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INDEXICAL STORYTELLING A story without words
Bachelor Degree Project in Media Arts, Aesthetics and Narration
30 ECTS Spring term 2021
Jesper Karlsson Simon Sääf Malm
Supervisor: Stefan Ekman Examiner Johan Almer
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate how indexical storytelling in a 3D scene could affect the players understanding of narrative and how they navigate the scene. The background of the study presents what indexical storytelling is and goes briefly into color interpretation.
To answer how indexical storytelling affects players a 3D scene was made, containing indexical objects which the 10 participants could go through and explore in semi-structured qualitative interviews. This was to see if the participants understood the narrative of the scene and the similarities or dissimilarities between people with experience in different game genres.
The result showed a possible tendency in the participants understanding the narrative of the scene. But additional studies and participants are required to be able to come to any larger scale conclusion or generalizations.
Keywords: Environmental Storytelling, Indices, color psychology
Index 1 Introduction ...... 1 2 Background ...... 2 2.1 Environmental Storytelling ...... 2 2.2 Indexical Storytelling ...... 4 2.3 Color psychology ...... 5 3 Problem ...... 7 3.1 Method ...... 7 3.1.1 Problematization of the method ...... 9 4 Implementation ...... 10 4.1 Color-coding ...... 10 4.2 Practical Execution ...... 11 4.2.1 Blending materials ...... 12 4.2.2 Examples of Indexical Storytelling Moments in the Scene ...... 13 4.2.3 Pilot survey ...... 15 5 Evaluation ...... 16 5.1 The Study ...... 16 5.2 Analysis ...... 18 5.2.1 Demographics ...... 19 5.2.2 Indexical storytelling ...... 23 5.2.3 Color psychology ...... 28 5.2.4 Supernatural elements ...... 31 5.3 Conclusions ...... 34 6 Concluding Remarks ...... 36 6.1 Summarize ...... 36 6.2 Discussion ...... 37 6.3 Future Work ...... 39
1 Introduction
Indexical storytelling is a way to tell a narrative through the environment of a game. By using traces of narrative in the environment to form a clue for what has previously happened or what is about to happen in an area. These clues can be subtle in the form of small puddles of blood or clear as an arrow pointing to where the player should go.
The purpose of this paper is first to understand if indexical storytelling has any tangible effect on people when they are playing games. Does it enhance the experience? Does it make navigation easier? How does it help players interpret both the environment they are in and the narrative of the scene or the overarching narrative? This is mostly based on research by Fernandez Vara (2011) term indexical storytelling which is the interpretation of the narrative through remnants/relics that the player can interpret and Jenkins. H (2002) concept of embedded narratives, stories that can be found/solved by the player to help them form a narrative. It secondly focuses on color psychology or color association in Kaya, N., & Epps, H. H. (2004). research about relationship between color and emotion and Ou, L., Luo, M., Woodcock, A. and Wright, A., (2004) research about color association in different cultures. As color psychology has a big impact on players' understanding of the narrative and their navigation of an environment.
This is investigated in a semi-qualitative survey. Where the participants get to play a realistic 3D scene set during world war1 in a hypothetical game. The scene was made with Fernandez- Vara’s principle that the scenes narrative was only told through indices placed around the scene where none of the narrative came from written or talked text.
The scene was then studied through 10 semi-structured qualitative interviews. Where the participants could walk around and then answer questions about the narrative in the scene, if there were any attention-grabbing objects and if they understood the environment, they were in. The test leaders also used footage of the participants to see if there were any patterns in what the participants looked at and if there were any specific objects they wanted to interact with.
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2 Background
Unlike narrative mediums such as books or movies, where the person reading or watching acts as a spectator. Games give the person playing has some form of control over movements, camera and interactions with other characters or objects in the game. If this is as big and broad as a Sandbox game like Kenshin (2013) where the player can almost go or see wherever on the map, they can make up their own stories with the many different characters existing in the game or make their own character. Where the player has control over the game’s narrative and the overarching narrative of the world is hidden in books, dialogue with NPC’s, ruins scattered around the map or up to the player to interpret based on their surroundings. Or the player has minimalistic control over the game such as in Tetris (1984), where the player only controls how to rotate and where to put the block they are given by the game. No matter what game it is, the player must interact with the game to get a narrative.
There are indexical storytelling objects in all games whether it is a stylistic style such as Super Mario 64 (1996) or realistic style such as Hunt showdown (2018).
This paper focuses on how indexical storytelling works in games and how different indices may lead, warn or provide the player with certain information, which they later can use to determine what they should do. It can also be there to tell a narrative about specific objects or it can be connected to the overarching story.
2.1 Environmental Storytelling Almost twenty years after the debate on ludology and narratology in the early 2000’s, digital games have developed a unique identity as a narrative media. From this ludology and narratology debate, terms such as Environmental storytelling has been brought forth as a type of bridge between narratology and ludology that can be applied to games. Environmental storytelling is a rather broad term used to explain many different smaller tools for telling a narrative in a game.
The focus of this article is Fernandez- Vara’s term indexical storytelling (2011). To further refine how the narrative and a games world are integrated with each other, Fernandez-Vara explains what she calls indexical storytelling and indices. Fernandez-Vara refers to Charles Pierce’s philosophy of language (Peirce 1998 see Fernandez-Vara 2011). There, according to Pierce, a sign is a mediation, a representation that conveys to a mind an idea of a thing. In Pierce’s philosophy of language there are three different types of signs:
Icon/likeness: Is signs that convey ideas through imitation e.g., photograph, a drawing, gesture or a sound mimicry (Boom, crack or similar).
Indices/indications: Is where the idea is physically connected to the sign. For example, smoke indicating a fire or the symbol on a sign that indicates the direction one should travel.
Symbols/general signs: Symbols that are associated with a meaning through use, such as the symbol of biological threat, where the person who sees the sign understands the meaning behind the symbol.
But to understand indexical storytelling one needs to understand the term environmental storytelling, as indexical storytelling is based on it. Environmental storytelling was a term
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first brought up under the designing and construction of Disneyland California 1955. It is the art of creating a space that evokes the atmosphere of a story and shapes the visitor's experience in an environment that is familiar to the visitor, but not a direct retelling of stories they already know. Where every aspect, texture, and sound of the artefact in question brings forth the feeling of the theme. If there is some aspect that contradicts the artefacts’ theme it can break the visitor’s sense of involvement in the narrative. (Jenkins 2002, Pearce 2007)
“The most compelling attractions in an amusement park are based on stories or genre traditions that visitors are already familiar with” (Jenkins.H, 2002). These attractions allow the visitor to physically enter the spaces they have visited many times before in their fantasies or other medium such as film or books. Jenkins says in his article Game Design as Narrative Architecture (2002) The designer of the attraction can design their world in broad strokes and expect the visitor to fantasize or fill in the rest of the details needed for the narrative. Because such works do not tell so many independent stories, as they use the visitor's previous experiences of the narrative. When a space conveys a story by reminding a spectator of previous narrative experiences, such a space is called evocative space. Like amusement parks, which are often built based on the fantasy worlds that visitors are already familiar with, game worlds can also be created based on movies, books, or other established narrative genres. Nitche’s in his chapter Examples of Spatial Structures in Game Spaces (2008) from the book Game Spaces: Image, Play, and Structure in 3D Worlds explores evocative space as something more concrete and shows that some parallels can be drawn between real world architecture and the designing of virtual spaces.
Although both games and theme parks make use of environmental storytelling or narrative environments, there are some key differences that separates them. In Cecilia Pearce’s article Narrative Environments From Disneyland to World of Warcraft (2007), she explains whilst games and theme parks are both classified as spatial media in addition to that game development using most aspects used in the creation of theme parks namely: spatial narrative, experience design, “illusion of authenticity” and immersion. Games introduce three new and important dimensions to spatial media:
Agency in games gives the player a chance to exercise control over the game’s environment and participation in the world, although this is usually limited control doesn't necessarily mean that it is limited in the same way as a physical environment.
Identity allows the player to become a part, a citizen, of the spatial medium instead of just a guest or a spectator. Where the player takes a role in the world. Players have the power to choose and shape their own roles within the game’s world.
Community in games are unlike the communities within Disneyland or other theme parks. Theme parks cannot achieve the feeling of a local, lasting cohesion due to the lack of identity and participation. Players live and have some control over the gaming worlds they are a part of whilst visitors of an amusement park are just that, visitors.
By allowing the player to navigate the space with greater freedom, interact with non-playable characters, design their own characters and have quest-based goals in the game. It makes it possible for the player to create their own identity within that game world which helps in the player's immersion.
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2.2 Indexical Storytelling The physical clues in an embedded narrative are called indices and are the main components of indexical storytelling. The purpose of these indices is to explain to the player what needs to be done or what has happened before the player arrives at the scene. These clues can also be used to give the player a heads up on what is about to happen. Indices are pre-planned elements or objects, such as blood, footprints, handprints or other placed by a game designer to foreshadow to the player that they may be dealing with an enemy further ahead, that the bloodstain indicates a trap, or they are there to let the player interpret part of the overarching narrative in the game. These environmental storytelling elements need to be found throughout the gameplay and interpreted by the player to convey a narrative in the game. Traditional storytelling techniques such as speech and text cannot be used as indices as they are rarely needed to be interpreted as they describe an event, instead of being the result of an event or an event in itself.
Figure 1 Picture from the game Little Nightmares (2017) Showing a trap in the scene
Little Nightmares (2017) is a game that tells the story only through the game's environment as there is no written or spoken text in the game. As for the story of the game is up to the player to interpret through the different stages, characters and objects scattered around the map.
Figure 1 is one example on how Little Nightmares uses environmental storytelling indices to introduce an enemy or in this case a trap. One of several moments that exist in the game is when the character number 6, the little girl with the yellow raincoat highlighted to the left, walks into the room depicted in figure 2. When the player walks into the room the first thing, they see is the children that have turned to stone. As the light shines directly on the petrified children the player can easily conclude that they should watch out to not step into the light. Even if the player does not know what the light will do to them, they still avoid it.
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Figure 2 Foreshadow of the 3rd stage enemy in the Figure 3 Enemy in the 3rd stage of Little Nightmares game Little Nightmares (2017) (2017)
Another example in how Little Nightmares uses environmental storytelling is in how the game uses different objects to foreshadow the main enemy of the different stages. Figure 2 is one such example where the first thing the player will see when they are done with the second stage is bags filled with something dangling from what looks like meat hooks getting transported to a different part of the ship. As the player jumps up and grabs one of the hooks to travel to the next stage of the game, they see the same hooks with bags dangling from them, scraps that look like meat and a shadow of a character wearing a big hat smoking a cigar in the background. Figure 3 shows how the enemy looks in the 3rd stage of the game which is the enemy that was foreshadowed earlier in the game and shown in figure 2.
These clues can, depending on life experiences, make it so that the player can deduce that the third stage enemy is that of a cook as both the meat hooks and a person wearing a long cylindrical hat standing outside smoking are both stereotypical things people think about when they are picturing cooks. To further give the player clues is where the scene plays out. As it looks like that of a dark alley behind a restaurant where the stereotypical scene of a chef smoking is often placed in other mediums. These foreshadowing moments in Little Nightmares is a recurring experience and the player will learn rather quickly on what to look out for when deciding if the objects shown in the game are indices for a trap, an enemy or just something that fits into the narrative.
