Delta Force
I joined Jade Studio, TiMi Studio Group, Tencent, first to help with adapting the script of Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down for a single-player campaign mode before moving into focusing on character designs, character story arcs, and seasonal narrative arcs for the "main" multiplayer side of the game.After spending a month in the team’s main base in Shenzhen to familiarize myself with the developers, game designers, and concept artists, I joined the narrative team in Shanghai, where I have remained for the rest of my time with the studio.
On Delta Force, I have been involved in:
Cinematic scripts
Character designs (documentation for artists, backstory content, future arc planning, dialogue barks, skins)
Black Hawk Down - script adaptation, new dialogue barks and scripts, level flow
Voice actor casting, script supervision and direction during VO sessions
Black Hawk Down
When I joined the team, scenes from Ridley Scott’s movie script were selected to be used for cinematics between levels. Given the task of writing additional scenes that would go alongside these, I was faced with the challenge of ensuring new content matched the quality and energy of the iconic movie.
To reach this, I decided to frame the narrative of the campaign between two short monologues given by a veteran of the battle, presenting the game as the veteran retelling the tale. The first monologue provides the background of the event and presents the soldiers’ views on the power of their nation:
“I’ll never forget the sound of the Black Hawks over Mogadishu. The thrum of blades that meant salvation, freedom, was on it’s way.”
A notion that would later be dispelled, reflecting the real feelings of many soldiers involved in the battle.
Following this is a “briefing” of the mission before the players are thrown into the action.
Multiplayer
After completion of the Black Hawk Down scripts, I was moved onto work on the main multiplayer segment of the game. My work on this section has spanned cinematic scripts, character designs (dialogue barks, backstories, and documentation for artists), seasonal narratives, and missions.
Character Highlight - Luke “Morse” Everley
A highlight for me has been the character “Luke Everley”, codenamed “Morse”, a Geordie, sarcastic, no-shit ex-navy operator who has joined G.T.I in search of answers.
Born into a family of fishermen, he joined the navy at 18 in search of adventure. He was trained as an ACINT specialist and taken under the wing of his commander, however, following an attack on his submarine for which he was the only survivor, he was reassigned to desk duty in the office of naval intelligence. Convinced that the attack was an inside job, he spent years reeling against his superiors as he tried to open investigations into the attack, but was never given the ground or permissions he needed. The years made him cynical and lead to a deep mistrust of figures of authority. In “present” day (2036), he has found an escape from his duties with the navy through a reassignment to the global terrorist task force, G.T.I, whom he feels is hiding the secrets of the attack on his naval unit years ago.
Alongside his backstory, action log, and psychological evaluation files in-game, I also had the pleasure of writing the script for a seasonal cinematic focused around Morse’s backstory.
As the first seasonal cinematic that I had a large influence on (beyond the script), my aim was for the cinematic to be more character-driven than previous ones, and to feature more dynamic pacing through flashbacks.
Additional Character Highlights
Claire Ann Byers, “Tempest”
Foreshadowed in the first season as G.T.I operator Luna’s mysteriously missing friend, she arrived as a Haavk mercenary, having been entered into an experimental medical program and turned into a super soldier by them following an accident that left her with spinal injuries.
Hélie de Montbel, “Nox”
A mysterious lone-wolf mercenary operating in the area of operations of G.T.I and Haavk, he eventually starts to work closer to G.T.I as the secrets of his past exploitation at the hands of Haavk come to light…
Zoya Pomchenkova, “Toxik”
A neurochemist from family military heritage. She previously worked on neural implant technology before her lab partner accepted funding from Haavk, an organization she was unwilling to side with. She left the project, which later went on to become the Relink, a device Haavk use to brainwash citizens and build super soldiers. Wanting to fight back against them, she aligned herself with G.T.I.
