Item Description Design

Contraband

Avalanche Studios, 2024

During Contraband’s development, I was tasked with designing the item description system. After consulting with the different teams that would be creating the items that the narrative team had to describe, I created this document. It covers the structure of our plans for item descriptions, but due to a need for brevity and inter-disciplinary adoption, it doesn’t go into detail regarding some other narrative-specific intentions that we had with this system.

This document was written at a time of upheaval on the project, where it was unclear exactly what the scale of this task was likely to be. Writing 1000+ unique item descriptions seemed like a real possibility, although changes to our item design were to mitigate that outcome, somewhat.

Brief

When players are assessing an item in Contraband’s menus, the UI will display descriptions for each item variant. This extends to all items that can be owned by a player, including vehicles, weapons, artifacts and customization equipment, such as clothing.

What’s In An Item Description?

An item description should follow these guidelines.

• Text only descriptions, limited to ~300 characters.

• Short & snappy.

Goals

• Give in-world and meta context for the items that are available for players to find and use.

• Assist players in their itemization strategy by reinforcing (but not necessarily referencing) the nature of certain items.

• Consistently matching themes and tone that are found across our game.

• Reinforce our creative vision for Contraband by telling the stories of our world through its items.

Design

Menus Where Item Descriptions Are Visible

There are a few menus that make sense for hosting item descriptions.

• Shops where players are browsing items.

• Inventory & loadout management where players are browsing the items that they have already acquired.

• Upgrade menus where players can see what their loadout items do and how they’ll evolve when upgraded.

Format Variations

To balance the need for varied, engaging descriptions with the need for a consistent reading experience, we should aim to vary our formats for item descriptions.

• Quotes from in-world characters.

  • These should always be attributed to the speaker.

  • While it’s great to have the speakers be characters that players might actually encounter during their time in-world, they don’t have to be.

This mystical pouch requires crushing the stingers of seven-hundred and forty-eight hornets. Have you ever tried to catch one fucking hornet?

– Bomoh Cik Ayu Siti Langit

• In Game Written Word

  • Written sources such as books, signposts, graffiti and newspaper.

  • Attribution isn’t compulsory.

"The latest seizure confirms the escalating threat, with sources stating that this heralds the presence of military grade hardware in our streets."

– Newspaper

• Narrators Notes

  • Some item descriptions can be made with the implication that they come directly from a “narrator” of sorts.

  • They absolutely should not feel like reading a game manual, or be explicitly about how to use an item.

A pistol is neither evil nor good - it is the intent behind the trigger that sets its path. May your aim be true and pure.

Unique Items vs All Other Rarities

• Almost all items are to be described as being one of a near-infinite number.

  • We don’t speak about “this car”, we speak about “cars of this type”.

Item Labels

Some Item Types have their own subdivisions that can alter how the player might want to use them. These are called “labels”.

• eg. Weapons & vehicles have label such as “Bootlegger”, “Scout” & “Enforcer”.

• Item descriptions should reflect the label of the item.

  • This amounts to a reference to the properties that make it distinct from the same subtypes with a different label.

Number Of Descriptions Needed For Launch

Estimations for number of item descriptions is still in flux as wider design decisions are made, but estimates are looking at over 1000 descriptions.

Item Description Samples

Quotes

• "When I were born, the doctor smacked me on the arse, cut the cord, and handed me my first handgun. That's how me old man tells it, anyway."

  - Overheard in a Bayang Drinking Hole

• "If you put six shots from this into him and he keeps coming after you, you don't need to reload. You need to run."

  - Serican Kapitan to Her Trainee

• "One of us may change Bayan's fate for a generation, but together? We could change the world forever. When we all fight for the same thing, we fight without limits."

  - Tok Kulleh

In-Game Written Word

• "The latest seizure confirms the escalating threat, with sources stating that this heralds the presence of military grade hardware in our streets."

  - Bayan Beacon Newspaper

Narrator’s Notes

• In the old west, death, vengeance and justice were all meted out with a trusty six-shooter. Bayan's no different.

• Still works as smoothly as it did a century ago. Some weapons become relics. This one remains a classic.

• Even if you're not that good a shot, as long as your target is less than ten feet in front of you, it's really not going to matter.

• While but a fraction of a were-tiger's true strength, this power should only be used in Bayan's defence. Otherwise, even this small impertinence could draw their wrath.