Gerda: A Flame In Winter
& Liva's Story DLC

Role: Writer and Designer

Developer: Portaplay / Bird Island

Publisher: Don't Nod

1/2

A Small-Town RPG with Meaningful Choices

Gerda and its DLC, Liva's Story, are both games that grapple with challenging moral dilemmas and intimate human moments. Set in the closing months of the Second World War, the core game follows Gerda as she attempts to save her husband from the clutches of the Gestapo. She must use her wits, experience, and reputation to navigate difficult situations and small-town intrigues.

In the DLC we follow Liva, a local Resistance leader, as she attempts to rebuild her cell and recruit new members to the cause. Choosing between executing her mission and protecting the lives of her companions weighs heavily, as does her troubled past.

Both games make use of exclusively non-violent mechanics (dialogue choices, stat rolls, item/token exchanges) but still delve into the darker parts of the war. In a time of scarcity, mistrust, and violence, few dilemmas have simple answers and both Gerda and Liva find themselves having to make impossible choices.

My Role

For both projects I:

Mapped out and plotted the overall narrative.
Structured scenes, including in-engine scripting.
Wrote dialogue for all scenes and additional text for journal entries, character bios, and items.
Designed levels, using in-engine level design tools.
Worked with other departments (particularly art and audio) to properly articulate locations and story beats.
Worked with our tech team to develop and improve our narrative and level design tools.

Writing and Design

Unique Project Features

A Modular Narrative

Gerda made use of a modular narrative structure, which allowed us to make a highly reactive narrative, despite our small team size. Conversations and entire scenes fed into stats (relationships, faction reputations, etc) that molded the narrative and shaped the choices (and scenes) available to the player.

This meant that our reactivity was not always "one-to-one" (where an event is the direct result of a specific previous choice) but rather that any number of decisions could impact the current state of the game.

A major challenge with this systemic approach was making sure that it didn't sterilize the story. To alleviate this, we made each dilemma intimate and human, and focused on a cast of characters with no generic or routine encounters.

We also used plenty of conventional branching when possible, but this stats-driven approach made the bigger moments feel reactive, even when we could not build more granular branches.

I have presented talks about the challenges and benefits of this approach at various conferences, including Nordic Game and Indicade.