The Penitent (quest design sample)
DESIGNER'S NOTE
The Penitent is an original game concept I designed to demonstrate the full stack of narrative design work, from world-building and quest design to dialogue, branching player choice, and combat barks. The quest featured here, set in the Guard Training Facility on Havenworth Island, is a main quest that introduces the game's central moral framework: how much responsibility do we bear for the suffering of people we abandoned?
GAME PITCH
After Jo left Havenworth, an island home to the “world’s most revolutionary prison,” where guard and inmate live in the same community, she swore to never look back. But when the island goes dark and Jo receives an urgent message that the childhood best friend she abandoned is in danger, she must return home and confront the island’s hidden horrors and everything she left behind.
OPENING CINEMATIC
Before the game begins, this flashback establishes Jo, Sera, and the world of Havenworth Island. Here we see the friendship, the fathers, and the island's quiet claustrophobia. This leads directly into the first main quest.
QUEST FLOW
FULL QUEST DOCUMENT
The full quest document includes cutscene dialogues (for steps 7, 9, 13), branching dialogue (step 14), and combat barks for the Jo vs. Phil encounter.