The Core of Narrative Design

Here is a report that I recently submitted for my masters degree. It is a look at the core of narrative design; why narrative is important, what it can add to a game, what are the challenges associated with integrating story and what can we expect from narrative in games in the future?

I loved writing the essay. Videogame narrative is still so new, and to have the opportunity to think about what it can be in just a few short years is really exciting.

Referencing Information:

Bridle, M. (2011) ‘The Core of Narrative Design’ Videogamenarrative.wordpress.com [online]. Available from: https://videogamenarrative.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/the-core-of-narrative-design/

Apologies for Absence

Owing to a sharp increase in my university workload I have been unable to post here for the past few months.

Now I’m back and, barring any other massive escalations in work volume, I will be posting more regularly going forward.

Via guardian.co.uk: Holy Side Story, Batman

There are just over half a dozen posts on this site and two are about Batman: Arkham City. That’s a pretty big percentage, but understandable when one considers just how much excitement there is building around this game.

In this interview with the Guardian, Sefton Hill, game director at Rocksteady Studios, mentions side-missions in Arkham City, that can be tackled by the player at anytime during the game. This is a contrast to Arkham Asylum’s measured pace, with certain areas only accessible at certain points in the game, and it will be interesting to see how Rocksteady can change the structure of the game and have it still feel like a Rocksteady Batman title. Without playing the finished title it is impossible to truly know, but it is certainly possible to have an educated guess …

Hero In A Crowd: A Character Sketch

During episode 79 of the Eurogamer podcast (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-08-16-eurogamer-net-podcast-79-blog-entry) Christian Donlan said (and I hope he’ll excuse me if I paraphrase slightly) that “Good stories are often good stories because of who they are about”.

TV shows are often carried by their cast of characters. The Sopranos and Mad Men are driven by the strength of their lead character, in particular. Recent BBC series Sherlock relies in huge part on the character of Sherlock Holmes and his brilliant modernisation (although the superb scripts and boundless imagination of the writing team also play a huge role). David Simon’s iconic sociological study The Wire, and his follow up show, Treme, succeed because of the strength of the characters those shows portray. The Wire draws many of its characters from Simon’s book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, a book that, as the title suggests, took over a year to research.

Videogame characters are often far from the fully nuanced ‘people’ that we expect from TV and from movies. This is because of the unique challenges faced by videogame writers. Videogame writers, rather than create a character, must create a “role the player cares to adopt or become” (Jacobs, 2007) which is a very different challenge. Mad Men’s Don Draper is a fascinating character but would he, with all his history, foibles and issues, be any more fun for the player to control than Modern Warfare’s Soap MacTavish. Of course it would depend on the game, the genre and the intention of the developer, but the question is this: whilst characters like Don Draper always improve TV series, do they always improve games?

Via Gamasutra.com – Stephen Dinehart Interview

This article links to an interview from 2007 with Stephen Dinehart by Gamasutra. Dinehart is a noted Narrative Designer and alumni of companies such as Relic, EA, Blizzard and others. Leaving his LinkedIn profile aside for a second, he also founded the Narrative Designer’s Network which, to quote the site directly, “was created to support creative professionals within the game making and video game industry that find themselves between the blurred line of interactive entertainment, writing and design.” http://narrativedesign.org/about-ndn/). Describing himself as a “Chief Wizard” at his current company NarrWare, he comes across either as a good sport or a pleasant eccentric depending on your level of cynicism. Whilst it would be fascinating to speak with him today, this four year old interview gives an insight, not only into the work he did on Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, but also on how he views and approaches storytelling in games.

Gears 2 And The Golden Rule

If narrative design and video game writing has a Golden Rule, it is that you must “keep the gameplay in the writing”. (Dansky,2007) If, during writing, the gameplay, set pieces and playability are considered at every step then this is the start of good narrative design. If the writing is wonderful, emotional and impactful but negatively impacts gameplay, then it might be good writing, but it is poor narrative design.

Gears of War 2, Epic Games’ critically acclaimed (http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/gears-of-war-2/critic-reviews) sequel to the console generation defining Gears of War, is a fascinating case study of a design team obeying the Golden Rule in all facets of design. By simply looking at the game’s first act, Tip of the Spear, it is possible to see the far reaching gameplay impacts of the Golden Rule of Narrative Design, both positive and negative.

Via joystiq.com – Storytelling In Arkham City

Here is a link to an interview with Rocksteady’s Paul Crocker, Lead Narrative Designer on Batman: Arkham City, and Paul Dini.

It is an interesting piece because it shows that, as well as a noted Batman storyteller, Rocksteady hired a narrative designer to incorporate the story elements into gameplay, and their individual takes on the storytelling process are interesting.

Crocker’s description of the side quests and optional story elements being a “late addition” to Batman: Arkham Asylum that went on to form the crux of the story for Arkham City is intriguing. This mechanic rewarded players that explored and played the game thoroughly, but, in story terms, could marginalise those who didn’t search through every inch of the first game. It will be interesting to see how this is handled in Arkham City. Personally, I admire using the story as a means to encourage exploration, but feedback on the game will be interesting.

Dini, when talking about the Mad Hatter’s exclusion from the first game, gives an interesting insight into the writing process. Clearly not every good idea can make it in.

Finally, the quote that explains why the first game works so well and the focus for the second game: “if the ogre isn’t going to kill the hero or the dragon isn’t deadly, the rest of the story isn’t going to work”. The Batman rogues gallery will work in Arkham City, despite their diversity and general oddness, because they will but the Dark Knight in very real danger.

Drama is conflict.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/07/26/rocksteady-and-paul-dini-on-the-storytelling-in-batman-arkham-c/

The Aim Of The Site

If you are going to keep a website centred around one specific topic, it is probably advisable to define that topic as soon as possible.

With narrative design, however, that is far from easy. For one thing, this site should explore all aspects of narrative and interactive design, taking a look at everything from the construction of the story, to how a player interacts with the world, to the documents that support the tale being told. An overly tight definition here risks undermining the investigational intention of the writing.

Secondly, the question of ‘what is game narrative?’ is a relatively recent one that “developers, writers, reviewers and publishers have been trying to answer for years with limited success” (Dansky, 2007). Narrowing down a definition and encompassing description of all narrative design, interactive narrative and the extent of their influence on gaming, should be the aim for this blog in the long term, not its starting point.

Review of Bastion for GodisaGeek.com

Here, as an opening post, is link to a review of Bastion that I wrote for GodisaGeek.com

http://www.godisageek.com/2011/07/bastion-review/

I loved Bastion’s narration system and was amazed by the affect that this narrative mechanic had on the gameplay. Every action carried so much more weight, with every decision going down in an ethereal ledger. It made me limit the amount of re-treading my steps that I did, made me think about how I wanted to conduct myself in battle (should I run away, should I kill every last enemy etc) and also made me commit to my actions. Incredibly simple, yet profoundly powerful.

Not every post here will be a link, that is a guarantee, but I wanted to get the blog started and show how I think about games.

Bastion is designed by Supergiant Games and has its website here: http://supergiantgames.com/?page_id=242