GAME WRITING
INTERACTIVE NARRATIVE
INTERACTIVE STORYTELLING
marcin.sarnek@us.edu.pl
http://prac.us.edu.pl/~marcin.sarnek
What we’ll do?
LECTURES / semester ONE
 Intro: Immersion and game writing
 Defining ‘game writing’
 Purposes of game narrative
 Game writing process – discussion
 Player in game writing / Player agency/ Player experience
CLASSES / semester TWO
 Pragmatics of game writing
 Game writing process – workshops / writing and the graphic department
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Game world / story
Structuring the story
Characters
Artifacts / assets
Cut scenes and scripted events: Hollywood format vs. what’s needed for games
Dialogue engines / dialogue editors
References
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Rafael Chandler, ed. Game Writing Handbook.
Boston, MA: Charles River, 2007.
Chris Bateman, ed. Game Writing: Narrative Skills
for Videogames. Boston, MA: Charles River, 2007.
IMMERSION, INTERACTIVE
STORYTELLING AND GAME
WRITING
A LOOSE COLLECTION OF REMARKS
marcin.sarnek@us.edu.pl
http://prac.us.edu.pl/~marcin.sarnek
Immersion
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Some say it’s a myth
Some say it’s what’s in your head
 solipsism and virtual reality and video games
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Some say it’s what you feel
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Some say it’s what you experience
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Most gamers say, nonetheless, it’s what
really
matters in video games

How does immersion happen, anyway?
Immersion and Virtual Reality
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Virtuality
Simulation
Interaction / Interactivity
Artificiality or / and Fictionality (how about ‘reality’ then?)
 Convention? Is willing suspension of disbelief
necessary?

Does suspension of disbelief actually require ‘believing’
what’s being shown to the immersant / audience?

Multisensensory illusion
Telepresence
 IMMERSION

in
Telepresence
Allows a user / immersant / person
 to feel as if they were present
 to give the appearance of being present
 or to have an effect
at a place other than their
true location

Transparency of telepresence

Dillemmas surrounding transparency
 mimesis or diegesis? How about video games? Are they mimetic or
diegetic?
 Non-diegetic interface. Why?

Telepresence ≠ immersion!
Reality and realism. Not the same
thing.
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Simulated reality
Virtual worlds
Simulated environments
Mediated environment
 Projected environment

 Full

immersion environment
Realistic and real…
 Can
telepresence and immersion (in ANY
MEDIUM) suffer due to too much realism?
VR and philosophy

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solipsism
platonism and neo-platonism
reality as a construct
Subject and the construction of reality (Descartes)
consensus reality
Real uses of VR
Simulation
 Telemedicine
 Military technology
 Science

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Interactive entertainment?
Yet, immersion in interactive
entertainment…
… is often thought to be kind of different.
Immersion and video games

Immersion – one of the attributes of games that create high playability

Is immersion about a realistic experience?

Multi-sensory engagement

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graphics,
ecology of
sound
Game ecology:
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Coherent gameworld
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Sound environment
Solid characters and NPC’s
Convincing AI

etc.
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Evolving controllers, photorealistic
In short – everything that hinders the experience destroys immersion,
while everything that makes the experience more
immersion
‘fluid’ enhances
How? Gameplay is immersive

What the game is… rules of the game/ how things are done /
how things happen in the game
‘A series of interesting choices.’ - Sid Meier.
 ‘The structures of player interaction with the game system and with other
players in the game.’
 ‘One or more causally linked series of challenges in a simulated
environment.’
 ‘The experience of gameplay is one of interacting with a game design in
the performance of cognitive tasks, with a variety of emotions arising
from or associated with different elements of motivation, task
performance and completion.’
 ‘the interactive gaming process of the player with the game.’
(industry figures, quoted after Wikipedia)

How? Game design is immersive
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Immersive experience requires coherent game design and level
design. E.g. players know what to do in the game and when
they don’t game and level design offer rational and coherent
solutions. Otherwise, frustration grows, the magic’s gone…
Performance-optimized game design makes the experience as
flawless and fluent as possible.
Interface design often makes games unplayable or
‘unimmersive.’
Etc.
How? Graphic Art is immersive
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Coherent high quality graphics make the game world
immersive.
Graphic assets need to fit the gameplay, and need to be
optimized for performance.
etc.
How? Sound design is immersive
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Well researched and designed ecology of sound makes the game world more
immersive
Sound effects and soundtrack need to be optimized for performance
An interactive movie? Not quite… Yet both diegetic sounds and non-diegetic
sounds make the experience more immersive – like in movies, although on different
levels – sound communicates action and its context to the active player, not to a
passive audience.
Flawless, communicative, well written, well played, and rich dialogues need to
be consistent with gameplay and level design. E.g. dialogue cues need to be
triggered when the player has a chance to hear them (so, not in the middle of an
explosion – so much for realism… : )) – yet – stichomythia / dichomythia.
Another example: dialogues need to be optimized for performance and platform
capabilities (e.g. against the number of possible sound samples / tracks being
played simultaneously), yet at the same time they cannot be overrepetitive.
Etc.
Yet…
… if these definitions are good, they should
work with every immersive game…
… is it likely that a game that would feature all
of these elements would still do poorly to
engage players in an immersive experience?
Can you think of immersion in PONG?
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After all – these are just some poorly rendered squares
and rectangles…
No sound. No real game world (really?) No real level
design.
Context? What context?
Gameplay is what matters! For real?
 FOR

REAL  !
Yet, context established by the story / writing
makes the game ‘more immersive’
 (well,
what’s the story in PONG…?)
Games are done together!
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Producers
Programmers / coders
Graphic artists
Game designers
Level designers
Sound designers
Marketing department
Last but not least… Writers
What do writers do?

Help the game! The game (and hence gameplay) comes first

Establish context:
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develop backstory
help design game world
develop game and level storylines and story arcs
develop characters and character arcs
design game assets (artefacts, buildings, vehicles, creatures, etc.)
Write dialogues and often monitor voice shoots
Write cut-scenes for story driven games and often monitor cut-scenes
production
Influence immersive gameplay by designing possible choices within the
story, which relate both to the narrative and to the gameplay and game
design, e.g. moral dillemas, choices pertaining to sidekick characters, etc.
Work with other team members throughout the production
process to ‘defend the story’ in the game and keep a coherent narrative
within the game.