WRJ230 Games Week 10

WRJ230 Games

Week 1 - What is Writing for Games?

What is writing for games?

Module and Learning Space overview

Topics covered

Assignments

New 15 Week Structure

Lets start idea generating!

Ideas Generation Matrix

Week 2 - Story Mechanics

Readings For the Week:

Game for the Week - Florence

Available on:

Steam

Mac

IOS App Store

Google Play

Nintendo Switch

GOG.com

Articles for the Week

Designing Florence to convey the ineffable feeling of being in love By Phill Cameron

Narrative Game Mechanics in Interactive Storytelling by Teun Dubbelman

Weaving morality into game mechanics with Papers, Please by Nick Christophi

That Dragon, Cancer: A game that wrestles with grief, hope, and faith by Sam Machkovech

How What Remains Of Edith Finch guides players with words by Alex Wiltshire

Medium

"We often assume that stories told in one medium are intrinsically inferior to those told in another." (Murray, 1997 Pg.273) - Or, everyone hates the next generation...

The Epics (grand poems)

Homer, Sophocles, Herodotus - Legit.... why?

THE DREADED CANON

Novels/Short Story

Did people respect these at first?

Spoiler: NOPE

Why???

Novels & Short Stories were for 'weak minded-women' who couldn't cope with the Latin Epics

Silent Film

POISONED THE MIND OF THE YOUTHS

‘The Talkies’

TOOK AWAY FROM THE TRUE STYLE OF CINEMA

Video Games

POISONED THE MIND OF THE YOUTHS

.... Starting to see a pattern here?

"We need every available form of expression and all the new ones we can to help us understand who we are an what we are ding here." (Murray, 1997 Pg.274)

Topic of the Week: STORY MECHANICS

Narrative in Games

Ludo Vs. Narrative

In the past there was a real debate over whether story/mechanics should be 'most important' in a game.

Could they co-exist?

Could they co-exist successfully?

Traditional Narrative

Telling somebody else that something happened’ (Ryan, 2004, Pg.13)

What's needed to 'tell' somebody about something happening?

A 'Narratee'

What is the weakness of tell?

Narrative as a Mental Construct

David Herman & David Bordwell - Cognitive Narratology

‘Narrative is a mental image 'a cognitive construct' built by the interpreter as a response to the text [...] But it does not take a representation proposed as narrative to trigger the cognitive construct that constitutes narrativity’ (Ryan, 2004 pg. 9-10)

The Human mind is 'programmed' to think in stories, we 'construct' a sequence.

A Narrative Schema

It's how we make sense of the world, an adaptation of humanity.

“Adaptiveness derives from the capacity of the human mind to build a store of experience in terms of individual, concrete cases—not just the actual lived and self-described experiences…but the narratives accumulated in memory that make up storytelling traditions” (Dutton 2009, 189).

E.g. 'The Angry Bear'

Environmental Storytelling & Narrative Architecture

Where does environmental storytelling as an idea come from?

'Environmental storytelling is a concept borrowed from theme park design' (Fernandez-Vara, 2011)

‘In many respects, it is the physical space that does much of the work of conveying the story the designers are trying to tell. Colour, lighting and even the texture of a place can fill an audience with excitement or dread.’ (Carson, 2000 Pg. 2)

E.g., The Haunted Masion

Example 1

Example 2

Game Mechanics

Mechanics - "Means to guide the player into particular behaviour by constraining the space of possible plans to attain goals" (Järvinen 2008: pg.254)

Mechanics - ‘Game mechanics are methods [behaviours] invoked by agents, designed for interaction with the game state’ [Sicart, 2008, Pg.23).

Essentially, anything you can do in the game whilst abiding by the game's rules.

Narrative Game Mechanics

'Narrative game mechanics invite agents, including the player, to perform actions that support the construction of engaging stories and fictional worlds in the embodied mind of the player.' (Dubbelman, 2016 Pg.43)

So, a narrative game mechanic is a ludic action the player is encouraged to perform to progress the story while giving them a sense of agency.

Florence

Developed by Mountains

About the life & first relationship of Florence Yeoh

What did you think about it? Take a few minutes to gather your thoughts.

What mechanics did you see? Or, which ones do you recall best? Hop into groups & make a list!

Interview with Ken Wong (Creative Director)

“We depict an event in their relationship quite literally, like choosing what objects to put on a shelf, or shaking Polaroids. These are simple, mundane activities, but they carry powerful associations for players.”

Player's 'take on' the role, i.e. have agency in progressing the story & feel more in-tune with Florence.

“Using speech bubble shapes as metaphors for dialogue was a powerful discovery, when we had to depict the characters arguing we revisited this metaphor, showing that the characters now talk to each other differently.”

Visual element of puzzle mechanic to convey emotion & tone - very clever

Solving a puzzle isn't just 'solving a puzzle' it's having a conversation, being a part of the conversation.

"Simplicity allows players to imagine more, and fill in the gaps"

What are they saying? Player's will infer.

This works great as a style in different genres & media too.

Music as voices

Each character was represented by an instrument

Florence - Piano

Krish - Cello

Matrix of Ideas

Filled in the first 24 in Wk.1

Now we'll expand!

Begin to fill in the 'Matrix of Forms', pulling first from your Matrix of Ideas

Basically you can fill in 24 of the 64 slots using those prompts

Then (if time) discuss in groups & see ways in which ideas can be combined

i.e. could your Racing Game ideas & Action (Horror) ideas somehow be combined?

Week 3 - Non-linear Story

Readings for the Week:

Game for the Week - Her Story

Articles for the Week

GDC Vault - Making 'Her Story' - Telling a Story Using The Player's Imagination

Make sure you are logged into your Falmouth library account to access this video. You may need to log in at the top right of the GDC Vault page and click for Falmouth access. If you have trouble, the YouTube link is below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuADjLZjCe4

Nonlinear Game Narrative in Game writing: narrative skills for videogames

Please read chapter 4 for this week's seminar

Cartography in the Metaverse: The Power of Mapping in Video Games

Topic of the Week - NON-LINEAR STORY EXPLORATION

"Because they can"

Co-Writers of all games - The Players.

Players who love to push the boundaries of a game because you can.

Glitches

Story Progression

Look for the possible screw-ups & bugs and ways to progress through the game faster

Speedrunners, etc.

If you give players that freedom & the narrative isn't water-tight, they'll find out... and often share it on the internet for a good laugh.

So.... how to avoid this?

Get in the right mindset as a writer

Players aren't passive - they're active agents helping the narrative to unfold.

You can craft an ideal way for a your player-character to act, BUT!

This may not be how the player wants to move through the game.

e.g. Telltale Games (Wolf Among Us cause I know it well)

You can move through the entire game saying NOTHING. Very rarely making a dialogue choice.

The game still moves onward, Bigby Wolf WILL talk in several situations but at almost every point of dialogue choice you can have him remain silent.

