REPOST: Narrative design myth-busting: It's not "just writing"

 https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/narrative-design-myth-buster-1-it-s-not-just-writing

In this ongoing series, narrative designer Matthew Weise confronts misconceptions about narrative design in game development.

Matthew Weise

Contributor

September 17, 2021

 

Storytelling is as old as video games. Narrative design--the systematic understanding of how story works in games, and the production expertise that goes along with it--is still relatively new. While it’s common to see job ads for ‘narrative designer’ or ‘narrative director’ these days, this was not the case just a few short years ago.

Similar to where ‘game design’ was in the early-2000s, narrative design is an old art but a new (or newly understood) job. This means that, while it has indeed come a long way, there can still be a lot of confusion surrounding it: what it is, what it isn’t, where it overlaps with other disciplines, where it doesn’t. There are still a lot of myths surrounding it. Chances are you’ve heard of some, and may even harbor them without knowing it. 

This can create confusion and false expectations, hurting development and in some cases even derailing projects. This will be a series designed to save you from that, by debunking the most common myths of narrative design in games. First up:

“Narrative Design is just writing.”

Sometimes “narrative design” and “game writing” are used interchangeably. You may have heard this yourself. Companies are looking for a “narrative designer/writer” or someone might say “Our narrative designer is writing the story." While they are certainly related, it is important to remember these are two entirely different jobs, with different skillsets and different tools, that need to work in tandem to achieve a good narrative player experience.

Narrative design is, as the name implies, a type of design, like level design or systems design. The skillset and toolbox is that of a designer: helping create and/or leverage existing mechanics, systems, levels, art, UI, and sound to achieve a desired dramatic experience for the user.

A game writer creates the actual written content for the game, typically player-facing (dialogue, descriptions, menu text, etc.) but also sometimes team-facing (story bibles, character sheets, beat planning documents, etc.). Sometimes the narrative designer is also the game writer. Sometimes they are different people. Sometimes there is a whole team of narrative designers and game writers, each tasked with different things.

Seems simple enough, so why does confusion about it persist? A lot of it has to do with the messy history of narrative and writing in video games, specifically how game narrative has been traditionally siloed in the development process.

Historically, throughout much of the 80s and 90s, game narrative was equated with cutscenes and dialogue (and by implication not mechanics, systems, art, or UI). While many games--from Zork to Ultima to countless others--defied this assumption with their holistic, integrated approach to narrative, a lot of the language used to describe such holistic design was yet to develop, leaving many production teams with a simplistic “game vs. story” dichotomy informing their process. The rise of cinema-like visuals in the late 90s further siloed “story” from “game,” encouraging pipelines developed for film and tv to be dropped wholesale into game production, entrenching the perception that “writers” are the ones who work with the film people to create the movie-like bits, while the team making the actual game is off doing something else.

While a lot of this confusion has been cleared up today, it can still trip up projects, starting with the hiring process. Teams that understand the difference between narrative design and writing will have clear and specific job ads that reflect this, whereas ones that do not will often use fuzzier, non specific language that conflates the two or uses them interchangeably. Companies that know what they are doing know that if you need a writer, you need to hire a writer. If you need a narrative designer, you need to hire a narrative designer. If you need both, you need to hire both. And you are upfront and clear about this in your job ads all the way through your hiring process.

The biggest problem of hiring a ‘narrative designer’ when what you really expect is a writer is it belies a narrow-minded, outdated assumption about what narrative is and can be in your game. If you think narrative design is someone coming in at the end and adding some words and VO around decisions that have already been made in gameplay, art, and UI you are missing that holistic approach to game storytelling that has been at the core of what makes game stories so memorable, endearing, and--above all--unique to players. Your mechanics, your art, and your UI could be doing a lot of the “narrative lifting” as it were. Distributing your storytelling across all aspects of design, not just dialogue, cut-scenes, lore, etc., makes dramatic game worlds richer, fuller, and more resonant with audiences.

A good narrative designer will work with other departments to find out how the UI can express the protagonist’s personality, how a well-designed room can have the same effect as a page of dialogue, and how a game mechanic can express a spiritual and emotional conflict, not just a physical one. And those are just the basics. More advanced forms can result in truly innovative and time-saving features, like smart bark systems that ensure lines don’t become repetitive or ambitious story-generation systems like the one in Shadow of Mordor. Having a strong interdisciplinary narrative design foundation--which includes writing as an important part along with everything else--is what allows you to “level up” your narrative design, so to speak, achieving true innovation in the space that players will remember. This is the ultimate value of understanding how all these parts work together to create the art of narrative design, and what will distinguish your game as an intelligently crafted and efficient piece of work.

