Game writing interactive narrative interactive storytelling

1. Gamewritinginteractivenarrativeinteractivestorytelling marcin.sarnek@us.edu.pl http://prac.us.edu.pl/~marcin.sarnek

2. Defining ‘game writing’ • Story / Game story / Game • Story / Plot • Story / Plot ≠ Gameplay! • Story / Plot ≠ Storytelling ≠ Narrative • Game Narrative ≠ Gameplay ≠ Game story • Interactive Narrative ≠ Interactive storytelling

3. Purposes of Game Writing • Purposes of gamewritingshould be – attheend of theday – the same as thepurposes of game development? • Immersion • Reward • Identification • Flow • Fiero moment • In otherwords – thepurposes of gamewritingare to deliver / create / facilitatetheabovethroughwriting.

4. Game Writing Tasks • Game story • Gameworld design • Character design • Backstory • Supportingtexts • Cutscenes / scriptedevents • Dialoguewriting(in cutscenes, inscriptedevents and in-gamedialogues) • Gameartifacts • Asset design

5. Plot • Aristotle’s Poetics • Plot – a sequence of meaningful events • Plot unfolds as a result of a conlfict • Internal or external conflict experienced by the main character • Freytag’s Triangle

6. Peripetia / climax Diesis / tying Lusis / resolution / denoument Aristotle’s STORY ARC on the Freytag’s Triangle

8. Morphology of the Folktale • Vladimir Propp, „Morphology of the Folktale”,1928 (English translation 1958). • a founding text of structuralism • 31 functions within folktales • 8 character types • The hero or victim • False hero • The villain • The dispatcher • The (magical) helper • The donor • The princess or prize • Her father

9. Morphology of theFolktale – structuralanalysis • Syntactic analysis – analysing a sequence of events. • Paradigmatic analysis – seeking structure of the work which does not need to be the same as the syntactic structure. • Synchronic analysis – anylizing (and intepreting) the work / the plot as a sequence of events. • Diachronic analysis – analyzing (and intepreting) the work as a whole.

10. The Hero’s Journey • Joseph Cambell, Hero with a Thousand Faces, 1949. • Influenced by C. G. Jung • collective unconsciousness / archetypes • common patterns found in numerous stories from around the world • The Hero’s Journey

11. Supreme Ordeal Special World Inmost Cave The Road of Trials Allies / Enemies Ordinary world Return Initiation Threshold Demon / Guardian Departure The Road Back The Threshold Mentor appears Refusal of the Call Resurection Call to Adventure Returns with Elixir Cambell’s model of the Hero’s Journey on the Freytag’s Triangle

12. Three Act Screenplay model • One page = one minute • Act One • Set up (exposition) – mood, tone, main character • First Plot Point • Act Two • Mid Point – Main reversal / change/ intensification • Plot Point Two (Climax) • Act Three • denoument

13. Plot Point Two Act Two Mid Point Act Three Plot Point One Act One Three Act Screenplay Model

14. Supreme Ordeal Special World Inmost Cave The Road of Trials Allies / Enemies Ordinary world Return Initiation Threshold Demon / Guardian Departure The Road Back The Threshold Mentor appears Refusal of the Call Resurection Call to Adventure Returns with Elixir Cambell’s model of the Hero’s Journey on the Freytag’s Triangle

15. Campbell’s character models • (supposedly) based on Jungian archetypes • The Mentor • The Threshold Guardian • The Trickster • The Herald • The Shapeshifter • The Shadow • etc.

16. Thesignificance of theHero’sJourney • A scholarly (although heavily critisized) text is read as a manual for storytelling • Consequence – a storytelling trap. • Think Star Wars again. • Campbell’s model simplified: • Hero gets in trouble. Hero gets out of trouble. (Kurt Vonnegut)

17. Aristotle’sPoetics: theremainingelements of the story • Theme / Thought • Motivations, cogitations of themaincharacter • Internalmonologue, soliloquis • THE WHY? • Medium (Diction / Pattern) • Languageused • THE HOW? • Spectacle • Setting • Set • SpecialEffects

18. Story vs. Narrative • Story: plot – sequence of events, set to motion and driven by charactersin a fictionalspace • Narrative: allmethodsused to communicatethe story to theaudience • In otherwords: • Changesinnarrative do not changethe story YET • The same story (the same plot) + differentspectacle = differentnarrative • The same narrativemethods (similarspectacles) do not createthe same stories • Thinkgamegenres…

