Boy Meets Zombie
Austin Grossman
High Concept: In this elective we take a game with a very basic story and find different ways of deepening and enriching it. We’ll look at some of the tools we have for interactive storytelling, look at their strengths and weakness, and how they interact with different kinds of story ideas.
The idea here is fairly simple: take a simple, basic story, and make it richer and more complex, within a set genre of game. Find different ways of telling this story, then look at the strengths and weaknesses of each.
The goal is to go over the tools we have for storytelling
and get more a feel for what works with what, and try to shake up stereotyped
ideas on how to tell story. And to stay
concrete and formal, not wander around saying, “yeah, story is so important…”
You
are the design team for a game called, Joe Black Is Back. It is a first-person shooter with a simple
narrative, which to begin with is laid out in opening and closing cut-scenes.
I.
The Simplest Case: intro + closing cut-scenes:
·
Joe
leaving prison
·
Joe
gets off bus – (“duh…where’s Jane?”)
·
Joe
sees zombies (!)
·
Joe
gets mad (“grrr…”)
·
[play
game, kill all zombies]
·
Hug
Jane (“Oh Joe!”)
·
Joe
leaving prison, his coat slung over his arm
·
Cut
to: Blackville…rain falling, mood is sad, tired. A bus pulls in
·
Joe
stands there with his duffel bag, crosses street, eyes lingering
nostalgically on some
landmark
·
Enter
diner, ask for steak and eggs
·
The
counterman turns around – it’s a zombie!!!!
·
Close-up
on Joe, who grips his steak knife with weary determination.
·
[now
kill all the zombies]
·
[kill
Satanic cultist]
·
Hug
Jane (“Oh Joe!”)
Now
a producer has asked you, the Design Team, to “Add More Story.” That’s all they say, but they’re
enthusiastic. “Push the envelope! Expand the Medium!” Great.
How do you do it?
Consider
The Real Backstory
a)
Before
the game started, Joe was falsely imprisoned for armed robbery.
b)
Having
served his time, he comes back to his hometown…to find it taken over by zombies!!!
c)
The
game begins. Joe must kill all zombies
to rescue what remains of the town’s real inhabitants, including his old
girlfriend Jane.
d) A satanic cult was behind it all, including the initial frame-up of Joe. Might as well kill them too!
This is our jumping-off point.
Think of one or more ways to convey this story in a first-person shooter format. Participants are free to complicate or add to the plot as they see fit, keeping the basic elements. The initial story is chosen for simplicity and cliché, and is there to be fixed, improved, elaborated on.
Please
do add characters and plot twists, but be specific about how they are conveyed
to the player, and stay within the technologies we know are possible.
The
initial story is vulnerable to all of the usual criticisms of video game
narratives: Faceless hero; power
fantasy; narrative is little more than a shallow premise for repetitive
violence. If we were faceless
contractors, we could just slap down a bunch of levels with zombies and
entrance and exit points – how can we do better?
QUICKIE
REVIEW LECTURE: STORYTELLING IN THE FIRST PERSON SHOOTER (10 Minutes)
Talk
some about what tools we have, e.g.:
·
Level
geometry and textures – this is probably the most vivid and intuitive tool, so
use it!
·
Playback
of video
·
Playback
of audio + speech
·
Geometry,
npc’s
·
Displaying
text
·
Scripted
npc movement
·
AI
·
Traps/triggers:
Collecting data about in-game events, using these to trigger/alter the above
·
Conversation
interfaces – menu, keyword, &c.
Talk
about embedded versus emergent narrative (examples: exploring a maze vs.
playing a game of chess);
Think
about how choices highlight certain aspects of the story – the past, the
future, character, player choice.
Make
sure the storytelling isn’t just complexification -- errand-running and
tactical choices, or if it is, justify that.
Sample
Scenarios:
Lay out some sample scenarios, to give people some ideas. These are intentionally slightly wacky, to try to shake people out of stereotyped first impulses.
·
Joe
must fight a succession of zombies, each representing part of JB’s past, i.e.
former friends, teachers, etc. They
have memories and they talk to him.
Perhaps cut-scenes show flashbacks of his life. Places, weapons can also serve this way.
·
This
deepens our sense of his character, of a small-town life. Becomes a biography of Joe, told in shooter
form. On the other hand, not much of
interest happens in the present – it’s all memory.
·
(perhaps
ultimately it is Joe daydreaming in his cell, going over the past. The game becomes about memory, past
relationships.)
·
Joe
encounters 3 kinds of zombie, all of which hate each other. (he can see them fighting -- it’s a
small-town zombie war!)
·
There’s
a backstory: 3 satanic cults (each controlled by a former acquaintance of
Joe’s) are vying for control of this small town, which turns out to be one of
the major magical “hot spots” of the western hemisphere. A crude world-status-monitor actually tracks
the fortunes of each cult, and repopulates the town according to who’s doing
well. It’s like a 1st-person
shooter in the middle of a strategy game.
·
by
talking to their leaders (straightforward conversation system) he can learn the
goal of each one, and aid it by destroying its enemies and achieving its
goals.
·
if
a given cult likes Joe enough, it will help him rescue Jane; all the other
cults will hate him more
·
?optionally,
Joe can actually join a cult, and gain black magic powers…
·
Or
Joe can just kill everybody he sees, although this is harder.
·
A
set of levels progressing from early autumn to late spring – symbolic of Joe’s
weariness and gradual sense that he can begin new life after prison. Vague and artsy, but computer games are good
at projecting season and mood rather than elaborate story, so that’s the win
here.
What
did you come up with?
Groups must describe specifically how their story ideas are conveyed to the player, not just what they are. Preferably through some kind of detailed content – a diagram or flowchart of some kind showing how player experience will be structured.