Trackers Alliance: The Widow

Trackers Alliance: The Widow is a DLC quest in Starfield that's included in Trackers Alliance Complete Bounty Series Creation. 
In it, the player works with Lt. Owen Flores to investigate a series of murders in the city Neon, uncovering a twisted cult led by someone calling themselves The Widow.
Engine: Creation Engine
Role: Quest Designer
Studio: Bethesda
Game: Starfield

Goals

  1. Balance investigation with not "losing the player"
           Something that we (Leadership and I) wanted to do was to allow the player to have some aspect of investigation in the quest, but also make sure the player still is aware of what is happening and why. This is why in the crime scene investigation section, I tried to put a good amount of clues for the player to find based off of certain skills they have but still have the central thread be something every player touches. This allows more curious players to get supplemental information that could have them solving the case before the central thread reveals the information, giving the player a sense of accomplishment for paying attention.
           This is also why I have the player coming back to report what they've found with Lt. Flores throughout the quest. Not only does it give the player the fantasy of discussing the case details with their partner, it also allows me to have Flores tell the player the critical information just in case the player didn't notice it the first time.
  2. Give the player a variety of "detective/cop" fantasy scenarios to play through
           An angle in the Trackers Alliance quests that I felt wasn't explored yet was the detective angle of being a bounty hunter. Finding a clue that leads to an interrogation that leads to a clue, etc. I wanted to give the player that experience, both to differentiate this quest from the other Trackers Alliance quests, but also to make the product as a whole feel more dynamic.
           Within this angle, I also wanted to try to explore every variation of the detective/cop fantasy for the player. This is why you:
           - Investigate a crime scene
           - Have a shootout
           - Don a disguise and infiltrate the enemy camp
           - Talk with your partner at a diner about the case
           - End the quest in a standoff
           I think that games have a great opportunity to let the payer live through scenarios and fantasies that are merely depicted in other forms of media, and so I wanted to give the player these scenarios to live through.
  3. Play around in the lore of Starfield (The Given Circumstances)
           In Theatre, there's a term used that's called "The Given Circumstances". Essentially, this covers what happened before the play began, the time of day, the location, everything that you could think of that would inform how the characters in a scene would hold themselves/act toward other people.
           Personally, I find this term to be incredibly useful when approaching Narrative Design for video games, doubly so for working on DLC. By analyzing an area's or character's Given Circumstance, you're able to see the potential narratives emerge that you can tap into.
           For Starfield, the Given Circumstance regarding House Va'ruun and Ryujin are what interested me the most. The idea that there is a fanatical cult out there made me think, "well, what if someone lied about being a believer for their own gain?" and the idea of a super rich morally grey corporation with a brain chip made me think, "well, they would have to have had human trials, and there would have definitely been glitches in the initial builds." From there the story of the quest began to emerge.

Audience Reception

Characters

Picture
Zia Abbas
Picture
Lt. Owen Flores

Additional Images

Postmortem

What went well?

My First Professional Project!: Trackers Alliance: The Widow was my first professional project of my career. It was something that was given to me in the middle of the concept/pitching phase and was something that I turned entirely into my own. Being able to work on DLC that is a more closed, intimate environment than a major AAA release as a first project was a godsend that I will forever be grateful for.

What went wrong?

Implementation Was Messy: With this being my first professional project at BGS, the actual nuts-and-bolts implementation is messier than I would've liked. Behind the curtain, the code is very disjointed and unorganized, which later led to me having to do a "Spring Clean" on my implementation.

What did I learn?

Be Cleaner, Earlier: My biggest takeaway was to be very intentional in the foundation building phase of a quest so that the later edits/debugging are easier to accomplish. Now, I am very deliberate in my initial implementation, labeling everything and making sure it's as clean as I can make it so I don't ever have to do another "Spring Clean".

I Really Like Working on DLC: Another takeaway was how much I enjoy working on DLC in general. The beauty of working in DLC is that all of the systems and lore are already completed, so as a Designer you can be more creative with your stories/experiences. You don't have to read a doc about how the Stealth System works and imagine how a quest could interact with the theoretical system. You can instead just play the released game, see how the stealth works, and make a quest that supports said system.