Álvaro Gómez

MOON-KNIGHT · STORY, SYMBOL & MUSIC

The World, the Story and the Music

This other half of the project is mainly focused on its narrative, the NPCs and their stories, the pagan symbolism it was built from, the artistic decisions and the music and audio design in depth. Finally, it focuses on how to monetise the game after its release with a Jousting minigame that outgrew the game and the potential expansions.

The Three Acts

The Narrative Design

The game tells its story through the gameplay, mechanics, quests and combats and not through cutscenes. Centralis is the tutorial and prologue, the following levels are the three acts of the story. Each is represented by three moon phases, three ages of life and an ending to the story at the highest peak of the world.

The three-act arc

Prologue · CentralisThe waking on the lake island is the prologue: a level to play, but not an act — no fragment is taken there and no land is claimed. The three acts are the three lands that follow it, one fragment each, which is why the beat chart plans four locations while the arc tells three acts. The moons above are the fragments recovered; the moons on the chart are the skies they are taken under.

  1. Act IThe Maiden

    The Waking

    The Woods · Crescent Moon Fragment

    Guarded by The Wizard-Knight

    The Moon-Knight wakes from a coma on Centralis, a lake island at the centre of Kaelum, remembering nothing. Death is waiting there, and promises to bring them back every time they fall. The first fragment is in The Woods.

  2. Act IIThe Mother

    The Gathering

    The Misty Lands · Half-Moon Fragment

    Guarded by The Centaur-Knight

    The Moon-Knight reads from the environment how their life was before the coma and what made them go into it. They discover that a Sun-Knight exists and how important he was. At the fortress after retaking the half-moon fragment, a siege occurs and they are sent north, in chains.

  3. Act IIIThe Crone

    The Ascent

    The Frozen Mountains · Full Moon Fragment

    Guarded by The Sun-Knight

    After escaping, the Moon-Knight climbs to the last fortress and their comrade waiting inside of it. Once defeated, the player has two options: let the God of the Gaps stand or end the world.

The turn · spoilers, deliberately

The errand was the villain's nightmare

The Sun-Knight is no dark lord. He was the Moon-Knight's comrade, from when the Sun and the Moon worked as one and the first in Kaelum to discover the Gods of the Gaps fallacy. What he then saw in the moon frightened him into breaking it apart and hiding the pieces. When the Moon-Knight found out, they fought. The Moon-Knight lost and, eventually, woke with no memory of it.

Which means the errand the player has been running for three acts, to try to put the Moon Goddess back together, was the exact thing the villain broke the world to prevent. Death's revivals were never out of mercy, but they were a loan against unfinished business. Fulfil it and you go back. The Moon-Knight does, and finally embraces Death when it comes.

The reversal sits in the last act by design. It costs nothing to hold, and it re-reads every fragment the player has already carried up until the last part. It turns a collect-three quest into a question about whether it should have been run at all.

Themes & symbolism

  • Willow trees

    The player's safe space and the only place the Moon-Knight can heal fully. A willow means sorrow and mourning, and it also means vitality and rebirth, which is exactly what a checkpoint is.

  • The triskelion rune

    The symbol of death, cut into willow bark, dungeon walls and the oldest ruins. It marks where something ended, including the tree that brings the Moon-Knight back.

  • A piano underground

    The score is medieval folk everywhere but the dungeons, where a piano plays. This is an instrument that sounds odd in a medieval world and does not belong there,hinting something is odd. Nothing tells the player something is wrong down there. The instrument does.

Story through mechanics

The story is not told through cutscenes. It is in who attacks and from where, in what the ruins were before they were ruins, and in the few words the NPCs will say. Kaelum is built to be scanned archaeologically. The player who looks finds the events before the waking, and the player who does not will still feel them through gameplay.

