The short story
On Mystery Match, my responsibilities were mostly related to narrative design and writing:
- Designing story outlines, scene structures, character profiles, etc.
- Creating briefs for art (internal and outsourcing).
- Writing dialogue.
- Writing event text.
- Write story summaries for Case Notes.
The slightly longer story
Mystery Match is a pulpy, alternate history detective/adventure story in the vein of Indiana Jones or Uncharted. The game focuses on narrative in a way that is uncommon in the Match-3 genre. The follow-up, Mystery Match Village, reimagines and improves upon it.
I came onto the project with the foundations already firmly laid out, which was challenging at times. Starting from Case 16 (and later reworking the game’s opening), I wrote all the Cases up to and including the conclusion of the main story in Case 138 and its epilogue mini-cases. This included creating the story lines and characters (both of which informed map art design, character art design, etc.) and writing all the dialogue. I also supplied dialogue and text for game events and the Case Notes, a feature that allows players to track and replay the ever-growing story.
Over the course of 5 years, I grew the tale into a true epic filled with twists and turns and long-term character development. It’s hard to convey that in short form, but below is a montage video of some scenes revolving around the character Sophia Thorne: