'Ori and the Will of the Wisps': Narrative Design and Visual Storytelling

Hi everyone. This talk is going to be on visual storytelling and narrative design for Moon Studios latest title, Ori and the Will of the Wisps. My name is Jeremy Gritton. I was the art director and story lead for the game, and I'm going to be co-presenting with my colleague Chris McEntee who was our lead designer. Now, because this is a remote presentation, we've split it into two parts. So, I will be covering the first portion which is on visual storytelling, and then I'm going to hand things off to Chris for narrative design. So, let's go ahead and jump right into it. Um and I think there's no better place to start than with the prologue. Now, if you've played Ori 2, you're probably familiar with this screen. It's the opening scene in the game, and something that's interesting about it is that this cliff used to be flipped horizontally. And the reason for that is that uh originally when we were first uh prototyping things, uh I was thinking that it would be nice to have a a direct callback to Blind Forest. So, I thought maybe this cliff could be one of these cliffs from the original game, but uh as we built our prologue uh prototype and

we had an opportunity to play it, I could tell that the flow didn't really feel correct and that if we were to forget about that connection and to flip this cliff uh the other way around, that it would flow much better. And the reason why I think that it flows better is that it helps us to create a more consistent visual vocabulary for the sequence, for the prologue as a whole. And what I mean by that is that we begin to develop a pattern which is that the direction indicates the theme. So, anytime that the camera or the player moves to the left, that's indicating uh certain ideas like returning to the past, towards security, or towards what is known. And anytime that the player or the camera uh is moving to the right, that's representing a different set of ideas such as pushing forward into the future, uh towards uncertainty or the unknown. So, let's walk through the different portions of the prologue and see how they align to these big ideas. So, in the beginning uh Ori is beckoned by Gumo to come to the left and to uh go to the Swallows' Nest cave, which is a very familiar area from the first game.

So, we're really returning to the past. And then uh once we get there, we meet the baby owlet Ku, this new addition to the family, and the camera begins drifting slowly to the right as we can see how the cave accommodations are changing in accordance with that. Afterward, Ori exits the cave and we begin this big seasonal montage which is this this uh we have this sweeping camera with a strong rightward momentum as we're pushing forward in time and space across a series of family bonding moments. And then at the end of the montage, uh Ku attempts to fly and fails, and so the player is tasked with their first objective which is to to try to help Ku. And so, we push forward uh to the right in an effort to do so. Now, once we get there, the solution isn't uh immediately available, uh and the narration tells us that the answer lay in the past. So, which way does Ori look? To the left. And so, we return back to the uh the treehouse that we passed by earlier, and there Ori is able to recover a key story item from the first game which is Kuro's feather. Now, once we've retrieved that item, Ori

brings it back with them to the right, back to Ku. Uh we're bringing it from Blind Forest now into Will of the Wisps to play a key story role. The feather is fixed to Ku's wing, and then Ori and Ku take off from a cliff uh to the right to begin the flight sequence, to begin this new chapter in their lives. And this is the cliff that we were talking about earlier. Now, at this point we go into the flight sequence, and this has a strong rightward direction. And you can see here at the end that uh Ori and Ku are pushing forward into the right, out into the unknown, and Ori takes this one last look back to the left uh to the landmarks from Nibel receding in the distance. This is basically where we're saying goodbye to the first game. Now, those were a lot of uh overarching ideas that really help um to inform the visuals that we're going to create for the prologue as a whole, but let's uh take a moment and talk about just a specific section uh like the seasonal montage. So, I was uh originally very inspired by the

bridge-building sequence in Blind Forest. I thought that this was just a great character bonding moment, and I wanted us to have our own version of that. So, I was thinking, uh why don't we really blow it out, we'll really make the budget bigger, and um and instead of having a sequence that uh takes place over the course of a single day, we'll have something that spans an entire year and we'll have all the different seasons. And uh this is very useful because it allows us the opportunity to create a balance between what is nostalgic and what is new, and that's something that I was always looking for in different moments in the game uh as a sequel. I always thought that that would be great if we could strike that balance. Um and so, what's useful is that we're back in these familiar spaces that we know from Blind Forest, but they have fresh new looks because we're seeing them in different ways because of the passing of the seasons. So, let's look at one of those uh specific vignettes. Uh and that's this one at the start which is the family picnic. And this is about a 15-second scene, um and we can talk about this one specifically because it's a good way to uh discuss telling

stories without words. So, the way that I have constructed this scene um is that I have arranged the characters very specifically in an order, 1 2 3 4, and each character takes a specific action that is meant to be read sequentially in order to tell a story. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to pull up the original sketches that I had uh when I was pitching the idea to the team, and we'll walk through these steps one by one uh to see how this was constructed. So, the first step, um Gumo takes a large exaggerated bite of the berries, a big a big exaggerated scoop and bite. And uh the reason why I'm doing this is because I want to draw the viewers' attention to him. Gumo is the first person in the lineup that I want you to look to. Uh and it's also um conveying some of the information which is that the family likes to eat the berries. Now, the next character uh in lineup is uh is Naru, and she offers the berries to Ku. And so, this is telling us that Ku is a part of their family, that they share what they have with her.

And then next is Ku's response. She rejects the berries, and what we're learning is that Ku is growing up and we're seeing some of her individuality, uh what makes her different. She's an owl, and maybe she has her own ideas about, you know, what's good to eat and what's not. So, maybe when she was very young, she was okay with eating the berries, but now as the seasons are changing, she's growing older and she's starting to develop her own identity more and more. Uh and then Ori who's been patiently waiting their turn uh on the right-hand side of the screen, recognizes the problem uh and directs our attention to screen right saying, "Hey, I think the solution is over there." And that's going to actually uh cause the camera to pick up and to flow to the next scene. And speaking of the camera, you can see how uh because it has a very slow rightward drift throughout this moment, um it's basically framing the characters during their key uh their key actions uh at the place in frame where I want them to be. So, this is also something that's very useful. Now, just to sum things up, uh getting

value from just 15 seconds, uh each action is very deliberate. Uh it's providing us with new information, and all of these as a series are developing the character bonds. Uh we're also telling a small encapsulated story about what Ku likes to eat and that she doesn't want to eat the berries, and it's also working as a precursor to the larger story as a whole because this is setting up that Ku is different and that she has different desires as an owl, and that's going to continue to build throughout the prologue as we can see that she longs to fly. And Ori's uh desire to help her achieve that dream, that's a driving part of the prologue. So, let's move on to the flight sequence while we're talking about her desire to fly. And uh this was a fun sequence that uh that we worked on. I really enjoyed it because we were pushing the boundaries with what we could do. And um let's discuss how it was constructed and what the big ideas were behind it. So, it was really a blend of three ideas, and those were a daytime transition, the mastery of flight, and a goodbye letter to Nibel. And it's the combination of

these three things that creates a unique flight sequence for us. So, the first one, the daytime transition. Uh when I first worked on the script, uh I had this taking place entirely at night. And um I mean, it seemed like a good idea at the time, uh but as we were starting to build things out, the art team came to me and said, you know, they really felt like having a a uh daytime transition that would provide them with a lot more visual variety because they they thought that if it was all at night, things were falling too flat. So, we discussed it, and what we settled on was, let's have Ori and Ku take off right at the crack of dawn, and then we'll have the sun is rising uh during the first portion of the flight sequence. And so, things are getting brighter as they're getting happier, and then they will get darker at the end uh with a storm coming in and everything gets uh really dangerous. So, uh one of our artists, based on that discussion, painted this color script, and I remember when I saw it, I thought, "Yep, you guys are absolutely right. This is looking awesome, and let's definitely go in this direction." Now, I don't think that there's anything that revolutionary uh about this idea

conceptually, which is tying the environmental state to the emotional state. It's something that you see all the time in film and TV. Uh but the reason why you see it all the time is because it's effective as a device. And so, it's one of the ideas that we leaned on for our flight sequence. Uh the second one is the mastery of flight, and uh this is something that the animators and I had discussed quite a bit, how to convey this. And uh and so, I'll run through some of the the different moments of that. Uh so, in the beginning we have a shaky takeoff where uh they leap from the cliff, and it actually doesn't go entirely as planned. Uh and then following through on that, uh lacking total control, they're they're flying by and they're clipping into the treetops, and they're sending the leaves swirling around. Um and then again, uh clipping into the waterfalls as they're winding around the Ginso Tree. Uh but then they're beginning to gain confidence, flying higher and higher up into the clouds, and then plunging back down through the clouds, then weaving in and out of the floating rocks at Forlorn Ruins, we can

see that they're gaining confidence and beginning to perform more dangerous maneuvers. And then in this sequence, uh this is something that I had uh boarded originally, which was that Ori and Ku would descend down and join this flying V, uh and that Ku would feel like she was finally one with the flock. And one of our animators had this idea, and if you pay attention closely to the wings, Ku's wing beats are out of time with the other birds, and then she hesitates and watches them, and then she beats her wings in unison with theirs. And I thought uh when he showed me that, I thought, "What a smart idea." Like this is a perfect way to convey the emotion of the moment. So, I think that this is a really good example uh of visual storytelling. And that's a also a great example of how things get better and better over time. The next one that we have uh is saying goodbye to Niwen Bell. Uh and so, with this one, we always saw the flight sequence as uh sort of the a goodbye letter or a love letter to the first game. And so, we wanted to honor the different landmarks in the first game as

we were leaving that location behind. So, here we can see the Spirit Tree, and then the Ginso Tree, uh the Forlorn Ruins, uh the Sunstone and Mount Horu. Uh and then this this moment, the one last look. Uh this is what we talked about earlier, so you can see how Ori is looking over their shoulder to the left, uh and then they push forward and uh and to the right. Um and so, uh I I think that this is probably um a good place to to close things off for the prologue. Uh the next section is going to be a little bit different because I want to talk about our uh decision-making process in story and how that informs the visuals that we create. So, uh this next section is going to have spoilers. Um but uh what we're going to be discussing is this big emotional beat in the middle of the game, and it's when uh our main antagonist, Shriek, attacks Ori and Ku in the Silent Woods, and uh and Ku becomes gravely injured because of this encounter. Now, what a lot of people might not know is that for the majority of development um in this sequence, uh

Ku died, and that was it. She was out of the script. And um in order to properly explain everything that happened over the course of development, and the decisions that we made, I'm going to have to go all the way back to the very beginning. So, let's talk about the early drafts. So, when I was first working on the script, um Shriek was essentially the same character, uh but her relationship to Ku was completely different. So, she wasn't violent towards Ku, and uh instead, she was actually protective of Ku. Now, I had always seen these two characters as mirror images of one another. Um they were both orphans, and uh while Ku was adopted by a family that loved her and accepted her for who she was, uh Shriek was rejected by anyone that she ever crossed paths with, and essentially treated as a monster. And so, there was an interesting comparison and contrast there. Uh also, they were both damaged while they were inside their eggs. Ku was damaged by an overabundance of light from the events in Blind Forest, and then Shriek was damaged by an overabundance of darkness

from the decay uh in Will of the Wisps. Um and so, I thought that there was just this really interesting connection between the two characters, and that's really what I was trying to uh to play up. So, uh this image here, this shows um uh Shriek's introduction as it used to be. So, uh we had something completely different where uh Ku was getting uh hunted by Howl in the Silent Woods, and then Shriek comes out and protects her in a really terrifying way by uh by petrifying Howl. And uh and we had a whole animatic for this moment, and I really liked it quite a bit. Um but uh but but we also had um these other moments that that followed that, where uh it was different like character bonding moments between the characters. And um and I I thought there was some interesting stuff there, but really the story in general was falling flat in the middle of the game, and uh and and it wasn't really coming to a strong conclusion at the end of the game. Uh so, there were definitely issues with this. Uh so, what ended up

happening was we had this big uh story meeting, and it was brought up in the meeting that uh things weren't really coming uh together yet. And so, let's try flipping things around, and let's have instead of um Shriek protecting Ku, let's have Shriek attack and kill Ku, because that has the opportunity for a big emotional beat in the middle of the game. And um and I remember this meeting very well, because I was probably the one who uh more than anyone was saying, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. No, no, no, no, no. We we can't do this. That That is That is too dark. Um players are going to lose motivation uh in you know, in the middle of the game. It's going to undermine Kuro's sacrifice from the first game. And uh on top of everything else that we know is going to happen at the end of the game, this is just going to be too much. This is going to be overkill. Um we we can't pile this on to everything else that we know will happen." So, I was I was really immediately against it. Uh but the outcome of the meeting was, "Look, we're kind of getting creatively blocked at this

