Niv Khurana
Responsibilities
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Assisting with the training and oversight of team members
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Leading discussion on quest and character design
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Assisting Project Lead and events team for major events
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Worldbuilding with Project Lead
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Writing collectible pet descriptions, shop descriptions, user guides
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Ensuring consistent tone and flow with new lore
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Directing artists for character design
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Community interaction and communication
Quest Design
Prompt Calendar
I am responsible for the creation and maintenance of the Prompt Calendar. This is a series of spreadsheets, one containing the name of every prompt, the type and what month it was previously released in. There is also one spreadsheet for every year, marking each month, if there are any real-world holidays that we reference for that month, and the types of quests we have automatically lined up.
Some quests, known as prompts, reset monthly, and others reset seasonally. When looking through the prompt calendar, I look at areas where there are less events or when players might not be working on the larger seasonal prompts, and based on what we already have scheduled in that year (as well as the previous), put suggestions for prompts that could be created or reused for that month.
Balancing & Prompt Creation
Pacapillars has an economy that is based on the collection and trading of items, characters and art. Because of this, the economy balancing is taken into account during the discussion stage of Quest Design. I look at the ideas noted down in the calendar and at what the plans for the game are around that time. Depending on the events we have just finished, or ones that are coming up, I discuss with the team how elaborate the planned prompts should be in their requirements and rewards. I aim to balance the number of prompts we repeat with the number of new prompts being added in. Based on player feedback towards other prompts, trends among the player base or real-world celebrations happening during that month, I will develop a theme for the prompt. The theme, timeline, a draft of the lore and a draft of the rewards are then sent back to the team for feedback. The team will try to complete the prompt themselves if the format and system is different from what has previously been used.
After discussion, I utilize a prompt template to create the event on-site. This goes through editing and is scheduled for post.
Writing
Quests
As Quest Designer, I am also responsible for writing flavor text and lore for prompts and events. When writing these, I will give players examples of common and uncommon ways that the theme could be interpreted. This serves as a starting point for players to brainstorm how their character might interact with a particular feature of the universe, while also providing a reference for how that event is seen in the world.
Item & Shop Descriptions
Pacapillars has a variety of shops and a monthly release of collectible pets. I wrote the English and Pacascrib (Pacapillar language) dialogue for the Darling's Market shop. I aimed to reference a previous action (helping her) to give an indication to new players that this shop was to be visited at a later point, in case they had clicked on this before exploring the prompts that unlocked the farming game.
Collectible pets are released on a monthly basis, averaging about six pets per month; three common, two rare, one super rare. I write descriptions for the pets in sets of ten and maintain a few rules within that set. A single descriptive word (anima, creature, blue, friendly, etc) cannot be used for more than one pet. A single word cannot be used to start the description of more than one pet. Additionally, each pet's description is less than twenty words, including their name. I will occasionally provide input on pet names or designs, but they are created by the Project Lead. Certain pet descriptions have been written by the Project Leads, or have been specifically commissioned by users who would then write the description.
What I Learnt So Far
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Remote working and communication with a team in different locations
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Working with and directing freelance artists
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Community communication and moderation
- Performing QA for a specific game feature
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A firsthand look at game monetization and managing the economy of a live game
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Development of item description writing skills and overall writing
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Writing for a specific target audience
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Developed designing skills based on data and analysis of trends