Miranda Pellegrino, Lead Narrative Designer for Nesting Games Talks The Directorate: Novitiate – Interview Series

Nesting Games, a subsidiary studio of Digital Bros, has formally announced The Directorate: Novitiate, a “magical gangster” third-person action RPG for PC. The game, which is currently working towards an Early Access release in 2025, will reportedly blend a mixture of magical abilities, choice-based gameplay, and a “world of conflicting duality and supernatural forces.” To add, the Quebec-based studio will also be looking to fuse a rich and in-depth character evolution system with multiple intertwining story arcs. Color us intrigued!

In an effort to learn more about the upcoming RPG, I decided to sit down with Nesting Games’ Lead Narrative Designer, Miranda Pellegrino.

Thanks for sitting down and speaking with us — we appreciate the opportunity to learn more about your upcoming game, The Directorate: Novitiate. Before we delve into the details, though, please could you introduce yourself to our readers and tell us a bit about your involvement with Nesting Games?

Miranda: Thanks for having me! I’m Miranda Pellegrino, the Lead Narrative Designer at Nesting Games. I started as a Junior Writer here about two years ago, moving from Massachusetts to Quebec City. Initially, I wrote  dialogues, cinematic scripts, quest content, and more for the main characters. Eventually, I established their backgrounds, voices, and the direction of the story. Now, I’m leading the narrative and collaborating daily with my outstanding colleagues. Together we’re bringing the game to life. It’s incredibly creatively fulfilling!

Let’s jump into The Directorate: Novitiate. Paint us a picture of Los Angeles’ supernatural underworld and its magical syndicates, if you’d be so kind. What’s the story here, and who will we be playing as in this world?

Miranda: Kana Luna returns to her home of LA after being on the run from a killer. She’s spent the last two years training as an enforcer named Mercury under the Costa Muerta, one of the many Dark Syndicates in the world. She’s had a gift, the ability to see the past in visions – and now those visions are important: There’s a magical serial killer on the loose, targeting powered people. Los Angeles is the start of her adventures, in trying to solve this case, discovering her powers, getting caught up in the supernatural underworld – all while she’s trying to juggle her day-to-day tasks and her everyday normal life. Day or night, you never know what’s around the corner.

It sounds as if Mercury will have a lot more to deal with in addition to the Dark Syndicate of the Directorate. On that note, you’ve mentioned juggling several day-to-day tasks. Please could you tell us more about these daytime activities and how they’ll differ from the nocturnal ones?

Miranda: Kana’s got friends and family in Los Angeles, people she cares about but she walked away from. Now that she’s back, Kana needs to resume her life and pick up where she left off. Daytime is where she catches up with people, rebuilding relationships, and discovering what’s new since she’s been gone. Her friends care about her, but does she risk letting them get close? At night, Mercury must investigate a serial killer while fending off enemies vying for territory. Magic is secretly everywhere, like a predator lying in wait. War is coming and Kana has choices to make, for better or for worse.

From what we’ve gathered, the choices we make will play a huge part in the evolution of our character’s abilities. Could you tell us more about these decisions, as well as how they’ll impact the overall gameplay and/or storyline?

Miranda: Your abilities are not just useful in combat, but out of combat too. How you build your character has an impact on how you can interact with people and how you impact the world.  As Mercury, you might decide to ignore a plea for help, let an enemy live, or even kill an ally – all of these decisions have impacts later in the game. Some are small. Some are significant. What’s important is that the player has the agency to decide who their Mercury is, who their Kana Luna is – and they live with the consequences of their decisions. Ultimately, your actions as Mercury will determine who lives and who dies.

Credit: Nesting Games

We’re itching to hear more about this in-depth RPG leveling system and the abilities that it will bring to the table. Tell us, what sorts of elemental powers and skills will we be able to unlock over the course of the story?

Miranda: Mercury has her ability to see into the past unlocked from the start of the game, but after that – players get a variety of spells to choose from. They’re not elemental in nature – they are based on physical and mental properties, allowing Mercury to build a wall for cover or manipulating enemies into attacking their allies. Also, the different types of magic are a little darker than traditional RPGs. In the Directorate, you pull your magic from another realm to harness it. It’s dangerous.

Alternating between two vastly different lives doesn’t sound like a walk in the park, I’ll say that much. Do you have any useful words of advice for those who might be looking to pick up a copy of The Directorate: Novitiate?

Miranda: To anyone thinking of playing the game, go with your gut and play the Mercury you want to be. Just know that you can’t make everyone happy – not in the real world, and not in the Directorate: Novitiate. We’ll say that, “All is fair in love and war.”

The Directorate: Novitiate is due to launch in Early Access on PC later this year. Do you plan on bringing the game to Xbox or PlayStation in the foreseeable future, too, or will it be exclusive for PC?

Miranda: Right now we’re focused on our Early Access for PC. We’d love to see it on consoles and bring the experience to as many players as possible.

Credit: Nesting Games

How can we stay up to date with The Directorate: Novitiate? Would you mind providing us with some useful social handles, newsletters, or roadmaps?

Miranda: Our Steam store page is updated every week with new content, trailers, screenshots, interviews with the game developers, and so much more. We’re making it our go-to place for all news on our game. You’ll see it there first.

Would you like to add any final touches to this story before we bring it to its final chapter?

Miranda: We’re a very excited, small team (as in everyone fits in one room). We’re trying to make sure everyone here has a creative voice to shape the final product. Hopefully, people like what we’re creating! We’ve been collaborating on a game that is both familiar and completely new, comfortable and uncomfortable. You get a sense of nostalgia just before you jolt upright in your seat with goosebumps and say, “What the hell was that?” We want that weird, freaky, strange thing that is a unique experience you won’t forget.

Thanks again for speaking with us about your upcoming game, Miranda — we can’t wait to see more of it!

You can find more information on Nesting Games’ The Directorate: Novitiate on X. For even more updates and pre-launch news coverage, be sure to add the game to your wishlist on Steam here.