point. Um and what we have isn't working. So, let's just let's just try this and see what happens." So, uh so, I said, "Okay." Um and uh and it was actually really funny because that night after work, um I was feeling bummed out. And so, I uh and my my wife could tell that that something was wrong. So, she's asking me, you know, "Oh, what's the matter? Did you have a bad day at work? Like what's going on?" Um and I told her, uh you know, uh "Work, they they want these script changes, and I don't really want to do it. Um you know, don't It's fine. Don't worry about it. Um it'll be fine." Uh but it was kind of funny because I actually was um really uh really upset about the fate of this fictional baby owl, um which is probably weird, you know, or not, I don't know. Uh but uh but you really do start to get attached to these characters um at you know, as you're working on the game. And uh and it's not that I have an issue with killing characters. I think that that's that's a good uh story device to

employ, but I really was concerned about how that would balance out with everything else that we were doing. Um and and uh and so, what happened was uh I went back to work the next day, and I had to focus. And so, I was starting to do some little sketches for ideas, uh and I was actually really surprised to see that uh I was very inspired, and I wasn't expecting that. And so, um so, I was doing these sketches, and then I was sharing them with the team, and uh and they were getting excited by them. And so, they were starting to give me ideas and saying, "Oh, what if we add this or change that?" And I was getting excited by what they were saying. So, uh we started getting a lot of moments like these with Shriek slamming down and then stalking towards Ori and Ku, or Shriek uh backing Ku up against the cliff, and then and it's very tenuous because she's unable to fly, uh or this moment here that um that I had uh discussed quite a bit with our animators, um where uh Shriek attacks Ori, and then Ku with zero hesitation attacks Shriek. And uh

this is another example of something that I wanted because I think it's it's uh a good way to do visual storytelling. It's a small action that can say so much, that even though Shriek can do nothing or even though Ku can do nothing against Shriek, um that she has zero hesitation and attacks her when she sees Ori is in danger. And And that just shows the love that she has for Ori, uh the bond that there is between the two of them. Now, we also had more sketches uh like these ones, um which included Ori finding Ku uh in the aftermath and the Moki are surrounding them, or uh the Wisp coming out and and floating around Ku's pool and all the flowers are blooming, uh or Ori going to Ku, and it's dark and gloomy, and Ku's eyes are glowing in the darkness. Uh and so, all of these moments I thought really had um a lot of potential. Uh and then we also have uh just to come back to this moment. This is a a color script that I had painted for this, um and it's one of my favorite moments in the game, but the Wisp comes out, and it and it floats around, and all the flowers are

blooming. And I I like this because it's very reminiscent to the prologue of Blind Forest, um when Ori is resurrected. And so, I thought this might be perfect to give players that sense of hope after this this big event happens, uh but it can segue perfectly into Ku telling us that uh the light here is too weak, that it's become fractured, and that we have to make it whole once more, so it will bleed right into uh the quest that the player has to go on. Uh but I never uh would have even come up with this moment if I hadn't been prompted to by other people on the team to explore in this direction. Now, we also had uh had this uh portion of the sequence um where all of the Moki are bowing their heads as Ori is making their way to to Ku. It's sort of a like a cascade, and this was another thing that I really wanted, uh even though it was technically challenging to set this up. But one of the things that you'll notice is uh if the player holds their stick to the left, Ori just stops and looks back to the left. And this is a callback to the prologue because we can't go back to the past and change what happened. The only thing that we can do is push forward to the future, to

the right. So, uh what really happened at this point was that I had essentially been converted, that I realized, "Yep, you guys were right. There's a lot of great potential here. There's a lot of strong story moments that I think are working really well." But I couldn't shake the feeling that uh the ending was just too too dark and too bitter um with Ku dying. And so, I basically did an alternate version of the ending, where I said, "We can still have all of these beats in the middle, but we can bring Ku back at the end." And uh and in this way, we would also still honor Kuro's sacrifice from Blind Forest. So, uh I I presented it to the team, and um it actually caused quite a big debate, which I was not expecting. So, about half the team agreed with me and thought, "Yes, uh Ku should come back." And about half of the team disagreed and thought, "No, Ku shouldn't come back. That's just You know, that's just chickening out. We should kill the character. That's the bolder story move. And so, because uh there was this um real uh debate on the team and we

couldn't come to an agreement, uh things stayed as they were, uh which was the default uh that Ku died. And it stayed that way for probably about 2 and 1/2 years. Um so, what ended up happening was towards the end of development, we began doing UR playtesting, and the feedback from the playtesters was confirming what I had been worried about, which was that uh people were losing motivation in the middle of the game, and they were generally dissatisfied with the ending of the game. So, because of that, uh we had more discussions in the team, and um and I was pushing for us to, "Can we please try uh the alternate ending just to see how it tests for comparison's sake?" Because at this point, we only had one playtest session left. Uh so, we decided to go ahead and do that. And uh when it was playtested, uh it tested much better. And so, that really reignited this whole uh 2-year debate on the team. And um nothing had really changed. Uh you know, some people agreed with me and

thought, "Yes, Ku should come back." And other people thought, "No, Ku shouldn't come back, and it's way too late to make a change this big um you know, this late into development." So, we were we were kind of gridlocked at this point, and uh Moon is very democratic. Uh it's one of the great things about Moon. Um everyone is highly encouraged to speak up about everything, whether or not it it's their department, and it's really how we drive quality in the company. Uh but usually we're able to come to some form of a consensus. Uh and with this one, we just weren't able to do it. Uh so, what ended up happening was I spoke with our creative director, Thomas, and he told me, uh "You know, if the team really can't make a decision, then uh I'm going to let you make the final call. What do you want to do?" And I told him, "Well, uh if it's up to me, then I want to bring her back." And so, that's what we did. We went back to the team, and we told them, "Okay, everyone, final decision. Uh we're going to bring Ku back." And uh you know, half the team was happy, half the team was celebrating. Yay, yes, Ku's coming back. Awesome. Uh and half the

