All Stories Great and Small

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All Stories Great and Small
? Small story that ends messily

• Game Developers Conference
• San Jose, California
• March 4, 2003

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All Stories Great...

• ...and small...

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During the next eight hours sit quietly and you
will experience the awe and mystery that
stretches from the inner mind to...
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Storytelling in Computer Games
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With Special Guest Stars

• Dan Arey Jak Daxter The Precurser Legacy
• Nate Fox Sly Cooper the Thievius Raccoonus
• Chris Klug Earth Beyond
• Damion Schubert Shadowbane

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Who is that odd character next to you?
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We need to vote Bob off the island, Daxter. He
hasnt collected a Power Cell since level one.
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Drama

• A play in prose or verse
• Dramatic art of a particular kind or period
• The art or practice of writing or producing plays
• A real-life situation or succession of events
  having the dramatic progression or emotional
  content typical of a play

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Real Life ? Drama
Drama ? Real Life Drama  
Real Life ? Drama  
Real Life Interpreter Drama  
Life ? Interpreter (Shakespeare) Drama Life
Interpreter (MTV Video Director)
Trivialization  
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The Mantra

• Take me to a place I have never gone.
• Make me into someone I could never be.
• Let me do things I could never do.

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Dramatic Writing

• Universal themes
• Drama
• Conflict
• Story
• Character
• Stereotypes
• Emotion
• Suspense
• Pace
• Consistency

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Try to cram story into a platform game, will
you? Only over my tastefully sanitized
disintegrated body!
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Dan Arey
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Sneak Preview!
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Reading/Viewing List Addenda

• Gaspar Noe. Irreversible
• Charlie Donald Kaufman Adaptation
• Christopher Nolan. Memento

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Film Language

• Crossing The Axis
• Willing Suspension of Disbelief
• The Fourth Wall
• Dialogue
• Geography
• Cutting
• POV

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I dont know what crossing the axis is, but if
that Progen does it to me one more time, Im
gonna laser him.
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Damn, I just shattered the Fourth Wall. Can I
get a jumpstart?
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His pickup line is just as last century as his
haircut.
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Mametspeak
Glengarry Glen Ross
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Approaching a star base in Earth Beyond will
trigger a zone load and a cut scene.
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Whats going on behind my back?
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Dont worry about faction! Kill the writers
before story in massively multiplayer spreads!
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Journey with us now to...
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earth beyond!
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Chris Klug
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Game Language

• Game mechanics
• Interface
• Design Issues
• Interactivity
• Obstacles
• Skills
• Quests
• Rewards
• NPCs
• Character
• Relationships
• Conversations

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I wanted a Game Mechanic, not a mechanic in the
game!
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Game Mechanics

• Interface
• Design Issues
• Create a coherent world
• Teach the player the rules
• Who is the player-character?
• Maintain the illusion of a real world
• Avoid dead ends and wandering
• Interactivity
• Obstacles
• Skills
• Quests
• Rewards

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First PersonAre you the character?orIs the
character you?
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Game Mechanics

• Interface
• Design Issues
• Create a coherent world
• Teach the player the rules
• Who is the player-character?
• Maintain the illusion of a real world
• Avoid dead ends and wandering
• Interactivity
• Obstacles
• Skills
• Quests
• Rewards

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The Quest for Storytelling

• Run with the bulls in Pamplona
• Play bingo for cash
• Return home from the Trojan Wars
• Win the hand of a Fair Maiden (The Recruit)
• Help Jews escape Hitler (Schindlers quest)
• Prove chivalry isnt dead (Don Quixote)
• Appear on Jerry Springers TV show
• Stay awake through all eight hours of this
  tutorial

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Quest Levels

• Unapologetic Fed-Ex for the masses
• Variable quests with static content
• Restricted quests
• Limited world affects
• Event quests
• Neverending quests

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Game Mechanics

• Interface
• Design Issues
• Create a coherent world
• Teach the player the rules
• Who is the player-character?
• Maintain the illusion of a real world
• Avoid dead ends and wandering
• Interactivity
• Obstacles
• Skills
• Quests
• Rewards

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Game Language

• Game mechanics
• Interface
• Design Issues
• Interactivity
• Obstacles
• Skills
• Quests
• Rewards
• NPCs
• Character
• Relationships
• Conversations

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What can NPCs do to you?

