Design Systems

Worldbuilding System — My Neighbor Alice

The Challenge

How do you let players self-express in a shared world while keeping coherence across regions, quests, and narrative arcs?

The Solution

I designed a scalable worldbuilding system: a narrative framework that acts as both a support layer for player creativity and a backbone for quests, economy, and features.

Core Principles

  • Consistency: Ensuring the tone and logic of each island and region.

  • Believability: The world needs to feel tangible despite being whimsical.

  • Overarching beings: Building a mythology inspired by diverse folklore.

  • Boundaries: Setting rules (non-violent, cozy, mature) to preserve tone.

  • Flexibility: Framework open enough for players to create their own stories.

How It Works

  • Macro System: Defines overarching mythology and rules of the archipelago.

  • Island Layer: Each island has its own theme, protector spirit, and narrative focus (e.g., Medieval Plains inspired by classic tales).

  • Regional Layer: More specific tone & story arcs (e.g., Gloomy Gulch exploring maturity and shadowy escapism through the character of Acorna).

  • Creative References: Visual, tonal, and cultural references on a Figma board (e.g., Over the Garden Wall, Art Nouveau for Gloomy Gulch).

  • Cross-Disciplinary Integration; Collaboration with concept art, music, and character design teams.

  • Deliverables: collaborate with artists to create concept art, NPCs, locations, quests, and assets.

Outcome

  • A narrative system scalable enough to act like a nest for design features, art assets, quests and characters.

  • A living mythology that makes the world feel coherent as it possesses its own system and rules yet player-driven.

  • Stronger immersion through cross-media references (visuals, sound, tone).

Case Study: Gloomy Gulch Region

Gloomy Gulch was designed as a mature counterpoint to Alice’s bright, cozy tone. Its narrative explores the idea that escapism isn’t always lighthearted, it can also be shadowy and introspective.
Drawing on references like Over the Garden Wall and Art Nouveau, I collaborated with the concept art, music, and design teams to shape its eerie yet poetic atmosphere.
NPCs and quests in this region focus on guiding players through challenges of self-doubt and resilience, creating a meaningful emotional contrast within the world.

Gloomy Gulch Music composed by Vaidotas Zamas @DopaLink

Brand Integration - ELLE│Pudgy Penguins│ Persona

The Challenge

How do you give value to players who engage with a brand experience without breaking their immersion?

The Solution

At My Neighbor Alice, I designed Brand Quests: immersive collaborations between our cozy Web3 universe and real-world brands. Unlike traditional advertising, these quests allowed players to interact with a brand’s values through storytelling, exploration, and character-driven gameplay.

Games benefit by offering their community unique narrative content and assets. Brands gain authentic engagement with a new audience in a playful, immersive way.

How It Worked

  • Narrative Integration: Each brand was integrated into Alice’s lore through characters, regions, and quest arcs that respected the world’s emotional tone.

  • Place-Based Discovery: Collaborations introduced new landmarks and regions for players to explore.

  • Player’s engagement: Players feel like they contribute to the world by engaging with the experience.

Case Study: ELLE

Process: Identified brand values (empowerment, sustainability, fashion as expression) in workshops with ELLE’s team, ensuring their vision guided the story. We define fashion expression and creativity as main concepts.

Narrative Design: Created three NPCs (Joy, Mel, Eliza), each embodying a creative “blocker” (over-creativity, perfectionism, lack of resources).
The main story arc centred on restoring their friendship, with the player acting as facilitator.

Gameplay Integration:

    • Exclusive ELLE land near town hubs.

    • Quests tied to crafting mechanics (players earned recipes, crafted items with  $ALICE token).

    • Clothing collection inspired by ELLE collections, curated for Web3 audiences.

Outcome: Delivered a questline that blended ELLE’s identity with Alice’s lore, deepened immersion, and rewarded players with unique, story-driven items.

Design Documentation - My Neighbor Alice

This document introduces a narrative-driven content feature for My Neighbor Alice: Roaming Spirits, small roaming critters that bring the world to life and deepen immersion.

