This image is the perfect example of reflection of light across a curved surface. Due to the ball’s spherical nature, the reflected light distorts and stretches the reflection, increasing as it progresses further from the centre point. This is most noticeable when you compare the figure in the centre to the shelving in the top left of the reflection.
In the reflection, there is the presence of bounced light from the windows, illuminating most of the right side of the room.Because of this and the distance from the light, the shadows around the walls are undefined for the most part – although in particular around the chairs and shelves, the shadows are harsh and defined.
Aside from the reflective ball, the hand is being illuminated from the right. Due to the intensity and sharp contrast of the shadow/ light across the hand, the light source is likely to be a lamp that is close to the hand.This could also be seen by comparing the shadow on the little finger with the shadow of the following fingers. It becomes much more undefined in nature and a lighter gradient to the defined and more intense shadow around the folds of the little finger, illustrating that the light has a high intensity/ close radius.
The background gradient of the image is likely to be more a compositional choice than a realistic one – with the dark tones at the base of the background contrasting and ultimately framing pale tones of the hand. Conversely, due to the shadow increasing progressively from the right window of the sphere, for the most part, the pale top background tones create a clear definition of the sphere’s weight and existence within the world.
Mass Effect 3 (Miranda) – Patryk Garrett, 2011
Bounced light and colour is a large part of what makes this artwork work. The figure of Miranda is the focal point of several different colours/ light sources reflecting and contrasting. The overall colour palette of the ship can be considered cold – with varying degrees of blues and greys making up the metallic forms. This reflects on the skin of Miranda and is especially prevalent in the shadow covering the top half of her face, and her legs (the most intense light on her leg most likely being a bright blue/grey than a white or pale skin tone). Even her black t-shirt is absorbing the blue palette slightly.
However one of the most intense aspects of the image is the contrasting nature of the hot colours radiating from the Tech arm. The light that it is giving off is so intense, that it reflects brightly from the black t-shirt that Miranda wears – which does not have a reflective surface (as proven by the absorption of most of the blue light within the area. The intensity of light given off by the tech arm influences the colour of the metal it is resting on in addition to the bottom of Miranda’s leg.
Another light source exists in the image beyond the tech arm – and this is coming from the top right of the image. It can be seen at its most intense on the metal beam top right (which then reflects down on the leg/ bottom of the black t-shirt) but it extends across the image, illuminating the mouth and shoulder of Miranda- in addition to the metalwork behind her. At the points where it hits the skin, the colour palette becomes warm, whiles when it hits the metalwork behind her head, the cold palette remains.
Jeong Juno, Novel S.K.T cover illustration 2003
Page 52, Japanese Comickers 2 (2006, Collin Harpers Design, New York.)
The light for this image is natural, and unlike the last two images, this source has almost a universal effect on the tones. The colours and light established within the sky in the top third of the image influence the pale buildings and rocks in the background – obscuring the solidarity of the scaffold like structures in the horizon. As the light hits the back of the car, it reflects of the surface, dominating the area and background around the car. As the image progress to the foreground, the bonnet of the car is illuminated (at its most intense along the left of the image). In the more intense areas of light, again the colour palette of the sky is evident in its influence. On the skin of the character in the centre of the image, the light is reflecting from the muscles and curves of the left side. The character to the right has a skin tone that is not largely influenced by the light source (only noticeably in the higher cheek area). Instead, his hair and coat absorb most of light (creating at points sub surface scattering between hair strands). The black elements in this image (the Jacket, the t-shirt, the trousers and chains) do not absorb at light much. Only at points where the light is intense, such as the right characters shoulder, will the light begin to affect the colour of the jacket to reflect the colour of the light.
The shadows in the image are most prominent on the car bonnet, where both the characters have a shadow reflecting from its surface. Dynamic occlusion can be seen in the slight changes in tone from the shadow of the right character – as the shadow closest to his leg becomes lighter and sinks into the tones of the car window as it gets further from his body and the point for which the shadow is being cast.
