August 2022 - October 2023

Out of Scale:

A Kurzgesagt Adventure

Narrative Director

Client: Meta, Kurzgesagt

Platform: Meta Quest 2 & 3

Team Size: 20 (hybrid)

Project Duration: 15 months

Link: Quest Store Page

Overview

Out of Scale: A Kurzgesagt Adventure has 3 major sections:

The Core Game

After an unfortunate accident has unleashed scale-flavored chaos upon the city in the form of tiny creatures turned gigantic, the player must venture across molecular, bacterial, insect, human and mountain realms of scale to find a way to stop the giant creatures and restore a world out of scale. Along the way, they must also find objects that are in the wrong realms and restore them to their native sizes.

Multiplayer Theater

Players can invite up to 7 friends to their virtual theater to watch Kurzgesagt videos they’ve unlocked by playing through the core game. Together, they can enjoy a big-screen experience, trigger special effects, and chat.

Mixed Reality Experience

As players progress through the core game, their friendly AI companion S.T.E.V.E. will send them fun items (and a couple creatures!) related to their adventure. In the mixed reality experience, players can use those items to decorate their real-world space, scaling them up and down to fit their vision.

Responsibilities

I was the Narrative Director for the duration of the project, as well as the Design Director from the concept phase through the first few weeks of production.

As the Narrative Director for the project, I:

  • Worked with stakeholders during the concept phase to determine which topics the game would cover and create the high level plot beats.

  • Collaborated closely with the Kurzgesagt editorial team throughout the project to write the dialogue and copy for the game, ensuring that it was both scientifically accurate and matched the tone of Kurzgesagt’s existing content.

  • Created script documents that adapted the Kurzgesagt team’s usual editing process to a game format, allowing for efficient iteration as well as easy delivery to our voice talent.

In addition, I was the Design Director during the concept phase, pre-production, and the start of production. In that role, I:

  • Worked with stakeholders and other discipline leads (engineering, art, production) to design the game in a way that met our content goals while being mindful of our overall scope.

  • Developed and maintained detailed documentation that I used to lead meetings that aligned all disciplines on the team, adjusting the design and updating documentation live as needed.

  • Directed a team of 3 designers through the concept and design of the base game, multiplayer theater, and mixed reality experience.

Once the script was finalized, I worked in Unreal 4 to:

  • Implement the tutorial and interactive finale using Blueprints, Sequences, and the custom quest system.

  • Ensure all dialogue was properly implemented.

  • Fix bugs during the QA phase.

Example Documentation

An image of a slide with a scene description, concept art, and lists of key ideas and interactions.

Documentation I created detailing the intended environment and interactions for each scene in the game.

I presented these to the team for discussion and updates to create alignment across all disciplines.

Three design pillars with illustrations. They read "inspire awe with scale," "curiosity + experimentation = discovery," and "welcome new fans and old hands alike"

The design pillars I established with the team and stakeholders.

Four boxes showing key ideas for four topics, labelled "Gi-Ant Problem (Ant Takeaways)," "Grade-A Disaster (Tardigrade Takeaways)," "Protist Pandemonium (Protist Takeaways)," and "No Shroom for Error (Fungi Takeaways)"

The key takeaways for each mission, which I developed with the Kurzgesagt team