2.3 Color psychology Color psychology has a great impact on human perception and different colors are perceived differently for a myriad of reasons. Color interpretation varies from color to color, but also from culture and other factors. In the study A study of colour emotion and colour preference. Part I: Colour emotions for single colours by Ou et al. (2004) noticed quite a large difference in interpretation of color between Britain and China. In this study they measured color perception ranging from light and heavy, cool and warm. Though the participants could distinguish the different colors, they put value on different colors depending on their country of origin. Chinese participants preferred colors that were clean and modern, whereas British participants did not present these tendencies. It is of importance to keep such factors in mind while working on projects such as games where color has a big role. Connotations to color vary widely over the globe with perceptions being influenced by culture and historical heritage. This study focused on the differences between China and England. Even though colors are mostly viewed differently around the world, they evoke different responses depending on culture, with some exceptions. It should be noted that this project will be using western ideals of colors. This is mostly because of problems with logistics, as the base of operation for this study is in Sweden, where it can be hard to get people with a wide cultural variety.
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Additionally, colors are also associated with different emotions. In a study by Kaya, N., & Epps, H. H. (2004) a group of 98 college students from the southeast part of the US, participated in a research study about emotional responses to ten fully saturated chromatic colors from the Munsell color system. Five principal hues such as: red, yellow, green, blue and purple. Five intermediate hues or color blends such as: yellow-red, green-yellow, blue-green, purple-blue and red-purple. Lastly, they tested the achromatic colors: white, black and grey.
In this study it was shown that the color green had an overwhelming majority of the participants associated it with positive connotations, revealing feelings of relaxation, followed by happiness, comfort, peace and hope. Green was associated with nature and vegetation as well as eliciting feelings of comfort. Yellow was also a color heavily seen as positive, with participants viewing it as feelings of happiness and excitement because of its association with the sun and summer time. Whilst these colors were associated with positive emotion, the achromatic colors black and grey were mostly associated with negative emotions. Where black was associated with depression and fear, whilst the color grey tends to be a sign of bad weather and feelings of sadness and boredom.
Despite being defined as a positive color in Kaya & Epps, yellow is one color that is used in western culture as a sign of warning of either a danger or that something needs to be paid attention to. In Europe it is common to use yellow as a sign of warning. This is for example seen in the street signs in Sweden indicating sharp turns, playing children or signs in England indicating hazards such as biohazards and electricity. Why the color yellow is used in warning signs or signs that people should pay attention to is because of its sharp contrast to other colors such as white on black, yellow on red, which makes it easier for the human eye to notice. As earlier mentioned in Little Nightmares the main character Six has a yellow raincoat throughout the game. The contrast between the environment and Six makes her easily noticeable for the player. This is an attempt to avoid dissonance in the gameplay by forcing the player's attention to be kept on where the character is located on the screen. It also serves the purpose to make Six look more childlike without making the player question whether a bright yellow raincoat fits in with the rest of the otherwise dull and cold colors that make up the game, as a bright yellow is a stereotypical color to imagine when thinking about children’s raincoats.
As the scene were made to depict a world war trench, which are not known for their happy and glamorous history, it's important to facilitate this feeling into the scene. Using grim colors such as black and grey, combined with darker hues of other colors in the muddy and broken-down environment often caused by war. Helps to emphasize that the participants are surrounded by a desolate, depressive and war-torn environment.
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3 Problem
No matter what game it is, the player is the driving factor, as they are the ones that need to interact with and interpret the game’s world. Games handle narrative in a vast number of ways, one of these being indexical storytelling. A key aspect of creating an immersive experience for players is to build narrative clues: as to what has happened in the environment and to make those clues important for the player to interpret as to understand the scene’s narrative or the game's overarching story.
The purpose of this project is twofold. First is to investigate if indexical storytelling elements in a scene make it so that the player can understand the environment's narrative and make the narrative easier to understand. Second, it is to see if color psychology has any effect on the person playing a game and to see if it can make the environment easier to navigate.
To investigate these elements, this study will focus on the question:
How can indexical storytelling affect the thought process while creating game environments, by establishing certain factors such as recent developments or historical events, make the narrative more comprehensible and how can color affect a players’ understanding and exploration of the environment.
3.1 Method A scene depicting an active trench during World War 1. Where the trench is newly dug out and reinforced with basic defenses. The scene is made to use as many historically accurate objects as possible. The artefacts in this study were made so that the participants can walk through a scene depicting War, with both small and large elements of indexical storytelling with realistic characteristic.
Figure 4 Early sketches of the scene during the projects concepting phase
Figure 4 shows sketches made during the initial part of the project's thought process. At the early stages of this project, it was the idea to use Diesel punk as an element in the artifact. Diesel punk in short is a fantasy setting containing machines that are not possible for the era such as bipedal robots. But as that wouldn't have had any major impact on this study it was scrapped. But the sketches still work as a showcase on how the rest of the scene could look like if taking away the retro futuristic robots in them. The visual experience that the participant will take part in will consist of either a cinematic showcase or gameplay depending on the results from the pilot surveys. The aim is to be able to let the participant
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walk around in the environment and let them explore freely without any clear signs or directions.
Participants will play through the scene from the hypothetically World War 1 game and answer a survey providing their perspective on what the narrative might be from the indices shown in the scene. This questionnaire is split up in two parts to collect data before and after the experience. The different parts of the survey are as follows:
Part one: Before the experience: Demographics (Gender, Age, Frequency and amount of playing, Favorite game genre?
Part Two: After the first scene: Q1. How would you tell the story based on the experience you have had since the start? Q2. What do you think is the meaning of the story so far? Q3. Do you understand what kind of environment you’re in? Q4. Is there anything within the environment that caught your attention?
After the practical part of this study has been concluded, the surveys will be semi-transcribed and reviewed to conclude similarities between participants' experiences and what objects or aspects they consider being the key components for the storytelling of the scene. Collecting the result from these surveys and reviewing the correlations between the participants and the criteria to see what drives storytelling through the environment.
This method was chosen due to its simplicity, while still addressing the core aspects that we want to explore in this study. As the goal is to develop an understanding of what makes storytelling through the environment possible, it is of importance to find indicators of what participants can visually gather. This method is less strict and relies on the participant's subjective view, which accounts for different aspects depending on personal life experiences such as childhood, gaming experience, etcetera. As the gathered data is not based on yes and no questions, answers may vary from participant to participant. The focus in this study will be on finding similarities or differences between the participants and see if their life experiences make a difference in how they build up the narrative. Some elements to consider are age, gender and number of games played as these split participants into manageable bodies to overview. Establishing markers from these similarities or dissimilarities will be the focal point for the collected data by this method of operation.
The preliminary investigation or pilot study will utilize two or more participants to see if the approach to the study is viable or if it needs adjustment for it to become a qualitative study. The smaller test group will also be used to grasp if some question may be problematic and if change is needed in the format. Should some questions be answered before others and/or should more questions be added to the survey to expand the data sample in further studies.
It will also serve the function to see if people with experience in games in general or games with a war theme in particular think or experience the scene in other ways than people that have less or no experience with games in general or war themed games. If it shows that people with less experience with such games think differently it will be an interesting aspect to further look into and will become an aspect of this paper.
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When the main study commences, participants within the expected age range of 18 to 30 years old will be asked to participate in the study. If it's possible to get participants who are older than 30. They will count as a smaller test group to see the extent of influence indexical storytelling may have upon a generation that is less used to videogames.
3.1.1 Problematization of the method As the scene of this study is based on the first world war with historically accurate objects, this may lead the participants of this study to come up with similar results with little to no differences in how they interpret the story.
To counteract this, the objects in the scene will be used in a way to hint to the player that there are losing conditions if they interpret the environment incorrectly. As an example of a possible moment: the scene where the player moves through the trench, they will come to a point where a spotlight shines either in intervals or a pattern with moments back and forth. If the participant gets spotted by it there will be a gunshot and the participant will have to redo a part of the scene. Participants with some experience in games may notice this and may automatically avoid being spotted by the light. Thus, leading to comparable results between participants with game experience and participants with no or little experience.
It can also arise the problem that participants may not be able to relate or interpret the objects in the scene, as World War 1 is a niche subject. Regular people with no specialized interest in history know some about World War 1 but it is not as usual to see in dramatizations such as movies or books and it is not closely studied in school as World War 2 is. But as World War 1 is the beginning of the modernization of war where some of the tactics, objects and uniforms began to look as something that may have been used in today or in World War 2 this shouldn't be a problem. As the participants don't have to connect the scene directly to World War 1 for this study to work.
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4 Implementation
The main part of this study and the included project is about researching indexical storytelling. As the project is that of a trench during World War 1 with realistic textures and objects. Some research needed to be done in color psychology. Game designers and graphical artists working on realistic styled games, especially games that are put in real history or real life without any fantasy components, puts most of the mechanical indexical storytelling moments in the color of the objects. Unlike more stylized games such as Little Nightmares (2017) or Super Mario 64 (1996) which weird objects can be put in to help the player navigate around the world without it sticking out.
4.1 Color-coding The game Hunt Showdown (2018) uses colors to establish functions for in-game interaction, such as openable doors, exploding barrels or traps. Figure 5 shows the following objects, a bear trap, a barrel and a door. The red color-coding of these objects is used in the scene as a signal to the player, meaning that they can interact with the item. In this case the bear trap can be picked up and placed down to hinder other players' traversal of the environment. The yellow barrel marked in red in figure 5 contains flammable substances that will explode and start a fire if shot at. It is colored yellow to indicate to the player that it is dangerous to be close to. Due to the environment being desaturated and not using high saturation values for most objects, the objects using strong colors or colors that are in sharp contrast to the rest of the environment, will stand out and they are visible from a longer distance, which helps the player to navigate around the map.
Figure 5 Examples of color-coded objects in the game Hunt Showdown (2018)
Color coding in games is common practice and Hunt Showdown (2018) is not alone in utilizing this method. Almost all games use color coding to some extent, as it helps the players to understand and get better flow during gameplay. From the brightly colored bricks contrasting from the blue sky in the stylized game Super Mario Bros (1985), that gives power ups to the player. To the brighter edges on cliffs in more realistic games such as Shadow of The Tomb Raider (2018) indicating that the player needs to jump between the brighter edges to scale the cliff, see figure 6
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Figure 6 Example of indexical storytelling trough the environment in Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018)
4.2 Practical Execution The artefact for this project depicts a World War 1 trench line. The scene was made in the Unreal Game Engine (2001), because of the subsidiary company Quixel (2011) and their program Megascans. Megascans is a library of scanned 3D assets such as rocks, buildings, trees and materials. We used Megascans assets due to the whole project being on a time limit. Where we had a limited time to concept, make objects to the scene, texture the objects and build up the scene in a game engine. We could not spend the time to make every object or material realistic as it takes a lot of time to make them in that style. As Carson writes any texture, object and sound should strengthen the game’s theme. If there are any contradictory elements, objects or things that the player wouldn’t expect when playing a game. Their sense of immersion can break and the indexical storytelling won't matter as the player will focus more on the things that break the immersion. The same can happen if the materials, shadows, lightning or any other part of the project don't fit into the realistic World War 1 theme the project is set in.
“If, for example, the attraction centers around pirates, Carson writes, "every texture you use, every sound you play, every turn in the road should reinforce the concept of pirates," while any contradictory element may shatter the sense of immersion into this narrative universe.”
(Jenkins,2002 )
All assets used in the project which aren't owned by us are under the Creative Commons license. This paper will make it clear which assets are used under CC license and how they were changed to be used in the scene.