The past few days have been full of experimenting with various different elements until the final character was completely designed and ready for the Model/ Character Sheets.
Lantern design
Early in the conceptual stage, after creating the silhouette with the hanging lantern, I began to research and sketch different lantern styles. I returned to those sketches and created a Hybrid, should the player have a hanging lantern attached to their hip:
Bag design
I knew for the character a messenger bag would be most suitable so, like with the lantern, I sketched a few designs before creating a hybrid of the three:
Jacket design:
I felt that the basic Jacket the character wears was perhaps too simple so researched several different jackets; sketching a few before colouring them. I lined them all up and altered the hue and saturation to find the design and colour I wanted for the model/ character sheets.
Facial expressions:
Given how bad the frontal image of my character had turned out in the colouring practice I created several faces based from the successful character sheets I had made earlier. However I felt there was something that wasn’t quite right with the length of the hair so experimented with a shorter hair style and also on a design that lacked a scarf. After speaking to a number of people I decided on keeping the scarf, but having the shorter hair.
Bag logo design
This wasn’t something I had thought about much, but I wanted to give the character a bit more depth and the way I was going to do this was via the space on the protagonist’s messenger bag. The thoughts on the characters profession had changed quite drastically since when I was considering a freelance journalist and had moved towards a trainee doctor/ nurse. Because of this his hospital’s logo seemed suitable, but I didn’t want the nature of the logo to be too obvious that he was a doctor – as the protagonists details, like those of the other NPC’s in Zork, should be something that can be discovered.
I looked at a few different hospital logo and themes that I could have based the design around before settling on the theme of ‘Icarus’ – the character from Greek mythology. Of course the role of Icarus is a tragic one – flying too close to the sun and melting the glue on his paper wings, but I wanted the wings to be the focus of the design, and be something that is shown in some way in the design or on the player’s badge. This would be more for the connotations of angels and in turn Benevolence, hinting that the character can be a good person. Conversely, when the player becomes antagonistic, that badge would be ripped off in the final act of whomever the player kills to become antagonistic, creating a tear in the beanie, revealing messy hair that sticks up in the shape of a horn.
I did a few basic sketches of the design, before bringing it into Photoshop to create the final design.
Now that I have completed these steps, I have a settled character design that I can encapsulate in my model sheet and from that my character sheet – both of which are my next goals.
After the lecture on lighting I decided to colour my character focusing on lighting. For the legs and jeans it really worked and there was a good sense of single source light and depth to the drawing, but glaring issues with the face really hindered my progress so I didn’t complete it to that standard everywhere else. Still, instead of simply dumping the image, I made some rough notes on what needs to be done or what could be changed to the base design – identifying the bag, the hanging lantern and his Jacket as points which needed to be explored further. Additionally, my attempts to make the face slightly more realistic looked awful and really didn’t suit the rest of the design so I need to also look at the facial details in more depth.
A colour mid shot version of one of my character sheets, highlighting that in comparison to the top image, perhaps a simplier facial/ tonal colouring method might be best.
Despite my work on a female protagonist I still felt drawn to one of my initial thumbnails and decided to do some work on fleshing it out and seeing where this might take me.
Using Paint Tool Sai’s pencil tool, I roughed out a basic design, adding a checked shirt in place of the implied t-shirt in the silhouette, in addition to little touches like a singular hair flick (the fox ear) and a bird feather on the bag. I really like the rough result and it is making me doubt the path I am taking in creating my protagonist so I did some more work on the actual face of my character – settling on this:
Given I had created this on thin paper, I used it as an underlay and created a succession of character sheet expressions; ranging from Happy and angry – to Terrified and antagonistic. From these it was clear that not just a design but a character was emerging from this work very quickly. At this point I decided that this was actually going to be my protagonist character.
Anger - the hair flicks across the right of his face are much more jagged and aggressive than his standard pose to show the change in mood.
Disgruntled/ Bemused - I really like this expression because it really encapsulates those feelings - especially due to the drooping hair flick that really adds to the protagonists character.
