HPL: Nyarlathotep Rising
Built the visual narrative editor and the runtime behind a choice-driven Lovecraftian game, so the writer could create branching storylines without a programmer.
Situation
HPL: Nyarlathotep Rising is a choice-driven narrative game in the Lovecraft universe, with multiple protagonists and consequences that ripple across storylines. Think of the structure of The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante, with cosmic horror.
It was built by several remote teams, tech, story and art, each with its own leadership, pace and milestones. The tech team had to integrate everything. A game like this cannot be made without proper tooling: a writer cannot wait on a programmer for every branch.
What I did
The narrative editor. A node-based visual editor the writer authored the story in: branches, choices and the state that drives them.
The runtime. The editor is half the problem. I built the system that reads its output and runs the story: state across multiple protagonists, the flow between segments, choices and consequences.
Save and load. Full state serialization across every story variable, so players pick up exactly where they left off.
Everything else a five-person team needs. Frontend UI, particles, sound, general gameplay systems, and integrating the other teams’ work.
Result
- The game shipped on Steam.
- The writer built branching content independently, without programmer intervention for each change.
- Three programmers, one artist and one writer, coordinating across time zones, shipped a narrative-heavy game.
Stack
Unity, C#, a custom node-based editor and a custom narrative runtime.