Hey all. This devlog is just a brief overview of the writing process for Island Flight Courier, and how we learned from it.

This devlog was written by Tanner Fox Hovis-Johnson, writer and designer on the game. "We" may refer either to the development team as a whole or me individually. “I” refers to me especially.

The Focus

Writing and narrative were not our primary focus when setting out on this journey. When I had joined the team, we had our sights set on a calm flying experience where one drags objects around. When we started looking at adding more elements, such as natural disasters and villager quests, we came to realize that a narrative framework was needed to explain what was happening and why, as well as to ease the player into certain systems, such as upgrades. I worked on making that happen.

Early Outlines

A lot of my early work with the narrative focused on the explanation; why were disasters happening and why the player could do what they could do. It provided an easy story arc of a bad guy stealing artifacts and causing a curse, and Dr. P. Lane doing all he could to invent things and help you defeat the bad guy. There were also three separate town leaders, each with a personality. While the outline itself was relatively small, all that it promised was growing.  We left it that way for a while, as more pressing matters, such as flight controls and upgrade systems, took our attention away from writing and towards design and implementation.

Not Enough Time

By the time we got to a comfortable place and we could put more energy into narrative concerns, we realized two things: certain elements in the outline we had might push people away from our game (bad for an indie game!), and, more importantly, that we simply did not have time to implement the promised outline in a presentable state. This is a hugely important part to writing; cutting what you can and need.

For me, I felt it was important to focus on what we could do and would still be effective. We kept the curst, an effective—if somewhat tropey—device for explaining the curse. We cut the village leaders, who provided character and variation, but ultimately were unnecessary for the game and aesthetic of flying around and helping people. We also cut our villain, so there was no need to write his extensive dialogue. Trust me though, it would have been evil.

With so much cutting, what did we have left?

Connection

I knew that, with a light narrative, our main focus had to be a connection to a character that drove the player to continue through our short storyline. You may have noticed the Dr. P. Lane was kept in. In the beginning, he did little but provide tutorialization and upgrades to the player; a useful, but dull role. Despite this, his wacky nature in those interactions drew me to him, and I knew that a player would feel the same way. After making a new outline that consisted of fighting the curst with the help of P. Lane, I focused on his continued characterization. This involved a lot of dialogue, to make the connection to him stronger; well over half of our dialogue is the good Doctor, and every line is used and needed to define his character and connection to the Pilot, and, therefore, the player. So, despite our limited time and writing, we were able to create a strong central narrative to deliver with our gameplay.

Lessons Learned

Perhaps the most important lesson we learned is to start earlier with writing. But, second to that, we were able to take our game, provide a narrative framework, and strengthened that framework by focusing on a single character’s interaction with the player.

Writing for connection can be difficult but creating that connection can take a limited narrative and create something special. I think we have achieved that here.