A conventional anime smile - given the situation that is plaguing all of the characters in Zork, the player would only see this in rare, fleeting moments of funny dialogue or endearing occurrences.
The 'neutral' pose for the character - whenever he is listening or talking he will hold up the scarf in front of his face.
It is here where the anime style of the character really aids in conveying the expression of terror. The hair once again changes to suit the character's mood - sticking upright due to his alert status.
For this I had the hair droop slightly due to interference from the hand and because the character was deep in concentration - relaxing the hair 'ear'.
In the game since the character can become the antagonist due to the players actions I needed to find a way to make him more antagonistic - the shadow, creepier smile and changes in hair flick to seem more a kin to a horn than a fox ear were really good signifiers that worked to create an antagonistic look. Given the idea of trust and shadow in the game as a theme, I think the idea of including shadow across the players face instead of NPC's faces is an interesting subversion of that feature - perhaps hinting to the player that they dont know their character as much as they thought they did.
I had fun creating this and it was just an extra expression. In zork there would be a number of pointless but humourous actions that the player can take - one of which would be to put a bucket on their head. This would initiate a funny - slightly 4th wall breaking scene where the character would hint that perhaps some controlling force (the player) is at work.
One of the most important aspects of Zork would be to create the right atmosphere, with the characters and their personalities at the foreground so a conscious design choice I made when designing my character for Zork is that it would be undoubtedly influenced by Japanese graphic novel art. This wasn’t simply a choice made via personal preference but rather in that the Japanese Anime/ Manga style excels at conveying expressions – be it extreme or minor. Many video games that utilise sprites and focus on the characters emotions are often portrayed in an anime style – such as Hotel Dusk, the Shin Megami Tensei: Persona Series and the Ace Attorney series. This is something that would occure in Zork aswell.
The character sheet of Yosuke in Atlus's Persona 4. The anime facial style conveys radically different expressions and atmospheres, even if the pose of the character doesn't change - highlighting the power of the Japanese 'Anime' Style. A possible influence for my character sheets.
Frank West - A character who florishes in the role of a freelance Journalist/ Photographer
From the fleshing out thumbnails I really liked the idea of creating a freelance journalist character – in a similar vein to Dead Rising’s Frank West. One of the greatest aspects of having a freelance journalist as a protagonist is already several important character traits are apparent just by this profession:
Independence, A need and desire to find the truth, courage, camera/ documenting equipment (a camera often becoming an integral part of gameplay mechanics such as a means of levelling up frank west in Dead Rising or the main weaponry in Project Zero), persistence and cunning.
There are other little aspects to having a freelance journalist protagonist in Zork – namely that saving can be tied to a notebook that he/ she might carry and the action log too can be tied to this. Also that could be tied to the characters reason for being kidnapped (maybe reported on something in a bias fashion, got too close to the truth in a real life investigation, ‘snooping nose’ where it doesn’t belong, etc.)
I also looked at expanding my design ideas for the costume, borrowing ideas from my thumbnails by also other influences on the internet for possible clothing. The result of this was:
I think she has a certain level of confidence just from the sunglasses on the head, leather jacket and red muffler scarf. The sunglasses (not drawn correctly but this is only a basic concept) are useful in giving reason for the fox ear flick and the ‘whisker’ ear flick in the characters hair that give her a subtle fox look – although I wouldalter the ears on a second iteration.
I looked at a few influences and costumes when creating this:
These are just a few different female hairstyles the protagonist could have. Most of these aim in some way to reference the features of a fox – be it the orange colour, the ears or bulbous tail that is white tipped. My personal favourite would be the bottom row middle hairstyle because it isn’t to explicit in the fox link yet the ‘ears’ are present and the tail is referenced at the base of the hair.
The ‘flick ears’ wouldn’t just be for show – like a fox I think they should change depending on the mood of the character. This very early and quick sketch I created just in a few minutes whilst researching foxes to get down this concept onto paper.
A brief task that was set after the lecture was to look at a game in regards to:
What is the relationship between the main character and the goal?