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Figure 7 Diagram on trench layout. Taken from WordPress
As the main theme of this project is World War 1. The biggest part of the scene would take place in a trench, as this kind of warfare was the most common during the time period. Finding information, images on how the trenches functioned and how they were built was readily available. Due to tactical advantages, the Zigzag pattern was the most efficient and tactically appropriate in warfare at the time, as it did not give the enemy if they got into the trench a clear l line of sight to other parts of the trench thus making it more defensible. It also worked as cover from artillery fire and gas grenades see figure 7.
Starting the creation process would prove slightly difficult in the technical areas as there is some setting up before being able to start building. Mesh generation through splines was used as a first step. Due to collisions not working as intended, it was scrapped for other ways of producing the wanted results. It would have been the most optimal way of creating high quality terrain while still being extremely modular. The second approach to this problem was to use simple sculpting tools within the game engine to make the trenches and while this made paths easy to create it would prove difficult to make changes without spending a large amount of time making it look presentable. Because of the workflow not being modular enough and being quite destructive we set out to look for an easier approach. Our third attempt would be the final way of creating the trenches and it was a middle ground between sculpting and splines. Unreal engine (2001) had a built-in spline tool made for modifying the terrain plane with ease. Moving the spline would instantly modify the terrain and removing spline points would instantly return it to its original form.
4.2.1 Blending materials As the assets used in the scene comes from a library of different assets all with different materials and nature which they inhabit. One of the challenges was to make it so that they all blend and fit into the rest of the environment. There are many ways to solve this problem:
World Aligned Texturing which is a form of tri-planar mapping which projects a texture from the front sides and top/bottom which give it a seamless look. This is a pretty cheap way of blending in terms of the performance cost but it cannot blend lightning that well.
Pixel Depth Offset is a method where one applies dithering to create the appearance of a smooth transition between objects by using random noise values to simulate transparent and non- transparent pixels. The drawback of using this method is that it works by pushing pixels away
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from the camera which results in fake transparency and when used on bigger objects can lead to unwanted artifacts and problems in light/shadow accuracy.
Distance Field Mesh Blending works by blending lightning at any given intersection point by averaging the normals of intersecting objects. The problem with this workflow is that it is very performance heavy and is not recommended using in production if one really knows the project's performance budget.
Figure 8 RVT material from the scene made in Unreal Figure 9 Example of how the RVT material work Engine (2001)
Runtime Virtual Texturing or RVT workflow which is the one used in this project. Uses the GPU at runtime to generate texel data on demand. It is not expensive to render as Distance Field Mesh Blending. The negative of this workflow is that it is a relatively new technique and does not support displacement in the material yet. Why we chose this method was because shadows and lightning are important to give the environment a more realistic look which was one of the goals in this project. And it makes it so that the participants of this study can focus on the scene as a whole instead of concentrating on a weird looking shadow. The simplest way of explaining what RTV does. It takes a photo of the whole landscape on the Z-axis and when a material which is setup with the correct nodes see figure 8 interact with the landscape in the scene. The information which the camera picked up from the landscape will be projected on the material, see figure 9.
4.2.2 Examples of Indexical Storytelling Moments in the Scene As for indexical storytelling moments in the scene that will impact the player there are three main ones. Disclaimer, this is just the ones that will have an impact on the player. There are more indexical storytelling objects but they will just be there to tell the story.
The use of color psychology inside of the scene may reflect in different ways, such as the use of decals or color tinting. Guiding the player's eyes with the use of color splotches or some other form of intervention with the purpose of either leading or warning the player of certain consequences. Examples used in this project are:
In the scene there is a trench used as a machine gun nest that goes further into no man's land. As the scene is set during the night with a heavy fog it's quite dangerous to go out in that forward going trench as there were a lot of nighttime ambushes and sappers that dug trenches towards the enemies’ defensive positions to get the upper hand during the war. The participants will get warned about the danger of going out there through a yellow mark on the wooden construct
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that leads out to the outpost see figure 9. Yellow as stated before is a color indicating danger or it’s meant to give a person a heads up of what's coming. If the player doesn't notice this and runs out in the trench not stepping carefully, they will get a lost screen indicating that they died by a grenade for not being careful.
The same yellow decal used to warn the player before the machine gun nest will be used later on in the scene. When the player comes to an area that looks like a way out from the trench. Accompanying the yellow decal on the sandbags the lightning on that part of the map is from a floodlight tinted a colder blue color. As the rest of the scenes lightning is from warmer colored oil lamps, this will stand out to the player. There is also a higher number of bodies in the nearby area. Thus, using color-coded objects, lights and storytelling objects to warn the player of something dangerous, see figure 10.
Figure 10 Picture of two places in the scene that alerts the player of something dangerous
Aside from the objects using decals there are also color-coded objects in the scene, to show what the player can interact with. Such as the doors, traps and barrels in the game Hunt Showdown (2018). The object that will be interactable by the participant in the scene will be an ammo box tinted with the color red see figure 11. Nothing will happen if they interact with it but it will show if the object grabs their attention and they walk up to it.
Figure 11 Picture showing the destroyed part of the map. The red box is in the bottom right corner
Another way to use indices in the scene is that a part of the trench will have gotten destroyed. This is both to block a path from the scene so it doesn't get too big and it works as an indexical storytelling object. As there is a tank nearby it’s plausible that the tank destroyed part of the trench when it drove towards the enemy trench line see figure 10. There are other indexical
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storytelling moments in the scene but they won't have a direct impact on the player and will be there to tell the story of the scene. For example, bodies under bloody blankets, shovels and wheelbarrows to show that the trench is still being worked on. Moments that tell a story to the player and show what situation they are in.
4.2.3 Pilot survey After the pilot study was concluded there were some noticeable problems with the interview format in general. Some of the questions got entangled in the same kind of words and resulted in the participants supplying the same or similar answers from different questions. This made it obvious that the interview questions had to be reviewed and exchanged for something clearer cut. The questions were changed in various ways, one of the questions was removed, one was changed to better wording and order of asking was changed as well.
Before: Q1. How would you tell the story based on the experience you have had since the start? Q2. What do you think is the meaning of the story so far? Q3. Do you understand what kind of environment you’re in? Q4. Is there anything within the environment that caught your attention?
After: Q1. Do you understand what kind of environment you’re in and can you describe it? Q2. How would you tell the story based on the experience you had? Q3. Is there anything in the environment that caught your attention or made you stop and think?
After these minor changes, answers received from the questions were clearer cut than before and provided the study with less unnecessary points of interest.
As the pilot study was concluded, there were found to be areas inside the artifact that needed to be adjusted. One of these were textures that either failed to render properly or did not render at all. It was also found that the bodies inside the artifact did not hold the same emotional impact as they were meant to, due to being placed over multiple areas across the scene. These complications were easily accommodated during the following days after the pilot study. The textures were re-imported and set up and some of the bodies were moved as well as some of them being removed from the scene entirely to not clutter.
The bodies were moved to areas with yellow-markers as well as areas of which the player could receive a death directive. These choices were made to inspire a connection for the participant with the yellow-markers and danger. This change would prove to be well made down the line with several participants reacting to this change alone, compared to the reactions received in the pilot study.
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5 Evaluation
The purpose of this study was to examine if/how indexical storytelling elements in a scene can make it so the player understands the surrounding environments narrative and how that makes the narrative of the scene easier to understand. Secondly, another element to this study was to examine if color psychology had any effect on players and what that effect was. This was done based on interviews with 10 people from different parts of Europe. Where the participants of the study got to play through a scene that was made for this study. As the study was held during the covid-19 pandemic. The decision was made that it was best to do the interviews through an electronic source Discord (2015). As, getting people to come to the school lab where the study would be held during normal circumstances together with making it a safe environment for people interviewed could be hard and risky.
5.1 The Study
Figure 12 Picture showing the English message sent out to different Discord (2015) servers
The participants in this study were found throughout different Discord (2015) channels where we sent out a message as seen in figure 12. Where potential participants got introduced to the study and in short how it was going to work. If the participants wanted more information whilst still anonymous, they could send a private message to the test leaders. In the private chats the test leader would answer any questions and ask to set a time for an interview with a potential participant if they were willing to participate in the study. This was also when the test leader would ask the participant if they were over the age of 18, to not get ethical complications with not having their guardian’s approval. If there were any participants under the age of 18, they were informed that they needed their guardian’s approval and that they would be put in reserve if we didn't find any participants over 18.
After a date and time was set for the participants, the interviews started with the test leader presenting their name and told the participant in closer detail that this study would be used as ground for a bachelor's thesis in computer game development with a focus on 3D graphics. The participants were given the choice if they felt more comfortable to have the interview done in Swedish or in English. As some of the participants had asked the test leaders if that was a possibility when they showed interest in participating in the study. After this the participant was informed of the rules of participating in a study for example: That they could say “No” to any questions asked. If they didn't want to participate in the study after the interview was concluded they could contact one of the test leaders and they would delete the footage/data surrounding the participant. The participant was also informed that the test leaders were the only ones having access to the interviews if not the examiner of this thesis asked for it and that the footage would only be used in this study.
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Afterwards the participant was asked for some demographic information such as gender, age, amount of playing and if they had any favorite genre or genre that they often play. This was made to easier place the participants into groups or see if gender, age or gaming experience had any effects on how the participant answered the questions during the interview. See figure 12 on p.19. After the demographics questions the participant would play through the scene and explore it however, they wanted to. This was done with little to no input from the test leaders. The participants were encouraged to come with comments, if they thought about anything during the exploration. The test leaders would answer some of the questions during the participants' interview. If the answer were not detrimental or made the participant change their answers. If an answer would color the participants' experience, they would wait until after the interview.
The first question that was asked after the participant played through and felt done with the exploration of the scene was “Do you understand what kind of environment you’re in and can you describe it?” This was asked to see if the participant understood the environment, they were in and if they had any objects that colored their response to the question.
The second question was “How would you tell the story based on the experience you had”. This was asked to see if they could come up with a backstory to the scene If they had taken notice of any of the indexical storytelling elements such as the tank which had fallen into the trench in the scene and use them to tell a story.
The third and last question asked “Is there anything in the environment that caught your attention or made you stop and think?” This was to get the participant to tell which objects or parts of the scene they took notice of. This question also worked to get them to describe which objects they saw and how it caught their attention.
After these questions were made the test leader would either ask the participant more about things, they noticed during the participants exploration of the scene or ask the participant to go into more detail about a question. Example of a question the team leader would ask is: if they noticed the participant standing at a more storytelling part of the scene such as the highly lit area or the bodies etc. The reason we asked these kinds of questions after the other questions and why they weren't asked as formal questions in the study was because the participant could touch on these subjects through the other questions or as a comment during their playthrough of the scene. It was also used to get more data on what the participant felt, thought or noticed if they didn't answer one of the questions in detail.
The interviews are not fully transcribed. However, in Appendix B, there are transcribed parts from the different interviews that come up as citations in the analysis part of this study. This is to show how the participant thought more in detail around the different parts of the interview and what questions or what happened during the interview around the moment when the participant had any comments at the parts which this study was interested about.
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5.2 Analysis This analysis is split into four parts:
Demographics: Where the participants' demographics is written up. This is also a chapter where some of the participants' favorite genre/games are explained and how they can be useful for the participant when participating in the study.
Indexical storytelling: Is the parts of the scene where the scene contains more indexical storytelling objects then the rest of the scene such as the stuck tank or the moments of where the indexical storytelling is there to alert the player. This part contains the participants which took notice of this or made any comment of these parts during the exploration of the scene or during the interview which happened after.