Is this what the developers had in mind?

Likely not. But they needed to anticipate it might happen.

And here’s a video of said silence in action

Make use of techniques previous game story writers have employed.

Story

Story often depends on structure. Structure works. We like structure.

e.g., The Hero's Journey, The Three Act Structure, Freytag's Pyramid, and more.

The Narrative Structure of a Traditional Story (DeMarle, 2007 Pg.75)

"When designing a story, a writer comes up with a sequence of scenes and dialogues and unfolds consecutively in front of an audience." (DeMarle, 2007, Pg.74)

We (writers) do this so that by the end of the story, the climax, everything makes sense.

We know why the character is going to do what they'll do and how they'll do it. We expect the ending and are satisfied when the ending is what we expect.

But remember, satisfied doesn't always mean happy.

e.g. I was 'satisfied' when I watched 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales' and guess that Barbossa was going to die (he became a parent in a Disney movie)

But I was also bored since I saw it coming early in the film.

If we're good writers, our audience will be invested enough in our characters to celebrate or commiserate as the climax plays out.

In books, films, tv (mostly) & linear games, writers have complete control over this process.

In a non-linear game, players can explore, act with agency, chose different abilities, take different paths (without giving a hoothoot about what the writer wants)

So... how do we make sure a player reaches the climax of a non-linear game & ensure it'll make sense to them?

Techniques to Write a Non-Linear Story

Merge the Story & Game

Here are four story-game combinations (DeMarle, 2007 Pg.75-80)

Implicit Narrative

The story is in the player's mind

You can do so much, but the story never changes. e.g. Grand Theft Auto

Player can jump ahead, earn loads of money, BUT the MC will still complain about a desperate need for money during some cutscenes.

Being mugged in Skyrim

Them: "Your money or your life!"

Me: Slayer of Dragons, Master of all the guilds, Master of Winterhold College: "... Sure."

Formal Narrative

A 'mostly' linear story

Break Game & Story apart - you interact with the game but the story isn't interactive and very static.

e.g. giving 'yes or no' answers but you can only chose yes.

Beating a boss only to have them beat you in a cutscene afterwards anyway

Often breaks immersion

Acceptable but has limits. If you're only telling the story through cutscenes... make a film.

"Wow that was an amazing opening cinematic sequence... I wish I could've done something in it."

Interactive Narrative

Exposition relates to player action (ludo success = narrative advancement.

You 'Gate the Narrative,’ Jak 2 did this

Used very often to stop 'open world' games being too 'open'

Other examples:

OP Enemies,

The location doesn't have events loaded in yet,

You need a 'certain item/skill' to get in etc.

My favourite one:

Pokemon Blue

In game

And the Meme

Interactive Story

The player's actions effect how the story goes.

Multiple pathways to multiple endings, Detroit: Become Human

A risky but often rewarding technique difficult for smaller indie developers.

Leverage Player Experience

High Story & Immediate Story

High Story - Plot of game.

Pokémon

You travel around the world, beating all the gym leaders, stopping a criminal organisation from destroying/taking over the world & become the most powerful trainer in the land.

... You are also 10 years old.

Immediate Story - What we did in the game. This is what we usually talk about.

e.g., Pokémon Nuzlockes

A whole new narrative several YouTubers have taken advantage of bringing new love and attention to the franchise.

Eliminate Internal Inconsistencies

Plug all your story-holes

Identify the vehicles used to tell your story

Items - If you have models for them, use those too

Cutscenes

Dialogue

Environment

If you're part of a studio, talk to ALL the other departments

Layer the details

Use the importance scale: 1 to 6

1 - VITAL

Your father was murdered by the BBEG (Big Bad End Game)

6 - Fun Fact

Your Great Aunt Miranda liked to collect ribbons and had a pet cockapoo named Florence

Think 'modular'

Each time a player encounters a chunk of narrative they'll try and make sense of it. Remember we think in stories & structures.

We add the structure in & reorganise as more info is made available.

We'll even put up with things NOT making sense under the assumption it WILL down the line.

If it doesn't... then we RIOT

Her Story

Speaking of thinking modular....

How does Her Story interact with you?

How did you interact with Her Story?

Did the way you interact change the more you progressed?

Did you keep track of important modules?

Did any modules really stick with you? Why?

Where's the 'game’?

Ideas Generation Cards and Building Off Them

Week 4 - Branching Narrative

Readings for the Week:

Game for the Week - Firewatch by Campo Santo

Articles for the Week:

Playing With Words by Laura Hudson

Designing Branching Narrative by Paul Nelson

T.O.M.'s Guide To Branching Narrative Design by Tom-Olivier Martin

Standard Patterns in Choice-Based Games by Sam Kabo Ashwell

The 9 Types of Player Choices (with Examples) by Abhinav Narain

Topic of the Week: BRANCHING NARRATIVE

Player Choice

“A game is a series of interesting choices." Sid Meier (Civilization's programmer, designer, and producer)

Failbetter Games

Makers of Fallen London (2009) & Sunless Skies (2019)

Divide 'Choice' into three parts:

"Choice is your experience immediately before a decision; complicity the experience of acting on that decision; and consequence the experience of what happens later." (Failbetter, 2012)

Choice

"Choice is that sense of fulcrum-shift you get when you consider a decision you care about. We normally think about emotional or moral choices (save her and let him die? dogs or cats?) but it can be strategic or mechanical choices (take the money or open the box? use that favour from the Don now or save it?) or personally expressive choices (Failbetter 2012)

Complicity

"Complicity is the experience of acting within the story. Again, the vogue is to think of this in terms of emotional or moral complicity (I’m letting him die! The look on his face -) – but it can equally be a vicarious thrill or a power fantasy</a> (I paid big for that favour! and now I get to call it in…). Either way, it’s the experience of." (Failbetter 2012)

Remember Complicity is akin to Agency

If you felt the agency was lacking in a branching narrative style game the experience will be lesser.

Consequence

Consequence is the experience of watching events unfold. Sometimes, consequence is no more than the pay-off that stops choice feeling hollow (and now his children will go hungry), sometimes it’s the pleasure of the intricate ramifications of plot (and now the Don looks weak – so Tony’s making his move early – which means I have to get the gold out by tomorrow)." (Failbetter, 2012)

Paper's Please

Making money vs. being kind

Shadow of Mordor

Using the weaknesses of Orc Captain's against them

"Of the three, consequence is the most expensive – and it gets more expensive very quickly as you add more complexity. It’s also what people tend to think of as the key part of an interactive story, which is why so many RPGs trumpet the number of variant endings as a feature. But twenty variant endings aren’t ten times as good as two variant endings – not if the complicity you felt, and the choices you made, were poorly implemented." (Failbetter, 2012)

The Nine Types of Choices

The Hollow Choice

A choice that has almost no consequence on the rest of the player experience, usually based on pure preference or random selection. E.g. Forza Motorsport 6, where you customise your car.

