Total Darkness descends! A Q&A with game creators Josh Blair and Ben Templeton
This online adventure game is a radical new direction for the Science Museum Group, keen to engage a more diverse demographic with the joys of science.
How does the final game resemble the original vision?
Josh: When we first set out over 12 months ago we had no idea what the final product would be. An R&D phase helped us get closer but it’s been an organic, iterative process. The constant throughout was our learning outcomes and it’s really pleasing to see how present they are.
Ben: They end result and original vision align, but not necessarily how we thought they would! The brief wasn’t too prescriptive, allowing room for the whole team to explore how the experience would manifest.
This story-based approach is quite different for the Group. What was the editorial process?
Josh: Research showed us that creating a story world to draw players in was critical for success and we worked incredibly hard on the content for the game. In testing, children were intrigued by the mystery and motivated to find out more, but we also found it was taking players too long to complete, so we cut the content by half. It’s an engaging story with a few nice surprises along the way.
Ben: Writing great stories is really tough, especially in the context of a big strategic shift for the Group. The easy bit was exploring character and location together, with things getting progressively more difficult as we constructed story arcs. Towards the end it became easier again and things started falling into place.
What are your favourite — and least favourite — parts of the game?
Ben: The aesthetic is really strong (I love the Hamster and Alien icons) and there’s a light-hearted, quirky feeling to the whole experience. It’s perhaps still a bit long and we wanted to have collectible batteries on the map, but small niggles like these are inevitable.
Josh: My highlight is a small feature that took a long time to crack! We debated long and hard the different ways to highlight that the players were using the same skills that scientists use. We folded it into gameplay by awarding science ‘skill points’ to key decisions. I’m a bit sick of some scenarios now, not because they’re bad but because I’ve played them so many times they’ve lost all meaning!
Who worked on the game and how were their skills important?
Josh: This project has been a really collaborative process. We had a core team of 12, including eight members of the Learning resources team and three colleagues from Audience Research who tested with over 200 children! We also had colleagues from Communications and Design and two external ‘critical friends’, Violet Berlin and Becky Palmer, who advised on narrative structure.
Ben: What a team! It’s great to look back and see everyone’s contribution. Branching narrative presents a uniquely technical challenge so the writing team was quite big. Hazel Grian did a fab job as Exec Writer, building out the world, and by the end it was all hands on deck to squeeze as much character and story development out of as few words as possible. Benedict Webb poured his heart and soul into the artwork, down to the smallest details like road-markings on the town map.
How did you settle on the art style?
Josh: The art style was very important to us. It plays a big role in drawing people in and counterbalancing the volume of text. 7–13 is a broad age range so we took care not to aim young and alienate older players, nor aim high and intimidate younger players. It is a game about darkness so it was always going to have a darker tone. Luckily Thought Den have the incredible Benedict Webb as Art Director, who added lots of little touches that make all the difference.
Ben: Our initial direction came from player feedback, and you might be able to spot the influence of Oliver Jeffers. Bene is a perfectionist to a fault, whether it’s making a cob oven in his garden or finessing the hundreds of assets that make up the game. All seven characters went through various development rounds to ensure the ensemble felt representative.
Tell us about the process of building the game; what worked and didn’t work?
Ben: A branching narrative is one of the hardest things to collaborate on, given the mind-boggling volume of moving parts. But over time there was this sense of a beautifully interconnected machine that we could nip, tuck and tweak. Credit to the Science Museum team, who gave us freedom where we needed it and gentle reproaches when we got carried away.
Josh: The biggest positive impact came from regular prototyping and testing. Putting artwork, game builds and content in front of our target audience helped us meet their needs as well as our own. Thought Den were excellent at communicating what was in and out of scope at each stage. Content was the trickiest part to get right because changing one small aspect could lead to wholesale changes across the game. It’s hard to track every impact in a branching narrative!
What would you do differently next time?
Josh: Ideally we would finalise the content earlier in the process but the organic nature of this project meant that we constantly learned from the previous test or prototype and put that learning into action. It was a very user-led process and it wasn’t really possible to second guess what we should do. I’m incredibly proud of what we created and can’t wait to see what a national audience thinks of it.
Ben: Not launching the day I go on holiday would be great! But the real luxury would have been a little longer to polish the story and dialogue. Being more involved in the R&D phase could have helped the Thought Den team better understand some of the big decisions, but you can’t have everyone around every table because no work would get done!
Josh Blair is Digital Product Manager, Learning at Science Museum Group, with past projects including Treasure Hunters and — while at the Museum of London — Great Fire 1666, the Minecraft map series!
Ben Templeton is Creative Director of Thought Den, a design studio creating playful experiences to connect people with art, culture and science www.thoughtden.co.uk
