christopher Ellington
Game and Narrative Design
Nicki Minaj: The Empire
Mobile Narrative Celebrity Game
Glu Mobile
Nicki Minaj: The Empire is a celebrity role-playing game for mobile devices. The game features the music, voice, likeness, and inspiration of Nicki Minaj, the queen of rap.
As a Narrative Game Designer for the project, I helped develop the characters and storyline of the game, write quest scripts, and script narrative sequences using the game's custom scripting editor.
Narrative Game Designer
- Narrative Design
- Game Writing
- Game Design
- Scripting/Staging
Characters
Nicki Minaj: The Empire.
Primary Characters
Nicki Minaj - The Mentor
Darius King - Label Owner/Antagonist
Bitta Sweet - Rival Rapper
Kayla - Best Friend/Manager
Secondary Characters
Kidd Cray - Crazy/Wise Rapper
Captain PepperJack - Restaurant Owner/Mascot
... and more!
Narrative Themes
Narrative themes and recurring topics in Nicki Minaj: The Empire range from the highs and lows of fame, to the palace intrigue of music industry executives, and to the enduring power of love, friendship, and faith in oneself.
Themes and Topics
Fame (the good parts)
Friendship
Relationships
Uneasy Alliances
Palace Intrigue
Fame (the bad parts)
Temptation
Faith (in yourself and your friends)
Quest Writing
I worked alongside a team of talented game writers to write and edit dozens of quests for Nicki Minaj: The Empire. I was the primary writer for the quest featured in this video - the story of how you met Nicki Minaj.
Other Nicki Writers
Brandon Jerwa Alison McKenzie Jen Vaughn
Sample Quest Docs
Quest Scripting
Writing story and quest documents for Nicki Minaj: The Empire was only the first step in bringing the stories to life.
Using the game's custom script editor, I was able to place characters, move cameras, trigger animations and block out scenes for key moments in the game.
This video features scenes that I scripted, but most of the scripting work for the game was done by these two fine gentlemen.
Nicki Scripters
Danny Marks Brandyn Davis
Nicki Minaj: The Empire Writing Team:
Christopher Ellington, Brandon Jerwa, Alison McKenzie, Jen Vaughn
Nicki Minaj: The Empire Design Team:
Matthew Pellicane, Danny Marks, Brandyn Davis
Brannon Boren, Avery Bennet, Nicole Maiorano