The Obvious Choice

A choice in which there is technically no real decision being made. A lot of times, these might be implemented via the game’s level design. E.g. Batman Arkham Asylum, the game presents two paths but one is blocked by some kind of obstacle so the 'choice' has been made by the game.

The Uninformed Choice

A choice that may have an influence on the gaming experience, but the player has little to no information available to them to make an informed decision (on their first play-through). Their choice may matter in the future, but in the moment, they’ll make it based on random selection or personal preference. E.g Your starter in Pokémon

The Informed Choice

The Informed Choice will have influence on the gaming experience. However, the player has also been given the opportunity to learn a bit more about how the choices differ and how it might affect the trajectory of their game. E.g. Sid Meier’s Civilization V, where players are given the choice between dozens of starting civilizations, all of which have certain perks and bonuses unique to them.

The Dramatic Choice

Unlike the Informed Choice, which empowers the player to make a decision based on information, the Dramatic Choice empowers players to make their decision based on emotion. It’s easily one of the most narrative-based choices a player can be given in a video game. E.g. Making the choice to shoot Emily or just try and save Sam during the final confrontation.

The Weighted Choice

The Weighted Choice provides the player with a decision that will have consequences either way. The choice will certainly dictate how the game progresses, but it’s also riddled with its own set of distinct pros and cons. The player must choose which sacrifice is more worth it, in their opinion. E.g. Character deaths in Dragon Age or Fire Emblem

The Immediate Choice

As the name might suggest, an Immediate Choice provides players with instant feedback of their actions. Feedback of a game is directly tied to the satisfaction a player feels in participating, so the benefits of providing such feedback instantaneously are clear. E.g. Mass Effect - Paragon or Renegade

The Long-Term Choice

The Long-Term Choice is any decision the player makes that is not immediately felt. There is some form of delay in the feedback of this choice. E.g. Saving the Little Sister's in Bioshock

The Orthogonal Choice

The Orthogonal Choice is a decision the player makes that drastically changes the trajectory of the gameplay experience. Many choices in video games can seem like major decisions to make, but very few actually take the game into completely different directions. E.g. The Witcher 2: Assassins of King choosing to help either Lorveth and Roche having a profound effect on the storylines & gameplay of the game's second chapter.

Narrative Structure (For Branching Narratives)

Dramatic Structure

Successful dramatic structure ===> PLEASURE

Aristotle: good drama creates catharsis

Catharsis

Catharsis: release from pity and fear

Pity: identification with and/or empathy for the character

“A sympathetic character is not necessarily a pleasant character, but basically he or she is morally good” (Hiltunen 2002, 10).

Fear: concern over impending danger to the character

The writer’s job is to construct a character the audience pities within a structure that conveys impending danger.

The Branching Narrative Tree (also called The Time Cave)

Each option leads to new choices. These tend to have short play-throughs but encourage reply (think of them as broad games, rather than long ones). Even with multiple play-throughs, it's likely players will miss some of the content.

You need to consider the value of & the resources available to you when considering this path (a lot of work when some of it may never be seen/read)

Most importantly, how can you maintain your narrative impact, your dramatic tension, with so many different options?

Think back to high narrative, modular chunks and the 'value system' we talked about last week

The Gauntlet

No, not that one, this one.

Gauntlets have a relatively linear central thread with optional branching content that ends in death, backtracking or quick rejoining. If there are multiple endings, they most likely derive from a final choice.

Think how a structure that's long rather than broad creates an atmosphere of a hazardous, difficult or constrained world.

Here's an example:

The Quest

The Quest Structure forms distinct branches that tend to rejoin to reach a small number of endings.The narrative tends to be fragmented and episodic with chunks of story not having great significance for the main narrative.

Suited for journeys of exploration focused on setting. Often organised by geography rather than time. Good for consistent worlds where the character situation is constantly changing. E.g. MMOs.

The Open Map

A structure of multithreaded pathways where travel between nodes is reversible. The narrative tends to be slower paced and less directed. The player has more leisure to explore the world.

Often employed by larger games like GTA & the newer Assassin's Creed games.

The Loop & Grow

The game has a central thread that 'loops' around, over and over to the same point. Each time around new options may be unlocked and others closed off.

You have to justify WHY whole sections of your narrative can repeat. And, to what extent, a player will tolerate it. E.g. Groundhog Day/Time Travel

Silent Hill P.T. used this structure.

The Hub & Spoke

The game has several major branches but they all originate at, and return to, a central node or set of nodes. Players may go out along each spoke once, or many times.

Games like Crash Bandicoot & Spyro used this structure.

Use the hub to your narrative advantage; think what can change to a higher or lesser degree as players explore more spokes.

The Foldback (Also known as 'The Branch and Bottleneck')

The game branches out, but these branches regularly rejoin, usually around events common to all versions of the story. These structures almost always rely on world-state tracking.

This style can allow the player-character to construct a distinctive storyline/personality, while still allowing for a manageable plot.

Works well in larger games, you need to have the time to construct player growth before showing it off at the bottleneck portions.

E.g. Skyrim - you'll do your optional quests between main storyline events so by the time you reach each one your player-character (and the player) aren't the same person they once were.

The World State

Tracking World State is an effective way to balance player agency with a dramatic arc.

Some examples of world state variables:

Skills

Personality

Morality

Status

Resources

NPC Relationships, etc.

Firewatch

How do Choice, Character, Story, Text & Visuals work together to create an interactive opening to Firewatch that sets up the core game experience?

Opening text game

What's your relationship to Henry (Hank) as a player?

How do you feel about the choices offered?

What impact do they have on your understanding of the player-character and the context?

All comes back to...

Play, don't tell:

“We needed to inject all this knowledge about Henry into every player in the first five to 10 minutes, so I made a [text] game where you played as him. Then I never had to tell you who he was, you could just feel who you wanted him to be.” Sean Vanaman, the writer of Firewatch.

Choice - Complicity - Consequence

You chose how you want Henry to respond, you become complicit in his choices and you suffer (or revel in) the consequences of your agency.

All done in those 5/10mins setting up Firewatch.

And then continued to build through his dialogue choices with Delilah.

Twine Game

Select one of your Game Concepts from the ideas generation exercises in weeks 1-3 (or indeed the concept you are going to develop for the module)

Now imagine it as a story-led branching narrative. If you were already thinking of using a branching narrative structure this will be easy.

If not re-imagining it might be tricky but it will help you to ask some important questions about your story.

Now create a branching narrative demo using Twin.

It's quite an intuitive platform and there are lots of resources to help you on the Learning Space.

You can also think about Twine as a tool for scripting a game, and creating a live script, rather than making a finished product.