Why does the character care about it?
Dead Rising 2
The main character, Chuck Greene, has two or three separate goals throughout the narrative: To give Katey Zombrex every 12 hours, to escape from the Zombie infested Fortune City in 3 days and finally to discover the truth of the outbreak.The relationships between the main character and the goals within the game are closely tied to why he cares about them.
Katey Zombrex: Katey is Chuck’s Daughter and therein his relationship with the goal of giving her Zombrex – a rare, expensive and hard to find medicine every 12 hours. Why he cares stems from this. If he does not give his daughter Zombrex then she will become a zombie and essentially die so his unconditional love for his daughter keeps him driven for the goal of keeping her in medicine.
Escaping from the Zombie infested Fortune City: His relationship with the goal, to escape is simply that he and his daughter are currently inhabitants within the city. He cares about achieving this goal because the city is full of dangerous elements – be it Zombies, Psychos and other outside factions like the military. If he stays with his daughter in fortune city, both of them are in a constant state of mortal peril so to get the two of them to a safer location is ultimately his aim. This can only be achieved by escaping the city.
Discovering the truth of the outbreak:The outbreaks cause was essentially fabricated – with Chuck being framed for its cause, essentially creating the relationship between the two otherwise un-interacting elements of narrative. The character Chuck cares about discovering the truth because he needs to clear his name or he and his daughter will forever be hunted for a crime he didn’t commit. If he had not been framed it would not be likely that he would care much for discovering the truth of the outbreak, as he only cares about the safety of his daughter.
Dead Rising
Frank West has two goals in Dead Rising. Reach the Helipad at 12pm on his third day at Willamette Mall and discover the truth of the Willamette Outbreak. His relationship between the two goals is ultimately formed from his current position as an inhabitant of Willamette Mall.
The character cares for discovering the truth of the outbreak due to his career as a freelance journalist. Should he uncover the truth of what is happening at Willamette then it could make him a name in the outside world as a journalist – in addition to the monetary benefits of being the sole person with the ‘scoop’. Reaching the Helipad for Frank is reaching safety as his helicopter pilot will fly him out of the Zombie infested area at the end of the three days but only at that time. Without the helicopter evacuation, Frank would essentially be trapped in Willamette due to the military presence outside of the town.
Both of his reasons for caring about the goals are about his own life, be it the promise of riches and prestige in his career, or about surviving the Zombie Outbreak and escaping.
My Game Concept:
What is the relationship between the main character and the goal?
The main characters goal is to solve the mystery that was set to free himself from the game of Zork. His relationship is that he is a “player” of this game.
Why does the character care about it?
If he does not achieve his goal he will be killed, either by the bombs set up in the “dungeon” or by “The Dungeon Master” so ultimately why he cares is derived from his will and want to survive – nothing more or less. The character might begin to care for the sake of other NPC’s dependant on the player as he has the power to save everyone, but they are essentially all strangers so this is not the driving force behind his actions although he might not be the type to just let people die.
(In the antagonistic ending, the main character does not care about the goal – he is a twisted individual who only cares for experiencing the thrill of the game and is toying with all of the players/ wardens for the sake of his own satisfaction – which makes his personal goal that, getting enjoyment from the game: Zork. Still for the sake of play his goal would remain to free himself until the ending activates at the final stage of play.)
The medium of video game delivers something all other fictional media strive for – an immersive experience, whether it is exploring the vast icy landscapes of Lost Planet or striving for success in the competitive Mario Kart environment. But what makes these worlds so immersive and what techniques can be applied to ensure this?
One aspect of the world we live in was brought up in a lecture – Theme Parks. Theme Parks may seem far removed from the virtual worlds of video games, but in essence they both work for the same goal – creating not only a location but an experience. Theme parks often utilise well placed signifiers to aid in this, throughout the park and around the rides themselves.
