Molecule Profile: Emei Burell

Emei Burell spends her time dreaming up exciting new narrative opportunities for Media Molecule games, crafting both powerful stories, and influencing game progression for players. Most recently, she helped design the art for the fantastically colourful DreamsCom '22 show hall. Here, we talk to Emei about balancing narrative with community content, crafting the perfect portfolio, and why she'll never make a horror game.

Hi Emei! What do you do here at Media Molecule?

I'm a narrative artist at Media Molecule, which I guess is a sort of uncommon title, but what it means is that I create both art and storytelling. I work on a lot of the environmental design from start to finish, drafting concept sketches on paper first then modelling them in 3D to put together concept versions of the game levels. I also work closely together with the design teams on the narrative of the game and to decide what the story should be. We have to work out how this connects with the mechanics and gameplay, and whilst I do write a little bit of dialogue, it's mostly about the big bones of the story, the major story beats and flow.

It’s an unusual job role for sure! How do you design the narrative flow for an experience like DreamsCom?

For every event we do, we like to create a subtle narrative flow behind these experiences. For DreamsCom we wanted a situation where you get some kind of quest at the beginning and then find these hidden spaces that you encounter around the event, which basically became the notebook and secret coMmunity rooms. This idea came from the suggestion that there should be something exciting to discover within the coMmunity booths, so whilst you're exploring you come across these hidden spaces that show off some secret info, like coMmunity comments for example.

We also included that very gamey element of featuring collectibles, so that once you've collected all of them, it unlocks the final area. In the final version that released, the secret area was a teaser for this years All Hallows' event, but originally it was intended to be a unique VIP climax for the event - though I think the Halloween teaser worked out better. So that's what the initial ideas around DreamsCom were like narrative-wise, with the collectibles and hidden secrets being the things that tie it all together. It gives you more of a part to play in the experience as you’re wandering around the show floor.

Obviously there's all the coMmunity content that you can walk around and look at, but if you feel a bit aimless, then these sub-stories can give you some direction. So we created these secret rooms at regular intervals throughout all the UGC [User Generated Content] booths. And that pushes you to proceed through more of the UGC content because you're also looking for these hidden narrative experiences, if that's what drives you as a player.

One thing I would love to do more of is environmental storytelling. There’s some amazing work in games like The Last of Us or Stray where they have a lot of narrative graffiti that reveals more about the state of the world without it having to be shared in cutscenes or story moments. Or something like in The Walking Dead as well, where there will be a locked door saying “DON’T OPEN, UNDEAD INSIDE!” It’s something I'd like to look at and incorporate more in the events and content we produce.

Fab. So there might be some zombie content coming into Dreams at some point from you, then?

I would say horror is really not in my wheelhouse. Just look at DreamsCom: that's like, the least creepy horror style art you can possibly look at, all bright and pastelly! But now that you say that, it could be an interesting setting for a zombie scenario - a happy-go-lucky environment filled with people that eat your brains.

What do you think is your favourite thing you’ve worked on since joining Mm?

It's for sure DreamsCom. And I enjoyed working on the Inside the Box VR update. But DreamsCom has been a real highlight, as I actually had the opportunity to really direct the art and where we were taking it visually. I felt really honoured and amazed that the company trusted my vision for that and the visual direction I was proposing. And it was really fun to figure out how we combine this with the coMmunity content and make it work together.

Is it a challenge to balance your own creative vision against all of the community creations?

Yeah, it's tricky because you have to find that balance of not distracting the player too much with everything else you place in the scene. It needs to be neutral enough that the UGC gets to shine, and that it doesn't overpower whatever's being presented in the submissions from the coMmunity. But you still want to make a really inspiring environment for the player to explore, leaving a lot of open space to ensure that you have these little pocket moments where the booths can stand out by themselves and catch the focus of the player. I'm sure it's a similar challenge in audio design as well, where I imagine you have to do something ambient enough that the player notices it, but that isn't overpowering or drowning out other audio cues.

Perhaps the hardest part of the balancing was finding the right moments to really whack up the style and not overdoing it everywhere. Because if you do have it all at 100% everywhere all the time, then it's just too much and a lot of players don't want to engage with something like that. We actually had this issue multiple times where we wanted to do something wild and then we were like, 'No, wait a moment that would actually pull focus away from some of the UGC', which defeats the point of an event like DreamsCom. So that's always a consideration I feel. But DreamsCom was a really interesting challenge as we wanted to create something a bit more flamboyant with the graphics that complemented the UGC, and I think we certainly managed to achieve that.

Was narrative design something that you've always been interested in, or did the idea of this career naturally come to you when you started looking for what you wanted to do?

