MATTY LANOUETTE
CONTENT DESIGNER
Group Project - Visual Novel
Monsters in the Woods
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Role: Writer
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2021
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Unreal Engine 4
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Team Size: 9
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Source Control: Perforce
Monsters in the Woods is a horror/romance visual novel. The player takes on the role of a hiker who has lost their memory. The only thing they remember is their own brutal death, but the details are hazy. They befriend a trio of monsters that call the woods home and unite to get the player their memories back and maybe rid themselves of a cult that has recently muscled into the forest.
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The game was made in one week by a team of 9. It features three neutral endings, three good endings, three bad endings, and one lonely bad ending. Each monster has multiple expressions and poses, as well as a unique musical theme and background.
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Each monster was written by a different writer. I managed the route for Barnabe, the catfish swamp killer. All three of the monsters had their own horror genres represented in their route and character. Barnabe's horror genres were slasher and gore, which meant that his mannerisms and endings all had to keep the player coming back to the feeling of being with a monster, one who could easily turn on the player if he chose to. One of the challenges in writing for this was to represent the horror genres while still making a likable character that the player would want to romance. This was done by keeping Barnabe's overall tone chill and calm, and then pushing his violent tendencies when danger presented itself or when the player pushed him too far.
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Below are screenshots and concept art for the game as well as our trailer. If you would like to play, please follow the download link on the left.
Group Project - Tabletop RPG
Reach for the Stars
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Role: Narrative Designer
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Feb 2019 - Current
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Team Size: 2
Reach for the Stars is a custom tabletop RPG system that is still in development. It started with a systems designer (Lindsay Price) and a narrative designer (myself) came together to make a space opera tabletop. Reach for the stars features custom dice, four playable races, and a setting that is a fun mix of the show Firefly, the movie Treasure Planet, and the game Destiny.
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Lindsay wanted to work with custom dice and to find a system that utilized the dice in a cancellation method, like the tabletop setting Genesis, so that the players wouldn't have to do much number crunching. Instead, they would get to roll large amounts of dice and quickly discover the result of their role and how they wanted to spend their special talents.
My focus was on the world and the races. I pitched idea after idea to Lindsay for the world, the history of the galaxy, and the races. Based on feedback from her, as well as outside listeners who spared their time to be introduced to our new setting, I moved forward with the four races and the feel for the world.
While Lindsay was working on the math behind the dice for combat and skill checks, I wrote a module to be used in our first real playtest. The module was designed to be between 1-3 sessions featuring an overall linear story with some narrative hooks at the end in case the players wanted to continue with the campaign. I also designed the character sheets, which went through a few iterations before being ready for the module to playtest.
Many of these elements are still in development and will change as work continues to be done in this tabletop system.