Developing Dalia, our protagonist

[p][/p][p]Kaitlin Tremblay is the narrative director at Soft Rains. As a writer and narrative designer, they’ve worked on games such as Grindstone (CAPY Game), Watch Dogs Legion (Ubisoft), A Mortician’s Tale, and others. They are the author of two non-fiction books on video games: Ain’t No Place for a Hero: Borderlands (ECW Press, 2017) and Collaborative Worldbuilding for Video Games (CRC Press, 2023).[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]For this month’s devlog, we wanted to take the opportunity to introduce everyone to Dalia, our playable character of Ambrosia Sky! The story of Ambrosia Sky follows Dalia as she returns to her home in the Cluster after a 15-year absence, only to discover that the crisis is far worse than she expected — and that everyone she ever knew may or may not still be alive.[/p][p][/p][p]The Cluster is an agricultural colony established in the rings of Saturn, and it was one of humanity’s first-ever outposts in outer space. It was chosen as such because of naturally occurring alien fungus found in the asteroids and rocks there, providing an answer to one of humanity’s most pressing questions: how could we feed people as they flee a dying Earth to try and find a new home amongst the stars?[/p][p][/p][p]But it’s the people that make the Cluster what it is. It’s a mixture of folks from all walks of life–the descendants of people who were able to leave Earth and establish the agricultural colony. These are people Dalia once knew, the people she grew up with. But Dalia soon discovers that she will have to fulfill the other part of her Scarab duty, and lay her former neighbours to rest.[/p][p][/p][p]The characters of the world of Ambrosia Sky are its heart, grounding the crisis and the worldbuilding in human connections, fear, love, and the lengths we will go to save ourselves and each other. We’ll go deep into the other main characters of Ambrosia Sky in a subsequent devlog, but for now, I want to talk about Dalia Volkova, the protagonist of Ambrosia Sky.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Meet Dalia[/h3][p][/p][p]From the earliest stages of developing the plot and the backstory for Ambrosia Sky, we knew this being a homecoming story would be important for connecting the player’s journey in unravelling the crisis with the stories of people they must lay to rest. We wanted that insider perspective, a person who knows what is typical here and what is unusual, and can call that out to players.[/p][p][/p][p]Enter Dalia.[/p][p][/p][p]Dalia is a brilliant but emotionally unstable Scarab. While Dalia isn’t a true believer of the Scarab’s Ambrosia Project ethos (discussed in our developer log on the Scarabs), she has a strong stomach and is a capable scientist. She left her home to escape the closed, controlling life she had on the Cluster. Her stepmother, Hale, had grand plans for Dalia that Dalia didn’t want for herself. So Dalia left, and in doing so, she didn’t just abandon a controlling mother, but also her best friend and first-ever love, Maeve.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Born on the Cluster, Dalia was raised by her stepmother, Hale, the de facto leader of the Cluster colony. Dalia was a weird kid, growing up more interested in xenobiology than botany, but she enjoyed getting her hands dirty either way. Because the Cluster tended to recycle and reuse materials (thanks to a scarcity of new shipments and a lack of non-agricultural infrastructure), Dalia became skilled at tinkering, repairing, and reshaping the mechanical things around her.[/p][p][/p][p]Dalia felt at home among the systems of the Cluster, but began to feel alienated by her stepmother, Hale. Hale pushed Dalia to become something she wasn’t, and Dalia longed to escape her overbearing influence. So when a Scarab got called into the Cluster for a job, Dalia saw her opening. She could handle the more uncomfortable parts of the role, was smart, and asked the Scarab to train her. The Scarab agreed, on the condition that they leave immediately. Dalia left without saying goodbye. To anybody, even Maeve.[/p][p][/p][p]For the past 15 years, Dalia has been training as a Scarab, making a name for herself. She’s good at the job. Her clever mind, strong constitution, and impressive ability to compartmentalize her emotions make her an ideal Scarab (at least in her mind). Soon after, Dalia meets Maaz, a Scarab who becomes her best friend and work partner, and begins to develop a life for herself. She refuses to return to the Cluster, saying it’s because she’s afraid of Hale’s manipulation, but really, she’s scared of confronting the way she hurt Maeve by leaving without so much as a word.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Early concept art for the design of Dalia.[/p][p][/p][p]Then she gets the call that changes everything. A message from Hale, saying a crisis has engulfed the Cluster and a Scarab is needed—an unknown catastrophe, with an unknown death toll. Dalia returns, alone, and despite her experience and tools of the trade, she is unprepared for a homecoming like this. Dalia’s return is anything but heartwarming. Dalia must come to terms with her choices, as well as her survivor’s guilt, as she investigates the crisis that killed almost everybody she knew. Dalia will uncover a universe that is larger and weirder than she ever could’ve imagined.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Developing Dalia[/h3][p][/p][p]Dalia’s perspective is integral to the story of Ambrosia Sky. She isn’t just here to do a job; she’s here to reconcile her own guilt, confront the mistakes she’s made, and learn how to forgive herself.[/p][p][/p][p]For me, Dalia was always our main character of Ambrosia Sky. I knew right from the start that the story of this world would shine if paired with an emotionally complex protagonist, providing an additional layer to the stories of grief and death that players will encounter. Dalia needed to be smart; she’s a scientist, but she’s also not easily grossed out, two strengths that play nicely in contrast to her somewhat emotional immaturity. When things get tough emotionally, Dalia tends to run away. Except this time she can’t. She has to see this through, at first because it’s a job she’s trained to do, but then because she’s invested in trying to save Maeve, and by extension, learning to look at her emotions directly.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]But there’s more to Dalia than just her job. The early process of developing Dalia’s character included stacking the story and game objectives for her with references. The biologist from Annihilation was a huge early inspiration for Dalia, somebody who charges directly into unknown waters with a curiosity that can be dangerous to her. Despite her uneven emotions, Dalia doesn’t reveal them. She keeps her secrets close to her chest, and her feelings even closer.[/p][p][/p][p]The voice acting for Dalia really encompasses this range, this clinical detachment mired by extreme emotional tumultuousness. Writing Dalia was really about tapping into the ways in which we are dishonest with ourselves, and a lot of what I brought to Dalia from myself was my ability to overintellectualize my emotions instead of just feeling them. Dalia is a person who spends a lot of time in her head and, as such, struggles to accept the larger emotions that still manage to dominate her, despite her ability to rationalize them (if she even thinks about them at all).[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]One of the earliest sketches of Dalia.[/p][p][/p][p]Even from our earliest days, Dalia has always been Dalia. There’s parts of her that have shifted and morphed through development, particularly as the plot got solidified, as other characters came into focus, and as the story needs evolved as our game evolved. The core of her has always been there: this clever, emotionally detached woman trying to reconcile her own needs with those of her family and the people she loves.[/p][p][/p][p]As such, I hope players find comfort in Dalia. She’s made mistakes. She’s hurt people. But she’s trying to find a way through those emotions to help the people that she can, and to learn how to forgive herself. What I’ve brought to Dalia, and what I hope others can take from her, is navigating how to be gentle with ourselves while still doing the difficult, necessary work of accepting who we are, flaws and all, in order to show up for ourselves and others.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]If you want to know more about the development of Ambrosia Sky, take a look at our prior dev logs that cover the role of a Scarab, the art & audio direction of the game, a look at the tech & design behind our cleaning mechanics, and an overview of what Ambrosia Sky is.[/p][p][/p][p]You can also download the demo from Steam to step right into Dalia's shoes and see the crisis firsthand. In our next devlog, we’ll begin to talk about the cast of characters that surround and support Dalia on this journey.[/p]