Week 5 - Semiotics of Narrative & Game Scripts

Assessment 2: Portfolio - Due beginning of WK. 16 (13th Jan, Just after Winter Break)

Resources available on Learning Space

Readings for the Week

Game of the week: Limbo

Articles of the Week:

Semiotics

Limbo: Balancing Fun and Frustration in Puzzle Design by Jeppe Carlsen

Videogame analysis: a social-semiotic approach by Óliver, Mercè & Reinald

Game Scripts

Video game storytelling : what every developer needs to know about narrative techniques by Evan Skolnick (Available Online)

'Adding Magic–The Voice Actors' and 'Dialogue Engines' in Game writing: narrative skills for videogames by Chris Bateman (Available on Penryn Campus)

Top 10 Worst Lines of Dialogue in Video Games (YouTube Video) by WatchMojo

Topic of the Week: SEMIOTICS OF NARRATIVE

Semiotics -Ferdinand de Saussure

A Swiss Linguist

CAT

What is this?

PIPE

And what is this?

Understanding & Interpretation

Thoughts = unshaped/undirected blobs

Sounds = unshaped/undirected blobs

Thoughts + Sound (+ Context) = Language

Context built from culture & language give meaning.

"The children's homework was to create a family tree with pictures, birthdates, and full names for the current Royal family."

"We took shade under the old oak tree, and Father commented that it seemed to be dying, and might not last the winter."

Think how we talk to pets.

There are a plethora of tools writers can employ utilising signs to create meaning...

"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." -Anton Chekhov

Style

Voice

Metaphor

Theme

Dialogue

Description

Exposition

Narrative Summary

Narrative Devices

Every game means something" (J. Huizinga, 1939 Pg. 32)

Video games have so much cultural meaning now & we interact with those signs on an almost daily basis.

References in other Media

Direct Adaptation

Memes

General Communication

Semiotic Potential of Game Design

The Ludo-Narrative debate

Janet Murray used a 'Narratological Approach' i.e. discuss the story.

Then Espen Aarseth, Gonzalo Frasca and Jesper Juul used a 'Ludological Approach'

Finally researchers (Juul & Ryan) stepped forward with a 'Ludo-Narrative Approach'

Next came 'Procedural Rhetoric'

Ian Bogost - Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames

"Procedurality refers to a way of creating, explaining and understanding processes." (Bogost, 2007 Pgs. 2-3)

"And processes deﬁne the way things work: the methods, techniques, and logics that drive the operation of systems, from mechanical systems like engines to organizational systems like high schools to conceptual systems like religious faith." (Bogost, 2007 Pg.3)

Applying pure semiotic methods to game mechanics & interactions helps us understand how players interact with & understand game rules as well as games' wider meanings.

Aarseth argued for the inclusion of Social Semiotics

A Social-Semiotic Approach

Video games must be considered multimodal works or texts.

Not only audiovisual narrative and game design coexist (the narrative & the ludo), but other semiotic modes that need to be considered, such as written text, music or 3D design.

The complex semiotic connections between these expressive modes that occur pose a fundamental challenge for social-semiotic research

It is often difficult to analyse games from pre-existing theory because of their multi-model nature as an artefact.

Video games didn't exist as a mainstream concept when these theories were first put forward.

In several cases, video games didn't exist at all.

To take this approach, game rules & game patterns are the first "semiotic resources" (van Leeuwen, 2005 Pgs. 3-25) you can consider. So immediately there's a change in terms; from semiotic signs to semiotic resources.

Traditional Semiotics

Sign - Signifier - Signified

Tree - Me saying 'tree' - You constructing the image of tree in your mind.

Social semiotics place "semiotic resources" and "signifying potential" above the traditional semiotic notion of sign as "signifier" and "signified"

In this case, language becomes "not a code, not a set of rules for producing correct sentences, but a 'resource for making meanings'" (Halliday, 1978 Pg.192; quoted in van Leeuwen, 2005 Pg. 3).

It's much more open to interpretation from players & researchers.

e.g. so you can press the 'X' button to jump, but why?

"Gameplay design necessarily presupposes a player with an attitude of minimum cooperation or interpretative consistency with the rules of the game and its overall design." (Óliver, Mercè, Reinald, 2017)

So, it's assumed YOU the player, will have a developed schema for game rules & design to help you better construct your understand of the game from its semiotic resources.

And that YOU the player will adhere to the rules of the game and its overall design.

But will we?

Remember "because we can"

Though players will rarely go into a game 'blind' and start looking for ways to 'misplay' it.

A Social Semiotic Approach to Game Design (Óliver, Mercè & Reinald, 2017)

Audiovisual Narrative

Nice and simple.

Break down what you see, what you hear and what you experience in a game.

By the end you'll usually discuss what you felt the game was about (even internally)

Look at what we do in class every week :)

Florence

Her Story

Firewatch

Limbo

We talk about what these 'do' and how we interacted with them.

Ludo-Narrative Dimension

Representation of the Player/Character

Action Rules

The repertoire of possible actions the character/player can do and how they affect the game world

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII - Extinction

Can hunt enemy creatures to extinction & they'll cease to appear.

Could be interpreted as commentary on humanities hunting?

September 12th - Shooting

Can chose to shoot enemies which only causes them to multiply.

Critical discourse on Bush's governments 'preventative war' in Iraq

State Rules

Can be physical states (e.g. higher/lower level of health) - a high enough level to unlock a quest.

Or psychological states, sociological variables - Wealthy enough to buy different items/infamous enough to garner fear or aggression from NPC's on sight.

Game Mechanics

Papers Please - Time Pressure, Work Demands, Unstable Politics

Nightmarishly complex, bizarre & illogical Kafkaesque bureaucratic tone.

Harvest Moon - Farming = an escape from city life.

Behaviour-Inducing Mechanics

Team Building in online role-playing game.

Teams in Final Fantasy 14

Representation of the Fiction World

Design of the space-time environment

i.e. The world around you changing as time progresses

Firewatch changing between day/night or becoming full of smoke as the fire spreads.

Certain shops only opening depending on the time of day (Harvest Moons/Stardrew Vally)

Rules of specific areas and states of the game

The change in gameplay between environments

Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum

Overworld Gameplay

Mining Gameplay

NPC behavioural patterns

NPC's behaving in specific ways to follow rules

Harvest Moon NPC reactions to gifts:

Good

Bad

Operating rules of objects/instruments

Objects behaving in specific ways to follow rules

Dark Souls 3 The Ringed-City

Ladders only dropping dependant on your character's appearance

Representation of Activities

Patterns of action-objective

The main activity or activities represented in the story

Sim City - A bigger city is always a BETTER city

A Capitalist Perspective.

Victory and defeat conditions

How do you 'win' the game? How do you complete levels?

Kill all enemies?

Find a traitor?

Progress time?

Game mechanics

Harvest Moon - Collecting items/selling items/building structures

Design of redundancy vs. variability

Is the activity flexible or rigid?

