BATTLETECH
BATTLETECH OVERVIEW
HAREBRAINED SCHEMES • BRANCHING NARRATIVE, IP DEVELOPMENT
As a Narrative Designer for BATTLETECH, I wrote, designed, and implemented interactive stories for the Flashpoint, Urban Warfare, and Heavy Metal expansions. BATTLETECH is a tactical strategy game with systemic and branching narrative. Players take command of a force of BattleMechs and their pilots. As the campaign progresses, players manage tenuous relationships with dubious clients, while fighting to scrape by in a bleak universe. BATTLETECH pays tribute to its iconic 30 year history as a franchise, while evolving the classic tabletop formula and crafting new stories for both hardcore fans and new audiences alike.
Project Goals
Emphasize Player Volition and Character Through Systemic and Branching Narratives
Adapt and Explore BATTLETECH’s Core Identity and Themes
My Role on the Team
As a Narrative Designer at Harebrained Schemes, I worked closely with the Game Director, Lead Writer, and the design team. My core responsibilities revolved around writing, designing, and implementing narrative content for the Event System. Additionally, I expanded and refined internal documentation, provided content reviews, and assisted QA and production teams with testing and string collection for localization. In my role, I also wrote branching narratives and designed mission structure for Flashpoints.
The BATTLETECH team.
Expanding the Event System
Early on, I was tasked with efficiently building dynamic narrative content for the Event System. Each Event is a bite-sized interactive story that tests the player’s abilities as a leader. The system pulls from a large bucket of possible narrative content between combat missions. These Events focus on day to day life on the ship, ranging from matters of discipline to figuring out how to clean up invasive alien fungus. During the research process, I also identified that the random and isolated nature of these Events made them less impactful to the player because they lacked continuity.
With this in mind, I harnessed the unused capabilities of the Event System to emphasize player choice while minimizing development time. I devised a new method for designing Events to create modular story arcs from interchangeable narrative pieces. These interactive arcs focus on the pilot’s personalities and the player’s role in shaping these characters. Through 24 events, I generated over 500 story arcs for a diverse range of characters while remaining true to the core identity and themes of BATTLETECH.
Exploring Character in aN Expansive IP
As a Narrative Designer, I balanced the extensive details of the BATTLETECH universe with the emotional and human drama at its center. This 30 year old IP is represented in over 100 novels, 25 video games, and countless RPG supplements. It’s a bleak and expansive universe, summed up by a fan-made wiki featuring over 28,000 articles. It’s easy to get lost in the minutia, but I used the IP’s extensive lexicon and cultures to deliver deep characters with authentic voices.
This is especially true in my work on the Flashpoint missions along with the Events. Each Flashpoint ties dialogue-driven branching narratives to a series of escalating combat missions. This format allowed me to emphasize the small-scale human emotions and motivations at the heart of this universe. My work focused on close characters struggling with both their personal and political identities. Ultimately, it’s left to the player to judge these characters and decide what’s best under difficult circumstances with no right answer.
Writing Sample
You can find an example of my work with branching narrative in A House Divided - a series Flashpoint missions revolving around changing values in the Draconis Combine.