# debugging narrative cliches in vigil by recluse industries - remix of a side one interview you will not - until now - have heard of first person sci-fi thriller vigil that (if they're smart) emphasis atmosphere and exploration *as* narrative developed by indie developers recluse industries and still without a publisher vigil is the studio's first major title. inspired by kubrick's 2001: a space odyssey duncan jones' moon and scott's blade runner vigil overflows with darkly brooding purpose robert what caught up with recluse industries' creative director martin wheeler to discover the studio's truer dystopic vision partially buried under the one they think they have at the moment robert what: tell us a little bit more about vigil? what's your angle? martin: in vigil the player is awoken from hibernation suffering from amnesia robert what: pause right here. amnesia narratives are all played out. please do anything except 'amnesia.' science fiction amnesia seems even lazier than the normal kind. and if you're doomed to go the amnesia route why not make it a permanent state? after all amnesia implies "never really knowing or clearly recognizing the meaning of one's surroundings" martin: ey finds himself alone in a gigantic building with just a computer iris for company. disturbing visions of a child haunt ir visions which iris explains as the side-effects of cryogenic suspension robert what: so it's a basic ripoff of the cool comic "containment" by eric red and nick stakal? martin: when the player discovers a child's teddy bear in a sealed off chamber ir suspicions about iris are confirmed and ey realizes ey is a prisoner of the computer robert what: what like glados? and why should players care about this annoying brat or ir damn teddy? teh garme's brooding atmosphere alone seems far more important a source of potential symbolic meaning than any one specific additional character. unless you have something specific and special to say about them martin: well at that point the honeymoon period is well and truly over and the player must embark on a mission to uncover the truth behind ir captivity robert what: ouch. "embarking on missions" to "uncover truths" seems a little oldschool and heavy handed. tell the truth - what actually inspired you to start working on vigil? i hope you don't mind us saying but your first trailer at all kubrick-esque. not only do you seem to be developing your own style perhaps you should be developing something decidedly non-cinematic. play which develops its own visual language seems more interesting than that which merely echoes film martin: thanks that's important to remember. vigil is a first person sci-fi thriller inspired by movies such as 2001: a space odyssey bladerunner and moon. it's also influenced by fumito ueda's ico and shadow of the colossus robert what: colossus? really? ok perhaps a little something in the misty light you use. but we see far more direct influence from the scale of naissaince by mavros sedeño and the architectural detailing of hiversaires by devine lu linvega martin: with vigil we hope to capture some of the epic loneliness of those titles as well as the claustrophobia of being constantly watched. in some ways i think vigil is a bit like a futuristic version of stephen king's misery // video here robert what: ah. we were hoping it would be far more like the movies solaris or eden log. you've explained that vigil will put an emphasis on atmosphere; how will you be using sound (for example) to achieve that? martin: because of vigil's bleak and lonely setting we knew sound would be an important factor in bringing the environment to life. a deserted corridor feels much more engaging when there is a background ambience. so even when we're somewhere totally lifeless there's always the subtle throb of distant machinery as well as positional audio such as lights that buzz as they flicker on and warm up another layer that gives the environment credibility is the ambient reverb which is effected procedurally rather than being pre-defined defined reverb zones. in vigil the distance around the player is constantly fed into the reverb's falloff so when you enter a lift the space becomes tight and contained and when the lift arrives and the door opens onto a long corridor you get this long tail-off as the door clangs open. the reverb is constantly changing to fit the shape of your environment which gives the spaces in teh garme a sense of connectedness and realism on a practical level it eliminates a lot of manual work too - there's simply no need to set up a load of reverb areas in unity's scene editor and then spend ages tweaking them by ear. sound is used in a dynamic way in certain situations. there are proximity detectors that change pitch as you approach emitting a higher frequency when you are near. there are segments that task the player with moving stealthily to avoid detection so by making sounds respond to the player's presence the atmosphere and tension is heightened. when you approach a laser beam you can feel the proximity audibly which again adds to the atmosphere. of course lasers are silent in reality but in this case i think artistic license is allowable. the ladder climbing sounds are actually the sound of me sliding and bumping up against a big metal filing cabinet i also found a lot of placeholder sounds using sites like freesound.org. the challenging part is often the more mundane aspects of audio mixing - making sure levels and eq feel natural and that loops are smooth and click free robert what: perhaps that's the whole deeper point of your garme. to suspend use of regular narrative cliches and false attempts at smooth