team wasn't, and they were saying, "Ah, you know, you chickened out. You you know, we should have just uh killed the character and owned it, and that would have been the bolder story move." And uh I think that that's just the reality, you know, that half the people agreed, and half the people disagreed. And if we had done it the other way, that just would have been flipped. So, I think that there's a few key takeaways for me from this whole experience. Um and the first one is to just keep an open mind to new ideas. I was so locked in uh to this angle that I wanted to play with uh Shriek and Ku, that I essentially had a blind spot, and there was uh a lot of things that I was missing. And I really needed other people on the team to point out to me that, "Hey, we can do this in an entirely different way." Uh and even though I didn't agree with everything that they were saying, for me to say, "Okay, I'm going to truly explore this and to try to make it work." And then uh because of that, was able to realize, "Wow, they were really right. Like, I'm having a lot of ideas related to this that I really like." And so, uh I think

that that's really the power of collaboration that you need people with different perspectives and different ideas, and it's how you bring all of that together. That's what's really going to yield a good result. Uh but at the same time, when you have all of these differences of opinion, um that means that not everybody's always going to agree. And sometimes, if you're in a spot where you have to make a big creative decision, uh like this one was for us, because it completely changes the tone at the end of the game, you have to be comfortable with the fact that you might not make everybody happy. Um and I think that it's a lot easier to be okay with that if you really do feel confident that the right decision was made. And for me, personally, I do think that we made the right decision to hit the right tone and balance for the end of the game. So, speaking of the ending, let's move on. And uh talk about the Willow Ceremony. So, this was a sequence that I had pitched the team early on, and everybody liked it, so we ended up uh incorporating it into the game. And let's discuss how this was conceptualized. So, uh I knew that we wanted to have this big moment at the end of the game. There was going to be this big thing that we were building up to, which was

the changing of the guard between the old spirit tree and and Ori. Uh and so, I knew that we wanted to have something big and bombastic and magical. And uh and I was thinking about what the sequence was about conceptually. And it's about the life cycle of a spirit tree. And so, uh when you think about a spirit tree, these glowing leaves form the canopy, and they break free, uh and they disperse across the land, and then the uh they turn into spirits, which then inhabit the forest. And so, what I was thinking was, "If all the spirits have died out, then maybe that light, like their essence, is still there uh scattered throughout the land. And maybe this whole sequence, this ceremony, can be a reversal of that life cycle. So, that essence of light can be drawn back to its point of origin, back to the dead branches. And as it touches them, it reforms back into leaves, uh creating a like a a spiritual apparition of what once was. And so, we see this like spirit canopy." Um and I thought, "Yeah, this has a lot of potential. I really

like where this could go." Uh and then also, uh for the spirit tree itself, uh in the early versions of the script, uh we always had just called it spirit tree number two, which obviously, you know, that's that's really bad. Um and so, I was trying to think of a way, "How can we make this tree unique to the tree in Nibel?" And uh and so, what I was thinking was, I was looking at the title of the game, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, and I thought, "What if we made it uh what if we did a play on words, and we made it about a willow tree and its wisps?" So, it was a willow and its wisps. And uh and and this could work out pretty well, because I like the way that the text spirit willow looks together on screen, and I like the way that it sounds, and this would give us a very unique style of canopy that would be very distinctive from the original spirit tree, and that could play really well with this whole ceremony that I want to do, because it might almost look like some kind of bioluminescent jellyfish or something like that. So, that's really where a lot of those ideas came from. And here's some of the sketches that I had done initially while I was selling the idea to the team. And this one in

the top middle, I think, is valuable to talk about, because uh this was another example where I had an idea, and it was improved. So, when I first sketched this, I was picturing it as Ori was sort of buffeting themself against the magnificence that was appearing before them. But uh when one of our animators took this and started working on it, he had interpreted my sketch differently. And so, he ended up animating this, um which was much more serene, and it was really Ori just soaking in uh this, you know, the beautiful visuals of what was unfolding before them. Uh and so, it was just it was much more calm and beautiful. And I remember when he showed it to me, I thought, "Wow, this is much different than what I was expecting. Let's do that." So, that's another example of how things get better and better as more and more people's ideas come into play. Um Let's uh let's talk about the epilogue, because we're starting to run short on time. And uh really, the game as a whole, uh we we always saw it as being an allegory. So, Blind Forest is about the

child-parent relationship with Ori in the role of the child, and Will of the Wisps is about that transition from childhood into adulthood. And so, you see Ori gaining more and more responsibility throughout the game. Uh it starts out where Ori becomes an older sibling and and has this strong desire to protect and to save and to help Ku. Um and then later, inheriting uh this guardian role of the Moki from Kwolok. Uh and then even later, uh inheriting a protector role for all of Niwen by becoming a new spirit tree. So, it's really about how Ori uh moves forward uh in terms of responsibility. Now, uh regardless of whether or not somebody has played Blind Forest, we wanted the game to feel like it was coming around full circle at the end. Um and so, what you'll see is that uh in towards the very end of the game, we have a series of callbacks, and and they're meant to work depending, you know, either way, however your experience is. So, here you can see uh the memories that are showing up during one of these final moments. And this is a direct callback to the memories from the prologue of Blind

Forest, but the memories themselves are of uh moments in uh Will of the Wisps. So, it kind of works for both. Uh and then also, uh here we have a direct Blind Forest callback. Ori is making their way through the brambles. Uh we're really going for it here. We're really trying to drudge up all the nostalgia that we can. Uh and then here, another Will of the Wisps callback. Uh we're playing on the left-right themes from the prologue and from after uh uh Shriek's attack. Um and Ori really uh if the player holds the stick to the left, can only look back, and the only option is to keep moving forward towards the future. And then we have this moment, um which one of our animators had suggested, and I really liked, which is uh right before Ori embraces the light, they take out the feather, Kuro's feather, and they look at it one last time, and then they just let it go. Uh and let it drift away. And and I thought that that was another good example of visual storytelling, because it really captures the emotion of the moment. Uh and then here, the final image in the game. Um

