Wildermyth - the Comics

Role: Narrative Design, Game Writing, Comics Creation

Wildermyth is a character-driven, procedurally-generated tactical RPG. For this game I worked as a Narrative Designer, Game Writer, and a Comics Designer. Creating the comics through which the story is told was done by an in-house engine which allowed me to utilize the artist’s gorgeous art assets to tell the game’s story in comic book format.

To add to the variety of story, each comic also selects lines based on a character’s story role, which is determined by their personalities. So, if your character is very romantic, they will have a higher chance to say the romantic lines than the character who is hotheaded. As a writer, this meant that I wrote each story from multiple view points and in various character voices.

Panel by panel, I crafted the narrative using 2D art assets. I was able to place each image where I wanted it, resize it, change its color, etc. The comics editor was incredibly robust and was a fantastic medium through which I could build out each panel to craft the story I wanted to tell.

I also designed and implemented choices and branches. Wildermyth has no linear narrative. Instead, the stories are told as vignettes. Because players have many, many stories which might trigger for them as they go along, each comic has to be able to stand on its own (though there are some choices that players can make that will trigger later stories or events).

This project was such a joy to work on. Not only did I get to hone my talents as a writer, crafting dialogue and tell unique and interesting stories, I also got to be a visual artist and design the comics from start to finish.

My love of comics and my love of games entwined in the most wonderful way.