19. Videogamestorytelling: basic (theoretical) deliverymethods • Not TYPES (genres) of games but deliverymethods. • Story developsindirect RESPONSE to player action • B happens BECAUSE player did A OR • Story developspartialllyinresponse to player action (for exampleinstricltylineargames) • B happens AFTER player did A OR • Story developsirrespective of player action. • B happensanyway, it’sjust a matter of time…

20. Videogamestorytelling – a nice optimistictheory • Implicit Narrative • Formal Narrative • Interactive Narrative • Interactive Story

21. Implicit Narrative • EmergentNarrative • A powerfuldevice (ifyoucan master it) • On a certain, levelnarrative (and hencestorytelling) happensdue to cause and effectconnectionscreated by theaudience (reader, moviegoer, player). Thus, storiesaredeveloped by inventingconnectionsbetweenactions / events. • Reader’sresponsetheory (post-structuralism) explainsit SO MUCH BETTER.

22. Implicit Narrative • Interaction of elementswithingame system to developeventswhichmay be interpreted as story – resultsthatare IMPLICIT to thegame system. • In game-spacenarrativeelementsare NOT SCRIPTED formally, but happennonetheless. • How to controlprescriptedevents – well, it’srealtivelyeasy • How to controlnon-prescriptedevents??? • Implicitnarrativemakesthe player experienceunique (high-levelnarrativevs. lowlevelnarrative)

23. Formal Narrative • Prescriptedmethods • Diegetic: • NPC dialogue • Scriptedevents • Artifacts (textfiles) • Splashscreens, etc. • Cutscenes / cinematics • Nondiegeticelements of thenarrative • ‘Prescripted’ does not meannon-interactive’ – all of thesecan be triggeredinresponse to player action – that’showInteractiveNarrativeiscreated

24. Interactive Narrative • Implicit narrative combined with Formal narrative methods • Player’s actions are ‘echoed’ in the narrative as often as possible • Creates an illusion (?) of Player Agency • E.g. : • responses to player success or failure • responses to other in-game actions

25. Interactive Story • Player actionshaveconsequences upon the STORY, not only upon the NARRATIVE • So – not only HOW the story gets ‘told’ (communicated) isinteractive (responsive to player actions) but also WHAT iscommunicated, onthe PARADIGMATIC LEVEL, isresponsive to player actions • Player Agency no longer an illusion? (well, not quite) • IS IT AT ALL POSSIBLE? IF NOT – WHY? • Budgets (multiplestorylinesneed to be developed – moreonthisinthefuturelectures) • OTHER REASONS?

26. So how is game story delivered? • Narrative delivery • Game structure • Progress structure • Stucture of the story itself (plot) • Player Agency

27. Narrative delivery • Text • Dialogue • Staticimages • Camera cases • CutScenes (in-engine/ scriptedor FMV) • Scriptedevents

28. Game structure • Well, things are (or should be) getting interesting here • How to structure the game to actualy deliver a story? • Well, it seems to be relatively simple with strictly linear games • Well – it isn’t! • Just one example: how to control the pacing of the game to deliver the story?

29. Progress structure • How and in what conditions major developments in the game story are ‘allowed’ • Four major models: • Linear • Continous • Domain • Contigous

30. Linear progress structure • Linear series of game levels • Story is parallel to gameplay • Narrative delivery of choice: • Cutscenes between the levels (reward) • Mission briefings, • In game texts, etc.

31. Continous Progress Structure • Gameprogressislinear • Yet no conceptualbreaksbetweengameareas • ‘A single journey’ • Reversemovementallowed! • Usually no cutscenes (why?) • Narartivematerialpresented ‘live’ – possiblyinprescripted form (scriptedevents) • Playersoften do not need to ‘participate’ inthenarrative (thinkHalf-Life) • Or intriggeredevents • Playersneed to participateinthenarrative, and canonlyselect to skip its parts

32. Domain Progress Structure • A central hub, from which the player ‘operates’ • Upon completion of a task new domains are open • Players may chose to revisit domains • This means that narrative material must be presented selectively, but certainly (no need to present redundant narrative material to the player who has previously completed the level). • Also – if revisits are expected – alteranative versions of dialogue are also expected from the writer

33. Contiguous Progress Structure • The illusion of a complete, explorable world • Movement allowed in all directions • Contigous structures can use domain structure elements (think TES IV:Oblivion, TES V: Skyrim)