New module, new project

 So after handing in all work for the last module it's time to move onto the next one.

DE4404 - EXPERIMENTAL PRACTICE

This module aims to analyse, de-construct and re-construct through practical activities. Provide the support and environment for you to challenge, expand and contest accepted creative and technical practices. Test and explore emerging philosophies within your specific practice discipline.

Moving forward from my last project I want to develop more in the aesthetics and illustrative design process of games and how these can be contributing factors towards the development of a pro-social game.

Looking into themes within society where people may require assistance or therapy and if they are relatable in aesthetics for character concepts or environmental art such as grief and the 5 stages that encompass it (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance) or the 7 deadly sins (Lust, Envy, Greed, Gluttony, Sloth, Pride, Wrath). Having characters from environments that reflect these themes in new and unique ways that the player would assist in game to understand there own possible emotions in a similar aspect similar to the companion NPC techniques displayed by Danijela Štajnfeld in 'Way Out' where the companion NPC displays the aftereffects of sexual abuse to allow for the player to develop techniques to help assist the NPC which could then overlap into the players actual life to reduce the amount of abuse received by female gamers.

There are already plenty of games that have used the 7 deadly sins as well as the theme of loss to lead their creative choices in both environmental art and character design so it is key to understand the choices they made in their design process and de-construct how they came to their conclusions before re-constructing the process to allow myself to develop new and interesting ways to illustrate these themes successfully.

Experimenting with other game development software

 

Obviously the majority of the work on Adventures in Soliverance has been done in Twine, to make use of the narrative qualities of the game and the promotion of ideas around dialogue and conversation with others and how this could be reflected in players day to day lives. But these sorts of games can also be produced in other game engines such as Unreal Engine with added bonuses that can be implemented to improve immersion but also possibly have affects that could deter from the end goal.

With the above practice in UE (a completely new software to me) we were able to fix the player and camera in place and have a plane appear before them similar to the cells within the screens of Twine, attaching commands to certain buttons on these planes that the player interacts with through the cursor to make the same choices as in Twine.

The advantages of using this software even for a text-based game allows for additional effects to engage other senses such as sound to evoke an atmosphere (think ambient bar sounds whilst the player is in the tavern) or more visual elements or animations, the title screen would be a good place to show this off and invite the player into this game or have the lore dump at the beginning scroll up like the Star Wars films to evoke this sense of history to the world they are entering.

Character images could be added next to their speech to allow for a better understanding of who's saying what, especially later on in the game when all party members are together and it's not just one-on-one conversations like that with the innkeeper. It would also allow me to develop illustrative works for the game to tie back into my own background and the research on guest lectures from the DE4401 and DE4402 modules which led to me incorporating the use of a sketchbook again as you can see below.

Images from sketchbook work on developing the lizardfolk cleric, in no particular order.

Whilst all these added visuals can definitely increase immersion and engagement from the player, it's the same debate about digital vs traditional with all games. What the function and goals of the game are should determine the format based on how effective at successfully accomplishing this function the format is. A fully realised digital game where the player has a first-person perspective and travels this world requires less description and invites more curiosity from the player to explore and thus this interaction crafts more engagement however, this limits accessibility to a wider audience based on technology. Relating to the use of disposable cameras by Dr Gary Bratchford during his research as opposed to top-of-the-range digital cameras because it would allow for a wider range of possible participants who could just point and click - the point wasn't to have beautiful images high definition images taken but for the experience to open them up to conversation about where they lived. Here a traditional format could be effective if we take for instance formatting this conversation-based game as a stand-alone campaign book for a game system such as D&D where all participants need is the book and some dice there is more outreach available. Pair this with a desire to produce a game with a pro-social benefit and a wider audience could have a larger social impact and benefit.

Using Adrienne Law's advice for my Innkeeper - part two

 

 

After evaluating the processes for crafting compelling characters as shown by Adrienne Law in the previous post it is time to put it into action with the innkeeper.

As a function they are there to provide optional information about other possible party members to allow for a more detailed decision-making process for the player, this can be reflected within the design process of the game by having an exacerbation of positive or negative alignment of the player i.e. if they choose a negative response to a conversation with a character without having spoken to the innkeeper first their alignment will receive -2 as opposed to the -1 penalty they would receive if they had chosen to talk to the innkeeper first (+2/+1 conversely if they choose a positive response). This is to imitate the idea of the ramifications of real-world interactions if we base our opinions of people with little information gained whereas if we found more out about people from several resources there would be more validity to our final opinions - "don't judge a book by its cover" so to speak.