***

Matthew Weise is a narrative designer and writer whose work bridges the worlds of games and traditional entertainment with credits including Disney's Fantasia: Music Evolved and The Jury Room from Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson. Weise is former game design director of MIT's GAMBIT Game Lab and currently runs narrative design consultancy Fiction Control.

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REPOST: What Every Game Designer Should Know About Human Psychology [02.25.21] - Michael Moran

https://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/1987/what_every_game_designer_should_.php

Discover more from Informa Tech

From door handles to coffee mugs to fighter jet cockpits, User Experience shows up in everything you interact with. Every human-made object has been designed, based on either what will be easier for the user or what was easiest for the manufacturer. (Whenever using something feels frustrating or confusing, you can be sure it was the latter!) But what about the concept of User Experience in the world of video games? When our brains process something as complex as a video game, there's a lot going on. Understanding the role that psychology plays within the science of game development is crucial to creating memorable and engaging games. In this article, we'll summarize the importance of understanding psychology while crafting the user experience of a video game. We'll touch on subjects such as the importance of play-testing, employing affordance in your games, how to use psychology to create usability and engageability, and the role of the "Gestalt" theory in game design. Why Design Should Always Focus On The User When the design is focused on the perspective of the user, a product becomes much more practical, desirable, and useful. A great example of this dates back to fighter pilots during WWII. Exhausted and under pressure, these pilots had a high rate of human error and were at risk of accidentally pushing the wrong button on the dashboard of their aircraft. WWII Spitfire Cockpit Unfortunately for them, dashboards were not consistent between aircraft. This meant the pilots had to learn a new set-up every time they switched planes. This made it even more likely that they would press the wrong button. Therefore, standardized cockpits needed to be developed which would improve the user experience for these pilots. This type of thinking can also be applied to video games, ensuring that the design of the game is centered around the user experience. Therefore, by understanding the psychology of the user, you'll be better able to make design decisions tailored to their needs. It's also important to remember that there is no such thing as a neutral design. Everything we design will  influence people to use it in one way or another .  This is an important ethical issue to consider, especially when certain retention mechanics can create addictive behaviors and punish disengagement . The Importance of Play-Testing Every user is different and  our perspective depends on our experience , our history and what is important to us. When designing video games for different types of users, it's not possible to know in advance what every user will bring to the experience. That's why it's essential to have a diverse team of designers with different backgrounds. That's also why video game designers "play test" their games. This tests how the game is perceived by the people who will actually be playing it. With this method designing a game becomes  a cycle of action and iteration . Designers create a game, then test it to see if it is accomplishing what they wanted to achieve. If insight from audience testing finds the game lacking, it's back to the drawing board to refine with more information. Then the game is tested again, and the cycle continues. The design team may have certain goals that they are trying to achieve within the game. However, they will need to iterate on all aspects of the gameplay, from dialogue to visuals to mechanics and more, in order to achieve those goals. When it comes to play testing, heres an important tip:  The developer shouldn't be in the room with the play testers . Not only will it make the players feel somewhat awkward and intimidated, it will also make the test less accurate. Players tend to make  more  effort to understand a game when the developer is watching than they would if they were playing it at home  (perhaps out of politeness to the person who has put their heart and soul into crafting the game). To get an accurate measure of how many players would simply give up on a game, play testers should be free to play the game by themselves. Next: Continued Printer-Friendly Version  Pages: 1 2 3 4

 

Video games can bring older family members’ personal history back to life September 18, 2019 12.06pm EDT

https://theconversation.com/video-games-can-bring-older-family-members-personal-history-back-to-life-123065?utm_source=pocket-newtab

It is one thing to learn about history in a classroom. But as any visitor to a living museum or historic site can tell you, a fantastic way to learn is to make a personal connection.

In early 2019, media entrepreneur Mati Kochavi and his daughter Maya brought the stories of Eva Heyman, a Hungarian Jew who was murdered in Auschwitz, to social media with the simple question, “What if a girl in the Holocaust had Instagram?” “Eva Stories” was a one-day project told through Instagram stories that amassed 200,000 followers before the morning it began and reached 1 million by its end the next day.

Regular people care about the past, and can now engage with it in new ways. As a researcher of games and aging, I’m noticing a trend emerging that has the potential to build even more powerful emotional connections with its audience, through the crackling voices of people who lived through important historical times and events. My fellow game designers and I refer to it as “gaminiscing” – using the tools of video games to share personal history. 

These projects, including my own, combine audio recordings of their subjects with modern gameplay, letting players explore a virtual environment to hear – and sometimes even experience – meaningful life stories that are told to them by the older adults who lived through them.

Connecting generations

In general, few video games portray older characters accurately. Often they’re presented as a cartoon, or an over-the-top caricature or in a dehumanizing way. Before gaminiscing, there was almost no opportunity for older people to use their own voices to tell authentic, personal stories.

