Nightfall: voice and tone design

The challenge

Nightfall was a Research & Development exercise for the BBC, to create the BBC’s first online multiplayer game and build the capabilities to support online gaming.

To complement the brand documentation for the BBC’s first online multiplayer game, I led the cocreation of the brand voice and tone with our editorial and design colleagues.

I also led on content for the app and web UI, Bestiary (an index of all the game’s monsters, lore and characters) and website.

How I approached it

• facilitated a series of voice and tone workshops with editorial, product, marketing and design stakeholders
• mapped ‘interaction groups’ to steer the brand tone in different contexts
• created documentation, and co-designed app settings, Bestiary and narrative content with editorial colleagues to embed the guidelines within the team
• supported usability testing, focusing on language comprehension and effectiveness of the brand’s voice and tone

The result

Nightfall reached over 10,000 downloads on iOS and Android, with a Play Store rating of 4.1/5.

Comprehensive voice and tone documentation helped editorial teams to create clear, usable and entertaining content for seasonal updates two years.

In 2021, Nightfall was decommissioned. But I’ve built a strong relationship with our R&D department as a result of the project and still provide content design support.