Uh this is a direct callback to the beginning of Blind Forest prologue, uh and it's the birth of a new spirit. Um the birth of a new generation. And uh this is when I started at Moon, this was one of the first things that Thomas ever told me, that this was going to be the final image of the game, and that it was going to be about that circularity, about that cycle of life. And I remember when he told me that that I thought, "Wow, what a cool idea. I really like that." Um and so, I think that uh on the subject of circularity uh and things ending where they began, uh there's no better way to end this uh this portion of the talk than by going back to that starting screen and talking about that one more time. So, let's go ahead and do that. Now, i- if you watch this screen, the camera's pulling back, and we can see Ori on the left-hand side, representing childhood, and the spirit tree uh of Nibel on the right-hand side representing adulthood. This is really telling us about the life cycle of the spirit. And And crossing between the two, we can see this flock of birds flying by, and they're representing

Ku's dream of flight. And so, it's only through Ori's acceptance of this responsibility and willingness to move forward into the next phase of life that the light that is born from that is able to atone for the damages to heal Ku's wing. Um and to allow her to achieve that dream of flight. And so, I thought that it was really cool that we were able to incorporate all of these different ideas right into the first few seconds of the game that we're telling you everything that the game is going to be about right here. Uh and those are the kinds of discussions that I really enjoy having with our team. And it's not that it's something that I think that players are going to pick up on, um but maybe as, you know, someone continues to play the game if they happen to play it a second time or even a third time, it's possible that they might start to pick up on some of these little tidbits that we have sprinkled throughout the experience. Um and I think that that's that's just a really cool extra that we added into everything. So, um I hope that this was enjoyable. Uh I hope it was interesting.

Uh it was a lot of fun for me to walk back through a lot of these sequences with you. Um I think that that's it for me. Uh I'm going to be wrapping things up now and uh and handing it off to my colleague Chris McEntee, who's going to be going over narrative design. Thank you. So, while Jeremy went over the sort of storytelling, uh the visual storytelling aspects from Ori and the Will of the Wisps, I kind of want to go into a few case studies from sort of the more narrative design and and sort of even in level design side of things, because there were a number of compromises and issues and things that needed to sort of get resolved along the way throughout production uh on both the story and the design side to sort of make the most meaningful and impactful overall experience as possible. One of the very first examples that comes to my mind when I'm looking back on the production of Ori and the Will of the Wisps is the Silent Woods. Because the Silent Woods, it's an area that happens uh that the player

discovers at the end of Act One during the game. And a lot of very important emotional beats happen uh in that location. As As Jeremy has explained earlier, that's where uh our friend Ku gets injured, uh originally died. Very strong emotional beats. It's where we introduce our antagonist Shriek, um which is also very important so that we we sort of ensure that her arc is as impactful uh throughout the entirety of the game as possible. Like, she needs to be introduced in a very good impactful way. Um and we really have to endear the player to Ku and make them feel loss when when she's taken from us and feel motivated to push forward with the rest of the game uh to want to sort of save her, pretty much. Um and so, sort of the core aspect of this was that the player would discover Ku. They would enter the sort of tandem gameplay mode where Ori's riding on Ku's back, and they would explore the Silent Woods to try to find a way out to escape

now that they've been reunited, pretty much. Um but very early on, well, sorry, actually not very early on. Actually, it's the opposite, quite late in the project when we started to piece together the world, and we were having people playtest the full experience from start to finish, we started to realize that people that this environment was not resonating with people. As you can see, this is some earlier footage from the environment the way that it was at one point in the game, and you can see that it's just full of spikes and danger. It feels mazy, it feels claustrophobic, it doesn't feel pleasant to be exploring. Um It had these explosive monsters, which are in the final environment, but far fewer of them. Um and just explosions everywhere, just danger around every corner. And also, it was focused really on challenge and precision platforming and the sort of oppressive feel, and not necessarily on appreciating the fact that we have our friend, that we have this new ability to glide in the wind. We didn't get a chance to do it in a comfortable sense

to sort of get a feel for how we're controlling our character and stuff. Basically, we just amped up the challenge right back to where it was before you you entered this mode. But the issue is that you're in this tandem situation. What we ended up having to do was remove a number of Ori's abilities when you're in this mode where you're playing as Ku and Ori, because you obviously can't do everything uh with with a different character controller like this with two characters. And so, many of the moves that the player was used to actually using, they weren't able to actually use anymore in this environment. Um so, they felt a little bit nerfed in a way, right? And that's not necessarily a great thing, but the the main reason that they felt nerfed, one of the main factors, at least, was the fact that in the environment that we had designed, we were placing gameplay elements that were encouraging the use of abilities that were being taken from you. Because we were so concerned about what happens if player backtracks here after the sequence is finished? What happens if they come back? They need to have new cool exciting gameplay things to do. But

it was actually hurting the initial experience, which arguably is the more important the most of the two. But you have to nail that initial impression and that first storytelling beat that you have when you're going through the Silent Woods the first time. And then on top of that, because we had nerfed the controller so much, literally Ori was doing nothing. It really felt like you were basically just playing as Ku and not Ku and Ori together. And so, we decided to shift the focus and take a step back. And we reworked the environment. We put a much larger focus on more open empty spaces, fewer spikes, less oppressive shapes, fewer explosives and things, and larger more open wind zone spaces where the player can just appreciate the fun of gliding and flying with with Ku. So, that way they didn't feel nerfed, but instead they felt the opposite. They felt empowered. They felt like they were able to do something that they couldn't have done before finding Ku. They felt powered up, and they

wanted to explore and see all the new cool things they can do with this additional ability. But now that we had made the environment less intrusive and we made the gameplay with Ku more fun, how what what did we do with that space that we sort of opened up? Because usually when we occupy the space in our levels, we fill them with challenge and gameplay and dangers and things like this and puzzles. But we didn't really have that here because we were trying to simplify and and uh And so, what we ended up doing was we thought, well, how can we enhance and improve on the story beats and the narrative thread going from the beginning of the Silent Woods until the end? Uh and so, when we started to have a look at what we actually had with regards to story beats, it was pretty bare bones. And that actually was a partially contributing factor to the very strong emotional beat not landing the way that we wanted to at the end of the environment. So, at number one here at the beginning of the Silent Woods, we introduced Shriek from behind like this. So, just a very simple introduction. She