Harvest Moon - can you only grow one item?

Bioshock - can you only fight with one weapon?

Tactical/strategic structures

"Any strategy is linked to a certain coupling of opportunities and risks, strengths and weaknesses." (Óliver, Mercè & Reinald, 2017)

McDonalds Video Game

Moral actions - organic farming, fair wages, safe working conditions = little profit.

Immoral actions - animal cruelty, deceitful advertisement, corruption = big profit

System-Game Dimension

Objective

From a 'system' perspective (removed from the narrative) objectives can be 'find an item' 'kill an enemy' 'master the gameplay mechanic'

When the story may be 'find the cure fo the disease' 'slay the beast who killed your partner' 'become the best pokémon trainer in the region'

This change in viewpoint helps you further understand the game.

Rules

Completing the puzzles in front of you by following the structure the game desires.

Paper's Please - increasingly difficult, maybe even 'un-winnable'

Open world survival games = you 'win' by surviving.

Ludic roles of the game's agents

Remember, a character's ludic role may be far from their role and characterisation in the narrative dimension, even indicating almost opposing values.

The Last of Us - Joel

Ludic standpoint - the agent who moves the player through the game world

Joel = Progression

Narrative standpoint

Initially against exploration, prefer to avoid combat, wants Ellie gone.

He wants things to be simple and end.

Game representation disassociation

You beat the final boss, achieve a 'victory' and progress insofar as the system thinks.

But you then experience a tragic narrative ending = tragedy & sadness are then linked with victory.

What does this say about the game?

Final Fantasy XIII-2

Beat the final boss & then the protag dies & the world is swallowed by darkness

Designer-Player Dimension

The designer–player relationship is not only a communication relationship in video games, but also (and above all) a mentor–pupil relationship.

The design style guiding the player through learning processes is key to assessing the video game interpersonal semiotic function

How does the game teach you how to play it? Does it 'hold your hand' does it 'gate information' does it give you nothing? And rely on you having a developed enough schema to cope?

Why do we care?

We care cause we like games.

We want to write games GOOD games, play games & discuss games.

So, by "developing sharper analytical methods for understanding the signification potential of videogames" we improve our knowledge of them. Our skills as writers, coders, designers, actors, etc.

Games get better because we research what works and what doesn't.

.... With the odd moment of serendipity in-between :P

Limbo

So! Let's think on Limbo

Try breaking the game down to:

Audiovisual Narrative

Ludo-Narrative Dimension

System-Game Dimension

Designer-Player Dimension

Write Task

Introducing a new piece of tech to help you along!

Ren'Py

A free, open-source visual novel engine.

Have a play with it and see if you think it suits the game & story you've worked up so far!

Week 6 - Reading Week

Week 7 - Pitch Workshops

Week 8 - Pitch Presentations

Week 9 - Game Characters & Player Agency

First things first…

Well done on completing your pitch assignments!!! :D :D

Assessment 2: Portfolio - Due beginning of WK. 16 (4th Jan, Just after Winter Break)

This is where we'll be shifting focus now.

Developing scripting ideas in class such as:

Which section you'll be scripting (if not the whole game)

What your approach to your script will be

Your confidence to fulfil the assignment brief.

So, let's go back over the assignment brief:

Readings for the Week:

Game of the Week: The Stanley Parable

Critical Readings for the Week:

Video game storytelling: what every developer needs to know about narrative techniques by Evan Skolnick

Please read Chapters 9, 10, 11, pages 115-147, on level design and character development.

Hamlet on the Holodeck : The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace by Janet Murray

Please read Chapter 5 'Agency,' and the 2016 update, before the session.

The university has a 3-person license for this text, so to free up the book for other students, please download the chapter you need so you can read it offline.

Narrative As Virtual Reality 2 Marie Laure Ryan

Please just read p.162-5 of Chapter 7 'The Many Forms of Interactivity.' It is important you understand the distinctions between Internal-Ontological, Internal-Exploratory, External-Ontological and External-Exploratory.

A PDF of the book has been uploaded to the Learning Space for you to use.

Game-Centric Videos

Parachuting into the Story by Dan Pinchbeck

Forget Protagonists: Writing NPCs with Agency for '80 Days' and Beyond by Meg Jayanth

Flow, the Secret to Happiness by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Topic of the Week: GAME CHARACTERS & PLAYER AGENCY

Character

Andrew S. Walsh - On Characters

'The packet is shiny. On the cover is an oiled, muscled fighting machine of a man and his sidekick who is sleek, silky, sexy and massively underdressed, particularly when bearing in mind the effect of gravity on her prodigious bosom. On the back of the box the blurb entices you to play the seven-level story-line, unlock extra thongs for the lead characters, and play the game from the perspective of either of the two leads. Eagerly loading the game, the player is instantly immersed in a fast-moving cascade of action. However, aside from a certain amount of anatomical jiggling, there's no difference in the gameplay regardless of which of the two characters you select. The distinct perspectives sold on the back of the box only stretch as far as two unique combat moves and the characters contrasting abilities to strain leather.

This is the view of game characters that many nongamers hold.' (Walsh, in Bateman 2007, Pg.103)

And it is UTTERLY wrong.

But, it has has its roots in fact.

‘When platform was king, creating a character was easy/this is because what many games called and still call a character is really just an icon' (Walsh, in Bateman 2007, Pg. 103)

Mario, Doom Guy, Racing Cars... Tetris Blocks - They were just what you used to interface with the game.

Mario - Personality?

.... Not so much.

Doom Guy - Personality?

He loves an inventive kill.

Racing Cars - Personality?

Not outside of Disney.. and even then the were lacking.

Tetris Blocks - Personality?

Not outside of Family Guy...

But, they're brands:

Mario

Doom Guy

Racing Cars

Tetris

And brands sold.

Think about console launch titles:

PlayStation 4

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Injustice: Gods Among Us

Lego Marvel Super Heroes

Xbox One

Forza Motorsport 5

Angry Birds Star Wars

Battlefield 4

Nintendo Switch

Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild

Super Bomberman R

Shovel Knight: Spector of Torment

Several of these could be argued as in-depth narratives with complex characters but... Are you really buying them for that?

But now? Now we have CHARACTERS

"Characters are actors/who exist in the game world and perform in-game actions." (Dansky, 2007 Pg.2)

"Every character in a game should be designed to serve a purpose." (Dansky)

In fact, they should always be dual-purposed:

Narrative use & Ludo use

Think back to the week on Semiotics: - A character's ludic role may be far from their role and characterisation in the narrative dimension, even indicating almost opposing values.

E.g. Ashley Resident Evil 4

Narrative Role: Inciting Incident, surrogate child for Leon, grows into a stronger character over the course of the story unfolding.

