Two of the greatest driving points behind the story of Tempus were the need to show Belle’s journey from naivete child to strong assured adult, and to capture the humor and awesomeness of being within a comic book world. In the beginning, Belle would be naive, pure, and confused at her predicament.
As the game progresses and Belle spends more time with Raven, her adult, strong, corrupted, and cynical alter-ego, she journeys through hardships that will prepare her for the ‘real’ world. The final confrontation between the two sees Belle transcending both her previous naivete and Raven’s cruelty, becoming a woman who has learned from both.
This is seen in the final panel, where Belle awakens from her slumber in the real world, her iris’ now the same color as Raven’s.
We didn’t want the story to be all serious, however. Playful banter between both Belle and Raven, and at times other characters, kept the experience flowing, serving as breaks to keep the player from being burned out on an overly serious tone. Additionally, Belle’s knowledge that this was not the ‘real’ world, and Raven’s knowledge that Belle was not of her world, allowed them to break the fourth wall as they saw fit (the following panels take place in the anime-styled section, and thus reads left to right).
That the story was being told in the medium of a comic book was also a great factor in the story itself. Text bubbles allowed characters to express more emotion than they might normally in silent stories and, as in comics in the real world, the comic cells themselves, their shape, and the space between, gave the action within greater power. Additionally, as we were in a digital space, we were able to further manipulate the comic, adding effects such as camera shakes, animations, and sounds throughout. Being able to see some of the upcoming action as the pages turned further heighten anticipation.
Jacob Mott 