Patrick Niederriter
designing modern mythology
narrative design
Games are a powerful vehicle for immersive storytelling. I work to unlock the art form's full potential by creating great dialogue, memorable characters, meaningful choices, and compelling branching storylines.
The Martian
I got the chance to collaborate with Little Labs and Fox Studios on the official mobile game for The Martian. Our goal was to strike a balance between the novel, by Andy Weir, and the film, starring Matt Damon.
The Mystery of
Argenmont Manor
Dungeons & Dragons is a great crucible for worldbuilding and immersive storytelling. What makes writing and publishing content for D&D different is you're not just telling a story. You're teaching the reader how to tell a story.
In this adventure, the players are invited to dinner at the home of a wealthy noble when suddenly, dun dun duuuunnnn, the host winds up dead. It features mysteries to solve, an open environment to explore, unique characters and creatures to engage with, and multiple endings. I even designed the layout of the book, and commissioned custom artwork to bring the experience to life.
Happy Funtown
I like to break established rules once in a while. Traditionally, in D&D, creatures like Orcs and Goblins are always evil. But where's the fun in that? Happy Funtown plays upon these preestablished prejudices in a fun way by introducing them to a new character - a friendly Bugbear named Jask.
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The players find a crude, hand-drawn poster nailed to a fence advertising some place called "Happy Funtown" with directions drawn on the back.
When they investigate, they find that somebody has gone to great lengths to create an amusement park in the middle of nowhere, with rides, games, places to sleep, and everything. Apparently, Happy Funtown is the lifelong dream of a big, hairy, concertina playing monster named Jask. Is this monster on the level or is this some kind of ruse? The players will have to decide.
The Hollow
As part of my master's studies, I wanted to explore new ways to deliver worldbuilding and narrative. You play as a former Union soldier, hunting a Confederate deserter in the late 1860s. I used Twine to create a branching narrative, inventory system, and setting to explore. Objects that you interact with trigger interactive memories for the haunted PC and you decide what happened in this character's past - or you can drown out the difficult memoires with whiskey. Your choices influence how other characters perceive you and help determine which of the multiple story endings you'll receive. Below is a sample of some of the mechanics or click play to try the game for yourself - I even composed the music.
Audio Recording
If I'm writing the dialogue and crafting narrative, I figured it would be helpful to be able to work with the voice talent and audio engineers to preserve the right tone and rhythm. As part of my master's studies, I created scripts, found voice actors, and taught myself how to use tools like Reaper to bring the scenes to life.
Spicing Up NPC Dialogue
I worked with a voice actor to make generic guard NPC dialogue in a a medieval fantasy setting a little more interesting. To make the experience a littler richer, I threw in some background music and mastered each scene.
Scene 1 – A stealthy PC overhearing a back-and-forth conversation between a pair of guards. Moving on they hear a guard singing a little song to himself and then finally one guard talking to coworker.
Scene 2 – This short scene depicts a one guard greeting another guard, who happens to be wearing a helmet. For this one I tried to tweak the vocals to create the “helmet” effect.
Scene 3 – This one demonstrates 3 possible responses a guard could have when asked about his wife. In a game, the player wouldn’t experience this exactly as it’s recorded, instead, they would hear the question and ONE of the 3 possible responses, chosen at random.
Scene 4 – This one depicts 3 different guards discussing work – classic watercooler talk.
Social Games & Contests
Some games are designed to get people out of the house. Gamification is a buzzword that gets tossed around a lot these days, but companies are finding that they can engage people in new ways and change behaviors with the right application of games.
Nittany Fit
Highmark is known for health insurance, not games. But when we started working with Penn State Athletics, there was an opportunity to try something new.
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I designed Highmark's first interactive gaming experience. This browser-based social game was targeted to Penn State University students and alumni in Pennsylvania and got participants to make healthier choices by regularly competing in weekly fitness, nutrition, and wellness challenges. Each week they completed all 3 challenges earned the a chance at winning a variety of prizes, kind of like a raffle.
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I designed the game rules, wrote the challenges, and coordinated with the designers for 3 successful runs of Nittany Fit. Each time saw more and more people playing.