• They will try to kill you.
• They will talk to you.
• They will trade and and buy and sell with you.
• They will adventure with you, and attack bad guys
  or perform other simple operations.
• They will marry you and raise a family with you.

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Conversational Concerns

• Interface
• Entrance and exit points
• Playback
• Naturalism
• Return Visits

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Ladies and gentlemen... Sly cooper and and the
Family Stone!
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(No Transcript)
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Er...
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Ladies and gentlemen... Sly cooper and and the
THIEVIUS RACCOONUS!
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Nate Fox
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Online Multiplayer

• The Sandbox Theory
• The Crystal Ball
• The Human Factor
• Interactive Story Structures
• Traditional
• Branching
• Web
• Modular
• Storygame Structure
• Storygame Considerations

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The Sandbox Theory
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Dusting Off My Crystal Ball
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Content vs. Story

• Zones (exploration, places to find MOBs)
• MOBs (mobiles usually meaning stuff to kill)
• Items (loot)
• New Skins and Effects (artwork)
• Quests (context for killing MOBs to get loot)
• NPCs (housekeeping chores and way points for
  quests)
• Levels

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The Human Factor
"I've always depended on the kindness of
strangers.
Blanche, you aint never been online!
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Interactive Story Structures

• Traditional (Linear)
• Branching (Linear Thinking)
• Web (Simple Non-Linear)
• Modular (Non-Linear)

Im not really sure this Medusa Helm is me.
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Traditional (Linear)

• Time-tested
• Successful in a variety of media
• Familiar
• Guaranteed author control
• Lots of people can write them

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Branching (Linear Thinking)

• Time-tested
• Somewhat successful, but not recently
• Familiar (many think its the only way to tell
  stories in games)
• Guaranteed author control
• Many people can write them

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Web (Simple Non-Linear)

• Fairly new
• Somewhat successful in boxed games
• Familiar (people confuse it with branching)
• Less author control
• Difficult to write

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Modular (Non-Linear)

• New
• Unnoticed when it works, and a disaster when it
  doesnt
• Unfamiliar (where are the little arrows?)
• Apparently no author control
• Difficult to write

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Which one works best for games?
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They ALL do.
And they work best in combination.
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StoryGame Structure
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Drama Structure StoryGame Structure

• Strong hook
• Compelling drama
• Engaging characters
• Escalating suspense
• Surprise twists
• Satisfying conclusion
• Universal theme

• Strong hook
• Maintain the 4th wall
• Relationship with NPCs
• Symbiotic escalation
• Player knowledge
• Feeling of accomplishment
• Universal theme

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Symbiotic Escalation of Tension or Suspense

• The Bad Day at the Office

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Game Structure Considerations

• Maintaining consistency of style
• Providing rewards (without obvious leveling)
• Hiding the numbers (die rolls, HPs)
• Tracking variables (order of modules, states set,
  flags tripped relationships, status, knowledge)

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Hints 1

• Use NPCs, description of action, rewards and
  dialogue to hide the numbers
• Leveling
• Hit points
• Skill points
• Damage counters

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Replace explicit numbers with real-world style
accomplishments for Player Characters to truly
feel as if they live in the world of the game.
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Hints 2

• Maintain a database to track
• Items owned
• Skills learned
• PC health
• Increased level of abilities
• General reputation
• Stories completed
• Scenes within a story completed
• Knowledge acquired
• NPC relationships

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Attach that database to every Player Character.
I need to finish that quest for Sacred Rogaine.
My guild doesnt love me anymore.
I now own the best weapon on this planet.
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Hints 3

• Create worlds that dont rely on players to make
  up the stories
• Create story scenes as independent modules
• Use web or branching structures to tailor
  conversations based on a PCs experience
• Use traditional linear scene progression for
  rewards, major advancements in plot
• Allow the world to react to players knowledge

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Use every trick you can think of that youve seen
in the best movies, TV, drama and literature as
story-related substitutes for the usual
simplistic tracking of statistics.
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World Premiere!
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Damion Schubert
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End Game

• The Pact
• Why make games?
• What kind of games do we want to make?
• Your questions

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The Pact

• I, writer/game designer, pledge to make my game
  entertaining.
• I, game player, pledge to go along for the ride.

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Your Questions
Fire at will!
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THE END