doesn't see us, but we see her, and we're introduced to the fact that there is a pretty significant threat in the Silent Woods that we need to be aware of. Then, a little bit later, I'd say about a third of the way through the environment, the player finds Ku. They reunite. And then they're basically confronted with our antagonist Shriek again, but they luckily are out of view and they don't get spotted, pretty much. But she walks right through the center layer, and it basically, you know, gives the player this this extra feeling of like, wow, we really are in danger. We really have to tread lightly in this very quiet environment to not get noticed. But then, basically, we completely dropped all of that until the very end of the environment after all the tough gameplay we had done and everything else, and then boom, Shriek shows up. She somehow knows that we're there despite never seeing us, and then she basically stomps on our friend Ku. And it felt unearned and not satisfying, pretty much. So, how did we improve this? Well, as

you can see, we basically introduced pretty much five new story beats throughout the experience of the Silent Woods to sort of create a more consistent thread throughout. So, for example, at point number three here, we added yet another Shriek moment where we see her very close to the foreground in search of prey, pretty much being us. But she luckily gets distracted by a Howlark in the distance and flies away, so we can then pass safely, pretty much. Then at A, it's not a full story beat, but basically, you have to use your ability to shoot your bow and arrow, pretty much, that we now added to tandem controller, so that way you feel more like you're Ori and Ku playing together, not just playing as Ku. Um you can use this bow to shoot this obstruction that causes this giant skull to crash to the ground and make a bunch of noise. And what actually then happens after that is we hear a shriek crying out in the distance from Shriek, who hears the

noise that we're making. This is again just to sort of reinforce in the player's mind that these Silent Woods are hers and that we're intruding on her territory, and we're not being subtle about it. Then at B, a little bit later on, we actually end introduce another story beat that ties back to an earlier point in the game. Um this one actually serves a dual purpose. Because at the beginning of the game, you fight this giant wolf called Howl, and at the end of the fight, it escapes. It gets away alive, like, partially unscathed, I would say. And players always kind of wondered, what happens to Howl? Like, when does Howl come back? When do I get my round two, pretty much? But the thing is, we never designed a round two. Because, at the end of the day, we didn't have the the budget or the time to do a round two, and we kind of just left it as this open thread for a long time. And then, when we were looking to introduce more story beats to sort of increase the intensity and really sell the threat that Shriek was in the Silent Woods, we realized that we could

actually take Howl and petrify them and have them present in the environment as sort of a testament to just how powerful and and threatening Shriek is. So, that howling that we heard off in the distance earlier, that's that sort of drew her attention, was that this creature was intruding on her territory, and she went to basically put a stop to it. So, it's this sort of there's always a bigger fish moment, where it feels like there is an antagonist that you saw before, but the real antagonist is the one that you're dealing with right now, and you have to watch out pretty much. Then, at number four here, we always had this kind of owl statue that just crumbled when he would walk on it. So, you would get close, you'd try to run across, it would start to fall underneath your feet, and it was this sort of, you know, little uh little moment of suspense, little exciting set piece moment. But, by itself, it was maybe a little bit dry. And so, we decided, well, we're already adding in these beats, we're already trying to continue this thread from

where you saw her at the start of the woods until she catches us at the end. Why don't we have her be the one that causes this to collapse? But, obviously, we couldn't have her discover us yet, cuz that has to happen near the very end. So, we had her chasing some prey through the foreground into the background, but then that force of her flying through is what actually destabilizes this sort of petrified owl structure and causes it to collapse. And then, continuing that thread, we had her waiting just to the right side when we when we continued um munching on that prey that she was chasing after. So, again, it feels like there's this linear progression of things happening as we're exploring, and parallel, pretty much. And we have to sort of sneak past through these sort of fallen tree trunks and things to avoid detection. But then, ultimately, we create this final moment where you do get spotted, where she hears you, you make enough noise, you hit a trigger, and boom, she comes out through the environment in a sort of here's Johnny moment that catches you

off guard, and shows us, okay, she's finally caught sight of us, she knows that we're here, we're trespassers, we're in trouble. And then, we eventually continue forward and get to the moment where Ku gets stomped, and suddenly all of it starts to make sense, and it feels more earned. And that the combination of all of these things put together meant that the Silent Woods finally landed as an environment, and players were actually enjoying playing with Ku and Ori together. They were actually feeling the tense uh build-up to that final moment, and that emotional beat at the very end was resonating with people. And so, we we hit our mark, and this was one of the most impactful story beats in the entire game. Um and if we had not done those changes to the Silent Woods, it never would have landed the way that it needed to. Another interesting case study I wanted to talk about is this big toady friend we have uh who we named Kuolok. Uh we knew very early on that we wanted to have a sort of mentor figure, a very

friendly NPC that eventually goes bad, eventually becomes a monster or a boss that we have to fight later in the game. Um So, you know, we we did the concepts and things of this sage-like giant toad creature. Seems like something out of The NeverEnding Story. You know, it fits the bill. You know exactly what he's going to be there for. But then, we wanted him to eventually become corrupt in some way, that was kind of vague at the time, and then we'd eventually have to fight and kill him, and then we would feel sad because we had to put down our friend from earlier on in the game. So, that was the general arc. We would encounter and meet Kuolok, we would do some quests for him, and then eventually, after Ku would get injured, you know, he would say that he's going to help us on our quest to go and restore the light to to sort of help her survive, pretty much. But then, somewhere along the way, this is where it starts to get vague, he got corrupted, became a monster, pretty

much, and then we have to sort of dispose of him and have a very strong emotional beat, pretty much. So, what would what was that looking like? Well, he asked us, when we met him, to go clear the corruption. Basically, the water in the entirety of the world of Niwen, the game world, was corrupted at the beginning of the game, and it actually hurts you if you're trying to swim in it. And so, he tells us there's a reason for that. It's that this old water mill called the Wellspring, the wheels have stopped turning years and years ago. And if we can find a way to clear that corruption and stop start the wheels flowing uh turning again, then the water would flow clear. And so, that's our objective, and we would go to the water mill, we would unblock whatever is blocking it, the water would rush clear, and we'd have a epic escape sequence, and then we'd go back to Kuolok, and everything would be great, pretty much. Um But then, basically, after that, we would do the whole thing in the Silent

