Narrative & Game Mechanics

UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES DARMSTADT MEDIA FACULTY MASTER THESIS FOR THE DEGREE PROGRAM MEDIA DIRECTION “NARRATIVE AND GAME MECHANICS” PRESENTED BY JEANNETTE REITER, 716477 PERIOD OF WORK: 18.02.2014 – 18.06.2014 FIRST SUPERVISOR: PROFESSOR CLAUDIA SÖLLER-ECKERT SECOND SUPERVISOR: PROFESSOR TILMANN KOHLHAASE CONTENTS Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 Terminology ...................................................................................................................... 3 Narrative ........................................................................................................................ 7 Gameworld: Gameplay & Experience ....................................................................... 7 Types of Narrative ..................................................................................................... 8 Narratology and Ludology ....................................................................................... 10 Interactions & Mechanics ........................................................................................... 12 Principles of Interaction ........................................................................................... 15 Affordance ............................................................................................................ 15 Designing Action .................................................................................................. 17 Shapes of Feedback ............................................................................................ 18 Conceptual Model ................................................................................................ 20 Relevance of Experience-driven Design .................................................................... 24 Stifling Factors for Innovative Games ..................................................................... 25 The Art Controversy and Mature Experiences........................................................ 27 Part I: Understanding the Player .................................................................................... 29 Player Motivation ......................................................................................................... 30 Layers of Identification ............................................................................................ 30 Charting out Game Experiences ............................................................................. 32 Immersion and the Quality of an Experience .......................................................... 36 Defining Player Identity ........................................................................................... 38 Character Perspective ......................................................................................... 38 Character Specification........................................................................................ 41 Emerging Player Identity ......................................................................................... 42 Identity Fragments ............................................................................................... 43 Motivations of the Fragments .............................................................................. 44 Aligning Identity and Motivations ......................................................................... 45 Part II: How Mechanics shape the Experience .............................................................. 48 Creating an Experience: Action as a Metaphor .......................................................... 49 Expressive Game Mechanics ..................................................................................... 54 Creating Expressive Game Mechanics ................................................................... 55 Narrative Connotations of Mechanics ................................................................. 57 Advantages and Drawbacks ................................................................................ 58 Emergent Gameplay................................................................................................ 59 Emergent Narrative ................................................................................................. 61 Reactive Game Mechanics ......................................................................................... 65 Story Structure ......................................................................................................... 67 Three-Arc Structure ............................................................................................. 67 Sequence Structure ............................................................................................. 71 Choice ...................................................................................................................... 73 Choices in Games................................................................................................ 74 Strategic Choice................................................................................................... 76 Moral Choices ...................................................................................................... 77 Illusion of Choice.................................................................................................. 81 Reactive Gameworld: Environmental Storytelling ..................................................... 85 Narrative Function of Environmental Storytelling ................................................ 87 When and How to use Environmental Storytelling .............................................. 90 Advantages of Environmental Storytelling ....................................................... 90 Intertextuality and References ......................................................................... 91 Creating Mystery .............................................................................................. 91 Coherence to Game Experience ..................................................................... 92 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 94 Glossary .......................................................................................................................... 96 Sources ........................................................................................................................... 99 Games cited ................................................................................................................ 99 Bibliography ............................................................................................................... 101 TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 1 : Schell´s Game Element Tetraed ...................................................................... 6 Figure 2: Types of Narrative ............................................................................................. 9 Figure 3: Interaction Loop with a Game System ............................................................ 12 Figure 4: Scissors (source: http://images.wisegeek.com/black-handled-scissors.jpg) . 15 Figure 5 : Norman´s 7 stages of an action ..................................................................... 17 Figure 6 : Uneven sized input and output ...................................................................... 19 Figure 7 : Game Experience Quadrant Novelty (Detail) ................................................ 33 Figure 8 : Game Experiences with subcategories ......................................................... 34 Figure 9 : Game Experience chart with pronounced quadrants .................................... 34 Figure 10 : First - person perspective, in Portal ............................................................. 39 Figure 11 : Third - person perspective, in Uncharted .................................................... 40 Figure 12 : God view, in Black and White ...................................................................... 40 Figure 13 : M. Worsch´s range of Character Specification ............................................ 41 Figure 14 : Facets of player and their motivation ........................................................... 44 Figure 15 : Diagram of a General Purpose System (GPS) ............................................ 56 Figure 16 : Three-Act Structure ...................................................................................... 67 Figure 17 : Example for a multilinear Storypath ............................................................. 68 Figure 18 : Example for a converging Storypath ............................................................ 69 Figure 19 : Sequence Structure (in movies)................................................................... 71 Figure 20 : Causality Loop in Sequence Structure ........................................................ 72 1 INTRODUCTION When an aspiring game developer sets out to learn about the creation of video games, they are faced with a myriad of disciplines, each important to a game in their own right. As a result, the disciplines are usually examined individually, separating components such as story from interactions, visuals from technology. Given that each of these aspects contains another vast set of subcategories, teaching specialized knowledge to create expertise on at least one field is an utilitarian approach to game design.

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