Ludic Role: GET IN THE WHEELIE BIN AND STAY THERE

Death Dante's Inferno

Narrative Role: He’s the guardian of all of the souls in Hell, tasked with the purpose of harvesting and watching over them.

Ludic Role: He's a tutorial boss..

As a game writer you need to be aware of the different functions characters can fill that are separate from film, TV & books.

After all, "the quality of a game's characters will have a direct impact upon the potential strength of its storytelling." (Skolnick, 2014 Pg. 120)

I came to Dream Daddies for the Meme, I stayed cause I caught feels for the Daddies.

I took great and vicious pleasure in sending hate mail to an Animal Crossing Villager (Becky) who told me my flowers arrangement was a mess

Your turn: gimme a video game character you like and why?

Now, in a larger team the process of character development is split:

Design

Again, coming back to the reason why:

Why do they exist? What purpose do that serve? What actions can they take?

Main Character

Runs, jumps... 'wahoos'

Final Boss

Shoots fire and kidnaps Princesses

Quest Giver

Yells for help

Fodder Enemies

Oops, wrong one

... Are brutally murdered.

It's easy to fall into narrative here (I'd often encourage it) but at its base level we're looking purely at their function.

Having these base elements written down somewhere will be very useful for you when it comes to building your characters into your scripts.

Narrative Design

This approach can vary a great deal, especially for games pulling from existing brands or ancient myths.

When you have that initial concept pulled from something that already exists, then you can have an interpretation built to fit your style of game:

Cthulhu

Example 1

Cthulhu Saves The World

An RPG Maker Parody Game where Cthulhu has never looked more adorable.

Example 2

Bloodborne

London but everyone's mad and wants you dead + Lovecraftian Horrors

... So basically London.

^That's the key aspect though... DOES the character you've developing fit the design requirements you've thought of?

Cthulhu Saves The World - Cuter, Pixel Art, RPG Maker Design & Protagonist

Bloodborne - Monstrous Eldritch being content to linger until provoked.

LudoNarrative Harmony

You've discussed what your character needs to serve as a function & now you've thought about their story, who they are, where they've come from, where they're going, what they had for dinner last night, did they think the dress was black and blue or white and gold...

But do both sides match up?

Mario and Pipes

Mario is a plumber.. Not that it's ever really brought up.

Pipes are how you get around.

Kratos & Killing

Kratos is a Spartan soldier. Sparta was a society built on combat and brutal war skills

So when you're hammer, every situation looks like nail...

Uncharted

One of the few criticisms in the game was it's LudoNarrative harmony:

Nathan ‘Happy-go-lucky joke cracking adventurer in cutscenes' (Skolnick, 2014 Pg. 132)

‘Heavily armed, relentless killer of hundreds' (Skolnick, 2014 Pg. 132)

Doesn't break the game by any means because it does so many other aspects so well

You may not be working on as grand a title.

Think of it this way:

Main Design Mechanic - Cutting Down Trees

Narrative Options - Should this character be an optician or a lumberjack?

I'm sure you could make both work.

But for the sake of simplicity - Lumberjack

These are conversations you'll have with yourself as a sole designer or with your creative team if you're part of a company (no matter the size)

Concept Art

Initial designs of look & feel, can help provide tone to a game

Often very different from the finished product

Final Art

In-game appearance fitting with the design style, realistic, cartoony, 2D, Pixel, etc.

Animation

Movement - fluid and light (Celeste, Hollow Knight, etc.) or slow & heavy (Until Dawn, Detroit: Become Human)

Casting

In some (richer) cases, the actors BECOME the character through modcap

Often this means there are two people playing the character:

One provides the 'face' the other the voice and movements.

Audio Performance

Voice & Performance can make a game - Think Firewatch

Implementation

Now you mix it all together and you have a character in the game world serving multiple roles through the use of assets, voice acting & coding (among other things)

Player Agency

Agency

So, we have characters... but what can players DO with them?

'When the things we do bring tangible results, we experience the second characteristic delight of electronic environments - the sense of Agency.' (Murray, 1997 Pg. 126)

There MUST be agency of some degree, it's a specificity of the media.

If there's no agency in a game it's like having a film with no images

A film with no images is a radio play/podcast

In the same vain a game with no agency is a film/animation

This is something we've discussed before throughout the module

And something I'll keep bringing up till you hear it in your sleep like the whisperings of the Eldritch Truth

We've always expected agency in games:

You move the line in pong - you keep from losing the game

You punch the boulder blocking your path - the boulder breaks and you can move forward

And we all have a good laugh at Chris Redfield...

But, it's not until recently we've truly began to expect agency in a narrative environment

Not properly, until video games.

So we MUST take advantage of it, show what this media can do.

Can anyone think of a kind of narrative where you could act with *some* agency.

Hmmm?

Pantomime & Interactive Theatre!

‘If the audience decided that Tinkerbell was a pest and refused to clap her back to life, the play would come to a halt' (Murray, 1997 Pg. 126)

So, insofar as participatory theatre is concerned, audiences are often funnelled by expected social norms:

e.g. 'He's behind you!' 'Oh no he isn’t!’

Technically the audience can remain silent, or they can chose to yell anything else. But they don't.

People rarely go into a pantomime, dinner theatre, comedy show, etc. looking to subvert expectations and potentially 'ruin' the show. We're there for fun.

And... we don't wanna become the butt of the joke.

There are patterns we learn and follow to engage 'correctly' with the narrative and still feel that level of satisfaction because we can say 'I helped'

I brought Tinkerbell back to life

I warned the knight that a dragon was behind him

I boo'd the evil queen till she left the stage, etc.

What are these though?

These unwritten rules we all know to follow to engage....

SCHEMA!

It always comes back to schema :P

We build these rules for everything we do in life and by actually paying attention to them you can see the 'correct' forms agency takes in both theatre and games.

Then if you're very snazzy you mess with it to make something new:

Like Theatrical Asides

These were groundbreaking in the late 17th Century

Things like The Country Wife used them to manipulate an audience's support

The Rake or Heroine would step 'aside' and tell the audience their hopes, dreams, let them in on jokes, etc.

Electronic Environments

They're very similar when it comes to rules and responses

You see an open screen and now it doesn't always have to say start, you may just button mash since you expect it's there.

Or, you wait, and when you don't see a 'press start' anywhere get confused since you Schema has been missed with.

Either way, you are performing a response to the 'call' of the machine

Janet Murray compares it to square dancing

'When we are placed inside a simulation environment and allowed to experiment with a changing set of parameters as we see fit (more nitrogen, less algae) we are acting more like a leading partner' (Murray, 1997 Pg. 128)

You perform an action and see a change - and this can be applied to almost anything from dancing, to making tea to cleaning your bedroom.

Now, sure you can influence your dance partner, but the musicians and other dancers aren't going to change what they're doing, so there's a limit.

