Story Design for Games as Experience Design: How to make your games more meaningful and memorable Aki Järvinen Game Development, ITU Spring 2009

Contents Techniques to design meaning into play Stories Goal structures Characters Metaphors Examples & points of reference How to translate these concepts into ‘Unreal’ terms? Notes about your concepts’ story potentials

Techniques to design meaning into play

Stories

Goal structures

Characters

Metaphors

Examples & points of reference

How to translate these concepts into ‘Unreal’ terms?

Notes about your concepts’ story potentials

Meaning Even if your game does not have something we could call a ‘story’, it will produce meaning Games as systems ; as dynamic wholes with interacting parts – how is meaning generated? Hermeneutic circle : one's understanding of the whole is established by reference to the individual parts, and one's understanding of each individual part by reference to the whole. Thus, gameplay-related processes of understanding are fundamentally hermeneutical

Even if your game does not have something we could call a ‘story’, it will produce meaning

Games as systems ; as dynamic wholes with interacting parts – how is meaning generated?

Hermeneutic circle : one's understanding of the whole is established by reference to the individual parts, and one's understanding of each individual part by reference to the whole.

Thus, gameplay-related processes of understanding are fundamentally hermeneutical

Meaningful Play "Meaningful play in a game emerges from the relationship between player action and system outcome; it is the process by which a player takes action within the designed system of a game and the system responds to the action. The meaning of an action in a game resides in the relationship between action and outcome.” Salen & Zimmerman, Rules of Play

"Meaningful play in a game emerges from the relationship between player action and system outcome; it is the process by which a player takes action within the designed system of a game and the system responds to the action. The meaning of an action in a game resides in the relationship between action and outcome.”

Salen & Zimmerman, Rules of Play

Elements of meaning in games Analysis part: Unraveling hermeneutical circles; identifying their parts Design part: Raveling them back together, with new combinations and realizations of parts Using stories/gameplay to create the combinations, and deepen them

Analysis part: Unraveling hermeneutical circles; identifying their parts

Design part: Raveling them back together, with new combinations and realizations of parts

Using stories/gameplay to create the combinations, and deepen them

Story as Information An aspect of game design is how to distribute information, e.g. about goals. Structuring that information into a story is one way to do it. There are other ways...

An aspect of game design is how to distribute information, e.g. about goals.

Structuring that information into a story is one way to do it.

There are other ways...

Information about goals

Story as embedded goal structure Stories’ motivational function: Propelling the player from one goal to the next Rewarding the player with more information Rewarding the player with narrative twists Player’s progression in the formal goal structure of a game might be in contradiction with the diegetic progression of the character in the story: An achievement for the player ( e.g. advancing to a location ) might be a setback for the character ( once location is reached, story throws character into jail ); rewards are asymmetrical

Stories’ motivational function:

Propelling the player from one goal to the next

Rewarding the player with more information

Rewarding the player with narrative twists

Player’s progression in the formal goal structure of a game might be in contradiction with the diegetic progression of the character in the story:

An achievement for the player ( e.g. advancing to a location ) might be a setback for the character ( once location is reached, story throws character into jail ); rewards are asymmetrical

Story as ‘Texture’

Characters = Agents in a World

Emotional Game Design Emotional game play experiences matter, since emotionally salient material is remembered better than neutral material. Emotion creates memorable meaning Emotional game design as a means to amplify meanings; to pepper the meaningful elements with emotions ‘ emotions depend on evaluations of what has happened in relation to the person’s goals and beliefs’ ‘ emotions emerge at significant junctures in plans’ - Keith Oatley, Best Laid Schemes -> consequences for design of player choices & conflicts

Emotional game play experiences matter, since emotionally salient material is remembered better than neutral material.

Emotion creates memorable meaning

Emotional game design as a means to amplify meanings; to pepper the meaningful elements with emotions

‘ emotions depend on evaluations of what has happened in relation to the person’s goals and beliefs’

‘ emotions emerge at significant junctures in plans’

- Keith Oatley, Best Laid Schemes

-> consequences for design of player choices & conflicts

Events, Agents & Objects in a World ‘ emotions are valenced reactions to events, agents, or objects in a world’ - Ortony, Collins & Clore: The Cognitive Structure of Emotions Designing emotional responses to gameplay is about building worlds with particular events, agents, and objects … and designing the player’s relation to, and means to act in that world Fable 2 : moral choices as emotional dispositions designed into each choice

‘ emotions are valenced reactions to events, agents, or objects in a world’

- Ortony, Collins & Clore: The Cognitive Structure of Emotions

Designing emotional responses to gameplay is about building worlds with particular events, agents, and objects

… and designing the player’s relation to, and means to act in that world

Fable 2 : moral choices as emotional dispositions designed into each choice

Hemingway’s six word story For sale: Baby shoes, never worn. ‘ For sale’: an action (prospect of a game mechanic) ‘ Baby shoes’: an object ‘ Never worn’: an event (/an attribute of shoes) The emotional impact is in the implicit relations of these three; in an implied event: a gap How does one (game) design such gaps?

For sale: Baby shoes, never worn.

‘ For sale’: an action (prospect of a game mechanic)

‘ Baby shoes’: an object

‘ Never worn’: an event (/an attribute of shoes)

The emotional impact is in the implicit relations of these three; in an implied event: a gap

How does one (game) design such gaps?

Metaphors ‘ understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another’ – Lakoff & Johnson metaphors support the experience of rules as game play Examples: “ Game as real estate business” “ Game as war” “ Game as geometry” Metaphors help in communicating emotions

‘ understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another’ – Lakoff & Johnson

metaphors support the experience of rules as game play

Examples:

“ Game as real estate business”

“ Game as war”

“ Game as geometry”

Metaphors help in communicating emotions

Metaphorical objects

Reading: Lens #69 The Lens of Weirdest Thing

The Lens of Weirdest Thing

Examples ...of appropriate scope: Gravity Bone, made with Quake 2 engine Ambiguous meanings can be puzzling in a positive way; they diversify player experiences and create discussions

...of appropriate scope:

Gravity Bone, made with Quake 2 engine

Ambiguous meanings can be puzzling in a positive way; they diversify player experiences and create discussions