Death's promise → the respawn
This explains that the Moon-Knight can die through the game. Death returns the Moon-Knight because their business is unfinished and the ending is the moment that stops being true.
The Power of the Gods → the fallacy
The magic is a manipulation of quantum states that the people of Kaelum could have interpreted as divinity. The player has to earn them by taking Ancient Gods' Blood from a dungeon, staining the Witch's white roses with it, and running the alchemical magic by performing the superstition the story is about.
The moon → the progress bar
Every fragment gathered moves the moon on a phase. Making progress, act and age a reading, taken from the game's sky rather than from a menu or XP.
Read the full narrative

Kaelum is a dark fantasy medieval world in three great regions: The Woods, The Misty Lands and the Frozen Mountains. For most of the game the Moon-Knight walks through it on their own. Loneliness is an important part of the story, as the player will walk through ruins, ancient temples,castles, fortresses and swamps and will explore them on their own. It contrasts with a fast close combatwith knights, banshees, ghosts, goblins and wizards.

They wake from a coma on Centralis, a lake island in the middle of the continent, and meet Death, a strange figure who promises to revive them every time they die. The island is the prologue, the three acts begin when they leave Centralis. The task is to restore the Moon Goddess by recovering the three fragments.

Each fragment is at the end of a fantastic set world: the Crescent in The Woods behind the Wizard-Knight, the Half-Moon in the Misty Lands behind the Centaur-Knight and the Full Moon in the Frozen Mountains behind the Sun-Knight himself. At the Misty Lands fortress the Moon-Knight is attacked under siege, captured and sent to the north. Escaping that captivity opens the last act.

The Sun-Knight was the Moon-Knight's partner, back when the Sun and the Moon worked together. He was the first to see the Gods of the Gaps fallacy for what it is: the Power of the Gods is a manipulation of quantum states, not divinity and Kaelum built its faith in the gap. What he saw in the moon was dark enough that he broke it apart and hid the pieces. When the Moon-Knight discovered it, they faced each other and the Moon-Knight got sent into a coma.

Throughout the game the player learns why Death was so generous. The Moon-Knight was returned because of unfinished business and when it is finished they go back. On the highest mountain of Kaelum the player decides whether the Gods of the Gaps fallacy ends there or stands. Either way the Moon-Knight dies, this time hugging Death, and welcoming it at last.

The Characters

The Player

The Moon-Knight

It is fully customizable and wakes up with no memory, making the player and the character learn about the world at the same time.

Does not speak

Not giving them a dialogue or voice makes the player focus on the feeling and gameplay. They seem like a very hard and tough warrior.

Heals by playing

To contrast with the silence, healing is through playing an instrument given by Death. Adding a romantic touch to the character.

Design purpose

The focus is on the contrast between these two. A character that doesn't talk and only expresses themselves through music can create a great empathy in players, trying to forget the armour and focusing on the character. The amnesia serves the same purpose.

The NPCs

First NPC

Death

A veiled woman in white. She gives you the harp that heals and she revives you every time you die in the game. Her energy runs through the willow trees. Her purpose is unknown.

Design purpose

She is the mystery engine — she feeds the player just enough context to move and never enough to understand, so the questions stay open for three acts. At the end she embraces you, and her white dress stains with blood, like a white rose.

The Warrior

Orpheus

A fallen soldier in The Woods village who gave up being a knight.He introduces the jousting minigame; when you finish jousting, he points you at the enemies in The Woods.

Design purpose

If you follow his story, he thanks you for eliminating the enemies in The Woods. But, when you come back to him you find him dead with wounds made by thieves. His village is reduced to ashes.

The God of the Gaps

Two ways for the player to solve the world

The Witch

Inquiry

She follows you from The Woods to the Misty Lands to the Frozen Mountains so the player can upgrade every time they need.

Kill the gods. Begin the Age of Humankind.

Design purpose

She embraces the mysteries of the world and faces the gods. If you follow her quest she opens up one ending.

The Druid

Faith

In a Misty Lands village, he asks for help with defeating banshees. If you agree, he reveals a hidden fortress. He comes back in the Frozen Mountains.

Keep it buried. The world is not ready to know.

Design purpose

He discovers the fallacy, but asks you to hide it for keeping the state of the world. It is your call if you want to hide the information or expose it.

The Sublime

Art Direction

The Artistic Approach

The Sublime: The beauty of experiencing a ruined world in solitude.