An example of this is the Saw Maze at Thorpe Park. From the outside, the ride is located within a building which has been disguised as an abandoned warehouse hanging precariously over the water. In front of this building, the queue stems out, entirely surrounded by tall chain fencing and rusted out objects. Slightly above this, there were numerous speakers which played various audio tracks of both the audience’s visual and audio senses are being attended to by the rides signifiers; the chain fencing meaning to create connotations of being trapped and in a difficult situation, while rusted out objects bring thoughts of disrepair and lack of human contact – both of which would be side effects of being in a reclusive area. The audio accompaniment and the location further encapsulate the audience in a small but unexplained narrative world.
Unlike a video game which is tailored entirely for a singular coherent world, a theme park has many rides, most of which offer a loose narrative, all having to be able to operate separately from each other. Another completely contrasting world within the Thorpe Park “world” would be Colossus – which hints at an unexplored land. The queue is filled with rich and overgrowing foliage, while booming dramatic ambient sounds are played on repeat over the hidden speakers. The queue continues with dark cobweb filled tunnels and twisting tracks. Even the barriers are simple rope and wood low fencing. Again these signifiers are working to deliver the concept of being in a land barely touched by man (hence the uncontrolled foliage) – while the music acts to build the tension of ‘exploring’. Of course in this scenario the signifiers from the Saw Maze would be completely out of place within the confines of colossus and vice versa. How could a land untouched by man be enclosed by a restricting and industrial fence?
It is clear that signifiers are very much a large part of the experience of a theme park – and can often be very blatant and stereotypical. A futuristic ride will no doubt have smooth, metallic features and classic science fiction tones while a horror ride will often feature a decrepit mansion, dead trees and cemeteries. The audience will know exactly how to distinguish each ride from another by its signifiers and what to expect. The same is very much true for video games. Every video game has to utilise signifiers to draw the player into the world. For example in the video game “Fallout: New Vegas” Bethesda aims to convey a futuristic yet 1950 inspired universe that also brings the ideas of post nuclear apocalypse and the real life location of Las Vegas. To successfully do this they include numerous signifiers throughout the game for each different theme that they wish to include:
Fallout New Vegas - a game with many themes and many more signifiers
1950: Pip Boy and propaganda posters. Music, clothing, housing style, ideals and lifestyle
Nuclear Post Apocalypse:Warring factions, Bandits, Radiation poisoning, mutated animals, ‘Vaults’, wastelands, lack of food/ water, destroyed buildings and objects
Las Vegas: Poker Chips, Casinos, Neon Lights, “The strip”, seedy businesses, gambling
Bethesda has to combine all of the above elements to completely draw the player into their intended themes because if the player does not understand/ believe the coherence of the themes within the game, their suspension of disbelief will be affected.
One of the ideas discussed recently was the concept of linear and nonlinear storytelling.
Linear storytelling is that where there is a set path that is never deviated from in relation to the narrative. It is the most frequent technique used in the medium of storytelling, be it film, games, comics or novels. Linear storytelling gives the writer complete control of the happenings within the world that they have created. From the characters that their audience will meet/ interact with to the dramatic arc of happenings, a linear narrative is often chosen over non-linear storytelling because the audience’s attachment to the plot can be effectively controlled by the author.
An example of Linear Storytelling would be the film Star Wars. In the film, Luke Skywalker will get tangled into an intergalactic battle with the character Darth Vader, witnessing the Death of his mentor Obi Wan Kenobi before vanquishing the evil Emperor in the final film of the series. Those events are plotted by George Lucas and delivered at perfect points to illicit responses from the audience. But what if Obi Wan could have been saved? or Luke could have joined “the Dark Side” at the end of the film, ending the series with a much darker conclusion? Well this is what is explored by a non-linear narrative.