Woods, he would say he's going to go help us on our search. The idea was that at that point in this sort of that was sort of the signifier that something's not right, that he's already been corrupted by the water from sitting in it for so long. But, that also felt kind of weird, the fact that he asked us to clear the water, but actually it was too late anyway, we couldn't have changed the outcome, right? Um but in any case, then all of a sudden, later in Act Two, when we're exploring one of those Act Two areas, at the very end of an area, he would pop up out of nowhere, suddenly corrupted, suddenly dangerous, and we have to fight him. And it was too difficult for the player to remember, you know, the last time they saw Kuolok, to understand why he might have been corrupted, did it come from the water, and all this kind of stuff. Basically, ultimately, what we wanted was going to require a lot more work. It was going to require a lot more um a lot more story beats sort of

intertwined throughout this experience, and a little bit more justification. So, on the front of justification, rather than just saying that it was just this sort of ambiguous corruption that was happening uh to him because of the water, we decided to create a a parasite, pretty much, called the Foul the Foul Presence or the Stink Spirit, um that basically was the thing that was clogging up the mill. And this served a You know, it solved a number of problems, pretty much, cuz it added sort of a face to this corruption. It it made the escape sequence a lot more interesting. Uh we started to integrate these sort of corrupted uh parasite-like objects on all the different wheels throughout the throughout the the water mill that you have to unblock to get the wheels turning again. And so, it all started to sort of make sense. Um and then, the idea being that this Foul Presence eventually would get washed out of the water mill, and then eventually corrupt Kuolok, but I'll get there. Um And so, the idea being that after that escape happened, you have a small

cutscene, and in that cutscene in the background, you can see on the left that the Stink Spirit is kind of swimming under the water, and that's sort of for observant players to realize that the Stink Spirit isn't quite gone yet, it's still around. Uh but that doesn't pay off until much later in the game. But then, in Act Two, when the player is exploring and then going through the different environments they can find in the game, they start to enter an area called the Luma Pools, and that's the the area where Kuolok is the boss of. And so, that's where we needed to start this journey of like justifying the the the the transition from friend to foe, and how do we sort of lay the breadcrumbs, pretty much, to make that work. And so, we can already start seeing some more of these signs of the Foul Presence present in the Luma Pools that we have to break and destroy and unblock things and stuff. And so, once again, an observant player might put two and two together and start to realize that this thing is not dead, and it's gone this way, pretty much.

Then, the other part of the puzzle is that we we add small NPC moments that basically explain that Kuolok has actually gone to this location. So, you have these little Moki characters that basically say, "Have you seen Kuolok? He's gone to the Luma Pools." Um and that already, from the very beginning of the environment, tells the player that this is where Kuolok is. If I keep going forward, I might eventually find him. And that sort of helped to bring him back into your mind uh from so long ago in the game, and make you realize, "Oh, actually, I should be expecting something with Kuolok coming up soon." And then, even near the end, right before we find him in his corrupt state, we added another cheap NPC moment to sort of reinforce that something's wrong here and amp up the the suspense in the lead-up, pretty much. And then, in the middle of the Luma Pools, to sort of finish this trail of breadcrumbs, pretty much, we decided to invest in adding a full Kuolok

interaction moment, where we would clear out a space that otherwise was filled with gameplay, plop this giant toad in there, and actually interact with him like we did in the early sections of the game. And at the end of this interaction, he basically says that he will continue searching for this wisp that we're looking for as well, and he physically moves further through the environment, um signifying like this is where we probably need to go. But actually, in terms of gameplay, we need to find another ability that allows us to to follow him. So, that sort of gives us a little bit of breathing room where things might have gone wrong off screen pretty much. So, with all of those breadcrumbs in place, we've justified Kwolok getting corrupted through having this parasite that eventually makes its way to him. We've laid the breadcrumbs so that the player feels the the the the progression from the the water mill and where Kwolok was originally to his path

that he's taken through the Luma Pools and the same thing for the the Foul Presence pretty much. So, now we're down to the introduction of Kwolok in his um antagonistic state pretty much, the reveal. And so, our very first test for the reveal, we just went for what we'd done up until this point, which is sage-like friendly Kwolok being sage-like and friendly. He found the wisp for us. What a dude, what a bro. Um but then at the very last second when we're about to get the wisp, it gets captured and so it was Kwolok by the Foul Presence. And then basically, he emerges uh in this sort of, you know, parasitic state where now we have to fight him pretty much. But one of our animators thought that wasn't good enough, that it wasn't working, wasn't impactful. And so, he tried a different approach where we actually see that Kwolok is noticeably out of it pretty much. Um and he actually already spilled the

beans a bit by showing the the Foul Presence wrapped around him. But that was an approach that he wanted that he he wanted to try to sort of show that clearly something is off here pretty much. But already, Kwolok isn't speaking. He's not giving the player this feeling of, "Oh, I found the thing for you." It really feels like it's a trap placed by this parasite pretty much. And so, already we start to see that we're going in a bit much better direction. But then for the final game, the compromise that we made was we wanted to save the reveal of the Foul Presence being being a part of this fight um and have it be a little bit of a surprise still while still retaining that, you know, something's wrong with Kwolok vibe that we had in the previous animation. And here we also decided to lean more into the fact that he's a toad and use the tongue rather than his little froggy hands and stuff. Um but as you can see here, now we show the player with this reveal with the tentacles that Kwolok has become corrupted by this friendly familiar face from earlier in

the game. And this is where the player could maybe start to realize had they not feared the mill, this might not have happened to their friend. I'm a horrible person. But then also, he asked me to do it, so it was his own demise. Like he he was his own uh the architect of his own demise pretty much. So, there's a lot more layers to it now that we've done the work to really make this land better. So, then in the fight, uh obviously, we still want to have this touching reunion moment with him that lands emotionally. And that's not going to happen if he's just basically a monster for the rest of the time that we have with him. So, at the end of the fight, we made this conscious decision that Kwolok fights back. We do the final hit and then he starts struggling against his captor and gets pulled off screen. And then from that point on, we need to sort of follow Kwolok up there and sort of see what the resolution is. We're concerned at this point, but we know that we've completed the fight, so all that's left is the resolution. And what we discover is that