An early trailer for ‘Grandma Game.’ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JXslq_6Muc#action=share

“Grandma Game” is the working title of an intergenerational game by brothers and media artists James and Joe Cox, in collaboration with their grandmother, Barbara. The game is a walking simulator, a popular genre of video games in which players trigger stories by exploring 3D environments. In “Grandma Game,” players find themselves inside the watercolor paintings done by Barbara and her grandsons, while hearing her tell stories of what the images and places mean to her.
The game intentionally limits a player’s interaction, to make it more fun for Barbara herself to play it. 

“We want the game to be playable (and enjoyable) to her, so we have to design the controls and play around what she can understand and handle,” James told me in an email. “She sees it as a way to preserve her family’s history and as an opportunity to share skills with, and learn from, her grandchildren. Both our watercolor painting sessions and audio recording sessions have given us the chance to spend … quality time with our grandmother – time focused on creating work together as artists.”

Looking at history

Other games have emerged that take on more expansive historical topics, though still using very personal experiences. 

“Memories of Manzanar and Tule Lake” is the working title of a game aiming to recreate the stories of the game designer’s Japanese American grandparents during their time in an internment camp following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In the game, players will be able to direct their own journey, interacting with other internees and learning about personal experiences with pivotal events in history, like the infamous loyalty questionnaire, and joining the U.S. Army.

Similar to the Cox brothers, game designer Brent Shiohama wishes to honor his grandparents, the bravery of interned families, and the Japanese Americans who served in the 100th Infantry Battalion/442nd Infantry Regimental Combat Team.

A virtual reality game explores one boy’s experience of World War II in France.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6tqg__x2P0#action=share 

“La Peur Bleue” tells the stories of the creator’s grandfather in World War II France. The artist states, “By focusing on specific, emotional moments from my grandfather’s past, you are given the opportunity to experience the context of the war and empathize with the emotions my grandfather felt.” Players interact with objects in recreated locations and hear a grandfather reminisce about his past, adding another layer of historical immersion by using virtual reality rather than just a computer screen.

My own game, the forthcoming “Brukel,” uses recordings of my grandmother’s own voice, to tell stories of her childhood growing up on an occupied farm in Belgium during World War II. 

As the player, you enter the Brukel farmhouse equipped with your smartphone camera and a vague list of topics that your grandmother told you about. By photographing items that match well with each topic, you unlock audio recordings in which she reveals her past to you. 

However, when it eventually gets dark, you find yourself trapped in the house as the ghosts of the past come to life. Through a series of survival-based vignettes, you must try to outlast some of the horror stories that my grandmother lived through as a teenage girl, while slowly learning about how the war deeply affected everyone in the family.

A Belgian grandmother tells the story of her childhood in ‘Brukel.’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P-alvHXGnc#action=share 

A welcoming response

Even before the release of “Brukel,” I have been able to showcase it, most notably at an event at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in early August 2019. So far, playtesters have told me they appreciate its ability to engage the player through the use of modern technology.

Because of my own research, I had anticipated that older gamers would appreciate “Brukel” for its meaningful engagement and mature story. Those are two qualities that my research has shown are paramount to older gamers. In particular, for my qualitative work, I met a number of older adults who deliberately sought out games that would meaningfully contribute to their interest in the post-World War II era.

For example, an 82-year-old Belgian man told me, “I barely remember the Second World War but I was a child back then. What I remember is extremely vivid, though. The lights, the bombings, the noise. Airplanes flying over our house and being shot down. I can still see it. It was an adventure, and I relive that adventure by playing games about it.”

Similarly, another Belgian man, aged 62, explained, “I recently went to Normandy; it is amazing to visit places in games that you can later on visit in real life. You have never been there but you know the place from the game. They can be so realistic.”

However, I had not expected the response that “Brukel” received from children. At the Smithsonian event, people from all age groups – including pre-kindergartners and octogenarians – played “Brukel.” As a group, pre-teens turned out to be most engaged with the game, spending the most time playing it and even returning multiple times over the two-day event to play it again.

When I spoke with the parents of these young gamers, the general theme of their response was that they loved how engaged their children were with “Brukel” while learning about history. One parent told me, “They’re going to play video games regardless, so it’s great that they’re drawn to something educational.” Another parent who said his child was on the autism spectrum and had trouble concentrating in school praised “Brukel” for its ability to engage with his son. He said his son was more comfortable learning through playing the game because he was familiar with using a keyboard and mouse, which he found far less stressful than being in a classroom.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that many of these gaminiscing projects are centered around war. The 75th anniversary of the end of World War II will be in 2020; as those who faced its terrors firsthand die, the stories of their experiences are fading away. The risk – and my concern – is that society collectively will forget the lessons and the promises of “never again.”

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