Non Linear narrative is a much more complex form of storytelling and is very rarely executed in any medium. In a non-linear narrative, the control of events is almost entirely dictated by the audience as they have the freedom to move within the confines of the author’s world. The freedom this gives the audience is a double-edged sword for the writer because it makes the narrative very difficult to craft in such a way that can illicit the same emotional responses that are delivered in the entirely controlled confines of a linear narrative. This does not mean that Non-Linear narrative is not a plausible technique – in fact two video games have received critical acclaim for presenting a non-linear narrative to gamers: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Bioware, 2003) and 9 hours, 9 Doors and 9 Persons (Aksys games, 2009)
Star Wars: Knights of the old republic placed the character into the role of a new military cadet. The player created and named their own character – deciding how they fight, talk and deal with elements within the world before setting off into the game.During the game, players can approach most events with a flexible nature. Would they negotiate past the rough looking gangster on the door or end up in a brawl? This would then spill out into the story at points; for example if they have fought with the gangster it might result in the player being barred entrance to the area, or for members of that gang to attack the player later. Or even conversely someone may approach the player about similar jobs in the area or congratulate them on killing such a horrible person. The player essentially provokes responses from the game by exploring choices.
One of the most unique decisions that effected the narrative, and also highlights how flexible a non-linear narrative can be, was when as a player you could choose to side with one of your team-mates Bastila who had become a Sith apprentice, or confront her and continue the flow of narrative thus far (saving the universe against the Sith). If the player choses to join her, they do just that. The team-mates that accompany continue their roles and in turn choose to attack both the protagonist (turned antagonist) and Bastila. This scenario is the most dramatic example of non-linear narrative that I can personally think of because it results in the death of several key non playable characters that the player may have spent up to twenty hours of gameplay interacting with them previously.
The other game that I mentioned as an example: 9 Hours, 9 Doors and 9 Persons (999), also highlights both the complexity and effects of a Non Linear Narrative.
Unlike the completely free nature of character building in Knights of the Old Republic, 999 places the player into the role of Junpei – a seemingly normal young man who has awoken on a rapidly sinking ship. He must work together with eight other individuals to escape the ship by progressing through numbered doors and solving the puzzles inside. Now on the surface this scenario could be linear – Junpei could be involved in every door and talk with every character but this is far from the case. In 999 Junpei can only move through certain doors each time and talk with certain characters. Unlike most narratives which move with the protagonist, this one progresses without Junpei at points (if there are two doors, Junpei will progress through one with several individuals while the rest will move through the other door). But it is the manner in which this story is crafted which is the most interesting aspect to its non-linear nature.
During the plot, certain characters will do certain actions each game and by viewing this from different angles and allowing those characters certain freedoms, it can result in vastly different outcomes. One example:
If Junpei progresses through certain doors, he might end up paired with a girl called Clover. This girl’s brother ‘Snake’ was killed earlier in the game by a mystery person/ persons. After this event the girl becomes more and more unresponsive. In one play through, if the player interacts with Clover in certain ways, she will be much more open and trusting of the character and in that final room Junpei will ‘let slip’ what he saw when he encountered her brothers dead body. This will lead to the character of Clover returning back to her normal, responsive self because she realises her brother cannot be dead due to what Junpei said. Her trust in Junpei and the other characters is returned to its normal state (she had considered the characters 'Seven' and 'Santa' to have been possible suspects to have killed her brother). This will lead the narrative forward in a far different way to if the player had not made those actions.
If her brother had remained ‘Dead’ at the end of the game and the player was with her, she would have taken a fire axe that was in that room. Later, she would persuade three other people (including Santa and Seven - the people she suspected of killing her brother) to quickly explore a room that hadn’t been seen with her before killing them with the fire axe – as revenge for her brother’s death. The player, not having witnessed this would await their return and discover that only Clover is there. He will then be killed by her too. This is considered a ‘bad ending’ but it shows the distinct nature of the non-linear narrative. Unlike Knights of the Old Republic, a game which gives the player or Protagonist complete control over proceedings and the stories narrative arc, 999 works in a different way. Ultimately the player will have a control over the gameplay they experience, and the narrative that they see – but it is the other characters that alter the story that is told. In this game, the writer has such an understanding of his characters that he builds the plot around what they would do – what their ‘True Character’ would accomplish in the scenario presented.