Moon-Knight art direction is based on the Romantic idea of the medieval times. The Sublime is the feeling of standing before something immense and indifferent and being attracted and frightened at once. It is not based on medieval art, but its romanticisation during the 19th Century.

The game is made for making the player feel small and alone. The world the player experiences is in decay, no civilisation remains and everything has been forgotten. Life is not valued because nobody remembers. The moon is always present, but being nearly the only light in a world that is already dead.

How the Sublime works in the design

  1. Solitude

    The player is alone

    The knight goes through the whole game by themselves. The NPCs could help you momentarily, but they are alone.

    WhyThe Sublime is a feeling one person has in front of something enormous. I wanted the player to feel in silence.Making this happen makes the scale felt, while silence does the work.

  2. Ruins & past

    A civilisation long forgotten

    Buildings in the world, broken fortresses, drowned streets and old-god sanctuaries, are just an echo of what once was and will never be again.

    WhyThe feeling of things ending is what made the Sublime real. Death, decay, oblivion and sorrow is what the player finds and making them walk through a world full of this sets the tone perfectly. All things end, whether we like it or not.

  3. Cold colours

    The Colour Palette

    Cold colours are predominant. The game is set at night with, basically, not any warmth in colours.

    WhyThe same colour palette appears in the Romantic paintings that inspired the art approach. These colours relate to the topics explored in the sublime, like death and feeling small against a big force. It also makes contrast easier, like the piano, if warmth appears it is fully intentional and noticeable by the player.

  4. DarknessAesthetic → difficulty

    Darkness as a mechanic

    Light is low by design. Large parts of the world are lit only by the moon, and the enemies use that by hiding in the shadows and what you cannot see is what reaches you first.

    WhyDarkness aligns with the narrative, the gameplay, but most importantly, the philosophy of the Sublime. Mechanically, it helps the difficulty design. The player has to stop sometimes and read the environment so they don't die.

The palette

  • #001021Void
  • #1A2153Moonlit blue
  • #2A2B34Stone
  • #034748Arcane emerald
  • #B8BECCMoonlight silver

Visual Decisions

The main menu is the starting location
WhyThe menu is where the games begin, being also a perfect setting. The moonlight reflecting on the sword, and the sword being placed in a stone, like Excalibur, next to a Willow Tree. Three of the most important motifs of the game and representing the parts of the game: the mechanics, the checkpoints and the story and progression.The moonNarrative & ProgressionThe moon-swordMechanics & ProgressionThe willow treeSafety & healing
The character is smaller than most of the enemies
WhyThis serves a double purpose: the player can clearly see the enemy and feel small. The enemies' attacks can be read better and players can decide where to dodge to. It relates to the Sublime too, making it a David against Goliath situation.
Camera and character working towards visibility
WhyBoth the camera and the character work together to give the player as much view as possible. This also relates to the UI Design, prioritising what the players see and can scan in one glance of the screen

The Soundtrack

The Music of Kaelum

I composed the game's music and also designed the reasons behind it. Where music is played, what each instrument means and why this audio design.

Main audio design decisions

Most of the game, the player is alone with their own footsteps.

The absence of music is intentional. Silence is building the solitude I was looking for. It also builds tension and makes the player focus fully on the game.

It also makes the musical moments more special. If the player doesn't know when the music is going to be played makes certain moments more memorable and some places feel special. If the music is played in certain scenarios, those places become more important for the player.

The recordings

These pieces were made to make the player feel small, by focusing on the use of reverbs. Both pieces are melancholic on purpose. The music is currently unavailable but I will submit it soon and are available on request.

The three village themes

The villages are where the knight stops. The music here is slow and calm to match the action. The music breathes as well as the player.

  • Violins & flutes

    The Woods

    These instruments are predominant as this area is the most similar to medieval times, as well as being very natural. It is the only level where there is a glimpse of warmth in the game.

    WhyThe village here is the friendliest, so the instruments are more aligned with the world. Strings and wind instruments feel the most human in the medieval times, making the player feel relieved.

