Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Senior Narrative Designer
Sweden, Malmö, Massive Entertainment: A Ubisoft Studio 2017-2023
Involvement:
The Game
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora™ is a first-person, action-adventure game set in the open world of the Western Frontier of Pandora. It features co-op and an open world with multiple clan storylines.
Trailer
Quests
Examples of some of the main quests I was the owner of. My main focus was to create gameplay to intertwine with storytelling for all of them.
The Missing Hunter
Players are asked to go find one of the few Na’vi from the Aranahe clan that have dared to fight back against the RDA. They follow in his footsteps by following scent trails through the open world, an investigation of his hide out, and finally finding him. Unfortunately it’s at the cost of his ikran Zomey dying. (Seeing playtesters react to the scene of Eetu and Zomey saying goodbye to each other got me every time.)
The main inspiration for this quest was to get the Aranahe clan to wake from their indecision. They must fight back against the RDA.
Pushing Back
In tandem with “The Missing Hunter”, the “Pushing Back” quest follows the players fighting back against the RDA by finding an outpost and taking it down. It’s a small victory, but a step in the right direction for the Aranahe clan. What ensues is tracking down floating RDA devices, and a one-of-a-kind puzzle to take down the signal of the outpost.
Into The Fog
This quest was the culmination of the Kame’tire storyline, which was deeply entrenched with the main character’s.
Players finally have the means to explore a poisonous area of the Clouded Forest where secrets await. They track down coordinates to an abandoned RDA facility, where they start uncover their story.
The quest was designed to be “claustrophobic and scary”, because that is what the Na’vi kids probably felt when being taken to Tap Con 1 after being abducted. Gameplay consisted of investigations, walking through vents, swimming through broken-down sections of the facility, and a Thanator stalking in the distance. It was complete with jump scares and finally a boss battle.
After Tap Con 1, players receive a location that is not only the source of the poisonous fog, but also the place the Sarentu clan was massacred. An investigation gameplay beat and a revelation follows.
Hub Owner – Hometree
As a Task Force Owner of the Hometree, I collaborated with concept art, environment art and our narrative director to make the Hometree lore-based, beautiful and navigable.
Once we were out of the concept stage, collaboration continued with quest designers to make sure quest NPCs and areas for the main story were located properly, and progression designers to make sure vendors were in good locations (and actually existed).