This is an incredibly interesting way to craft a narrative and when researching further, he discusses the process of crafting this narrative on the 999 website:
I would like to inquire as to how hard it was to write the script for this game, as well as how many words, pages, etc. Also, I'd like to know how an idea like the Nonary Game came to exist, as well as how each character was formed, and how you decided what number each character would get. I am aspiring to become a video game designer myself, and I am curious as to how this game came together, considering how well thought-out it was.
Originally, I had a very simply story, which was essentially "There are a number of doors with nothing written on them, and you split into several groups and move forward. Depending on how you split up the group, the ending of the story changes." It wasn't on a ship to begin with, though: It was in a mysterious building...But my bosses said "It's hard for us to visualize this story. We can't relate to it, and it doesn't catch our hearts." ...So I decided to set the story on the Titanic, a location that most of us know about, and is easy to visualize. The rule where each group was determined by the numbers was also formulated at about the same time. We had a number of discussions where people said this story or that wouldn't sell, and then we came back with new characters, or rules, or stories. I kept tacking on new interesting ideas, and eventually we got our final story. Of course, as I'm sure you can imagine it was really hard to make sure that everything made sense and fit together. Because we'd just thrown so many things in without thinking, it was really quite hard to make it all work... As far as coming up with the characters... After I decided to use "9" as the theme, I used the enneagram for reference. For the character numbers, we just thought about the ending and who went in what group, and worked our way backwards from there. We made a huge chart in Excel and messed around with the numbers there until we got it right
What were your inspirations when creating your characters? Did you take a niche or a cliche character commonly found in anime and manga, and put them into this situation by adjusting them to the situation that they were in? Or did you take characters with traits from games that you had previously made and just put them into this entirely different situation?
I mentioned this in [question 17], but I used the Enneagram for reference. "Did you take a niche or a cliche character commonly found in anime and manga, and put them into this situation by adjusting them to the situation that they were in?" Yes, that's exactly what I did. I made a box, and put the characters in it, and then the story just progressed on its own. All I have to do is just work toward my "twist." So I suppose that, for me, the plot isn't really all that important. It's just an imaginary picture. As I write the story, it evolves. The 3 most important things are these: The box, the characters, and the "twist."
The characters and plot are all really well done in this game. I was just curious as to how you developed them all so well. What do you work on first; plot or characters? How do you know when they're complete? Where do you draw inspiration from?
“For me, I first start by creating a rough draft of the characters' personalities. Then I make a sort of rough draft of the setting. Next, I figure out the "twist" for the story, and work toward that by coming up with a plot that fits that particular twist perfectly. So the "twist" comes first, basically. Of course, the characters and the setting that I come up with early on almost always end up drastically changed. I write a rough draft, then draw a line, then erase my rough draft, then draw a new line... It's just that process over and over. I don't know when it's "done" until I finish writing the whole script. I always write my stories thinking "I wonder what's going to happen to these guys afterwards?" Overall, I don't change the "twist", but I will change the story A LOT to get to it. So far as inspiration goes, all that I can say is that it mostly comes from me, while I'm writing my drafts. I believe that when I concentrate very hard on writing, all of my worldly thoughts just go away, so perhaps that has something to do with it. Also, this particular idea is in the game as well, but I need some danger to have that moment of clarity and inspiration. The closer I get to a deadline, the more I'll think "Crap! The deadline is coming up!" and that helps me come up with great ideas. So I'll try to work myself into a corner like that, and I also have the product manager and the other people on the team to help me out by getting me into that mode of thinking.”
How hard was it to create 9 distinct people to interact in various ways as the game progressed? There were times of conflict, times of great emotional stress and whatnot, and creating 9 distinct persons to handle this and talk amongst others with their own personalities and quirks seems incredible to me.