Color psychology: Color psychology is a part of what was examined in this study. It contains information on how the participants interacted with different colored lights or if they tried to interact with any of the objects in the scene. This is mostly based on the test leader's interpretation on the participants movement, at what the camera focused on during the playthrough of the scene and whether the participants commented on specific objects/lights.
Supernatural Elements: During the analysis of the interviews there was an unexpected twist to the story that wasn't thought of during the making of the scene. Half of the participants thought the scene was connected to something supernatural and that is why it gets its own part.
It is split in these parts due to these aspects being either what the study wanted to examine or in the case of the supernatural part where there was a big similarity in many of the participants' answers of what had happened in the scene.
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5.2.1 Demographics Participa Gender Age Country Frequency/ Favorite genre/ nt Amount of Game playing
1 F 19 Spain 10h daily Mystery, Drama, Adventure
2 M 21 Sweden 3 H daily FPS (Call of Duty, More on Battlefield) Weekend
3 F 32 Sweden 7-8h MMO’s, FPS, Co- Everyday op. (Conan, Valorant, Hots
4 M 24 Sweden 2h daily 4h FPS, MMO’s when free (Counter Strike Go, Rust)
5 M 21 Sweden 3.5h on FPS shooter average week
6 M 23 Britain 3h daily Moba
7 M 21 Sweden 5h daily FPS, Sandbox, Survival (Satisfactory, Valheim)
8 M 27 Austria 2h daily Moba, action- adventure,RPG (Smite, Sekiro, Bannerlord, No man’s sky)
9 M 18 Spain 6h daily Fantasy
10 F 24 Sweden 1h daily Hack n slash / Sandbox Figure 13 Table of participants answers to the demographic’s questions
Figure 13 shows the participants gender, age, country of origin, frequency/amount of playing and their favorite genre or game. This made it easier to see if any of these aspects had any impact in how the participant answered the questions, how they interacted with the environment or if they had any similarities or differences in their thought process.
Due to using Discord (2015) as a medium to find and communicate with people/participants we got participants from other parts of Europe. We did get interest from other parts of the world as well, but it didn't work out in the end due to connection issues.
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Participants 8 and 6 who come from countries both affected from World War 1 and World War 2 may have different reactions to the scene due to this. But it can also be that they are from such a young generation that it won't have any influence. As the interviews and recruitment were done through Discord (2015), there is an influence that is rooted in this study. Discord (2015) is primarily a platform for gamers to communicate in the form of voice and text chats, which prompted the recruitment of participants that play games a lot for this study. For this reason, the study did not receive any participants that didn’t play games.
As the demographic shows the participants spend at least 1 hour every day to play videogames. The majority of the participants played on average 1-3h a day, but there are some exceptions to this. Participant 1,3,7 & 9 players 5-10h per day. Three of them are in their early 20’s and participant 3 is in her early 30’s. Why the younger participants may have more daily hours played can be connected to them not having to work. They can still be in school and that gives them more time to play games. It is more interesting with participant 3 as she is 32. People around her age tend to have an occupation, children or other obligations that make them unable to play for long stretches of time daily. Many of the participants with 3 hours of playtime did mention during their interviews that they worked during the days and that they played more on days with no work. So, there could have been more participants with longer hours played if they didn’t work. Her being 32 and playing 8 hours a day could be a mere personal trait, it can be her occupation or there can be something else that lets her play for so long daily. With the limited information about participant 3 and no participants in the same age range there can only be speculations.
Two of the participants in this study stuck out when it came to their age. Participants 2 & 8 stand out as they are dissimilar to the other participants as they are either in their late 20’s with participant 8’s 27 or they are in their early 30’s with participant 3’s 32. Whereas the majority of the study participants are in their early 20’s. If this had any effect on the study or not did not show up in the interviews and as there weren't more participants in their late 20’s or early 30’s or older it is hard to see any trends in how they approached the scene and how they told the story surrounding the scene. There is also the problem with the footage in the interview with participant 3 being corrupted and the footage we have for this study is another take on their interview. In this interview there isn't any footage on how the participant moved throughout the scene, as she had already moved through the scene and it couldn't be used as we were looking for the participants first impressions on the scene. The answers to the questions also became much shorter than they were in the first interview as the participant tried to remember what they had said the first time and only the key points.
Games such as FPS, Fantasy, mystery, Adventure, Action-Adventure or Survival games are the most beneficial for this study as the participants used to playing these genres are used to the indexical storytelling moments these genres usually have.
FPS: First Person Shooter is a genre of games where the player plays from the perspective of the character. This is often used in games where the player has the role of a soldier with a gun in its hands. But it can also be different weapons such as bows or other weapons, as long as the game focuses on the action and that the perspective is “First person”.
As the scene that was made for this project is based on the FPS genre, participants that are used to this genre may have it easier to notice the indexical storytelling moments in the scene. As they are used to indexical storytelling moments in FPS games, or they can come with different answers then people with no or little experience in the genre. FPS games such as Counter Strike
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Go (2012) or Valorant (2020) will not be as helpful as these are FPS games more focused on multiplayer. The same can be said about Battlefield (2002) series and Call of Duty (2009) series as they do focus mostly on the multiplayer part of the games. But they are different, as they have campaigns which are based on a story. Where the player can experience environments with indexical storytelling moments and where these moments have more weight in the player’s understanding of the game’s environment or story.
Genres such as Adventure, Mystery and Fantasy which are rather broad genres with connections to each other and to other genres such as RPG’s, FPS, Survival and many others, whether they are played from a first- or third-person perspective. Can improve the chance that the participant will notice and come up with stories about the indexical storytelling moments in the scene. Example the before mentioned Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018) is an action- adventure and uses indexical storytelling to help the player to traverse the map, find secrets or warning the player of upcoming dangers.
Survival games can be of use depending on the game in question. If it is a game such as participant 7’s favorite game Valheim (2021) which is a Survival-sandbox or if its survival- adventure with a nonlinear story game such as The Forest (2014). Both games have a survival aspect that gives the player the chance to build their own base, forage for food/water and explore different environments. But there are some key differences.
In Valheim the player plays the role of a Viking that has gotten to the realm of Valheim, a made- up realm of the tree Yggdrasil. Whilst the player knows this, it isn't expanded upon through the environment as the game is a sandbox with little to no story. This can change as the game was still in early access when this study was made. There are some ruins of old houses and ruins of towers spread out around the map, but they are often there to give the player a chest or some resources that can be found at their locations, rather than being there to tell a story. The player can make up a story behind them but it would not tell a story of where exactly they are or what happened, which makes it indexical storytelling in a vague sense. But it is not the kind of indexical storytelling that this study examines.
The Forest (2014), on the other hand is about a parent and their child being in a plane crash. The player upon waking up in the world notices that the child is missing, where the end goal of the game is to find out if the child is still alive, where the child is and then to rescue the child. The story of the missing child is only found around the environment in different enemy filled camps/caves through indexical storytelling. Where the player finds the child's backpack, toys or other belongings and that they lead the player towards where the child is located. The game's story is nonlinear and the player can often find the clues in different orders. There are some that have an equipment requirement, but the player can skip some whilst still understanding the story and how to rescue the child.
The difference between the games is that whilst they are both focused on the survival part. There is an initiative for the player to find out about the story in The Forest even though it can be played out with only the player focusing on the survival aspects. As the study focuses on indexical storytelling, how it helps players understand the environment and how it tells a story. The participants that have played survival games such as The Forest may have an easier time interpreting the story and may notice the indexical storytelling moments in the scene.
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Whilst games of the genre Hack n Slash, sandbox, open world do contain indexical storytelling they are often not in focus for the player as they are often there for looks and for the players that investigate if the game has an overarching story.
Starting with the genre hack n slash is a genre where the battle often happens with a short distance weapon, where the players focus is to fight against as many enemies as possible to either survive or to get the highest score. The genre came from role playing games such as Dungeon & Dragons (1974) where the term was used when the campaign was based more on combat then actual story and had little to no other goals than fighting. As the genre is defined by the action there is room for indexical storytelling but as it's not the games focus, it will often be overlooked by the player.
Sandbox games such as before mentioned Valheim (2021) can contain indexical storytelling moments but this too depends on the game. If the game is like Valheim where the map is generated with no developer having put in scripted elements that can tell a story. Or if the game is like Kenshin (2013) where the map is crafted by the developers and contains areas such as ruins, characters, cities and environments where the developers have put an overarching narrative with many smaller narratives of bandits stealing stuff from other factions or that the different factions in the game are at war and take each other’s cities. Games such as Valheim which are fully generated and contain ruins of either villages or towers have their relations to gameplay rather than storytelling. These components exist for the player to have visual feedback of where loot may be found. Valheim uses these elements as a marker for the player to more easily find items compared to sandbox games such as Kenshi which use such elements to develop a story and to show the player where the loot is.
Moba, or Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas are real time strategy games where 2 teams made up of different players fight against each other with the goal of destroying the other players’ base. Smite (2014) Is one such game where the characters played is based on different gods and deities from different religions. They do contain indexical storytelling moments but they are not in focus and it is of no importance for the game that the player should notice them as they are often made for their looks.
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5.2.2 Indexical storytelling
Figure 14 Tank which have gotten stuck in the trench
As this study focuses on indexical storytelling, it helps players understand the environment and the story behind it. There were some areas in the scene where the indexical storytelling was more focused. One such area was the area where the participants started the scene see figure 13. In the start of the scene there is a tank which has gotten stuck in the trench. During the interviews with participants 2, 7 and 8, similar stories came up with what had happened and what objective was of the hypothetical game scene.
Participant 2 said the following after being asked “How would you tell the story based on the experience you had?”:
The tank here in the beginning, Cause this is the start right? [standing at the start of the scene] You like got trapped here when you were advancing forward and then just fell out and wake up to a shithole. After the coma or what you call it. After the shock wears off. [After a break he continued when he got to the Floodlight area see figure 14 p.26] I think it’s the end with the lighted car, right? that like the end of it. [The test leader answered with: This doesn’t really have an ending.] But it feels like more of an ending like there, because you get like out of the trench into a car almost. But you can’t see the car but. I think that can tell like a [Trying to tell a story],.. maybe getting out of the trench looking at all the destruction, then you find someone... Except they shoot you. Instead of trying to help you.
The key moments he used to come up with a story was the stuck tank and the Floodlight area. He spawned in the scene at the tank which makes him connect the black screen the participants may see before the games have loaded in, with the character waking up from the accident which made the tank stuck. He connects being alone and that there are bodies, fires and the heavy fog with it being a dangerous situation and that he should be looking for someone to help him but he gets betrayed and gets shot instead of being helped. As shown in the meaning “.. then you find someone… Except they shot you. Instead of trying to help you.
This scenario which he has described can have a connection to his favorite games being Call of Duty, as it is a common trope in both FPS games and action movies. For example, Call of Duty
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Modern Warfare 2 (2009) has a part of the game where the player character gets heavily wounded during a raid on an estate. The player goes in and out of unconsciousness during a chase scene where the player character gets dragged by an allied npc to a waiting helicopter which the player sees as friendly. When they get to the helicopter one of the characters that meets them shoots both the friendly npc and the player character to death. This is just a brief and not so detailed explanation of what happened in the game. But it has the same key points as the participants retelling of the story. The player is wounded “the coma” and that the perceived friendly vehicle, the helicopter or in the participants case the car leads to a sudden and unexpected death. There are similar cases in the Call of Duty series as similar moments are made, to have dramatic turns in the story or making the player feel the helplessness of getting wounded during war.