As we know from Adrienne though, we can't base our interactions with the innkeeper solely on their function, if we want to have a more engaging experience for the player.

After having gone in-depth with the possible motivations of the innkeeper in the last post we can understand where they sit in the world and its lore, as we want them to be a fully realized individual who the player has limited interaction with. Adding the lens of curiosity will invite the player into the conversation with the lens of impact making the interaction worthy of the player's time and effort and giving reason for more interactions to be sought after in future scenarios.

In terms of a narrative game it is slightly more difficult to get these lenses across without access to visual actions having to rely on describing the actions can lead to too much exposition which is the enemy of curiosity. Basically giving the player answers before they've had to chance to ask questions.

It is typical of fantasy-based games for innkeepers or bartenders to be placed in the game as a source of information or side quest givers so perhaps the player would have previous knowledge of this, with the genre of the game fitting their style, but cannot be relied upon. The innkeeper could beckon the player over after they've gone to the quest board - their husband is a hunter after all so may have explored the tomb or nearby already/ maybe asking to keep an eye out for signs of their husband whilst on the expedition/ the wood elf possible party member could be her daughter etc. These are examples of the player overtly being shown that the innkeeper wants their attention there are more covert methods such as having your tankard empty forcing you to go back to the bar and interact with the innkeeper which would add dialogue to create immersion and one of the options could be to talk about the quest the player has chosen to undertake more like a natural conversation, having a back and forth using the character and players motives before the further information is available.

The original piece of text to initiate the idea of using the innkeeper for information was -

"After studying all individuals around the room you recognize a few faces that have frequented the Inn quite often and may be in a similar financial situation as you as well as other feisty types who look more brawn than brain, ideal candidates to come on the adventure but not be as successful at collecting treasure. You could also ask the innkeeper for her opinions on the guests in case anybody else has taken an interest in this particular quest, though she may want to discuss your ever-increasing bar tab, and your remaining funds might be needed to persuade some individuals to take part in the quest."

Far too instructional and overt especially the second half of the text, so let's try the more covert method with the empty tankard.

"After mulling over the potential of your fellow patrons you take another swig from your tankard only to discover its contents have run dry. Requiring one last beverage for a bit of courage before broaching the subject of the quest with strangers you slowly head to the bar awaiting the innkeeper."

Here we are forced to interact with the innkeeper but the player will still have the choice to ask about the potential party members, this way we can gain some characterization of the innkeeper through the next few pieces of dialogue but keep the players' choices open so they have interactive elements and feeling of still being in control of what occurs. Also utilizing the necessity of another ale for courage is relatable to many, especially for talking to strangers in a bar.

As we can see here, we have a simple description of the innkeeper and start to divulge some observations of her connection to her daughter as mentioned in the previous post without making it overtly known of the connection to the player allowing for that curiosity. The innkeeper serves her basic function as a trader in an attempt to upsell a new ale giving the player a choice that ultimately makes no difference to gameplay as they both go to the next level of dialogue but should give the player a feeling of control over their actions.

As the dialogue continues we can provide more valuable opportunities to gain a rapport with the innkeeper to the point that she would be willing to share information on other possible party members, since she is a good individual who has no previous connection this wouldn't normally be information willingly given - she isn't a gossipmonger so the effort will have to be required on the players' behalf and this would be rewarded with the exacerbation of positive or negative alignment later on.

Moving the dialogue forward we have the added observation of the innkeeper continuing to observe the female alluding to some significance between them, with the added interest of her being an elf. How the innkeeper changes tone adds depth to her character from the background we established in the previous post. Giving the player meaningful choices afterward, they can remove themselves from the conversation completely where they will gain no extra information or try and attempt conversation. Given that the innkeeper has responded quite sternly to us looking at the elf most players may avoid directly talking about her due to social conventions and perhaps talk about something else first which is correct. If you immediately start talking about the Elf the innkeeper will be more standoffish and not be willing to divulge as much info compared to talking more about the village and providing an impression of someone who's not looking to make advances on her daughter. A later option to learn about the link between the innkeeper and the elf can be found by following this pathway.

