Dane Dal Bianco
Narrative Designer
danedalbianco@gmail.com
Stars and Silence
Sci-fi/thriller visual novel made in Arcweave engine for a 72-hour game jam with a 6-person team.
Story: After finding most of her crew either dead of missing, a corporate spaceship captain must uncover a conspiracy while confronting resurfacing memories from her traumatic past.
For this game, I needed to work with 2 other writers I'd just met to develop a short visual novel within 72 hours.
We outlined our story together in a narrative bible, broke it down into eight sequences, split up work between myself and another writer with the third acting as an editor, then reviewed each piece together before implementing them into the engine.
Narrative Bible
Writing Sample
Context: This is the opening scene of the visual novel and takes place aboard a spaceship.
Horizon Employee Orientation Training
Satirical experience made in UE5 on my own that involves platforming, puzzles, and exploration.
Story: As a new employee of the Horizon company, you must complete a mandated training course that will test your physical strength, intelligence, and tolerance for chores. Have fun, it's mandatory!
For my class in level design, I had to create a story-driven game told through level design on my own without cinematics.
I created a series of comedic puzzles powered by UE5 Blueprint using interfaces, event dispatchers, and widgets in addition to the Unreal Engine sequencer for special events. Along with this, I wrote and voiced a character who would help guide the player through the level diegetically in tandem with the level layout.
Writing Sample
Context: The player wakes up in a sterile facility. Once they enter a large room, a mysterious but enthusiastic voice over an intercom speaks to them.
Artificial Judgement
Crime/dystopian visual novel where choices matter created on my own using Python scripting in the game engine Ren'Py.
Story: In a future where AI has replaced the justice system, a randomly selected citizen must act as the sole human component and use the AI's knowledge, investigate memories, and interrogate suspects to decide their fate as a judge.
Full Game
I needed art for my game quickly but I'm working solo and am not an artist.
I decided to use photos for my characters and backgrounds to take advantage of my film skills and to make the characters uncanny and realistic as the game is center around unnerving characters. My main characters I needed on-screen were older so I traveled to take photos of my parents as actors. I then edited those portraits and background images I'd taken as well as select stock photos in Photoshop to fit together aesthetically.
Writing Sample
Context: The player interrogates a suspect who assaulted an officer after she witnessed a 13 year-old accomplice in police custody with bruising and cuts.
