I came up with the character Sheppard as I didn’t want to create and use your run-of-the-mill mutant hero, I wanted to do something else and be unique. I’ve always gravitated more towards those heroes who don’t necessarily have superpowers, but the ones that have the most courage and the purest heart. With that, I wanted to make a character that didn’t necessarily have those traits but would grow into them and learn to appreciate them. So I created Sheppard to have the want of living a safe, secure, and relatively convenient life in The World Equilibrium Confederacy, but needs to realize and see that life is more than just living for yourself, but rather living with and for others.

Sheppard’s want is encapsulated by his desire to get through this war so he can go home to an easy and simple life. This desire can be seen throughout the story whenever Sheppard is lost in thought or while he’s experiencing nostalgia through the personal items he brought with him to his new assignment. Sheppard’s need of living for others can be seen as he discovers the belongings of rebels and helping and talking with the rebels. Through these experiences, Sheppard learns that the people of The New Horizons are not merely the enemy, but are actually human beings who want to live a good and happy life just like him. 

Throughout the story the choices that Sheppard makes lead him to learn more about his wants and needs and how they clash with one another as the story nears its end. I wrote the choices in such a way that the player gathers information and from that can make a decision about which direction to move towards in regards to meeting Shaeppard’s wants or needs.  

While making this story and the progression of it, I took it one step and one choice at a time. I wanted to create the story in such a way that the player can choose to learn more about the characters and the world or if they would rather they can just play through the game. I wanted to make the game suitable for different play styles and really let the player weigh the decisions they are making and allow them to shape Sheppard as they want.

I worked on aligning the reader’s and the character’s motivations by making the character much more personable and relatable. That’s why I went with the soldier hero archetype rather than the mutant because I feel they are more relatable and it is easier to find a sense of place in-hero soldier stories than in mutant. I also wanted the characters other than Sheppard to be more human and less robotic as I feel that NPCs can really make a difference in the world. I also allowed the reader to see what was going on inside Sheppard’s head to help the reader see the motivations that Sheppard had so that the reader could more easily aline with Sheppard.