Narrative Design
No pain No Gain
Characters
The second big production point for us was the characters creation. Each character had to have his own identity which was to be felt both in his physical and psychological traits and in the series of games he offered to the player.
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For the main character, we decided to be blurry in his characteristics to increase the player / character bond. We just know she's a little girl, a new one to this school, fighting to bring down the authority of bullies.
Our main intentions were to keep that lightness and wacky humor of WarioWare games while adapting it to create our own story, while remaining very accessible.
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Our job as Narrative designer was to create an environment suitable for humor and absurdity. The mix between the schoolyard, the band of bullies who is fighting through games (references to card duels and certain shonens) and the little new one that places herself as an avenger and defender of the weaks creates a universe slight and a mismatch between the intensity of the conflict and the playground games.
Considering the large number of people working on the project, an organization and separation into poles was decided. A Macro team was then created, responsible for the organization of the game in its global structure.
A few designers were assigned to the different poles (GD, GA, Narration, QA, Producing, technical assistance, etc.).
In the Narration division we were 4 to decide on the theme and the Lore of the game.
In the QA division (active at the end of production), there were about ten of us to ensure the understanding and technical success of the 84 mini-games offered and the stability of the Macro structure.
Lore
No Play No Gain is a Wario Ware, a game offering levels during which very short mini-games of a few seconds are linked. To progress, you must pass the series of mini-games offered. We have revisited the concept by offering an original macro experience and minigames of our own design.
This project was made by 42 game design students without artistic support.