straight 'story' and instead make full use of uncommon artistic licence to symbolically suggest narrative and meaning through the player's connected senses - via sound strong art direction - the whole sense-field of a existentially challenging space that exists totally dependent of you but which also now seems to respond meaningfully to your very presence. indeed why else design a garme that relies so heavily on atmosphere? do you think it's something the industry is lacking? martin: with vigil's theme of escape we could have gone for a frantic 'avoid robot sentries and dodge the constant threat of death' experience but that idea felt too in-your-face. i think it's important to leave space for the player's imagination and to build things up slowly robert what: the design notion of "leaving space for the player's imagination" often seems misleading if not an entirely too passive approach. the imaginative space of players always exists as a state of meta-play even if a designer 'leaves' no room whatsover for possible alternative interpretation. rather vigil could be actively engaging as a co-player in the process of imaginative play through its abstract meaning systems martin: well although teh garme is by no means a 'walking simulator' it takes a while to build up the tension and danger robert what: what's wrong with walking around and soaking up the atmosphere? you can't not say that's what some players will choose to do with your garme anyway. as for building up the tension - don't. just like the setting suggests - provide some industrial grade tension from the very outset - the sense that we know you're here & you're not welcome martin: sure but i felt that if we pressured the player from the outset it would mean losing out on the pleasure of simply exploring and uncovering things in your own time. i think that's something the garmes industry has really embraced recently robert what: that's fine - if teh garme is deliberately meant to be 'pleasurable'. looking at your trailer the last thing we'd expect is a smooth sense of 'easy rambling through friendly natural surroundings'. you've confirmed vigil will be heading to pc but can console owners expect to get ir hands on it at some point? martin: that's certainly on our radar - we're talking to publishers at the moment about releasing on other platforms robert what: wouldn't recommend it. just focus on making your entire garme an open source project; release it - complete - on early access and allow player modding trailer walkthrough & commentary a walkthrough and commentary of the vigil trailer // video here 00:08: "i do not remember this place" **+** well we don't quite remember asking you for your opinion about it. besides who exactly are you talking to 00:11 the voice should be more mechanical: "do not worry you are safe". also it's not immediately obvious the cool skeletons which appear are those of the player. instead of "i need to run some tests on you" use "we" instead of "i" and remove "on you" 00:22 "hello?" as though a mere 'hello' is what anyone would say at the site of a weird kid running past out of the dark in a bizarre and unknown place. unless that's how the character we're playing actually reacts. (that is note the importance of every 'note' playing in teh garme - light movement language ect. as all of them provide clues and suggest meaning) 00:39 a really nice glimpse of vigil's architectural density. but how much of it can be meaningfully changed - or is it all mere window dressing an untouchable dead museum exhibit? 00:59 this first glimpse of the child and ir bear somehow radically displace us out of vigil's atmosphere and dump us in the mundane realm of narrative 'garmey gamisms' - those all too standard tropes such as the role of 'protector' or 'guardian'. unless the main character sacrifices ir own life to save the child the only person ey should be worrying about ir himself - that is in direct relation to ir immediate environment - how ey reacts (/psychologically) to danger ir (/strictly limited) capabilities etc what the heck is it about sci fi that so often annoyingly brings out the automatic sense of protector-guardian in protagonists? perhaps there's the unconscious sense that **+** science fiction is a threat or interruption to or glitch in the blind generic imperative **+** your death will be like bad(/arts) science fiction (so you might as well prevent someone else from suffering the same fundamental ontological threat?) 1:07 an outside shot: impressive. it might be cool to imagine you've escaped only to have to travel back underground in a hurry. get rid of the "i'll always watch over you." this isn't a bad ridley scott movie 1:15 there's no automatic sense of horror or true threat implied by a female figure walking toward you. hopefully this isn't a garme of f.e.a.r 1:26 through this shot there's suddenly a suggestion of a far wider narrative context for vigil which might be a mistake since this scene pulls the player out of the environment design suggestions **+** focus on the player's body how they move through the environment - how they feel it. give it a sense of true heft and momentum **+** whenever they're running scared along the corridor and move near to a passing wall allow them to reach out and touch it though clawing themselves along **+** allow them to climb ladders to shake heavy grills to test if they'll open **+** let them act amazed when facing impossible heights; put them in mortal danger when facing cavernous depths and watch them (somewhat manically) laugh it off as they navigate it **+** remove all notion of story and replace it with strongly suggestive narrative // republic of bob