CREATIVE LEADER IN VIDEO GAMES •
AUTHOR • VOICE ACTOR
LORI HYRUP
The Puppet of Tersa
Genre:
Year:
Team Size:
Role:
Platforms:
Engine:
Narrative Adventure
2018 – 2019
13
Co-Creator, Creative Direction, Game Design, Writing, Production, QA
PC
Unreal​
Tiny Team
With our very tiny team for The Puppet of Tersa, I wore many hats. I was co-creator for the project, bringing this adventure to life based on a specific art style. On this project, I provided creative direction, all world design, all game design, all writing—including thousands of interactions—production, project management, and even QA.​
The Puppet of Tersa A Curious Place (2019) Full Trailer
First Full Trailer (Narrated)
Puzzle Design
Bucket Puzzle (Mini-Game)
The Bucket Puzzle is a 2D puzzle I designed for The Puppet of Tersa.
This is the paper design for the Bucket Puzzle. It's a fairly simple design.
Bucket Puzzle in game
This is a step-by-step design of the mechanics of one of the physical world puzzles in The Puppet of Tersa.
Mindmap
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This mindmap demonstrates my high level approach to designing out puzzles, which are frequently used in narrative adventures. All the puzzle components of this mindmap fit entirely within "Beat 4" in the beat board above. After I've settled on a high-level puzzle design, I then write up a detailed puzzle design. An example of that is provided below.
​This script was written using a combination of Final Draft and Ink, the latter for formatting of narrative choices.
Small snippet of the overall game narrative bible. This demonstrates how I organize information about the world.
Cynthia can interact with many items. Each gives the player some feedback. It also remembers if she's already interacted with it. Additionally, she can add items to her inventory and attempt to use those items to interact with other items. They also provide feedback. This matrix tracked all of that work.
Note: While the entire game was fully written and designed, the investment funds needed for engineering and art disappeared. So, we published the first episode, "A Curious Place," but we were unable to publish the other four episodes.
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Find Episode One on Steam: The Puppet of Tersa: A Curious Place