As you can see opting for the more direct approach doesn't end well and sends you away from the bar with no gained information, again reiterating this effort and reward idea presented by Adrienne when it comes to the lenses of curiosity and impact with the players' motivation.

You get a much better response by talking more about the village and warming the innkeeper up to you, learning a bit more about the village and how it was formed informs the player that the innkeeper is a source of information so perhaps information could be gained.

The player is then given the option to talk about the conversation naturally with questions about hunting, this can lead to knowledge about the local area and the quest you've picked up or ask about her family, whilst not as intrusive as before it can still seem a little forward so will result in no information about potential party members but the innkeeper will not react as harshly toward the player.

Even though we don't get information on other potential party members, the players' effort is rewarded with knowledge of the innkeepers' background, as well as the potential for a side quest along the adventure as you now have knowledge of her husband out hunting who you could run into on your way to the quest which is something not permitted by earlier exits from the conversation. So thus providing some reward for some effort, as I feel it should be a scaleable effect of narrative games. The player shouldn't have to jump through all the hoops to get a reward as that level of exertion can get tiresome, but if some effort has been taken then it should be recognized.

By talking about hunting we gain the same level of backstory of the innkeeper and her family but in a less forced dialogue and a more emotional and inviting response which gives a more overt notice of the potential side quest to seek the husband, even though it's more overt its still authentic to the conversation given the dialogue choices from the player and the motives of the character. It flows smoothly into you informing the innkeeper of your quest where now she will be more inclined to help you with the information given that you have detailed how you will help ease her worries and seek out her husband's safety.

Finishing the dialogue with the innkeeper we can set her info for the 7 individuals to true which is a score that allows for the later exacerbation of responses if they are spoken to later.  Her responses and actions are still authentic with the player, that she may worry he might get her husband to join in so letting her know that's not the case is in line with the direction the player has taken with the conversation to get here.  Doesn't mean they can't change their mind later on if and when they meet the hunter. The player doesn't overtly get given the information on the other characters here but it is merely suggested to keep the curiosity present and imply that they could perhaps talk to the individuals as well since talking to the innkeeper has been so rewarding thus far. Hopefully promoting the idea of conversing to gain information and following social conventions and positive approaches to gain better rewards. If the player doesn't gain the innkeepers' information but still chooses to talk to the individuals they will ponder if the innkeeper could have provided some added details for them thus inviting the same curiosity for conversation with the player.  If the player talks to nobody within the bar before making their choices not only will it be a less engaging experience for them, they will face consequences from the characters, would people be so willing to put there life in danger later on in the quest if the player has formed any sort of bond or kinship with them, again effort reaps rewards.

Using Adrienne Law's advice for my Innkeeper - part one

 In March 2024 I attended the Yorkshire Games Festival in Bradford and was able to observe the presentation from Adrienne Law titled 'Writing with Character: Lenses for Crafting Compelling NPC's' and wanted to utilize the advice she gave during the presentation to add more depth to the NPC's within my own practice without having them just provide binary options, hopefully, this will provide a more engaging experience for the player so that any social benefits I hope to provide are more successful.

At the moment there is very little information given to the player, barely any interactive experience which is the main form of immersion during dialogue. The player just has the option to talk to the Innkeeper and if they do they will gain more information from other NPC's as it is implied that they learned something extra from the Innkeeper, however, if it was a real interaction there would be other questions asked and the motives of both the player and NPC would be present during the conversation. So let's solve this.

CHARACTER MOTIVATION

So the initial thing to look at is the function of the NPC in question. As an Innkeeper they are a basic trader but also since we have the option to speak to them about the other NPCs that may be chosen to be part of our team they are a source of information and my job is to turn this character into something more engaging than their function so will have to look at the narrative lenses that can be incorporated into the manufacturing of a compelling character. The three narrative lenses that Adrienne suggests are as follows:

MOTIVATION - what drives us forward

CURIOSITY - what sparks our imagination

IMPACT - what makes our characters memorable

Often these qualities can be missing when crafting a character because we don't appreciate what they are there to do - function.

1. MOTIVATION

Finding our purpose

Whose motivation is at the forefront of the dialogue - a good balance is required for a really satisfying scene.

