Sherlock VR A Scandal In Bohemia

2016 - 2020

Project Objective: Create a single-player action narrative, combining best practices in branching narratives transitioning smoothly into multiple gameplay modes, with a focus on replayability.

My contributions:

• Creator and Producer
  • Authored design document and visual look book.
  • Sourced design talent and worked closely with contractors in asset creation.
  • Outlined game mechanics organized around natural locomotion and impossible architecture, worked with the dev team to build out.
  • Organized playtesting of new mechanics.
  • Defined new narrative choice mechanics with a focus on how to solve for successful user attention functionality.
  • Defined a visual/auditory protocol (with a focus on how to solve for successful user attention functionality.) designed to focus a user's attention in a 3D environment.
  • Directed a teaser trailer, sourcing talent, organizing motion capture shoot.
• Narrative Design and Writer
  • Adapted plot points from the source material and created new story elements.
  • Redefined characterization to fit modern sensibilities, stripping out offensive vocabulary and misogynistic concepts.
  • Wrote character bibles.
  • Wrote character decision trees.
  • Defined narrative choice points.
  • Wrote three game scripts, one for each playable character.
  • Authored three level design documents, one for each playable character.

Teaser Trailer 2016

Creator and Producer

Sherlock VR: A Scandal in Bohemia is the mashup of first-person brawler and Choose Your Own Adventure story that I have always wanted. In this experience, the player has a real agency to change outcomes that follow a narrative path.

Gameplay mechanics in VR are the make or break point for users’ suspension of disbelief. In designing Sherlock VR, I want to move and interact as naturally as possible, using our normal physical responses as triggers for gameplay. When possible, natural locomotion in conjunction with impossible or directive architecture is used. We are also using a nod mechanic Yes/No to trigger all the narrative choices in the experience.

It is also important in extra realities for players to have something physical to do; in real life, we hardly stand still nor do we focus on a single direction for long periods of time. Watching canned cut scenes filled with exposition is especially tedious when standing. In each narrative-heavy level of this game, players have to participate, NPCs and scripted dialogue exist, but like reality, a player can move throughout the scene, interact with the environment, and focus their own attention. I have experimented with several approaches to directional signage, and spatial sound to impart information even if a player has missed a piece of dialogue.

Narrative Designer and Writer

Sherlock Holmes is an iconic character with wide cross-cultural appeal. I especially love a character that balances intellect, which serves as the driver of narrative, and action, which provides the adrenaline rush. This story, in particular, is a favorite because it showcases not only Sherlock and Watson but also Irene Adler, the only female character in the Holmes universe, aside from Mary Watson, with real personal agency.

Unlike the Choose Your Own Adventure novellas that have linear narrative paths all ending distinctively, the branching narratives in Sherlock VR are designed to loop players back into the meta-narrative arc. The different loops have differing details and game modes thus creating flexible and individual gameplay. While some choices do lead to a failure state the intention is to keep players participating in the narrative and gameplay as much as possible.

As a fan of the source material, I want to stay true to the spirit while maintaining a modern sense of social norms. Working on three different game scripts was cathartic; I gave each character their own lens for experiencing nearly identical circumstances and got to blow through the cobwebs of century’s old societal bias. That is one of the reasons for my choice of this particular story; Irene like Sherlock did not conform to the social norms of the day. She is almost a modern woman.

Timed Narrative Choice Mechanic Protocol

My non-action VR content experience led me to consider how best to orient a player’s attention in a 360 environment. In most cases letting the gameplay narrative lapse while the player explores is a positive part of the experience. However, if UX directional ques are inappropriately designed, it is easy to get lost in the environment.

Sherlock is a narrative game at its core, so I decided to give a timed priority to narrative choices in-game. The slides demonstrate the stages in the visual/auditory protocol designed to guide user attention in a 3D environment.

The first slide is a mock-up of the Choice messaging appearing in-game. It is unnecessary to read the text box, it is not attached to the HUD, and the NPC has already asked the question. Therefore, it is possible to advance the narrative without viewing the Choice direction window. The mechanic is part of the onboarding tutorial in the character’s green room. Ideally, this mechanic becomes so natural that the player does not need to view the Choice window or follow through this protocol’s steps.

Slide two adds spatial sound and a timer to gently remind the player that a narrative choice is at hand.

Slide three begins the visual, environmental changes to signal the narrative choice. All sounds and colors become muted.

Slide four snaps the Choice window to the HUD and restricts the playable areas.

Slide five is the Fail State acknowledgment: all playability and sound are restricted. If the PoNR mechanic is activated, all progress is saved, and the player returns to the green room where they have the choice of returning to the game, practice game elements, or exit altogether.