The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me is a branching narrative game with cinematic and third-person adventure elements, that released in November of 2022. It is the 4th instalment in the Dark Pictures Anthology.

I was on the project for almost 3 years, from January 2020 to November 2022. During that time, I occupied many roles, and did just about every task under the sun. I'd like to highlight the 3 main roles I fulfilled during the project's life cycle.

Game Designer

Near the end of production on The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope, myself and a handful of designers were brought onto The Devil in Me (TDIM) to act as the core creative team behind the gameplay, narrative, and content of the project. My role in those early days can best be described as a Level Designer, Narrative Designer, and Technical Designer all in one. From a high-level narrative outline completed by the Lead Designer and Game Director, I was given a handful of levels to work on, and make my own. Often, the location, and some key events were locked in, but everything else was able to be determined by my decisions and creativity.

It was up to the individual designer behind a level to create that level from the ground up, within Supermassive's proprietary branching narrative design tools. I outlined the core narrative, or golden path, of multiple levels. I created interactive 2D floor plans of levels, designing areas for players to explore and for cinematics to take place. I scripted dialogue and character actions for elaborate cinematics and action scenes. I worked with the wider team as a whole to ensure that the player's actions and choices had consequences across the entire game. I conceptualised gruesome and cathartic deaths, a pillar for the franchise. I determined interactions in the world, and ensured they were engaging for the player. I added complexity to my designs with branching paths, alternative outcomes of the core content based on player actions. I ensured my levels were designed to respond to branches or player choices made in prior levels, and created engaging branches for future levels to explore. I maintained completed levels past their initial designs in response to changes made to other levels during development. 

This entire process was undertaken repeatedly, iterated upon until key stakeholders were satisfied with the levels. I was expected and encouraged to be proactive, bringing any ideas or pitches to the Game Director, even outside the scope of my own levels. I endeavoured to be forward thinking and self-sufficient, anticipating problems ahead of time and enacting solutions with the assistance of the wider team.

Also during this period of design and pre-production, I was consistently relied upon by the Game Director to take on Unreal Engine tasks. I worked with Engineers at our tech team to set up the initial Unreal Engine project for TDIM, and created the first playable environments used to explore 3C principles, asset metrics, and level designs. Using my general knowledge of the game engine I was able to fulfil the needs of the various senior stakeholders (Game Director, Art Director, Lead Designer, etc.) who wished to explore concepts in engine before production began in earnest. 

I was even able to expand my knowledge of Unreal's rendering capabilities and my own editing skills, by working with the Game and Art directors to edit the reveal trailer of the game. I setup the shots in engine before we had done any bespoke motion capture for TDIM, using assets and animations from previous Dark Pictures titles. I rendered each shot and edited them together in Adobe Premiere, updating shots as director feedback was received, or other disciplines submitted passes on the visual quality.

Cinematic Designer

When the time came to begin shooting Motion Capture Data for The Devil In Me, I was one of the few designers entrusted to assist with the process. This was a heavily involved role, began well before any actual shoots, and lasted well after into development, concurrent with my usual responsibilities as a Game Designer.

I began by onboarding newly acquired Motion Capture and Performance Direction personnel not only onto the project, but onto the company as a whole. I provided education, insight, and documentation on the narrative of the game as well as the use of Unreal Engine and SMG's proprietary branching narrative game tools, which are used heavily in our scripting and performance capture process.

I then helped with "Shoot Prep", preparing the content of the game to be organised into a production schedule of scenes to be shot at an external motion capture studio. I provided 2D floor maps of character movements during complex cinematics or action scenes, attended shoot planning meetings where practicalities of what to shoot and when were discussed, and generated audio captures of already completed voice over data for the motion capture actors to pantomime actions to. 

I attended numerous week long motion capture shoots, at an external motion capture studio. The shoot days were always long and hectic, every minute between 7am and 6pm being used to its fullest potential. My role on set was to "Support the Stage". I supported actors by always having scripts and storyboards on hand. I supported the Performance Director and ADs by providing insight on the scenes currently being shot, and helped avoid costly pitfalls like actors not performing with injuries they gained in previous scenes, or acknowledging other characters who may or may not be dead and need to be removed procedurally. 

