Galdr: Forgotten Songs

About the Project

Role: Narrative Design

Perspective: Third Person

Genre: Puzzle/Adventure

Tools: Unity/Perforce

Time: 4 Weeks

Team Size: 13

Introduction

The game was a 4-week school project at Futuregames. The intended design of the game was to make a puzzle game where players use music to control living things and use them to complete these puzzles.

The Narrative work was mostly lore creation and changing the mechanics to be relevant to the world. I also worked closely with the art team to get the correct environment and tone.

My work related to:

World Lore
Artifacts (teaches the worlds lore)
Enemies Lore (Explain how they work)
Cinematics

Other non-highlighted tasks:

Playtesting/Bug reports (QA)
Collisions for assets

Narrative Design

Game Backstory

The forest and it's inhabitants used to live together in peace, the forest provided resources and shelter in return. The forest dwellers provided the forest with music and they sang together. The air got filled with emotions allowing the forest to grow. The villagers were allowed to cut down the trees that had a long and strong life. They wanted to be of use to the dwellers that provided them with beautiful songs after they had gone. But as time went on, the connection got lost. The dwellers became greedy. In need of more supplies the dwellers cut down the young trees. The mother tree got enraged by grief and performed a cursed song that drew the dwellers away from the forest. Trees, plants and creatures began to attack and the dwellers took refuge in a tower, locked up for their crime. The curse affected her heart, only by performing a healing song can the curse be lifted.

Player Perspective

The player is a human that has accidently been teleported into this cursed realm. The player must learn to communicate with the forest through music and eventually heal the heart of the mother tree to lift it's curse to able to return.

Artifacts & Encounters

The player would carry a journal where every new ability, artifact and encounter is written down. The purpose of this was to let players learn about this world.

Since the game had to be played in 20 minutes we chose to have the artifacts as optional collectibles that the players finds across the map if they wanted to learn more about the narrative.

Tarnished Songbook

The pages of this book have long since been lost to time. Once, it was known as The Book of Communication, a sacred tome that held the songs used to communicate with the forest melodies shared between the villagers and the whispering trees. Though the book now lies incomplete, its missing pages may still linger somewhere in the world, waiting to be rediscovered.

Mallet & Chisels

The villagers shaped stone to build their homes, never using wood, as the forest was sacred to their society. Cutting down trees without permission was strictly forbidden. Elder trees occasionally offered themselves to the villagers, expressing gratitude for the joy they had shared throughout their long lives.

The Evergreen Crown

The Evergreen Crown was worn by the leader of the village, the noblest of villagers. Upon hearing music, its leaves would dance. The crown was a gift from the Mother Tree herself, given to the first of the villagers. It is said that the Mother Tree was lonely, and the forest grew slowly. But when a lone bard found this valley, the Mother Tree reacted to the music and they sang a magical duet, helping the forest grow more rapidly. The Evergreen Crown became a symbol of their friendship, and, in time, it was worn by the villager with the deepest connection to the forest.

Mask of the Fallen

A mask from a fallen villager, made from a branch of the Mother Tree. Whenever a new villager was born, they were blessed by the Mother Tree through a ritual and given a mask as a sign of their connection to the forest

Broken Axe

As time passed, the villagers' belief in and connection with the forest weakened. The Book of Communication was read only by the religious members of the village, while the rest became more focused on expansion and self-sufficiency. They found that building houses from stone was much harder than using wood. When the villagers decided to cut down trees without permission, the Mother Tree became enraged, singing a cursed song that drove them away. This event became known as ‘The Corruption’.

Thornshell’s Eye

Once mere insects, the thornshells underwent a massive transformation during the corruption. Though they are large, they shrink away when met with direct eye contact. But the moment you turn your back, they strike without mercy. Their minds remain possessed by the cursed song of the Mother Tree, a fragment of its melody still echoing within them. Those who play this corrupted tune can bend the thornshells to their will.

Corrupted Bone

As the corruption spread, many lives were lost as nature turned on the villagers. These bones are the remains of the villagers who perished while trying to escape. The purple lines indicate how the corruption latched onto them and drained their life force.