I guess for quite a while I didn't know what I wanted to do. I tried a bunch of different things, studying languages and Fine Arts. Originally my plan was to become an engineer, but then I thought: I'll regret it if I don't give art a chance. Before starting at Mm my degree was in comics, which is obviously completely different from games, so sometimes it surprises me that I'm here. I'm like, 'Wait, I'm making games, that doesn't align with what I did before!' But when you think about it, it makes sense, as making comics is all about pairing visuals with narrative, which is a big part of my role now.

Given that you’ve looked at a lot of different things that you wanted to do, what actually led you to getting into the game industry?

Well, towards the end of my degree, we had to do an internship for the last six months of the course - and to be completely honest, there are no jobs in comics. So I was looking at like what other options are out there, which included roles like storyboarding for animation and concept art for both animation and games. My university had a bunch of contacts at companies where previous students had done internships, and I just compiled a huge list that was both animation companies, game companies and some publishing houses and arranged them by interest.

There were quite a few game companies because games seemed so fun to work on, and I knew very little about the industry but it seemed super fun. So I sent out like 60 internship emails to all kinds of companies and Mm actually got back to me, and I was really shocked when that happened. And now I've been here for three years. So there we go. I really feel like internships helped me a bunch but maybe I was the exception and not the rule. But it doesn’t hurt to send out a ton of applications to a bunch of places and see what happens.

Do you have any tips for anyone that's looking to get into the industry, especially into art or narrative design?

From an art perspective, it's all about the portfolio, honestly. I’d say you don't actually even need any particular education, though it can help because it gives you the skills to make that killer portfolio that gets you the job. But there's a lot of self-trained people out there. And with the portfolio, don't be afraid to show your personality in it. Show what makes you tick and what's special about your take, or your vision, or how you see things. Companies want to see personality to know if you're a fit for them or not. If you're not, it's not necessarily that something is wrong with you or your portfolio, it's just not a match for them.

But again, the internships were so important for me; it helps you make a lot of connections that help you to understand the industry, and it helps you get some of that initial work experience. And who knows? If you give it your all, that could also lead to a job.

Finally, I’d say go and do game jams, meet people, talk to people, make your own games. If you’re out there making games, then you’re a game maker and someone will notice you. But you have to put yourself out there first.

Mm staff seem to have a lot of interesting items on their desks. What's on your desk at the moment?

So I keep my desk pretty empty, but it's slowly piling up, and currently there are a couple of books. One is a poetry collection, and the other is about witchcraft, which I think I took from work. I mean, I'm borrowing it from work. The other book is about writing for games, so it's more like a study book. And then I have this lovely illustration made by Francis [featuring Sackboy holding the Pride flag], that was sent out to all Mm employees for Pride month. Then obviously I have some plants and a tiny Sackboy that I got from Sony when I started. Apart from that, I have a pin from the Back to the Future Musical.

I think John Beech is the perfect person to ask this question, because at work he had like a million Lego things on his desk, and they were hanging above and all around his desk, which if I’m honest stressed me out a bit (sorry, John!). I personally need the space around me to be orderly in order to frame my mind for my work.

So to wrap up, what are your favourite Dreams, and are there any that you'd like to recommend?

I think the first one I want to highlight is The Snowgardens by HalfUp and DiamondDiancie10. Visually it's such a treat, and the game design and mechanics are also really interesting, which makes it just such an enjoyable experience. I think they're making The Sandgardens next, so I'm really looking forward to seeing more of and playing that one.

And then I have to I have to put witchy woods by Awesome_David on my list because I played it for the first time, like, a couple of months ago. I can't believe it took me so long and it just blew my mind, it honestly had me laughing so loud. I love the humour of it and I love the simplicity of it, and I want more swatpaz [Awesome_David’s Twitter name]. Can we get more, please? Can you just make more witchy woods? This is my request for you through the power of this interview. Please make more witchy woods.

And the final one I'd like to recommend is called Heart Shaped Candies, by Eedobaba. I love it for the fact that it's such a tiny little experience, but I also love it for the wild narrative. I don't think it's longer than three to five minutes, but it takes you for a real emotional ride. And I love the simplicity of it. There are so many of these awesome dreams out there that are so simple, yet so intelligent and I adore the lovely twist at the end.

But I’d also like to like give one last special shout out to MODI: Son of Thor by ShaneMarshall3D. They’re an amazing artist and it's really impressive to just even look at this game. I haven't actually played it, but I desperately want to - I just need to find the time to sit down and get stuck in. But I had to give a special shoutout to this game as well because, visually, just looking at it has blown me away.