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WONDER WOMAN

Developed by Monolith Productions, creators of the critically acclaimed Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor™ and sequel Middle-earth: Shadow of War™.
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The cancelled single player open-world action game introduced an original story set in the DC Universe and allowed players to become Diana of Themyscira in the fight to unite her Amazon family and the humans from the modern world.

Powered by the Nemesis System, players would forge deep connections with both enemies and allies as they progressed from a heroic fighter into a proven leader.

Details above provided by the WBD press release accompanying the game's announcement trailer at The Game Awards in 2021.

SPECS

Company: Monolith Productions

Platforms: PC, Console

Engine: Firebird

Status: Cancelled February 25th, 2025

Game Team Size: 150+ full-time contributors (Monolith Productions and WB Games Montréal)

Project Length: ≈ 3.5 years

Game Tools: Proprietary In-house Tools, Perforce, Final Draft, Twine, LocalizeDirect, Audacity

Team Tools: Confluence, Jira, Slack, Microsoft 365, Miro

SUMMARY

In 2022, I joined Monolith Productions. I filled the studio's first creative narrative design role, supporting emergent storytelling for the Wonder Woman game.

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For three incredible years, I wrote, designed, and implemented original procedural stories within the Nemesis System.

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If you want someone who can wear many narrative and design hats, and talk to multiple departments easily, Ellie is the person you want. They’re a narrative powerhouse and a team all-rounder who will own any role they take on.

Ceri Young, Assistant Narrative Director
WB Games Montréal

CONTRIBUTIONS

GAME WRITING

NARRATIVE WORLDBUILDING

LORE HISTORIAN

MISSION DESIGN

GAME WRITING

My primary role on the Narrative team was writing for the emergent stories at the foundation of the patented Nemesis System, first unveiled in the studio's GOTY hit Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor™.
 

I was also a frequent collaborator on our systems design and mission teams. Together, we developed holistic solutions to address challenges we faced when crafting stories for procedurally generated characters and story beats.

WRITING FOR THE NEMESIS SYSTEM

  • Pitched, developed, and wrote for original Nemesis System voices and identities

  • Wrote, designed, and implemented golden path content incorporating procedural characters and traits

  • Owned the exploration of character naming conventions, earned titles, and designed the prerequisites system to determine how names and titles were assigned systemically

  • Identified and optimized key Nemesis bark requirements for mission and sandbox content​​

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COLLABORATIVE WRITING

  • Contributed to developing the game story and finding creative solutions as part of a large (10+) writers’ room

  • Crafted pitches, bios, and casting docs for existing DC characters consistent with the project vision

  • Supported the golden path development of a region, answering to a senior writer and senior missions designer

  • Designed training materials used in onboarding a team of new writers and mission designers

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NARRATIVE WORLDBUILDING

As a writer/designer hybrid, I was the designated narrative contact for several of our teams.

 

 Supporting our concept art, environment art, sandbox, and world design teams, I led cross-departmental efforts to develop and refine our game world. Operating within the guidelines of a well-established IP, I collaborated closely with our world construction designers to create new locations and develop pre-existing locales.

NARRATIVE WORLDBUILDING​

  • Designed and fleshed out new locations within the DC Universe

  • Crafted comprehensive narrative worldbuilding materials for in-house and external developers

  • Maintained narrative consistency across regions while ensuring each individual location retained a unique, memorable identity within a vast open-world map

  • Vetted supporting content tied to each point-of-interest location, ensuring missions and sandbox content appropriately aligned with the location theming and lore​

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LORE HISTORIAN

I was responsible for condensing DC Comics lore and niche historical topics into clear, accessible insights for our various teams which included artists, designers, animators, and writers.

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Using our reference libraries, including the entire digital catalog of Wonder Woman comics and DC Comics guidelines, I worked closely with various team leads to identify potential issues early and provided narrative solutions that empowered our artists and designers.

RESEARCH AND LORE KEEPING​

  • Created visual lore reference materials and narrative content summaries

  • Performed lore editorial checks on pitch documents across all art and design teams

  • Maintained our internal wikis for narrative accuracy and consistency

  • Developed writing style guide resources for the narrative team with inputs from DC Comics​

MISSION DESIGN

My time at Monolith started on the Missions design team, crafting story-driven gameplay featuring Nemesis characters. By the time I was formally brought onto the Narrative team, I had supported and maintained the content of senior missions designers and had implemented golden path missions independently.

MISSION RESPONSIBILITES

  • Designed, implemented, and refined missions to showcase a heroic, compassionate player character

  • Utilized text-based and visual scripting, as well as in-house tools, to build content including dynamic quest objectives, interactable objects, and environmental puzzles

  • Contributed to regular design playtests, production meetings, and narrative discussions

  • Successfully resolved bug tickets and iterated on content, striving for the highest possible polish bar and quality

COLLABORATORS

​I had the privilege to work closely with some incredibly talented people at Monolith Productions. They have kindly agreed to speak to my contributions, technical ability, and collaborative spirit.

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©2022 by Ellie Tsang Kirkner.

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