This is work that I did in collaboration with many others, using the Emotional Journey model, applied in a linear narrative on the opening mission of DESTINY 2, HOMECOMING.
Specifically, I worked with the designer on the casualty chart to make sure that we had an experience with peaks and valleys and was also directly stating the theme of the main story.
| SETUP – Who, What, Where. What we know from before that has led us here, now. | [CINEMATIC] The City is under attack. | |
| WANT – What do we want? Why are we here, now? | Therefore | We want to find the Vanguard. |
| DRIVE – You are moving forward because you want to… | Therefore | Directive: Find the Vanguard |
| ENGAGE – Moving forward in the world, going after what we want. | Therefore | We move forward into the destroyed Underwatch |
| OBSTACLE – What is between us and what we want | But | We encounter our first Cabal enemy |
| END OF ACT I REVEAL | Zavala is evacuating the Tower, he’s requesting help at the Plaza. | |
| DRIVE – You are moving forward because you want to… | Therefore | Directive: Help Zavala at the Plaza |
| PLAN – We execute on what we decided to do, pushing through obstacles | Therefore | We fight through the Tower |
| MID POINT – Twist, turn. Stakes raised | The Traveler is being attacked | |
| CHALLENGE – Biggest challenge so far. | Therefore | We reach the Plaza and fight alongside Zavala |
| SUCCESS – Short moment of success and encouragement, brief tension relief. | Therefore | We successfully protected the evacuation shuttle |
| BREAK REVEAL | But | The Speaker does not respond. |
| DRIVE – You are moving forward because you want to… | Therefore | Directive: Find the Speaker |
| BREAK – Setback, criticism, crisis, defeat… things are bad | Therefore | We reach the speaker’s space but once we arrive, the Speaker is gone. Ikora jumps away to look for him. The Cabal command ship is still destroying the Tower. |
| POST BREAK REVEAL | Therefore | Zavala needs the ship to be put down. |
| DRIVE – You know what to do! You are moving forward because you want to… | Therefore | Directive: Board the Cabal Command Ship |
| ASSAULT – Confrontation on the way towards the final obstacle | Therefore | [CINEMATIC] Amanda flies us to the Ship. |
| THEMATIC REVEAL – Thematic revelation | But | [CINEMATIC] The Traveler is not waking up despite Amanda’s hope. |
| CLASH – Final battle against the last obstacle | Therefore | Fight through the command ship |
| RESOLUTION – We reached our goal, or we didn’t | Therefore | We disable the ship’s shields and escape the ship. |
| DRIVE – You are moving forward because you want to… | Therefore | Directive: Escape the Cabal Command Ship |
| NEW STATE – New status quo. We won, we lost, things are different now. | But | [CINEMATIC] When we exit the ship from the top, Ghaul takes our Light and throw us off the ship. |