But on a computer you can move beyond one partner, you can open files, make excel formulas and watch their execution, design & animate creatures to move however you want.

'When things are going right on the computer, we can be both the dancer and the caller of the dance' (Murray, 1997 Pg. 128

You're deciding the dance, the music, the actions of other dancers.

You're making choices that result in something you can see, hear and respond to.

That's agency.

Games

The way theorists argued game vs. story impacted the debate on agency since…

'Stories do not require us to do anything except pay attention as they are told' whereas

'Games always involve some kind of activity and are often focused on the mastery of skills '

Myst

Myst is a puzzle game released in 1993 where you explore an island and work to escape it.

The game has several endings and the 'bad' endings where you could state the player has failed the game are often argued to be more well-presented than the 'good' endings where the player succeeded on a ludological level.

So, again, it doesn't have to just be one or the other.

Agency within an interactive world doesn't have to equal ludo success

Remember moral choices? You're moving the narrative along, succeeding at that base level, but you still chose who got eaten by zombies.

So rather than think of the story element in terms of 'success' think of it in terms of drama

Symbolic Dramas

^Very similar to surrogate experiences.

Games can take everyday situations and heighten them to further engage players in the narrative & mechanics:

I encounter a confusing world and I figure it out

A student in their first year of uni

Nathan Drake navigating ancient ruins

I encounter a world in pieces and assemble it into a coherent whole

Building a university schedule for yourself with assignment deadlines, lecture times and free time.

Exploring worlds that have been cut off from one another and protecting them from The Heartless then sealing their keyholes

I take a risk and am rewarded for my courage

Pitching you game idea to the class and your lecturer

Entering a boss fight where you could be very easily one-shot.

I encounter a difficult antagonist and triumph over them

You pass the module despite the lecturer being mean.

... Stuff you Whitney and your horrible Miltank.

^The obligatory Pokémon reference

I encounter a challenging test of skill or strategy and succeed at it

Completing all your assignments to a good level and handing them in on time.

Finishing time trials in Crash Bandicoot.

I start off with very little of a valuable commodity and end up with a lot of it (or vice versa)

(I'm not gonna talk about money cause that'll make me sad…

No friends at the start of uni, now you have some friends!

Building your island in Animal Crossing

I am challenged by a world of constant unpredictable emergencies and I survive it.

... Covid.

RNG (Random Number Generator) effects like Darkest Dungeon.

In games we have a 'chance to enact our most basic relationship with the world - our desire to prevail over our adversary' and we build more complex plots around that.

Goes right back to our first survival instincts as humans

Game's encompass the best part of narrative - the surrogate experience, and we don't just live it in our minds or see it on a screen, we ENACT it and it feels good

Using this knowledge of agency, thinking about your games in this way can help you not only build up the satisfying acts your characters may take but also why that character can and does act that way and how a player will respond to it

Week 10 - Environmental Storytelling

Readings for the Week:

Game of the Week: Gone Home by Fullbright

Critical Readings for the Week:

Game Design as Narrative Architecture in First person: new media as story, performance and game by Henry Jenkins

Available on the Learning Space

Make sure you understand the difference between evocative, enacted, embedded and emergent narrative ahead of the workshop

Video game storytelling: what every developer needs to know about narrative techniques by Evan Skolnick

Please read Chapter 12: Environment, pages 148-62.

Game-Centric Texts & Videos

Level Design in a Day: The Level Design of Gone Home by Kate Craig & Steve Gaynor

Environmental Storytelling in Gone Home by Shahrez Aziz

Video games and the art of spatial storytelling by Sharang Biswas

Environmental Storytelling: Indices and the Art of Leaving Traces by Clara Fernandez Vara

Topic of the Week: ENVIRONMENTAL STORYTELLING

Where did it all start? - Don Carson

Environmental Storytelling is one of the biggest and most oft discussed tools in a game creator's arsenal... But where did the term come from?

Theme Parks!

Don Carson (game developer, theme park designer, software engineer) wrote a piece relating his work in all of these fields:

'Whether it's a 100 million dollar Disney ride, a 3D shooter, or a kid's entertainment title, it is my objective to tell a story through the experience of traveling through a real, or imagined physical space.' (Carson, 2000)

Real - Everything from exploration of ruins done by older explorers up to going for a walk in the a forest where you haven't before.

Imagined Physical Space:

Play - Remember our BIGGEST evolutionary advantage

Surrogate - It's happening, but not really

So because of this these spaces can be a huge variety of things:

Exploring a killer’s lair

Escaping a locked room

He noted three things he wants a space to be able to do in any computer game:

Let me go somewhere I could never go.

Outer Space

Bottom of the Sea

Center of the Earth

Basically anywhere Jules Verne wrote about...

Let me be someone I could never be.

Astronaut

Explorer

Detective

Let me do things I could never do.

Save the world

Defeat evil spirits

Solve a murder

Again, it's all play, all surrogate experiences.

But, despite how far technology has, the gameplay has remained fairly similar:

'We may be transported into ever engrossing and elaborate theatrically lighted cathedrals, but the fact is, we are still simply killing each other.' (Carson 2000)

We may be in utterly realistic serial killer lairs or space ships but you're still just solving puzzles.

So, where's the connection?

It's in the same sought-after goal:

'True, their audience demographics may be slightly different, but in many ways they face the same challenge: How to bring people into their created worlds and keep them immersed and entertained.' (Carson 2000)

We can even see a few similarities:

Duelling Dragons Ride:

Duelling Dragons Game:

Duelling Dragons Game

Haunted Hospitals Ride:

Haunted Hospitals Game:

Carson describes the thrill of next-gen rides: 'No longer are rides simply a short lived thrill, now guests are fully immersed in stories, where they play the main character.' (Carson 2000)

Fully immersed in stories? Acting with agency?

'The pleasures of immersion stem from our being completely absorbed within the ebb and flow of a familiar narrative schema.' (Douglas & Hargadon, 2000 Pg. 154)

These rides are designed to leverage our experience, our developed schemata to help immerse us in the experience.

'Armed only with their own knowledge of the world, and those visions collected from movies and books, the audience is ripe to be dropped into your adventure.' (Carson 2000)

The trick is to play on those memories and expectations to heighten the thrill of venturing into your created universe.' (Carson 2000)

Comes back to a favourite adage of mine:

Learn the structure and then mess with it.

You have to think about your story

But not story in a traditional sense of 'events over time'

But the big picture - what is this world?

Is it a pirate world?

A fantasy world?

A Hellish world?

'If you are creating a game or attraction based on, let's say "pirates", you'll need to play your audiences expectation like a violin.' (Carson, 2000)

I.e. play into their schemata expectactions:

Pirates - men with beards who say 'ARRRGHHHH'

Fantasy - men with beards who cast spells

Hellish - ... men with beards and cloven hoofs.

Establish - "Where am I?”