Participant 7 came up with a similar story with:
Det är väl typ här som jag är nu då?[Stands in the beginning of the scene with the overturned tank see figure 13] Att du kanske har kraschat ner här i en tank eller nått. Ska vidare och rymma, dit eller dit då [Points at the two roads that the participant can take in the beginning] och sen ta dig vidare.
Which roughly translates to:
This is kind of here that i am right now then? [Stands in the beginning of the scene with the overturned tank see figure 13] That you maybe crashed down here in a tank or something. Going on and trying to escape, to there or there [Points at the two roads that the participant can take in the beginning] and then moving on.
He didn't go into a full story as participant 2 did, but he came up with the same kind of starting point to the story. This can also be attributed to him playing FPS games. Even though he didn’t state during the demographics questions that he had played Call of Duty but he mentioned that he played FPS games, which wouldn't make it far-fetched that he has experienced similar stories as participant 2.
Dissimilar to participant 2 he never expects getting helped as he makes up the objective of the scene is to try to escape. He never stated what he would try to escape from but it looks like he connected the stuck tank to being stuck in an enemy trench instead of an allied one.
Participant 8 in the beginning of his exploration of the scene with:
Here I see a tank which is upside down, it probably fall over because of the war [chuckles] sorry, I’ll take this serious. [He joked around in the beginning of the interview in a funny voice]
Where he states that the tank has fallen over probably because of the war. This shows that he understands from the beginning that this is a war scene without finding any of the other storytelling moments in the scene which points to it being a war. After being asked if he could tell a story based on his experience he said:
My character I'm playing got in this trench, probably out of this tank which fell over into the trench and I got out and probably tried to find either comrades or yeah, someone who can save me. Yeah well the problems with comrades because when i go to an open place I get shot... a lot of times. ehm yeah… The light is uuh
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enough to see… enough to see the, the candles or the candles. Just give enough light to, to see where I’m going and yeah this creates an atmosphere which is uhmm… their quite dark. Quite uncertain and uhmm... yeah not that… warm, hehe, if you know what I, if, uh i mean, yeah… no that warmup, that welcoming, not the welcoming, and here is a corpse. uh yeah.
Dissimilar to participant 2 & 7, participant 8 never stated in the questions about his favorite genre being FPS or that his favorite game has anything Fps related. It can either mean that he didn't mention it being his favorite genre, but that he still has some experience from it or he's answer derives from the action-adventure game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019). Which has a similar scene where the hero wakes up after a heavy injury, as it is a common trope in games with action.
So, participants 2 & 8 made up similar stories about the player character being one of the crew members of the tank stuck in the trench. They have crawled out of the tank and after the shock wears off, their objective is to find their missing comrades or other friendly units in the hypothetical game. When they get to their comrades instead of being helped, they instead get shot. Which gives their experience a betrayal twist? Participant 8 stands out with the fact that he has the objective of trying to escape, instead of trying to find help. So, he links the story that the player character was similar to participants 2 & 8 tank crew members. But instead of getting stuck in a friendly trench he got stuck in the enemy's trench.
Their answers can also be connected to movies such as 28 Days Later (2003), Bourne Identity (2002) as it is a common trope in movies to have the main character wake up in an unknown area and to an unknown situation. Both movies start with this and the purpose of this is to help both the movie's character and the person watching the movie to understand the environment they are in. But this can only be speculated about as the question on whether the participants watched movies never came up during the interviews.
These participants decided to follow indexical storytelling clues and immerse themself into the game experience providing themself of a narrative to further envision this world. Other participants did not go into this much detail or they mentioned small parts, when asked the same question. There were more indexical storytelling moments and there were other stories of what had happened in the scene but this is the only case, where three participants came up with similar stories.
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Figure 15 Shows the two places in the environment where the participant may “die” (Left) The machine gun nest and (Right) Floodlight area
One part of this experiment was to see if the participants noticed the indexical storytelling moments that gave them a heads up or made them feel that they would be in danger if they continued on a path. The scene which the participants got to play through and explore had two such moments in which they shouldn't have gone to an area, as they would come to a death state in the hypothetical game see figure 14. To easily name these areas they can be called the “Machine gun nest” seen on the left in figure 14 and the “Floodlight area” seen to the right in the figure. These two areas were made to use indexical storytelling to warn the player that something will happen if they continue further into the area. Both of these areas are in a dead end so the player won't have any initiative to go to the area. There were some similarities in the answers of participants 6, 8 and 10, when it came up to just these two areas.
Participants 6 mentioned whilst playing through the scene that:
I see the corpse. I'm wondering what happened to him. Why he is in this specific place [At the floodlight area]. Like this green paint here on the sandbags. It's like some clear toxic/chemical warfare.
He first connects the paint to something that has killed the soldier, as he mentioned that the paint looks like some toxic or chemical residue that got stuck on the sandbags. He continues wondering about the paint when he gets to the other painted wall at the machine gun nest. When he said:
So i'm a bit curious as to what the green paint can be again. [Notice the body under the paint] And it have a body right next to it.
This quote hints that the participant almost expects that there should be a body next to the paint. It can just be a fluke statement that is not connected to the participant connecting the body to the paint. But based both on the participants' tone of voice during the interview and how he said “And it have a body next to it” as it was something he expected to find, shows that he can have made a connection between the machine gun nest area and the floodlight area. These are the only places in the scene which contain the yellow paint and the bodies. After playing through the scene and whilst being asked the question “Is there anything in the environment that caught your attention or made you stop and think?”. He answered with:
Umm the paint. The fluorescent paint that is next to the corpses and the, guess like random items like guns, the three ladders ehh I'm not really sure what they symbolize but it seems important in a way.
This further shows that he connects the bodies in the scene with the paint, as he puts them together in the meaning “The fluorescent paint that is next to the corpses”. He says that this and the other objects in the scene such as the “guns” and the “three ladders” in
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the scene symbolize something important. But that he cannot really say what they symbolize or what the meaning behind them is.
Participant 8’s answers were much more thorough when he answered the question whether there was something in the scene that caught his attention or if there was anything that made him stop and think.
Stop and think. Yeah Umm. Well, I was wondering about the. The yellow paint on the wall earlier on this body. Well, I wasn’t sure exactly what it was Umm Because of the body I first thought. maybe it’s. Yeah of course it's not blood. Because then I. It would be red! But maybe I don't know. Maybe an indicator uuh where the ehh the machine gun is or yeah.. Where the other guys are. I don't know.. Something of sorta that. An indicator. Because it is nowhere else I mean.. or maybe something like a danger sign because a part of this point with going left here [Looks at the Machine gun nest]. I get shot and if I go straight there [Looks at Floodlight area] I get shot as well. Back to the light here [Goes to the Flood light area and notice the yellow paint and body]. Yeah! here is another one right. Here is another one. Soo yeah probably it's an indicator to where not to go. A danger sign because here is a body as well like on the other side [Looks towards the Machine gun nest where the other mark is]
This answer can be based on that the participant sees the scene moment of the study as part of a game. And due to his game experience comes to the conclusion that it is an indicator of either where to go, where not to go or that the yellow paint is there to warn the player. He notices that when he goes further in the trench which is marked by the yellow paint he gets shot and that the same thing happened when he was at the area with the flood light. Later on, in the interview after being asked if there were other things that told a story or caught his attention he went back to the area where the yellow paint is and confirmed that it was probably an indicator of some sort.
Yeah maybe the yeah especially the yellow paint can [Pause] yeah it's probably an indicator on like uuh where the gun fight start or where's danger.
He doesn’t connect this moment to anything other than it being an indexical storytelling moment which exists to warn the player about what is going to happen or a sign of where the player should go. He says that it's either an indicator of “where the other guys are” probably meaning the enemy as he knows that he gets shot, “where the gun fight starts” or that it looks like a danger sign as he knows that he gets shot when walking further into the Machine gun nest. He didn't connect the moment to anything supernatural which was shown in other participants that thought it was connected to something supernatural as he stated clearly “Yeah of course it's not blood. Because then I. It would be red!”. As he focuses both on the body and the yellow paint his answer shows that this indexical storytelling moment did warn him about what would happen. He did go into these areas as the scene was not made as a whole game experience and there wouldn't be any consequences for the participants if they went into the area.
This connection that the paint is some kind of indicator for the player, can come from participant 8’s experience in action-adventure games such as Sekiro: Shadows Dies Twice (2019). A game where the developers often use indexical storytelling to show where the player
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should go either through different colors on scalable walls, longer grass where the player can sneak through the environment and objects showing if there is a secret or a place in the area.
Participant 10 felt a sense of unease when she noticed the bodies. She didn't say anything regarding the yellow paint. But when asked if there was anything in the scene that caught her attention or if something made them stop and think. She answered
Ohh Den första döda kroppen jag hitta så blev jag också "uncomfortable" av att se. Då blev det plötsligt "real"
She answered in Swedish as she wasn't comfortable enough with English. The text roughly translates to:
OOh The first dead body I found. I also became “uncomfortable” by seeing. Then it suddenly became “real”
These were the only participants that said something regarding the yellow painted objects and the bodies symbolizing something to the player, if they were connected as a sign to the player or connected them with a feeling of unease. Other participants looked at the bodies and the paint, but they connected it to other things such as old blood or chemical/nuclear residue or they didn't have anything to say about it when being interviewed.
5.2.3 Color psychology The initial reaction after entering the artifact was to try to pick up items. While this is not possible in the stage that the artifact currently is in, it did not stop participants from trying. What they tried to pick up first seemed to be multifactorial as the results of what they tried to pick up varied from person to person. In the beginning of the game there is a box and a rifle laying upon a crate with a lantern shining down from above.
All of the participants approached this area, but what they focused on, and in what order was mixed. Which object they interacted with first, ended with a fifty-fifty and two people (four in total) from both halves not even bothering trying to interact with the other object at all. Participants 4, 5, 10 decided to try picking up or interacting with the red box and when that didn’t work, they shifted their focus to the rifle. Participants 6, 7 did the exact opposite, focusing first on the rifle rather than the box. Participants 1, 2 only focused on the rifle and disregarded the red box entirely. Participant 8, 9 did the opposite and disregarded the rifle entirely. Looking into what may have motivated them to interact in their way showed only a slight correlation to favorite genre, but none regarding daily hours played.
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Object groups Participant Favorite genre
Only gun 1 other
2 FPS
Both, box first 4 FPS
5 FPS
Both, gun first 6 other
7 FPS
Only box 8 other
9 other
10 other
Figure 16 Table showing participants focus. Participant 3 was not included due to an error in the recording software
As shown in the table above, the different groups show a slight preference towards the rifle if they had FPS as a favorite genre. Participants who only focused on the box did not have this preference.
To why certain objects attracted participants could though be a reflection of their prior experience in games. Participant 2 proclaimed that he wanted to pick up the rifle at the start of the game. “I would like to interact with the Mosin”(a rifle within the scene) and that
It would be pretty fun to just, like pick up, maybe not shoot, but just pick up and maybe some more, like loose shells as well, I’d like to see. Because it’s a trench and it’s bound to be shootings in it.
Participant 2 has previous experience in the FPS genre as stated in the demographic questions he answered it to be his favorite genre. An assumption that he would feel enticed to act on this above-mentioned experience is therefore not far-fetched as FPS games put a lot of emphasis on how the player interacts with different weapons.
While participants that played FPS, games had an easily explained tendency towards going and trying to interact with the gun. There are 3 participants that did not state that they play FPS games but they still showed the same tendencies. Participant 1 only looking at the gun and not caring about the box, participant 10 with looking at the box and then the gun and lastly participant 6 that focused on the gun first and only briefly looked at the box.
During participants 1 playthrough of the scene. She looked intensely at the gun in the beginning trying to interact with it until the test leader said that interacting with items in the scene didn't work. This can be connected to the fact that some of her favorite genres are mystery and adventure. In mystery games the player often has the role of detective and as detective whether it’s a fantasy mystery game or a murder mystery, the detective usually
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inspects weapons and other things to unravel the mystery. But it can also be that it was a fluke that she only focused on the gun and that she wanted to interact with it, as she did not state anything or show any other evidence on why she wanted to interact with the gun.
Participant 6 looked at the gun and said “It’s like a.. yeah a world war 1 rifle and some crate”. The participants favorite genre is Moba. A genre which doesn't have much interaction between items and players. The player in Mobas uses items but they are often only found in a shop in the spawn area and not something the player looks or interacts with as they often only change the player character's strength, attack speed, health or other things. So as the connection is not made with his favorite genre it can be attributed to the participant showing an understanding that it can be from the first world war.
Looks like a.. I'm in the trenches, in like World War 1, judging by the tank. It is really big for an. If I compare it with myself. It looks massive. I don't know if that's up to scale or not.
That and the quote “Judging by this gun. I reckon that we are probably on the allied side”whilst looking at the machinegun placed in the trench. As he mentions both that the scale may be off whilst looking at the tank and that one of the machine guns is probably on the allied side. It can be a sign that he has an interest in either history or in weapons. This can be one reason why he looks at the gun in the beginning.
Participant 10 walked up to the gun and box and said “Jag vill ta upp dem här” which translates to roughly “I want to pick these up”. Later on, in the interview whilst being asked if there were any objects that caught her attention she said “Ja. Jag fick en sån där instinkt av att vilja ta upp dem här lådorna och vapnet” which roughly translates to as she speaks with an accent to “Yes. I got such an instinct wanting to pick up these boxes and weapons". This willingness of interacting with the gun can come from the fact that she plays both hack n slash games and sandbox games. As both of these genres often have the player interacting with weapons to either kill as many enemies as possible in hack n slash games to help the player to survive in sandbox games.
This participant stated before the interview that she outright didn't play FPS games, as the perspective made her feeling sick. That other participants may have played FPS games before but didn’t state in the interviews can be an attribute to why they had similar reactions to the objects. But as the interviews didn't question whether the participants have ever played FPS games before there can be no conclusions on whether this was a contributing factor.
The contrast between the light sources and the dark surrounding drew all of the participant's gaze initially when noticing them. While the contrast grabbed the attention, participants quickly discarded the lanterns as important objects and began to view the surroundings illuminated by the light. In case of the fire near the spawn point, participants examined it more thoroughly than the lantern, most likely because of its encapsulating nature and movement.
While light is a great attention grabber, when participants noticed key points as the yellow marker or what some participants referred to as green blood, paint or puke drew more attention than the lit areas. During the interview participant 8 said:
Because yeah. With yellow you can easily see. Even in dark lowlights and umm Yeah! Therefore, they probably mark the way
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The yellow marker proved to be visually interesting enough even in low lit areas. Participant 1 seemed to notice the body before the yellow marker, but when asked during the interview she answered: “I noticed it was blood, but I didn't notice that there was a body beneath.”
The bodies have some minor blood splatter on top of their covering blanket which possesses a dark but glossy red color, reflecting some light if the beholder stands in the right spot. Towards the end of the interview, participant 1 explained that she thought the yellow marker might have shocked her more than the body because of it seeming different from the surroundings.
In regards to blood splatter, guns, ambience and more, participants describe that they were located inside a trench. One goal for this study was to establish a dark and grim environment for the participants to experience. While all participants reported that they understood where they were, providing information about the surrounding area, not all participants said anything about it being grim. It can be derived from context though, that participants did not relate this trench to a happy feeling, but to a more dangerous, dark and uncomfortable environment. The questions that were asked did not directly supply the study with this information and reading between the lines of what participants mean may have given subjective data. This form of data may because of that be subjected to interpretation.
5.2.4 Supernatural elements Ranging from aliens to zombies, participants 1, 2, 3, 4 & 9 explained that there was something supernatural going on in the scene. Though the scene was not intended to be perceived as anything supernatural, half of the participants thought it was. This might be because of the yellow marker or “green paint/blood” as many participants referred to it. Due to the fact that it is an unnatural color to find inside a trench there are not many conclusions to draw of why or how it is where it is.
Participant 1 proclaimed that the “green thing” when referring to the yellow marker, could have connections to zombie puke, some kind of weird medicine or even something radioactive.
“I saw earlier that it was blood and there’s also the green thing. For me the green thing makes me think, it can either be something like zombies puking or maybe some type of weird medicine. Some radioactive thing or something apocalyptic. Something weird”
This can be due to her favorite genres, mystery and adventure which could amount to her using the experience in this genre to collect clues and draw conclusions in the same manner as she is used to in mystery games. It can also be connected to the adventure genre of games. As the adventure genre is often connected to or has influences from the fantasy or other supernatural genres. Zombies are a common race or enemy trope to use in adventure games. Such as the intelligent zombie race “The Forsaken” or the mindless “Scourge” in the World of Warcraft (2004) or the “White walkers” in the adventure game Game of Thrones A Telltale Games Series (2014). Zombies or undead races also come up in adventure tabletop games such as Dungeon & Dragons (1974) and Warhammer Fantasy (1983). When used in adventure/fantasy games the environment where the player can find zombies in, is often depicted as a misty graveyard, an old abandoned mansion or large empty fields covered in mist. But due to not having information on what games participant 1 played and that she didn't state that she had played any fantasy-adventure game. There can't be any real evidence if her answer was influenced by any of the games mentioned before or that the feeling of the supernatural was influenced by something else.
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The feeling of something supernatural can also be connected to the fact that the scene is put in a misty, eerie and lonely environment. Participant 1 mentioned only that the green paint made them think of something apocalyptic or supernatural. But other participants contributed the phenomenon that something supernatural was happening to both the paint and that the area was covered in a thick mist
During the question “Do you understand what kind of environment you’re in and can you describe it?” Participant 2 proclaimed that the presence of the dense mist and that the yellow marker was the reason for why he believed that the game had relations to zombies.
I feel like a eeh world war trench, but feels more like a zombie feeling to it, because it’s really misty. [looks at yellow marker] And like this, it looks like maybe green blood, old blood. So that’s the kind of feeling I'm getting from this game [Walks into kill zone] and I die a lot.
Later on, in the interview the test leader also asked a question about if their answer that it felt like a zombie game was based on their favorite game being Call of Duty (2003). This question came up as there exists a game mode in a few of the Call of Duty games where the player plays through maps filled with zombies. The participant answered.
Yes, I loved to play zombies a lot when I was. Some years ago, and I watched a lot of zombie movies and this [Looks out at the fog] Is a classic scene in that. I would say. From old Zombie movies.
In this quotation the participant answers that the scene is connected to zombies because either: Of the participant watching zombie movies or it is based on the Call of Duty game. Later on, in the study after being asked: “How would you tell the story based on the experience you had?” he answers with:
I feel like this. i can tell a story that it is World War and it’s going to sound cliche. But the Germans has done some experiments. Cause like I said I got a zombie feeling from this so i get the feeling that maybe the experiment went wrong and the it like kinda zombie story. Like coming in feel like all the mist is really. Represents that a lot, I think. Except the gunshots thought but still think its yeah. Dead bodies like this [Looks at the body in the forward trench] seen a lot. like green blood. yeah.
As the participant answers that he is in a World War trench and that he based his story to the scene with that “...the Germans has done some experiments” and that they “went wrong”. Show that his answer can be connected to the subgenre of zombie films or games called “Nazi zombies”. Where the narrative features undead Nazi soldiers where they are either resurrected to continue fighting for the “Third Reich” or as consequence of faulty experiments. This can also be why he answers that the story he came up with will sound “cliche”.
Two possible causes to his answer can be either A: That he connects the scene to Nazi zombie’s trope of horror in movies. The first Nazi zombie movies were made during World War 2 such as King of the Zombies (1941) and Revenge of the Zombies (1943). With the increased in popularity of zombie films or series such as The Walking Dead (2017) during the 2000’s, there were also an increased interest in the Nazi Zombie subgenre. With films such as Operation Nazi Zombies (2003) or Horrors of War (2006) to more modern films such as Overlord (2018).
Or B: That the participant connects the studies scene with Call of Duty World at War (2008), which was the first of the Call of Duty series which officially features Zombies as an additional
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game mode. There were some Call of Duty 4 (2009) server mods which contained zombies. The games backstory to why there were Nazi zombies is more extensive than one would think. But the short version is that when Nazi Germany during the 1940’s experimented with teleportation devices. The soldiers that were a part of the experiment came back with a changed chemistry which caused them to turn into zombies. There are different back stories to every game that features zombies but as Call of Duty World at War was the first, it is probably the most common story people associate with the series zombies game mode. The Nazi zombie genre is also featured in game series such as Wolfenstein (2009) series and Sniper Elite (2005) series.
There can be other reasons why he connected the scene to Nazi Zombies, but these two were the ones whish have evidence that they influenced his answer. As he states that he played a lot of Call of Duty Zombies and that he watched a lot of zombie movies where Nazi zombies is a common trope.
Participant 4 also shows that the supernatural feeling in the scene causes them to connect the scene with whether something supernatural or apocalyptical is happening.
Maybe like a nuclear bomb or something struck down or some kind of virus and you just woke up and everyone is gone. Now you don't know what to do or something. Eeh. But there was a guy there, killing me. Maybe I'm infected or something or it's just enemy and I’m the only one left in my team or country, in the battlefield.
It is unclear if the participant thinks of zombies when he mentioned that there is “some kind of virus and everyone is gone” or that he plays as someone that is “infected”. As infected usually is what the zombies are called in series such as The Walking Dead (2017). He also commented while playing through the scene when looking at the yellow paint. “Is this blood or just paint? Looks like alien blood. Kind of.” Which shows that he is thinking of something supernatural whilst looking at the paint.
But he can connect that he is alone and that he plays as someone “infected” with a deadly virus which isn't supernatural such as zombies. If that is the case it can be connected to the current situation with the covid-19 virus. But there isn't enough evidence of either it being supernatural or not to draw any tangible conclusion on what the statements are based on.
Participant 3 like participant 4 were also on the track that there was something supernatural with what she perceived as green blood over the body. But instead of coming to the conclusion that it was zombie related. She connected the scene to something alien.
There’s a green splatter over a dead body that makes me think there might be aliens. Because this looks ehm, judging from the weapons laying around ehm, it’s not placed in modern times. eeh so it’s probably an old, an older war, like possibly even the second world war. ehm and it’s make me think like, I don't know, for me. For me it sound interesting to have an alien invasion, back when technology wasn't as developed as it is today
One of the reasons why she answered that the green paint may be alien blood can be because one of her favorite games is Hots which is a common shortening of the game Heroes of the Storm (2015). Heroes of the Storm is a moba game where the developers Blizzard have put in the characters from their other games such as the fantasy game World of Warcraft (2004), the
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sci-fi game Starcraft (1998) and other games such as Overwatch (2016). The Starcraft characters may have been the biggest influence on the answer as they are aliens. Starcraft is a RTS or Real-time Strategy game. A genre, where the player battles against either AI or other players. This is done by the player taking control over placing structures and maneuvering multiple units to either take control of strategic areas of a map to score points and/or to destroy an opponent's structure or units. Starcraft is set in a universe where humans have since long achieved space travel and met up with different alien races such as the insect like “Zerg” that bleeds a green/ yellow tinted blood and the more aquatic looking “Protos”. As Heroes of the Storm contain alien races from the game Starcraft this may have had an influence on her answer. She did connect the weapons to “not placed in modern times” and this could have shown as the scene not having anything supernatural. But because she stated that it would be interesting to have an alien invasion “back when technology wasn't as developed as it is today”, shows that to her the scene had something supernatural going on.