"Human beings have [. . .] three dimensions; physiology, sociology, and psychology. Without a knowledge of these three dimensions we cannot appraise a human being."

"It is not enough, in your study of a man to know if he is rude, polite, religious, atheistic, moral, degenerate, you must know why."

- Lajos Egri - 

PHYSIOLOGY

- our body, our health, our beauty, our pain.

SOCIOLOGY

- our upbringing, our family, our society, our job.

PSYCHOLOGY

- our temperament, our values, our emotions, our priorities.

To build a better character for the innkeeper I should be thinking in these three dimensions about the character and understanding them beyond the players' horizon since they exist outside of the player's journey - there is a natural flow to the innkeepers' life with the player interjecting within a small section of it. All while focusing the lens appropriately based on how integral to the story the innkeeper is, a one-line character doesn't need a fully-fledged backstory. 

The innkeeper is of human race like most of the families that the village of Wyvernpond originated with, the idea being that a small group of adventuring humans came across the carcass of the Wyvern that had died in battle with the crater formed from the crash landing creating a lake over the years and the humans that first came across the body started to mine it for resources which drew more locals or there extended families until a village started to form, many people ended up staying due to the necessity of their skillset i.e blacksmiths/ leatherworkers/ farmers/ alchemists, etc but it still stayed small and with the thick spruce forest around them relatively isolated from the rest of Soliverance just as the corpse had been. This helps separate the village mostly from the war going on with the land and so is a nice basic land to start the player in akin to other worlds with starting areas (pallet town in Pokemon) but makes sense since the value of the products produced from the wyvern is due to value being placed on the scarcity of an item, the village only has citizens that it requires, with that being said over the years they have been welcoming to any and all visitors with many different races and cultures being included to the growth of the village due to the interesting and unique skills or traits they had such as a reliable trading alliance, etc. This led to the innkeeper marrying a wood elf hunter and having two children - the hunter brings in wild game for the inn to serve and the children help out where they can with chores around the tavern as the innkeeper did with her own mother, many of the work stations within the village are family owned and passed down generation to generation.

Objectively a beautiful female, she found herself gaining a lot of male attention, especially in her younger years working behind the bar, and could have had her pick of the villagers before choosing the Wood elf, but through the experience of unwanted male attention, she has learned how to handle herself exceptionally well through words over violence. Now in her early 40s and her daughter a mid-teen, she is aware that she too will have to endure this sort of behavior and is torn between over-protecting her daughter and also wanting to give her space to grow into her own individual. With this age comes a lot of her concerns and anxiety that she tries to hide, the fact that she is past the midpoint of age that she is expected to live whilst her husband has hundreds of years left and each day she grows more concerned with his hunting trips knowing that with each trip he has to travel further and further away so as not to hunt any local creatures to the extent that they can no longer breed she worries that something could happen to him, whether that be caught in a battle of the war or have some vampires capture and mutilate him, a horde of people with ill-intent following him back to the village and raiding it in the middle of the night many of these keep her up at night whilst he is away. It doesn't help that she has to keep this apprehension of new visitors in the village hidden whilst at work since the inn is the first place travelers attend to rest themselves during the journey and she wants to provide a pleasant and welcoming environment to any patrons. This keeping of emotions bottled up has led to more than one dispute between the innkeeper and her spouse but they do communicate well and work past these difficult circumstances, recently they have gone to the local alchemist for a concoction to alieve the catastrophizing thoughts she has when her anxiety peaks. A lot of her concerns have grown from her just wanting to protect her family whilst she is alive knowing full well that they will live far beyond her years due to their Elf blood. 

When interacting with the Innkeeper, since the player has only been present within the village for a week the Innkeeper will still retain some apprehension to questions so to get the most information from her you will have to provide a sense of altruism and empathy to her to help bring her barriers down, if successful more questions will be accessible to the player.

2. CURIOSITY

Why do we need curiosity as a lens when crafting a believable character to have a dialogue with;

- It's important for player motivation

- It engages imagination

- It makes our world feel bigger

- It offers it's own rewards

So what the character says and doesn't say should increase curiosity in the player, curiosity to ask more questions or explore areas and other characters brought up - not just answer questions efficiently and accurately as they are there for a function other than just exposition.

"The enemy of curiosity is exposition"

Where do we get exposition wrong?

