Writing Indivisible’s Story

Posted on June 28, 2018 11:12 pm

Hi folks! My name is Brandon Sheffield, and I’m the lead writer on Indivisible!

Since the brand-new backer preview has a few cutscenes now, I figured I’d tell you a bit about myself, the writing process, and how I’m working with the team!

Who’s Ajna?

The first and most important thing I had to sort out is Ajna. She’s the main character, obviously, so everything more or less revolves around her in one way or another. I had to think about her as the kind of person who can draw together warriors, healers, and malcontents from various walks of life, all across the world of Indivisible.

She also goes through some serious conflicts and transitions throughout her journey, so it’s very important that players like her from the start, even if she makes mistakes. Ajna needs to be more than just likable though – she has to react to dozens of Incarnations, NPCs, and enemies without getting boring, so she needs an extra solid base. She also needs to be fluid, so she can react in believable, amusing, or touching ways in any situation.

I really hope you’ll like Ajna as I’ve characterized her, combining input from the rest of the team with my own ideas. She’s funny, she’s overly-positive, she’s a bit naive, tries her best to do the right thing, and is always ready to throw down. Her friends play with this for their own amusement, as you’ll see in the Backer Preview.

How’s the Story Made?

The rest of the team has been working on the plot of Indivisible for more than two years now. I’ve only joined recently, so while I’m massaging and affecting the story as I go along, I’m largely writing a script along plot lines set out by the team. Since this is a story that draws heavily from various mythologies from around the world, it was important that the major plot points, names of people and places, and lore were all created by the folks who knew it best.

My job is to bring these outlines to life through dialog, bring up potential plot conflicts with the team, and ultimately sew everything up into a nice package. I have a tendency toward humor and lightheartedness, so you’ll get to see all the characters in the game poking fun at each other and playing around when they’re not in a serious situation. There are a lot of serious situations in the game, so I enjoy lightening things up when I can, without killing the mood.

The team has been working so closely with this story for so long that it’s easy to get mired in old details or story conflicts. There have been loads of revisions to the story over time, and a pair of fresh eyes can really offer a new perspective! So I’ve been going through with the team and massaging the story where necessary, figuring out what works best for the story and beefing up character motivations while retaining the original vision.

With any luck, you’ll find Indivisible to be full of characters you like (and some you don’t), and both fun and challenging situations!

About Brandon!

So, introducing myself!

I’ve been writing game scripts for about 18 years now, either in a naturalization capacity (for games like Sine Mora), or original writing (for games like Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Edition and Astraeus). I also do comics! Notably No Girlfriend Comics and Hot Comics for Cool People, both with my friend Dami Lee.

I’m also a game director in my own right – I run my own game company called Necrosoft Games, where we make weird games about drifting into deer, volleyball with guns, and demonic classrooms. If you wanna follow me or us on Twitter, please do!

Overall, I’m happy to be on the project, and looking forward to helping the whole team make something you’re hopefully all gonna like!

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