My most important job on a shoot was to run SMG's internal data capture tools. These tools allowed us to define our own timecode ranges for takes of a cinematic, and use those timecode references later on in engine once the raw data was ingested into our servers. Accurate capture of this information required constant vigilance, and attention to detail, as mistakes could at best delay a shoot, and at worst cost us thousands of pounds once the mistake is discovered later in production. I am proud to say I performed excellently in this role, and thoroughly enjoyed my weeks on set.

Once the Motion Capture Data was recorded and ingested into our servers, I was also integral in the process of getting said data into game. With my 1st hand knowledge of the shoot data, owing to my attendance of various shoot weeks, I was able to undertake the process of importing, populating, editing, and ordering subsequent qualities of animation with external vendors. I also assisted and educated the rest of the team on this process, empowering designers to push the cinematic quality of their levels forward in a timely and effective manner.

Unavoidably, things go wrong with this process. Animations are placed in the wrong folders or named the wrong things, motion trackers are lost during the shoot, scenes are recorded in the wrong spatial contexts. I was able to immediately diagnose these issues when presented with them, and rapidly implement solutions.

I am eternally grateful I was able to fulfill this role. The knowledge and experience I gained during this time was invaluable, and I still utilise the lessons learned to this day, helping integrate newer projects at SMG with our legacy Performance Capture pipeline and tools.

Team Leader

Once production began in earnest in Unreal Engine, and the studio’s previous production, The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes wrapped up, I was promoted to one of the “Design Team Leads” on the project. I was put in charge of a team of designers and other development disciplines to oversee, delegate, and review the work being done on our assigned group of levels. It was my responsibility to educate junior designers on the tools, practices, and techniques required to produce quality work, often through 1-1 tutoring and documentation. I acted as a barrier to quality, ensuring a minimum level of proficiency was being met before the Game Director would get eyes on the content.

Many of the members of my team were fresh, Junior Designers, with little experience in professional Unreal Engine, and zero experience with our SMG propriety tools and plugins. Much of my time during this period was spent educating my team, both in 1-1 tutorials, larger workshops, and documentation. When planning Sprints with production, I advocated and accounted for time for my designers to "fail", letting them experiment independently, and receive support when straying off of the desired route.  

I wasn't just a Team Leader during this period. I was also personally responsible for the most complex levels or mechanics attributed to our team, putting together complex and expansive cinematic moments and action scenes, that might have dozens of branching narrative dynamic elements that need to be implemented seamlessly to the player. A minor change to the substance of a scene at this stage could incur days of delicate work to ensure that all possible variants of the scene are still harmonious, both from a narrative and visual perspective. I take pride in our team essentially having responsibly for the final 45 minutes of the game, multiple scenes with multiple explosive action finales, as well as a healthy amount of scenes in the first two acts of the game.

During this phase of production, the scope of the game underwent drastic changes as well, expanding 2 hours and adding brand new exploration and locomotion abilities for the Dark Pictures Anthology. I guided our team through expanding levels to incorporate this new design philosophy, as well as working with the Director and a core group of designers to flesh out these new features holistically. I designed entire new levels to take advantage of the new features, and brought them from 2D blockout designs to fully interactive 3D environments. I leveraged my Blueprint skills to prototype new puzzles and features in interactive demos, as I felt that this was the best way for me to visually communicate my ideas. 

As The Devil In Me approached release, my role as Team Leader turned into taskmaster. I was entrusted to assign and delegate urgent director notes or bug-tickets to individuals I felt were best suited to address them. I knew the strengths and weaknesses of each one of my designers, and with that knowledge I could effectively divide work in the most efficient way.

All in all, I take pride in the work me and my team did on The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me. I not only got to see my own skills and confidence grow, but those of my team, designers who have since gone on to excel inside and outside of SMG, and whom I am extremely proud of.