- Treating the extraordinary as mundane

- overloading the player with information

- pre-empting questions the player hasn't asked

As people, we understand what believable people would do. so to use curiosity correctly we need to identify what's important to who. In this instance, we can have the player begin the interaction with the innkeeper but we don't have her full attention as she is watching her daughters' interaction at one of the tables giving us the sense of familial protection and we need to respect the value that we have found for this. We can't have the player just solve the problem and go back to the conversation with undivided attention on us now, we are interjecting in the innkeeper's life for a small conversation, and these concerns of hers are years old and will evolve through her entire lifetime, perhaps conversing that you understand the concerns she has for her daughters' safety would be more beneficial to extending the conversation. Careful use of ambiguity allows for the player to fill in gaps with imagination and this use of 'show don't tell' helps with this, the innkeeper doesn't tell us we don't have her attention because she is observing her daughter we observe it and asssume the rest based on our own known conventions of societal relationships. We can also set things up now to be paid off later, a good example of this is when a character lies about something and the truth is revealed later on, or the common cinema trope of Chekhov's gun where a weapon or item is shown and detailed early on in the story and is utilized to some effect later on perhaps to kill the bad guy or fail to work for comedic effect.

"One must never place a loaded rifle on the stage if it isn't going to go off. It's wrong to make promises you don't mean to keep"

- Anton Chekhov - 

3. IMPACT

Why is impact an important lens when crafting a character that gets the player engaged in your content?

- Offers the player unique and well-established characterization 

- Keeps player emotionally grounded

- Allows for meaningful interactions with the player (especially positive for pro-social games)

- Causes character development

To craft an impactful character we need to find their voice, this incorporates their vocabulary or what words they use, in this case, what languages they speak and how well, their education and dialect can also be reflected upon within their voice. We need to give them real-world emotions; how does the great war in Soliverance affect the emotions of the Innkeeper - we understand that whilst there has been no impact on her life it is an ever-present danger that could escalate to the point of massively impacting the village, looking to real-world equivalents will enable a more realistic emotional response for this character causing greater impact for player. I can search for contrasts between NPCs as well especially when it comes to the party members thinking of archetypes and subversion of expectations (the dark and broody-looking individual is actually the most friendly and helpful one) which would help make players no longer judge a book by it's cover when it comes to their future interactions in society. I should aim to define the characters' background to the player through their actions, especially the parts of their background that are relevant to the story or scene, an impactful character is always going to be one the writer understands.  This can lead to creating an impactful arc for the character if they are substantial to the story (think hero's journey etc) I should decide whether the character can change with their emotions/values/physiology and provide a challenge to that state and then make sure it's shifted by the end of the scene/arc whether they have changed their mind, had a loss or gain or simply doubled down on their original state. Their life has changed due to the players' interaction which will have a significant impact on the player knowing their actions have consequences in this world - more immersion.

WRITERS' MOTIVATION

After establishing the ways and means of constructing an engaging and compelling character with their own motives it is important to understand the writers' motivation - though as a one-man team in my own practice, a lot of this is already known as there isn't the same level of communication required as in a multi-person team or even multiple department studio. But the motivations suggested by Adrienne are;

- to deliver key information

- driving the player forward in their journey

- worldbuilding

- convey a story of theme

- balance with other departments (art/level design/programmers etc)

Without balancing our own motivations with the characters and players it will feel lifeless and seem like the writer is just talking at the player and delivering an instructional voice.

It is important that our role is to define the structure of the story through the particular interaction, dialogue, or scene and the character translates it to the player who just wants to enjoy it so by understanding all of the characters' motives we have crafted to fulfill our own functions we can ensure more success at this.

PLAYERS' MOTIVATION

These are fundamental to why we make games at all, they want a high-quality narrative experience that causes immersion and that offers elements of delight and surprise, basically to have the time and effort they put into the game as well as financial to be rewarded. So when crafting dialogue and interactions we can't just diagnose our players' motivations but utilize them with our own and the characters to meet and then exceed them.

With this being a game all about choice and consequence there have to be applicable consequences to all possible directions the player may make, without this and having every player end at the same spot no matter what background they've imagined for their own character will lose all immersion and leave the player feeling let down like their choices didn't matter - a lack of payoff for interactivity will make the experience redundant. We have to understand the players' journey and make our characters a part of it.