Designing the quiet before the storm

Now that we’ve locked down the skeleton of the narrative, thanks to my co-designer, Gabe Whitson . I’ve started diving into one of my favorite parts of the process: building the prologue.

Before writing a single line of dialogue, I needed to understand what the future holds for our characters and how to foreshadow those moments subtly for the player. Since this is the introductory level, it needs to plant the right seeds: tone, relationships, and tension, all in one space.

Designing a Scene That Speaks Without Words

I wanted to begin with a space where every character is visible from a single static viewpoint, a snapshot of the crew that already tells a story before anyone speaks. The idea is to let posture and body language do the storytelling, showing their attitudes toward one another.

Because I’ve already built a detailed relationship chart for each crew member, designing and writing their behaviors came naturally. It’s not just about where they stand it’s about why they stand that way. Every glance, every crossed arm, every distance between two characters reveals something about their history.

A Shakespearean Introduction

As I delved deeper into the prologue, I found inspiration in Shakespeare’s style of character introductions the way he sets the stage by letting personalities collide before the real story begins. I wanted our prologue to have that same energy: a gathering before the storm.

In this level, the player’s main objective is simple talk to Logan, the eventual victim. But speaking to the other crewmates is entirely optional… at least on paper. In reality, those conversations are hugely beneficial, revealing key pieces of information, personal tensions, and subtle clues about the group’s shared past.

Setting the Tone for What’s to Come

This design choice isn’t just about exposition. It’s about building the spark creating small frictions and hints of history that will later ignite the major conflicts in the story. By the time the main events of Known Strangers unfold, players will already have a sense of who these people are, what they’ve been through, and what might push them over the edge.

The prologue, in essence, is our first handshake with the player a quiet room full of strangers who aren’t quite what they seem