Welcome back to The High Life!

A game's lore can pull us into a whole new world, whether it's the thrill of uncovering ancient mysteries, or the emotional depth of a character's backstory. Lore can be the secret ingredient that transforms a game from a fun escape into an unforgettable journey. In Highstreet World, we've got plenty of it.

This week, we sat down with Arron Ferguson, the mastermind behind the stories that make Highstreet more than a virtual experience. Read on as he shares what it's like to weave rich narratives that keep players coming back for more.

Meet the Team: Arron Ferguson, Game Writer and Narrative Designer

Arron is a member of our team who can see the past, present, and future of Solera. He's writing Highstreet World into existence, one line at a time. We spoke with Arron to find out how he's tying storylines together, what's in store for Highstreet's MMO players, and why he loves being a game writer.

Tell us about yourself. What do you do for Highstreet?

I am Arron Ferguson. I'm a writer and narrative designer for Highstreet. When I was hired a little over a year ago, my main role was to create the background lore that binds all of our products together. As time moved on, there's been a lot more narrative design and quest design for both the Highstreet metaverse and MMO.

Before Highstreet, I worked on RPGs for another company. We made about four CRPGs in the style of Baldur's Gate, and I was keen to step up and head into the world of MMORPGs. They've got more letters in their name, so I assume they're more fun, right?

How did you get your start in creating stories for games?

I landed my first job in games in 2017. It was a dating sim set on a pirate ship. A young woman gets sucked into a pirate novel, and then has the horrifyingly tough task of figuring out if she'd rather date the noble yet curmudgeonly captain, or the charming but morally shady first mate. Really Shakespearean stuff.

Do you have a specific way of approaching game writing, particularly in the context of Highstreet, where the story was already evolving when you joined the team?

At midnight, I go out in the garden and scream at the moon.

No, no. My attempt is always to be mathematical and structured, and to put a lot of effort into building the skeleton of a project. Stories are at their worst, I think, when they're like this happens, then this happens, then this happens, then this happens. That lack of structure in the bones can be very unappealing. What you really want is a story that's a lot more of this happens, which causes this to happen, therefore this happens, so this other thing has to happen.

Certain types of moments have to happen at certain places, like we need a sad bit here to counterbalance the happy moment we had there. The fluff that goes on top is a bit more improvised, a bit loose, a bit more fun. That's when I write in the way people think writers do. My structuring phase tends to be like I'm playing classical music, and then the actual writing phase is more like playing jazz.

How would you describe that specifically in Highstreet's context?

The chaos of creating a story is that there is no one route. Sometimes I'm systematic and mathematical, other times I go for a walk and an idea lands in my head that's better than anything I tried to create. Sometimes the spark begins with something another team member did, like a cool gameplay mechanic or a piece of concept art, and I create a story around it. Sometimes it begins with me, and sometimes I'm the last to contribute.

An MMO needs to have a billion stories crammed into it, and the only way to stop them from feeling dull is to ensure they have a soul and a beating heart. Every story in the MMO needs to feel tangibly different, and they're more likely to feel different if their formation and development were different as well.

Do you have a favorite part of Highstreet's universe, whether it's a character, a historical event, or something else?

Yes, but it's going to be revealed in the game in a really cool way, so I don't want to ruin it. My hint is it was something one of the Pelicans did. There's some cool stuff in Pelican history that touches upon themes that I'm passionate about.

Is there a particular game that you played ages ago that got you interested in game writing?

I received Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door as a Christmas gift in 2004, so I would have been 13 years old. I started playing it and was immediately confused because I wasn't running around and jumping on turtles. Instead, I was having very long conversations and there were mountains upon mountains of stories. It was more like a novel that you could play, and it absolutely blew my mind.

That game became a gateway. I started looking into the back catalog of RPGs I had missed, and discovered all these story-heavy games like Baldur's Gate, Monkey Island, and Planescape: Torment.

From your standpoint, what are some of the challenges in developing good narrative design in the context of working across functions, as part of a team that's located all over the world?

The main challenge I face is that I have a lot of other narrative-based responsibilities beyond creating lore, such as narrative designing zones for the MMO and districts for the metaverse, planning and writing quests, creating narrative backstories and writing NPC dialogue, and creating documentation that helps other departments, such as documents that describe to artists what things need to look like.

I try to dynamically shift my priorities based on everyone's needs. For example, if our game director needs the lore to change so the main questline can become the best it can be, then I need to be flexible. There is a lot of running between different department heads and figuring out who has the most pressing need.

If you could send a one-sentence message to every game studio in the world, what would you say?

Let all of your employees work remotely if they want to.

There's literally no excuse anymore. If they have a computer, they can do the job. There are really brilliant people who might be disabled or live in the wrong country. They could be the perfect, perfect, perfect person for the job.

Highstreet Chronicles: Origins #7

Thank you!

That's all for this issue of The High Life.

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