  • Reverb

    The Misty Lands

    Still calm, but a lot of reverb. It feels like echo in the wind and from somewhere the player will never be.

    WhyThis place used to be great, but long ago. The reverb gives distance and they sound like people talking in memories from the past. The people that lived here are gone with nobody remembering them.

  • Harmonics & suspended chords

    The Frozen Mountains

    High-pitched instruments, string harmonics and suspended chords giving the feeling of crystal, for the coldest and highest point in the world.

    WhyI consider these musical resources the closest to ice and glass for their coldness. The suspended chords make the player feel they need resolution and an ending. It also relates to the level, making the player feel they have progressed and thejourney is about to end epically.

Instruments and their meaning

The music is inspired by Romanticism. These four are where the music changes deliberately.

  • DungeonsPiano

    A piano, notes with room around them and the feeling of something wrong.

    WhyA piano is an instrument that shouldn't exist in this time period. The player can automatically feel something weird is happening in there.

  • The quantum abilitiesSynths

    The moment the player uses one of the old gods' powers, synths are played.

    WhyThe same reason as the piano, but further away. The gods' powers are not supposed to be from this world and it is arriving from another one, letting the player realise these things on their own.

  • HealingHarp

    An ascending arpeggio that grows near a willow tree, as it gains some backing arrangement and more harmonies.

    WhyThe arpeggio represents health and doing an ascension represents healing. Making the music bigger next to a willow tree shows the player that this power is amplified.

  • The three knight bossesCharacter themes

    One piece for each. Fast-paced and driving and each written to that knight in particular. Through its melody and its instrumentation is where their stories are described.

    WhyBoss fights look for the opposite effect to the rest of the game and keeps the player in tension in another way. It is also the only context the player is given about the boss's story.

feedback

I sought organic and realistic sound feedback, so the game feels natural where it has to.

  • Hits & impacts
  • Sword swoosh
  • Dodge
  • Pickups

WhyIn the game, the music is usually absent. Then sound effects are very important to get right. If the swing and the hit do not sound properly, the atmosphere is completely lost.

MiniGame

Medieval Jousting

An old duelling tradition that is shown to the Moon-Knight.

How the timings work in the game.
Jousting outcomes by action and timing. Rows are the player's action, columns are when they commit.
EarlyPerfect distanceLate
AttackNo hitEnemy can dodgeMiss
DodgeReceives hitDodges the attackReceives hit

A best-of-three tournament against progressively harder knights. Win it for a piece of armour and the bow.

WhyIt replicates how jousting works in this world and follows the most basic structure in games. It depends on the player to get better at it and get the timing correctly.

Expansions

Potential DLCs

I thought of two potential expansions. Each will focus on a quantum mechanic already in the game. They were kept only in the Design Document as a way to show the market potential of the game.

Neither of these is built. They are here for where they came from: each one grew out of a quantum mechanic the game already has rather than out of a wish for more game. A principle designed for combat turned out to be a premise for a story too — the systems generate the fiction, which is the argument this page has been making, run one step further.

  • Expansion IConcept

    Echoes

    ExtendsDouble SuperpositionEnemy-exclusive in the main game · one-second state restoration

    The Moon-Knight steps back to when the Misty Lands started falling and finds the place in its original form: no fog, no ghosts and a wealthy society. The prince asks for help to recover his beloved from monsters hiding in The Underground. The action takes place in what is called The Misty Lands, in the game. The prince will ride with you and lose his mind before you get to the princess, confronting you. When you defeat him, the princess mentions a curse in her family, and, after losing the one that she loved, takes her own life.

  • Expansion IIConcept

    The Circus

    ExtendsEntanglementThe quantum basis of Elliptical Force · correlated convergence

    In the Frozen Mountains a masked stranger called The Jester appears and invites the Moon-Knight to The Circus. This event happens somewhere outside of Kaelum. The members of this company finish each other's phrases and they speak with the same voice. After arriving at a luxurious castle, the knight has to defeat the nobility that keeps The Circus under their control for their own entertainment. Eventually, the knight discovers that this family is an ancient line of vampires, who can only be defeated using the silver of the Moon-sword.

Where to next