You're right. It was a real challenge. To be honest, though, the 9th Man dies pretty quickly, so there were really only 8 characters... But even so, 8 is still too many for a single story. Story theory says that you should really only have up to 7 characters. For instance... Luke, Obi-wan, Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, R2-D2, C3PO... You see? That's 7. If you add in Darth Vader and the Emperor, that makes 9. I believe Star Wars is a very well-developed story, and the characters are all very solid. What Star Wars uses as a base are legends and myths. According to Jung, those myths and legends are born from the human psyche, as archetypes. That fits into the enneagram I was talking about in [question 26]. With that said, the creation of the character wasn't too hard because I already had a formula to work from that's been passed down through all of human history. To make that actually work, however, was really hard. This story had rules, and it also had specific points it had to hit, so I wanted the characters to do very specific things, but...they didn't always cooperate. I tried my best to move them in the way that they were designed to, but even then there were times where the story wouldn't work and I sort of had to force them. It was very tiring.
999 Answers segment with the Writer on official website
My own game concept was heavily influenced by this style of thinking – the concept that characters are at the centre of the narratives progression and that the player is exploring the narrative branches just as much as the world itself.
Of course creating any story with a Non-Linear narrative presents its own problems – namely combinational explosion. If you present the player/ audience with a number of routes to choose from, and repeat this, very quickly the number of different routes and outcomes explodes into vast numbers – as shown by the diagram below.
The way that the writer or game designer would combat this is by placing in inevitable events or goals that would happen every time. By doing this the designer can funnel the choices the player makes back to a strict point before allowing it again. An example of this can be seen in the flowchart for my game concept Zork:
In the concept, the player will have to make a decision over which route they would like to take out of three options and progress through that. After they have finished that segment of gameplay the plot will force the player, no matter their route, back to a singular point where they will once again make their decision. Only at the end of the game will the diverse effects of the player’s decision be shown by several ‘endings’.
Away from the concepts of linear and non-linear forms of storytelling, a ‘good story’ must have several ingredients to make it successful – especially in games. Any story must begin with a scenario which can force the protagonist onwards, be it a mystery or series of happenings – if the opening can create feelings within the player/ audience and draw them in then the story has been successful.
Many games and books will begin with powerful events – from Harry Potter being abruptly told that he is a wizard from living many years under a staircase, to the murdering of the protagonists parents in Fable and being enlisted into the Heroes Guild by the mighty Wizard Maze.
[Footnote: Dragon Age: Origins and the many different origins of the player character]
One of Dragon Age: Origins unique narrative aspects are the idea of experiencing a different origin depending on your characters race. But each of these starts and ends in the same way, and give the player meaning to push on with their quests:
Dalish Elf: You begin by living a normal life as an elf until the protagonist and a childhood friend go into the woods together and uncover a secret mirror. This mirror makes the players friend disappear and the player is forced to leave the town with the Grey Warden Duncan
City Elf: It is the day of your wedding and you must go to the centre of town. Just before you are to be wed, human noblemen from the town take the women (and you if you are female) to the castle. You end up breaking out and killing many soldiers in the process. When you reach the town you are forced to leave in case trouble is brought upon the town with the Grey Warden Duncan
Human Noble: You begin life as a prince of a castle somewhere in Ferelden. After experiencing a day in the life of a Noble you are awoken to the sounds of fighting. The castle has been overrun by men hired by a rival count. By teaming up with your characters mother you attempt to escape the castle. Your ‘father’ was mortally wounded in the escape and your mother stays with him to allow you to escape with the Grey Warden Duncan – who had been residing in the castle at the time (taking great interest in your character).
Mage: You begin life in the mages tower and you must complete your initiation into the fade. After resisting the temptations of the demons which reside in the fade you are roped into aiding your magician friend into getting his blood from a storeroom so that he may elope with his lover. The task fails dramatically and Duncan takes you under his wing in order to save you from being killed for insolent behaviour.
There are two other Origins but they all follow the same technique:
Present the character with an equilibrious state (living normal life), a conflict occurs which then forces the character to take up the call to arms that due to the life they have led had been ignored.
It is a common technique to draw the player into their character by seeing how they lead their life but see that life stripped very quickly from them – so that the Player can almost share the loss they have experienced. This technique is often referred to as the “Hero’s Journey”.