Kwolok basically overtook the stink spirit off screen and he basically gets to finish that arc. He he gets to have that last that last laugh pretty much. And we found that that was very important for Kwolok to have this little triumph as of his own as opposed to us killing the thing and just freeing him. So, that way, you know, he fights back a little bit more and and it feels more endearing uh

um because we realize like we design levels on a very micro flow level where everything has to be, you know, very tight and fun and um and challenging. But then when you start to put a lot of these micro flow chunks together to make a world, suddenly the macro flow matters uh in in

a big way and the way that you flow from one of those sections to another and the pacing between them becomes very significant. So, for example, at the Wellspring, the the water mill that I mentioned earlier, the room right before that that big water escape sequence that we have with the the Foul Presence used to look something like this where it was this very tight, very spiky, maze-like, challenge-heavy environment, very oppressive. And honestly, it wasn't all that fun. And uh very late in production, you know, we finally got the okay to try breaking this entire level apart, this uh room, and doing something very different there. And so, we opted for was creating an environmental tour storytelling space, which served multiple purposes. One, it was allowing us to actually give more insight into the lore of the world through environmental storytelling. But two, it also served as a pacing break right before this very challenging

escape sequence. The player was already spending so much time in challenge mode climbing up to this part of the water mill, they didn't need another room of challenge right before another challenge. They needed a break. They needed to be able to relax a little bit, soak in the environment, and appreciate this place that that's been so oppressive to them up until this point. And so, we just let the artists and storytellers go wild with a big empty room and make it whatever they felt was going to be the most interesting. And ultimately, it it made for a much better experience for the Wellspring as a whole. Bar's Reach is another example um where we needed to sort of pay attention sort of pacing and environmental storytelling and art as well. Originally, Bar's Reach, it's our sort of frosty peak environment in the game uh snow peak themed pretty much. And one of the gameplay elements we have in there are these sort of cauldrons that you heat up by flapping some air onto them like a bellows and then they shoot out a

projectile. So, when this area was designed, this was the entrance to Bar's Reach and it was designed purely from a mechanical gameplay standpoint, which is I'm introducing this gameplay element. It's going to open the door. I know that the player has understood the element because they opened the door. Cool, now let's go forward and explore the rest of Bar's Reach. The thing is, we had something far more interesting that we could use to gate that area. We had already done a prototype of Bar. He's a he's a large sort of story NPC that I can't go into detail on right now. Um but he's significant for the game in a number of ways and we we thought it would be fun to be able to sort of tickle his nose and have him sneeze and open up a path pretty much to move forward. But the thing is, when the designer was putting together the environment, they didn't really appreciate the the novelty of that or the the significance of having that in a prominent location. So, they placed it somewhere in the middle of the environment um just sort of like to have it but not really to

to use it properly, let's say. And so then, uh looking critically on the environment near the end of the project, we realized that the artists needed more room to breathe. They needed more room to transition. And so, what we did was we gave them more flat space that they could use to sort of almost crossfade the environments into each other. And we also decided to replace that very gamey gating system with the cauldron with this more interesting, memorable, striking uh Bar gate that actually used the exact same input, the same kind of gating, the same ability just in a much more contextualized and interesting way. And actually, the fact that you can discover this gate so early in the game, um it adds this sense of wonder and mystery to the environment because you discover this snoring giant bear in a cave and you wonder what lies beyond, but you can only discover it later on in Act II of the game when you have a new ability. Um and so, that was a much much stronger gate um and a much better pick transition and

and build up pretty much than what we had originally. Our our sort of dark insect-infested environment called Mouldwood Depths, it had a similar issue where, you know, the entrance was this giant spider statue, but it was gameplay focused, covered in spikes, player has to do these sort of tricky maneuvers to then unblock some random door. It didn't really feel all that interesting or or memorable pretty much. And so, while we had this nice transition zone sitting like different from Bar, what we needed this time was a better just really a better gate. And so Jeremy did some paint overs and suggested that we have just this giant spider statue as purely an environmental landmark in the background. And when we eventually have the ability to come here in the story that we have some little friends that come and unlock this big gate. So we we decided that the story was that the moldwood depths was sealed off years ago because it was so corrupted and infested. But they're

going to open it for us because the wisp is down there and we need to find it, right? And so what we ended up doing was leaning into this and created this sort of opening in the floor sort of to have that to emphasize that feeling that you're going underground. And then this sort of you know wind would bellow up when it opened and spores were coming out. So it really feel like this place this temple hasn't been opened in a very long time. Um and again similar to bar, you can discover the statue very early on in the game and have the sense of wonder and then wondering like what's going to happen here eventually. And when you come back and it actually does get unsealed it feels magical. Um and again we just put it took a the the design took a backseat for environmental storytelling and pacing and it really paid off. And then the final example, I'm running low on time um is the windtorn ruins. So the windtorn ruins was meant to be the final dungeon of the game, a full dungeon just like the other ones that we had. But due to production concerns and scope issues we

decided to trim it down heavily. But we still didn't want to give up on the fact that it was meant to be a very tricky gameplay challenge like everything else in the game. And so we combined all these elements like darkness and explosions and lasers and spikes. And people in the team hated it. It it really felt out of place. And also because it was leading up to the final escape sequence in the game which is very very challenging in itself. And similar to the to the wellspring and the water mill leading up to the final challenge with a challenge pacing wise felt very inappropriate. And so we decided to take a similar note from the wellspring and take this very linear section that we streamlined it to and fill it with sort of environmental storytelling beautiful frescos that our art team put together. And this also gave us an opportunity to tell more about the history of the world of Ori and the Will of the Wisps and also foreshadow the final conclusion and and Ori's fate pretty much in a very interesting and memorable way. And ultimately playing

through this longer story sequence very linear lacking in challenge, you know, all focused on story it really ended up pacing wise being the best thing to create that sort of calm before the storm right as you then approach that final escape sequence and then you know challenges you for a few hours pretty much. Um So just like with all of these examples ultimately creating Ori and the Will of the Wisps and making it the way that we made it, it really ended up having to be a marriage of story and design and art and we had to really compromise on all fronts to kind of make that the best possible whole that it could be so that this story resonated with the players in the way that we wanted it to. I appreciate your time. Uh thanks on behalf of Jeremy and myself. You can find more in from both of us on our Twitter's basically and uh I hope you have a great GDC. Um and thanks for listening. I hope you learned something from from our talk.