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Jan Kavan, СBE software

wnconf
July 24, 2018

Jan Kavan, СBE software

Designing Meaningful Narrativity: Let Your Game Stand Out from the Crowd

(White Nights Conference St.Petersburg 2018)
The official conference website — http://wnconf.com

wnconf

July 24, 2018
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Transcript

  1. About me: • Cellist, composer, writer and software developer •

    In game industry since 2002 • In 2006 started CBE software with Lukáš Medek • Worked on over 15+ published games outside CBE • Main roles: • Game design • Writing • Programming • Audio design and composition • Running a company
  2. Our games so far: • Ghost in the Sheet (PC)

    (2007 / 2008) • J.U.L.I.A. (PC) (2012) • J.U.L.I.A. Untold (2012, 2015) (iOS, PC) • Vampires! / Crazy Vampires (PC, Mac, iOS, Android) (2012 / 2013) • Boredom of Agustín Cordes (PC, Freeware 2013) • Serena (indie collaboration) 2014 (PC, Mac, Linux) • J.U.L.I.A.: Among the Stars (PC, Mac, Linux) (2014) • … AND
  3. Starting with a couple of • Can narrativity be designed?

    • … and if so, can I structure the design? • How can I avoid “a walking simulator” stigma? • How to present meanings and symbolism? • What are the types of narration I can use? • … and can I measure their impact? • Can I incorporate context into a nonlinear narration flow? • Can narration help me to stand out of the crowd?
  4. Understanding meanings • Three types of meanings • Meaning for

    me as a creator • Meaning for target audience • Meaning for PC/NPC • Our paradigm is given (nothing to be done for it) • I have to create paradigmatic layer for PC/NPC’s
  5. How the meaning is conveyed? - author’s paradigmatic layer -

    limitations of skills and technology (developer) - game qualities / issues - player’s paradigmatic layer - Internal motivations - reviews - direct feedback - social media
  6. Meaning-driven game • Each game element should be pairable with

    a meaning • … actually – with all three types of meanings • Designing meanings using the principles of: • Selection • Hierarchization • Restriction • Assigning desired “impact values” to individual meanings • Centrifugal vs centripetal elements
  7. Two possible approaches • 1) Randomly “interesting” “Let’s use a

    lot of weird random stuff to confuse players. Hopefully they don’t find out it’s random.” • 2) Meaning-driven “Let’s use a lot of weird stuff but pair it with actual meanings so it’s possible to decipher why it’s there.” Common denominator of both approaches? A lot of weird stuff …
  8. Desire recapitulation • Story-driven game • Meaning-driven game • Interaction-driven

    game • Personalized • geographically • through paradigms
  9. Issues with a traditional script • Good for a story

    outline • Not so good for an actual game medium • Doesn’t give the needed overview • I needed some kind of a data-driven method
  10. Used type of narration Direct • Monologues (context sensitive) •

    Dialogues • Cell phone (call / SMS / MMS) • Found documents • Radio • Cutscenes Indirect • Environmental narration • Narration through animations • Acoustic narration • VFX narration
  11. Measuring interaction density • Starting with intuition • Basic unit:

    walking distance time • Interactions classified as a „time diluters“ • Feedback from focus testing to adjust the dilution values • Good way to maintain interaction variability, too
  12. Making it interactive • Types of interaction in SYR •

    Walking • Examining / discoveries • World object manipulation • Sneaking • Workbench • Herbalism • Climbing • Escape sequences • Traps avoidance • Cell phone • Contextual actions
  13. Making it interactive • Types of noninteraction in SYR •

    Dialogues • Cutscenes • Transitions
  14. Designing emotions • Each in-game set of actions should factor

    in an emotional response • In case of PC <-> NPC the response should be bi- directional • Once again I have to count with multiple types of meanings of the emotions (Author, PC, NPC, Player) • Rationally designing desired emotions helps me to finetune when it doesn’t work as expected