'No matter how well designed your environments are, if your audience can not answer this question in the first 15 seconds, you are already lost.' (Carson 2000)

Relate this back to your narrative writing:

Where do you put your hook? Your 'Inciting Incident?'

If it's several pages in and it's not there? .... I shall take ISSUE

It's the same with your environment

It should be almost immediate where the player is.

So how can do this?

Play of tropes

Big up the specifities of the media:

Sound, image, exploration, text, agency

e.g. Pirate Cove

sound of rushing waves, damp wood, creaking ships, listening at the door and hearing angry men yelling 'AARRRGH'

Fantasy Land

Soothing harp music, woodwind instruments, exploring enchanted lands where everything glows, texts written in archaic languages

Hell

Screams of the damned, everything's red, thunderstorms, endless mazes

Or working in retail at Christmas

Storytelling Through Cause and Effect

Or: 'Something went down I should be worried...'

Outlast

Designing the Familiar

Or: Never forget the toilet

Remember, this is theatre!

Or: Less is more:

Less

Using contrasting elements to your advantage

Or: It's bigger on the inside

Or: Gasslands, Desert, Ocean, Jungle, Canyon, Ice world, Fire world, Boss

(If any of you get that... well done.)

Narrative Architecture - Henry Jenkins

Starter Points:

Not all games tell stories. Games may be an abstract, expressive, and experiential form, closer to music or modern dance than to cinema:

e.g. Tetris

Snood

This isn't to say you couldn't build a narrative out of these games

Many games do have narrative aspirations

Most do but some games are just there for a person so engage with a challenge & see how long they can last or see if they can beat their friend.

There is not one 'future' of games

Much like everything in life... we have no idea where the medium is going.

We can only make coherent predictions & run with what for us so far.

The experience of playing games can never be simply reduced to the experience of a story

If some games tell stories, they are unlikely to tell them in the same ways that other media tell stories.

Remember, play to those specificities.

'Game designers don't simply tell stories; they design worlds and sculpt spaces.' (Jenkins, 2003)

Even some of the earliest game's were designed around players being able to move, to explore 'narratively-compelling' spaces.

Inform 7 Games, Zork, Myst, etc.

You moved through the spaces.

Some very early 'graphically engaging' games like early Super Mario were called 'side-scrollers'

We situate them alongside a much older tradition of spatial storytelling: many Japanese scroll paintings map, for example, the passing of the seasons onto an unfolding space.

E.g. The Landscape of the Four Seasons by Sesshū Tōyō in 1486

So, insofar as Mario's world progression is told, the creators were pulling from an ancient form of storytelling

Choices about the design and organisation of game spaces have narratological consequences.

Every choice should be deliberate, just like with your characters.

Your environment may craft ludological hazards to challenge progression, but (especially if you're building a narrative-heavy game) they should help tell your story

Again, going back to characters:

Design

What is this place?

It's a prison.

Dark, damp, enclosed, maze-like.

Narrative Design

A once proud nation now ruled by a tyrant

Former citizens & gentry imprisoned

Evil guards & sinister traps guard against escape.

Ludo-Narrative Harmony

Creepy-ass prison that's hard to escape, full of monsters to battle & environmental hazards that both tell the story & challenge progression.

A former statue of the land's queen has been transformed into a ballista designed to kill those who try to escape.

Some games tell stories with their environments that go across instalments:

Dark Souls 1

Fair Lady

Quelana of Izalith

Dark Souls 3 The Fair Lady & Quelana of Izalith

Now, that level of detail does two things:

1) Highlights the depth of planning & prep that went into the game's narrative

2) Rewards long-standing fans & observant players with a conclusion to a side-narrative.

The Four Kinds of Environmental Storytelling: (Jenkins, 2003) & Bevensee et. al (2012)

1) Evoked Narrative:

‘Have the ability to enhance an already existing narrative through the level of detail in the spatial design.’

Assassin's Creed: Origins

Pulling from something that already exists, e.g. a past location, a well-known myth, adapting/continuing an existing piece, etc.

If done properly, the skill 'evokes' a sense of place to help immerse a player in the storyworld.

Origins (cause big budget) brought in numerous archaeologists & historical architects in the creation of its Ancient Egypt.

Now, it's on some university readings lists as 'recommended reading' because it's the best resource to have a chance to explore an accurate depiction of that place

... Except with Cleopatra, they dropped the ball there.

'In the case of evoked narratives, spatial design can either enhance our sense of immersion within a familiar world or communicate a fresh perspective on that story through the altering of established details.' (Jenkins, 2003)

2) Enacted Narrative:

‘Provide narrative elements which are built up around characters’

Persona 5

Persona 5 progresses its narrative through exploring people's distorted perceptions of reality.

e.g. An abusive teacher see's himself as a king and the school his castle.

A pressured lawyer see's court as a casino and herself as the number one player.

The environment serves as a reflection for these character's motivations, beliefs, tactics and more. They are 'enacted' through every aspect of the environment, even down to the music and names of enemies in those areas.

'In the case of enacted narratives, the story itself may be structured around the character's movement through space and the features of the environment.' (Jenkins, 2003)

3) Embedded Narrative:

‘The game world is a “memory palace” where the object and the staging within the game contain clues which enable one to reconstruct the plot’

Gone Home

This is one of the most common forms of Environmental Storytelling.

Essentially, everything happens before you arrive and you're left to try and uncover what happened and how by closely exploring the environment. Games like Dark Souls, Prey, The Sinking City & Subnautica do this too.

'In the case of embedded narratives, the game space becomes a memory palace whose contents must be deciphered as the player tries to reconstruct the plot.' (Jenkins, 2003)

4) Emergent Narrative:

‘Set up a universe where the player can construct their own narrative based on encountered events.’

Darkest Dungeon

This can come about in two ways:

The game is designed to be different with each playthrough and the RNG will determine how things works out story-wise.

Or the game has a set high-narrative but you're much more invested in the immediate narrative that may generate an immediate narrative based on player decisions.

In Darkest Dungeon we have the former, every 'hero' you acquire, every enemy you encounter (save bosses) and every item you find is all left to chance.

In Skyrim you have a set high narrative but a plethora of side-quests and semi-random events to discover that can lead to an (arguably) more satisfying immediate narrative.

'In the case of emergent narratives, game spaces are designed to be rich with narrative potential, enabling the story-constructing activity of players.' (Jenkins, 2003)

‘Game levels are frequently capable of, and indeed designed to, elicit affective responses.’ (Yannakakis and Togelius, 2016 Pg. 1)

Journey

The environment helps build the sense of isolation & combined with the multiplayer mechanic can really play with your emotions.

The game makes use of both evoked & embedded storytelling, both of which are fantastic at telling a story without the use of dialogue.

So, by making use of this amazing specificity of video game media, you can really elevate your storytelling beyond dialogue and clunky exposition.