin of the main characters, the reasons for the beginning of the war. Gather allies and find the ways to stop the war and unite the two races.
preproduction
programs i used
Procreate, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Audacity, Clip Studio Paint, Blender, Mind Map Maker, Custom Engine
gameplay
In terms of UX, I wanted to create a design that was easy to navigate and allowed players to focus on the story. Once players start the game, the UI elements are kept to a minimum, with the focus on the dialogue and character interactions. Depending on which part of the story you play the app colors will change accordingly.
You will see two parts of the story, Ombra and Ora. Whichever part you have played will be automatically saved at the moment you stopped. A story you haven’t played will be locked. The story that you’ve already played can be replayed only from the very beginning of each chapter.
An intro starts. From there you briefly learn about the planet, the war and the two races of Iteris. This information will also be available through the whole game in the drop menu.
Each chapter starts with an inner monologue of the two characters. It’s an animated short part from the first point of view that is fully voiced by the voice actors.
qell
"Light.
Hurting Light of the red Sun burns me through and I wake up into comforting Darkness. It relaxes my body, cools my mind, calms my heart and I fall asleep again. We are in Darkness even before we come into existence.
We enter Darkness.
We live in Darkness.
We die diving into eternal Darkness.
​
The cold Light of stars, the subdued light of blue neon, the light of luminescent plants and mushrooms, the light of the neighboring planet Iqaris, this is all that dilutes Darkness without stealing its serene comfort.
​
The fierce flames of The Sun come to me in my dreams. I saw its radiance among the trees of Meridian.
Others don't look up.
Protective glasses don’t allow the light to hurt their eyes, but they never gaze up. Me, I can't take my eyes off of the red sky. I remove my helmet, exposing my face to the blinding rays and burn down, waking up into quiet Darkness. Its cool fingers stroke me, its calm voice whispers “sleep”, my eyelids grow heavy and I fall into a dream where the sizzling furious Light awaits me.
The Sun People, what makes them wake up in fear and awe?"
leto
"Darkness.
An immortal enemy of my people.
It raised horror in the hearts of dozens of generations. My people believe that they conquered Darkness but in fact they just learned how to avoid it.
My people live under the power of the Great Sun, basking in the blessing of its warm rays. It gives us life, strength, energy, it protects us from the cold terror of Darkness.
We make our buildings so that not a single corner is left unlit.
When we close our eyes and the gentle rays of the Sun pass through our eyelids.
Adults teach children to fear the Darkness and those who live in it.
But…
Who lives in Darkness?
I asked this question again and again but Darkness remained silent.
It crawled into my mind and planted its seeds when I was little."
choices
We had only one choice system at first. It changed the events and affected the story as well as the relationships between the characters. But playing through the game while working on it I realized that we don’t have enough actions that would make players actively participate in the story.
red choice
green choice
I decided to add more choice questions and split the whole choice system. Now we have The Red choice system that affects the story, The green choice system that affects the relationships and the conversation and The Link choice that affects the way a next chapter starts.
flirt
Players don’t see branches of The Green choice system but we calculate points the same way with one exception. If players get +1 with an NPC twice in a row they get an extra flirt choice in the next question. It is calculated separately. If NPCs lose trust the flirt option disappears.
We also have The Link choice It’s the last choice of the chapter. The main characters have to make an action instead of replying to a question. This choice will link the last events of the current chapter with the opening events of the next one resulting in three different beginnings of the next chapter.
link choice
timer
We also have choices with a 15 second timer. Those choices are crucial and are given when a character has to make an immediate decision due to circumstances.
The choice system“-1,0,+1”
-1 answers make NPCs lose trust towards the main characters
0 answers make NPCs stay neutral and not change their opinions
+1 answers make NPCs start trusting the main characters more​
We add all the points of all the dialogues with each NPC by the end of the chapter in an array.
production
When I first started writing the script, I had a clear idea of the story I wanted to tell, centered around Qell who was supposed to meet Leto and go with them on a journey. However, as I continued to develop the story, I realized that I wanted to explore more than just one character's perspective. So I turned the linear story into a two-point-of-view story. This changed the whole story and the way I approached the storytelling of the game.
To make the two stories work together, I started by outlining them both with Qell and Leto pursuing different goals in the beginning. By introducing each character separately, I was able to establish their individual motivations and personalities.
In the fourth chapter, the two characters meet and their stories merge. From there on, they move through the game together, with players seeing the same events through the perspectives of both characters.
character design
As soon as I finished working on the script I started working with the translators and editors. The language of the game is very gender neutral since the characters have no genders. We tried to avoid all gendered words so I had to work carefully with the translators to find the right words in their languages to match the original script.
As we have quite a lot of science that I wanted to be not noticeable by making it as natural and correct as possible I had a scientist on the team who I consulted with on different matters.
retrospective
Initially Iteris was supposed to be a book with Qell as the sole main character, and the story was meant to be linear. But the more I developed the world, the more I realized it needed to be interactive. Turning it into a visual novel changed everything. I had to rethink the entire structure, introduce a second protagonist, and build a branching narrative with multiple endings per chapter.
Leading a big team for my first game was both interesting and chaotic. Everyone was passionate about the world of Iteris, which made the process even more inspiring. But I also made plenty of mistakes in team management and planning. Still, it was an unforgettable experience that kickstarted my journey as a game designer.