The feature builds on an existing in-game system, extending it with narrative and aesthetic layers. While initially designed as a purely narrative addition, it was developed with scalability in mind, remaining open for further design and gameplay integration.

Process

  • Collaborated with developers to understand the system and its technical constraints.

  • Consulted with Art, Sound, Game Direction, and Production to evaluate feasibility.

  • Proposed an enclosed system (templates for behavior/traits) to avoid fully custom builds for each critter.

Content of the Document

  • Definition of Spirits as part of Alice’s lore

  • Concept & Design goals

  • System framework and characteristics

  • Examples of Spirits, each with backstory tied to the world’s culture and environment

Outcome
The document illustrates how a narrative concept can be scoped into a feasible feature: one that enriches immersion immediately while staying flexible for future design expansion.

  • Roaming Spirits are whimsical, ephemeral beings that traverse the archipelago of Lummelunda.

    These small humanoid creatures are inspired by Miyazaki-style forest spirits and take influence from natural elements, regional traditions, and emotions.

    They are designed to infuse the world with life, personality, and wonder appearing at unexpected times to remind players of the whimsicality of the world of Alice.

    Characteristics

    Form: Humanoid; inspired by natural elements (e.g., acorn heads with arms and legs).

    Class: Spirits Creatures Size: Small to medium-small; always smaller than 4-legged animals Arrival: They interact with buildings, nature, and player plots. They may sit on fences, bounce on rooftops, vanish behind bushes...
    Emotionally Reactive: They change color and shape depending on nearby player emotions, region events, or their own moods.

    Movement Types: Based on personality and region: walk, hop, float, dash, spiral, flutter…

    Personality Trait Pool (3 per spirit)

    Curious
    Shy │ Mischievous Gentle │ Loyal │Playful │Proud │ Melancholic │Hopeful │ Sleepy │ Spirited/passionate │Stoic │Eager │Elegant │Hectic │Dismissive │Mellow │Independent │Tidy│Talkative

    For each region, the Roaming Spirit is defined by:

    • Its Island and Regionʼs value given by the Protector Spirit (e.g. Morality, Freedom, etc.)

    • A personality trio from the trait pool

    • A preferred movement style (Dev will define that based on the traits)

    • A backstory which expands on the regionʼs story, often being a consequence of it.

    Spirit Catalogue

    🦋Gloomy Gulch (Value: Morality) Personality Traits Trio

    • Melancholic – The spirit holds a quiet sadness, but not despair more like gentle longing.

    • Elegant – their movements should feel like drifting silk or falling petals, matching the Art Nouveau influence.

    • Hopeful – to reflect the subtle light and gentle beauty that still shines through the regionʼs grief.

    Movement style: Gently floats like a little ghost, swaying like itʼs caught in wind that only it can feel. Sometimes disappears entirely, then reappears.
    Backstory: No one knows where this spirit came from, not even himself. It is said the spirit was once something—or someone before the Great Earthquake, but when the land cracked, its name and purpose fell into the ravine. Now it wanders softly through Gloomy Gulch, drawn to lingering echoes and glimmers of beauty. It rarely approaches others, though itʼs known to sit quietly near grieving players or gently land on flowers causing butterflies to fly away.

    🪨Rusty Pikes (Value: Change) Personality Traits Trio

    • Gentle

    • Loyal

    • Melancholic

    Movement style: Moves little in little steps, Goes close to its appearance point. sometimes pausing to sit and hum (a deep, quiet rumble). May lie down and “nap” to blend with the landscape
    Backstory: This spirit is said to have formed from the last tear shed by the tallest of the ‘'sleeping giantsʼ'. When the giants laid down to protect the valley, their memory carved itself into the stones and bloomed into this tiny guardian. Though small, it carries an enormous heart. It wanders Rusty Pikes, quietly tending to flowers and occasionally pausing at the mountainʼs edge to listen to the deep snore-rumbles of its ancestors. Sometimes, it stares at the horizon with a knowing sadness, as if remembering what it never lived