Designing the Narrative of Grimroll

We recently spoke about the core mechanics of the game. Today we want to expand a little bit on what the full version of the game will offer.

One of the biggest challenges when constructing a narrative for a roguelike game is the narrative. We wanted to avoid most of the worn-out tropes and instead found inspiration from a very specific fantasy author.

Bringing Croatian Folklore to Life

Most of us grew up with fairytales from Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, her classical works “Croatian Tales of Long Ago” was required reading in school, and we wanted to use that as a jumping off point for our own ideas. We wanted to capture the unique mystery and the moral depth those stories explore and find a way to make it a central part of our core gameplay systems. 

The overall goal has been to interest players with a unique setting and core mechanics but then peel back the layers of a much deeper narrative as you play and unlock more of the game.

A Story About Stories

A lot of old stories were not always written, instead they were passed down orally and remembered through repetition. It is this repetitive nature that mirrors a roguelike experience. You’re always doing multiple runs, looking for the next unlock or hoping to progress the story further.

The game takes place in a mysterious wood. The woods are surrounded by a kingdom and there are tales of an old Crone that lives deep inside the woods that if you manage to find her can fulfill any wish imaginable. The game features multiple characters that you can play as, all inspired by the classic fairy tales such as the woodsman, the witch, the prince and princess and the maiden. Each of them has a wish and a motivation to seek the old crone. 

We use this premise as a hub to tell the story of each individual character. Over the course of the playthrough the story of each character, their background and their true motivation will reveal itself. Each run you complete with each of the characters tells you one arc of their individual story and each character has multiple arcs over the course of the game. Once you finish all their arcs, their whole story will be revealed.

The old crone is not the villain here; she is a neutral force that guides the characters through several trials until they themselves realize the moral of the story by playing the game multiple times. Each run is divided into three acts, each with a mini boss fight at the end. At the end of each Boss fight there is a narrative beat that pushes the story further.

There are predefined beats that progress the story but the grand narrative of the game and how these smaller stories come together is done in a non-linear way.

A Web of Stories

One of the things we’re most excited about is Grimroll’s non-linear narrative. With all the multiple player characters planned, we will create a web of interwoven tales that will unlock the more you play the game. Each character’s narrative will unlock another narrative for another character and give you a fresh perspective on the world. By doing multiple runs you will piece together a story book that records every narrative fragment you unlock.

Keeping the Stories Alive

Our web of stories idea doesn’t just push the story forward; it also doubles as the game’s metagame progression system. With new threads, new character abilities, upgrades, items and enemies are unlocked, opening new ways to play. Replaying characters will unlock even more items abilities for future runs or even more story details and additional world-building.

The Woods are a character in the game as well. The metagame narrative lets you discover new mysterious places in the game and new characters you get to meet that provide unique services once unlocked. The secrets of the Dark Forest are unraveled piece by piece through the narrative metagame as it unlocks additional information about the woods and its inhabitants. This way we introduce the player to customs and rich folklore of the Croatian heritage.