Participant 9 mentioned that there was “Something weird” and that “It looks like a crater, War and there is something weird.” when he played through the scene. It can mean that he thought of something supernatural. But he didn't continue on with the comment as to why he thought that there was something weird and if he connected that feeling of “weird” to something supernatural or something else.
Why he didn't continue or reflect more upon the question could have been that as he was Spanish with and had to use a translator he didn't come up with the right words or he felt awkward doing it. It can also be because of the translator not translating the whole questions or changing them in some way to make them work in Spanish, that made the answers shorter with little to non-reflection.
5.3 Conclusions The first purpose of this study was to investigate if indexical storytelling elements in a scene make it so that the player can understand the environment's narrative and make the narrative easier to understand. To investigate if indexical storytelling works the scene was built up with indexical storytelling heavy moments such as stuck tanks, collapsed parts set on fire and bodies in dangerous areas. Where two of the areas “killed” the player if they didn't notice the indexical storytelling objects. This was made so that the participants could come up with both an overarching story and smaller stories to individual moments.
The data collected shows that indexical storytelling plays a role in how the player experiences a game. There is some evidence leading to that the participant’s favorite genre or games had an effect on how they used or commented about the indexical storytelling moments in the scene. As two of the FPS playing participants made up similar stories to the scene which they had already experienced through games and movies. There were also signs that depending on which genre or games the participants played affected if they connected the indexical storytelling moments in the scene to something supernatural.
As all the participants came up with similar stories about what had happened, whether there was something supernatural with the scene or not. The Indexical storytelling objects in the scene works in the sense that it should make it so the player can come up with a narrative to the environment they are in whether it was as an overarching story or smaller narratives. There is however no substantial evidence that shows if it makes the environment easier to navigate.
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As there was only one of the participants that came to the conclusion that the yellow color and the bodies were placed at the areas where the participants shouldn’t go in the scene.
The second purpose of this study was to see if color psychology has any effect on the person playing a game and if it can make the environment easier to navigate. To investigate if color psychology affected the participant, there were some different colored boxes scattered around the scene. This to simulate how games usually help the player to locate things that may help them. To see if color psychology made the environment easier to navigate, there was a yellow paint splatter in the areas which warned the player of something dangerous was going to happen.
Examining participants' responses to the color-coded objects showed that participants have an innate desire to interact with objects of certain colors. A majority of participants showed the intentions of interacting with the color-coded boxes, even if other objects of possible interest were around. There is no significant evidence that favorite genres affected the participants' willingness to try to interact with the objects. But there is some evidence that points to participants who mentioned FPS as a favorite genre had an increased interest in interacting with the guns in the scene.
There is however no substantial evidence that points that the yellow color assists the participants in navigating the environment. As there was only one participant that connected the yellow paint as a danger sign. There was also one that thought it symbolized something important but he couldn't say exactly what. The yellow marker was consistently referred to as “green” and instead of being seen as a sign, participants saw it as something supernatural as green blood or puke. If the shape was different or the marker was instead placed on another object, the results may have been different. This may also have been the result of participants having different types of monitors with different capabilities for color accuracy, but more on the yellow marker in chapter 6.
A goal for this study was to create a scene which provided the participants with an experience of conflict with a war-torn environment. The use of black, grey and darker hues and other dark colors encapsulated this prospect with all participants stating that they were in a trench during a war. Even going to such an extent of calling it a world war, despite not knowing what lies beyond the trenches and thereby proving the success of the goal for this part of the study. Multiple participants even mentioned feelings that coincided with dark and grim, for example participant 6 said “It got this like horror aspect to it” Depending how you read between the lines, this can be interpreted as dark and grim or even dystopian interpretation.
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6 Concluding Remarks
This chapter summarizes the survey and its content. Furthermore, it discusses and problematizes the result of the survey, research and the research ethical aspects used in the study. Finally, it will discuss further research in the area and aspects of the study that could be changed or further developed.
6.1 Summarize The purpose of this study was to examine how indexical storytelling affected the player and if it could help players to navigate a games environment. The second purpose of the study was to research if color psychology affects the player and if it could be used to help the player navigate the environment. The study is based on Fernandez- Vara’s term indexical storytelling (2011). Which is a term derived from environmental storytelling which is a term for narration through clues and objects in an environment. The study was also based on the methods of Jenkins, H. (2002) Pearce. C (2007) and Nitsche, M. (2008), to create immersion through environmental storytelling. In addition to this, research was also carried out on color associations, the context of colors and cultural differences regarding the interpretation of colors. These were based on research by Kaya & Epps (2004), Ou, L et al (2004) and their descriptions of general associations with colors.
The question which was examined: How can indexical storytelling affect the thought process while creating game environments, by establishing certain factors such as recent developments or historical events, make the narrative more comprehensible and how can color affect a player’s understanding and exploration of the environment.
To answer this question a 3D-scene was created, which contained indexical storytelling objects and objects which used color psychology to capture the participants attention or warn them to avoid an area. The scene was made in the game engine Unreal Engine (2019), which gave the participants the chance to explore the environment in a First-person perspective.
The evaluation method in the survey was semi-structured qualitative interviews. This was due to getting more developed answers, as indexical storytelling and color association is something individually different from person to person. The study had 10 participants that all got to play through the scene made for the study and then get interviewed about their experience. Due to current circumstances this was held over Discord (2015) as keeping people safe was an important factor when conducting this study.
The result of this study shows that indexical storytelling affects players' understanding of narrative but there wasn't sufficient evidence of it helping players navigate their environment. This study also shows a tendency in players being affected by color coded objects as the majority of participants showed a desire to interact with the color-coded objects even though other possible objects of interest were around. However, this study does not show any generalizable results, as a bigger group of participants would be needed to further increase the reliability of the survey and further develop the results.
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6.2 Discussion The purpose and focus of the survey were two-fold, as the first purpose of the study was to try to answer the questions: “How can indexical storytelling affect the thought process while creating game environments” and “how can color affect a player’s understanding and exploration of the environment.”
The result of the study was based on the 10 semi-structured qualitative interviews which were performed on a scene based on the first world war. Shows a tendency in the players understanding the narrative of the scene, with similar stories of what has happened and what the scene depicts. The scene works based on Jenkins.H (2003) & Pearce.C (2007) environmental storytelling. Where the space evokes the atmosphere of a story, where every aspect, texture and sound of the scene bring forth the feeling of the theme. As the participants came up with similar stories regarding where, when the scene was placed and what the environment’s narrative was, based on similar experiences. Even though half of the participants felt that there was something supernatural in the scene, they too came with similar stories of the environment's narrative. The result also shows that the color-coding of the environment works in correlation with Kaya & Epps (2004) research in color association. Where it was shown that achromatic colors such as black and grey were associated with negative emotions. None of the participants in the study connected the scene with something positive even though many participants connected the narrative with something supernatural, they still came up with negative retellings of what they have experienced. The study also shows an almost innate tendency in players to try to interact with red color-coded objects, or colors that stand out in the scene, as this is learnt in behavior from experiences from other games.
The study also shows that a scene built on Fernandez-Vara (2011) indexical storytelling where the scene was mostly based on indices/ indications works as intended. The participants connected everything they saw to their perception to the scene. The trench, with its guns, old lanterns, indicates that they were in a trench in either World War 1 or 2, as they did not connect these objects with anything modern. The “green color” they connected to something supernatural such as a zombie puking or weird alien blood. These are just two examples showing that telling a story just through physical objects is possible with no earlier information to what the scene depicts, which genre it's connected to or earlier experiences of the game. Where according to Charles Pierce’s (1998) that a sign is a mediation, representation that conveys to a mind an idea of a thing.
However, the study does not contain enough evidence to show that color-coded objects help the player in navigating the environment. As there was only one participant that noticed that the yellow-marker in the scene was placed as a warning-sign to the player. Some participants knew that it was there to symbolize something, but they either didn't know what it symbolizes or it made them come up with it symbolizing something supernatural such as zombie/alien blood or vomit, thus changing their understanding of the environment. Further research with more participants would be needed. to examine if this instance of a participant understanding indexical storytelling as a warning-sign was a fluke or if this connection was made based on earlier experiences, through either the participants understanding of the environment, his experience from other games, his experience in a specific genre or if there was any other factor that influenced his understanding.
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Additional interviews would be needed to reinforce the result before any generalization can be made. For this study to make generalizations it would first need a larger group of participants to gather more data on their understanding of the environment, the colors of the scene and the narrative they would connect to the environment. It would also need a control group of participants that have no to very little gaming experience to study, if there were any other factors that can affect the player when understanding the scene’s environment and narrative. This to either strengthen the result that indexical storytelling works as narrative telling objects for non-games or show that indexical storytelling only works if the person has experience in games. Having a larger group would also give more information on whether there is a correlation between players and their earlier experiences that makes them interpret the story to the scene. There is some evidence in the study of this as some participants told similar stories to other video games or they showed being influenced by media such as movies. But as there isn't a control group, there is nothing to prove that it was their experience of video games that influenced their answers or if there were some other hidden factors. Having a larger group of participants could also show if demographics such as age or daily playtime have an impact in how people understand an environment's narrative. There were two participants whose ages were above the majority of participants with one of them being above 30 and having 7-8h playtime every day. She stands out, but as she was the only participant in that age bracket there isn't any evidence if age matters in players' understanding of an environment.
The study was conducted through the program Discord (2015). This came with both positives and negatives. The positive was that we could reach a broader audience, as people around the world use the program, the participants could sit at home and still be a part of this study without having to travel. It would also reach people with different cultures, different life experiences and with different interests. With the study being held over Discord we did reach a broader audience. But the negative is that Discord came with the restriction of reaching mostly people with experience in gaming. Discord is often used by people to get together to play video games, talk about specific games or otherwise start specific game related communities. This made it harder to get people with little to no experience in video games, which could have been used as a control group. It also restricted which age the participants would be as the program is mostly used by younger generations. There are Discord communities/servers which have different specializations, but as these can be hard to find or private, we could only use the communities we have a connection to. As getting access to other communities/servers often need an invitation from one of the server’s users or in some cases moderators/admins that own the server.
The study would also have to be made in a lab or location where the participants use the same computer and most importantly screen, as to negate the effect of different screens not showing the exact same color for every participant. As this was not a possibility during this study as the safety of the participants played the largest factor in conducting this study, as it was conducted during the covid-19 pandemic. If this experiment would be conducted in a lab it would add the benefit of the equipment such as eye-tracking. As the participants focus is not solely dependent on where the crosshair is on the screen. This could have strengthened the result of this study when it came to what objects/colors in the scene draw the participants attention. For now, there is only speculation on what the participants focused on, based on where the crosshair was pointed at during the playing of the scene.
