Say No! More
Freelance Narrative Design & Writing
The Project
Say No! More (PC, Switch & iOS) labels itself as a “NPG”, a No-Playing Game, but it’s really a two-hour comedy “rail-shooter” set in the workplace where you say No to co-workers and literal bosses. It started from a very simple prototype and a core concept of wanting to tell a story about how difficult, cathartic, and important it was to say No to people around you and I was brought in to help execute on this vision.
In general, I worked closely with the creative director, Marius Winter, and tried to ensure that the story was as ridiculous and hilarious as the mechanics and ragdoll physics while having a warm heart that spoke directly to the people who needed the advice the most. It’s okay to say No. Not just to the people who would take advantage of you but also to your near and dear friends when they’re accidentally taking too much.
the work
Narrative Design
Helped build story concept from prototype and broke down the concept into story beats, character ideas, etc.
Writer
Collaborative comedy writing - I cowrote the whole thing with Marius, riffing and going over each other’s terrible jokes.
Writing in-character tweets
What I learned
Writing jokes into spreadsheets is not what I imagine doing when I think about game writing and yet, here I was. Laughing with the game director and my co-writer Marius over our incredibly stupid jokes and references, as we tackled writing thousands of lines to respond to the player.
We went for the shotgun approach, trying to fit as many as we can in as short of a period as we can, and focused on making ourselves and each other laugh as a marker on whether the joke was funny. I don’t think it hit everyone but our choice to focus on absurd comedy to back up the ragdoll physics worked well. I also got to write some in-character tweets. One of the characters shouted out their handle, @StageSteph, and I wrote a bunch of in-jokes that “explains” some of the wackiness in the game with, frankly, something that’s even more ridiculous.
The funniest thing about all of this was probably us doing an interview for CNN’s entertainment producer which got used in a three minute segment of Suncoast View, a talk show from local Floridian news station. It was so funny to see this woman describe our very silly game as a “Career-Killer”, which I guess actually just confirms how important this topic is.
Additional information
Say No! More Launch Trailer
HOT TOPIC! Is it okay to say no at work? - Suncoast View