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The cultural aspect of the survey would also need to be developed as the majority of informants answered that they were from Sweden. In Ou, L. et al (2004) study showed that color association is based in culture. Yellow for example whilst it is a warning-color in bigger parts of the west may have a different meaning for people coming from the east parts of the world. These differences in how the colors are interpreted could possibly affect how the objects in the scene were perceived and further studies with a much broader audience of participants, from different parts of the world may affect the results of the study.
In regards to ethical research aspects of this study's interviews, questions were asked through Discord to establish if participants were a right fit. During the initial conversation, participants were asked if they were above the age of 18 to not reach complications of asking parental guardians for permission. Other aspects such as gender were divided as equally as possible provided by chance of first come first served. All participants were asked before the interviews began if they were okay with the researcher recording the walkthrough of the scene and the interview which happened after. In addition to this they were also informed that they could say no to any questions asked and that they could opt-out of the test whenever they wanted. The participants were notified that they could message the test leaders at any time after the interview if they didn't want to participate anymore. They were also notified that the only people with access to the footage were the test leaders and potentially the examiner.
6.3 Future Work Having a larger group of participants would have benefited this study greatly. A larger number of people in the study would make it easier to see if factors such as gender, age, country, playtime, and favorite genre/game affect the participants' understanding of the narrative. It could also lead to finding other factors such as if they were influenced by media, current circumstances, trends in movies or other hidden factors. A greater breadth of participants would also be interesting as it would give a more uniform picture of how a scene's indexical storytelling works in different parts of the world and not just how people living in Europe would perceive it. An alternative to this could also be to just focus on how it is perceived in one country and give a clearer picture that can be used in future studies as a comparison. The interview questions could also be further focused on, to make them clearer to the participants, having more preparedness when it comes to the follow up questions and to make the wording of the questions more professional and clearer to further the participants understanding of the questions. It could have made it possible to have a group of participants being well established in history to see if knowledge in history such as World Wars affect the participants' understanding of the narrative or if it is enough to have a basic understanding in tropes from other media such as movies or other games.
The interest in certain objects, especially the color-coded ones was the interaction possibilities it provided to the participants. As it was shown in the study, the participants wanted to go towards the object and try to interact with it. This was often shown in the beginning of the walkthroughs of the scene. But when the participants tried to interact with the items it was established quite early that they could not interact with them. The interest in interacting with similar objects plummeted and resulted in the participants mostly glancing at similar objects. It would be interesting to implement interactive elements in future works. To see if the ability to pick up and interact with different objects change the participants' understanding, engagement in the narrative and if it affects the participants movement through the scene. It would also be interesting to see how the participants would be affected by a higher quantity of
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objects surrounding the “interactable” ones and to see if this change would disrupt the attention-grabbing quality of the color-coded objects.
While the yellow marker was set out to be the equivalent of a warning sign, the yellow color was not always seen as yellow. A majority of participants instead perceived the yellow marker as green. This could be the effect of the surrounding colors deceiving the eye into seeing a color close on the color spectrum. The scene is also quite dark and due to that, the yellow mark may be perceived differently between participants. It may also be due to developer fixes as the yellow color was way too vibrant in the beginning, resulting in it standing out too much from the rest of the environment, making it extremely noticeable and obvious. The color may have affected the participants differently because of the supposedly green tint. Another possibility is that the shape influenced the participants' understanding of the color. As the shape of the yellow marker resembles vomit or a blood splatter, this could be the reason why the participants believe it's something more than paint. As the shape of the yellow marker possesses this unclear shape, participants may have interpreted this as something supernatural. In future works it could be interesting to see if the shape of the paint has any effect on the player and to see if the participant may have interpreted it differently, if the shape was that of a triangle or some other basic form.
This study with its result and with further development of its questions or issues within the same subject/ area could be used in the gaming industry. Specifically for the developers that works on the narrative, both graphically and in design for them to be able to make informed choices, with knowledge of what influences the players perception of the scene and how different objects in the environment influences the players understanding of the narrative whether this is for an overarching story or as smaller narratives within.
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Kaya, N., & Epps, H. H. (2004). Relationship between color and emotion: A study of college students. College Student Journal, 38(3), 396–405.
Nitsche, M. (2008). Examples of Spatial Structures in Game Spaces. in M. Nitsche, Video Game Spaces: Image, Play, and Structure in 3D Worlds (s. 172-189). MIT Press Scholarship Online.
Ou, L., Luo, M., Woodcock, A. and Wright, A., (2004). A study of colour emotion and colour preference. Part I: Colour emotions for single colours. Color Research & Application, 29(3), pp.232-240.
Pearce. C (2007) Narrative environments from Disneyland to World of Warcraft (s. 200- 205) Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag GmbH
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Picture References
Figure 1, Private picture (2021). Screenshot from the game Little Nightmares (Tarsier studios 2017). Skövde: Högskolan Skövde.
Figure 2, Private picture (2021). Screenshot from the game Little Nightmares (Tarsier studios 2017). Skövde: Högskolan Skövde.
Figure 3, Private picture (2021). Screenshot from the game Little Nightmares (Tarsier studios 2017). Skövde: Högskolan Skövde.
Figure 4, Private picture (2021). Sketches of the project. Skövde: Högskolan Skövde.
Figure 5, Private picture (2021). Screenshot from the game Hunt Showdown (Crytek 2018). Skövde: Högskolan Skövde
Figure 6 Private picture (2021) Screenshot from the game Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics 2018)
Figure 7, Picture taken from site Trench Warfare. Accessible on: https://hatrenchwarfare.wordpress.com/2011/04/15/trench-warfare/
Figure 8, Private picture (2021). RVT material made in Unreal Engine (2001). Skövde: Högskolan Skövde
Figure 9, Private picture (2021). Example on RTV Workflow. Skövde: Högskolan Skövde.
Figure 10 Private picture (2021) Picture of two places in the scene that alerts the player of something dangerous Skövde: Högskolan Skövde.
Figure 11 Private picture (2021) showcasing the destroyed part of the map. Ammo box marked red. Skövde: Högskolan Skövde.
Figure 12 Private picture (2021) Picture showing the English message sent out to different Discord (2015) servers. Skövde: Högskolan Skövde.
Figure 13 Private picture (2021) Shows the table of demographic answers for the participants. Skövde: Högskolan Skövde.
Figure 14 Private picture (2021) Shows a tank by the levels starting area, which has gotten stuck inside the trench. Skövde: Högskolan Skövde.
Figure 15 Private picture (2021) Shows the two places in the environment where the participant may "die". (Left) The machine gun nest and (Right) Floodlight area. Skövde: Högskolan Skövde.
Figure 16 Private picture (2021) Shows a color-coded list of participants interactions. Skövde: Högskolan Skövde.
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Appendix A- Photos of the scene
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Appendix B- Transcribed parts
Participant 2
[During the question: How would you tell the story based on the experience you had?]
Participant: I feel like this. i can tell a story that it is World War and its going to sound cliche but. The Germans has done some experiments. Cause like I said i got a zombie feeling from this so i get the feeling that maybe the experiment went wrong and the it like kinda zombie story. Like coming in feel like all the mist is really.. represents that alot I think. Except the gunshots thought but still think its yeah. Dead bodies like this [Looks at the body in the forward trench] seen a lot. like green blood. yeah
[Later after the third question]
Test leader: A question? You think this is a zombie game
Participant:I think it can be something zombie related yes
Participant. I can see it as another thing as well. But ehh think mostly zombies
Test leader: [Thought about when asking the demographic question of the participants favorite game] Is this because you have played some Cod Zombies?
Participant: Yes I loved to play zombies a lot when I was.. Some years ago and I watched a lot of zombie movies and this [Looks out at the fog] Is a classic scene in that. I would say. From old Zombie movies.
Participant 6
Participant: I see the corpse. I'm wondering of what happened to him. Why he is in this specific place [At the floodlight area] . Like this green paint here on the sandbags it's like some clear toxic/chemical warfare.
[Notices another body in the same area] Another body
After a while [Is at the machine gun nest]
Participant: So i'm a bit curious as to what the green paint can be again and it have a body right next to it.
Test leader: Yes then we have One last question here. Ummm Is there anything in the environment that caught your attention or made you stop and think?
Participant: Umm the paint. The fluorescent paint that is next to the corpses and the guess like random items like guns, the three ladders ehh I'm not really sure what they symbolize but it seems important in a way.
Test leader: Yeah [Mumbles while taking notes] Participant 8
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Test leader: “Is there anything in the environment that caught your attention or made you stop and think?”
Participant:Stop and think? yeah umm..
Participant: Well I was wondering about the.. The yellow paint on the.. on the wall pause earlier on thi.. on this body.
Test leader: yeah?
Test leader:[Noticed before during the walkthrough that the participant hesitated] You hesitated when you saw that paint or noticed anything.
Participant: Yeah.. Well I wasn't sure exactly it was umm.. because of the body I first thought maybe it's [pause]. yeah of course it's not blood because then I'd would be red. But maybe I don't know. Maybe an indicator uuh where the ehh the machine gun is or yeah.. Where the other guys are. I don't know.. Something of sorta that. An indicator. Because it is nowhere else I mean.. or maybe something like a danger sign because a part of this point with going left here. I get shot and if I go straight there [Looks at blue light] i get shot as well. Back to the light here . Yeah! here is another one [Notices the yellow paint on the sandbags] right. Here is another one. Soo yeah probably it's an indicator to where not to go. A danger sign because here is a body as well like on the other side [Looks towards where the other paint is]
Test leader: umhmm
Participant: Yeah actually more bodies.. yeah..
[Later on after telling stories about other things in the scene the participant notices the yellow paint again]
Participant: Yeah maybe the yeah especially the yellow paint can [Pause] yeah it's probably an indicator on like uuh where the gun fight start or where's danger.
Because yeah. With yellow you can easily see. Even in dark lowlights and umm Yeah! Therefore they probably mark the way
Test leader: Well yeah I think we can end it there. Participant 9
As the participant was from Spain, this interview used a translator as the participant didn't think he was good enough or know enough to talk in English.
Test leader: What are your thoughts? Right now. [Participant is looking at the yellow paint]
Translator : [Translates to spanish]
Participant : [Spanish]
Translator : It looks like a crater, War and there is something weird. [Participant looks at the yellow paint once more]
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After looking through the rest of the scene.
Test leader: Do you understand what kind of environment your in?
Translator: [Asks the question in spanish]
Participant: [Spanish]
Translator: Ofcourse
Participant: [Spanish]
Translator: Looks like a trench or a war or something like that.
Test leader: ummh Any more about that?
Translator: [Asks the question in spanish]
Participant: [Spanish]
Translator: He thinks it looks like there is something weird. There are weird things.
Participant 10
This was one of the interviews that were done in swedish as the participant wanted it in swedish.
Test leader: Fanns det något i miljön som drog din uppmärksamhet eller fick dig att stanna upp och tänka till?
Participant: När jag blev skjuten så blev jag väldigt rädd och då blev jag så här Ehh wait.
Test leader: [Mumbels]
Participant ehh ohh elden var också intressant.
Test leader: mmh [Mumbels]
Participant: Ohh Den första döda kroppen jag hitta så blev jag också "uncomfortable" av att se. Då blev det plötsligt "real"
Test leader: Reagerade på något annat objekt i miljön än dem?
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Appendix C - Assets from sketchfab
Mosin Nagant m91 https://sketchfab.com/search?q=ww1+maxim&sort_by=-relevance&type=models
Maxim MG08 https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/ww1-maxim-mg08-19b07d2f38f14f5f9c8d9d9c8e458f71
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Lantern https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/lantern-6a440d28424c451098a6ebbe51c848c7
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