TellStory A Medialogy project about storytelling in handheld games Medialogy - 10th semester Project period: 01-02-2010 to 16-06-2010 Supervisors: Tony Brooks & Kristoffer Jensen Student: David Lindholm Abstract This paper describes a project made to explore storytelling in a game on a hand-held platform. The application used in the test is a small game-like iPhone app, implemented using the iPhone SDK 3.2 and various other tools. The application tells two stories using two different storytelling tools: Non-player character (NPC) dialogue and pure text. To evaluate the impact of having a character there to tell the story versus just reading a screen of text, a small group of people were tested and interviewed. The results give some insight into what factors influence storytelling in a hand-held game, as well as the understanding of the story and storytelling preferences. ------------------------------ David Lindholm David Lindholm 2 of 55 Reader's manual The report is numbered with Arabic numerals, and the appendix is numbered using Roman numerals. When referencing other sections, both the section and page numbers will be listed. All figures and tables are numbered incrementally using Arabic numerals. When reading this report, any mentions of previous or earlier projects are to be understood as previous projects and project groups I have been involved in. Acknowledgements Parts of the test application relies on graphics that were reused from previous projects. Additionally, as there is a small amount of overlap between this project and previous works, parts of this report contain content also used in earlier reports. For those reasons, I would like to thank my former associates Razvan Enescu, Qiong Jia, and Nicolaj Hansen, for allowing me to continue the work that we started together. Disc contents The report also comes with a CD with the following contents: • The report in PDF format • Sound used in the application • Images used in the application • Application code • Compiled application David Lindholm 3 of 55 Table of Contents Abstract.................................................................................................................................................2 Reader's manual....................................................................................................................................3 1. Introduction......................................................................................................................................5 1.1 Project description.....................................................................................................................5 1.2 Problem formulation..................................................................................................................6 1.3 The application idea...................................................................................................................7 1.4 Motivation..................................................................................................................................8 2. State of the art.................................................................................................................................10 2.1 Interaction................................................................................................................................10 2.2.1 Usability...........................................................................................................................10 2.2.2 Design principles..............................................................................................................11 2.3 Handheld gaming.....................................................................................................................13 2.3.1 History of handheld gaming.............................................................................................13 2.4 Storytelling...............................................................................................................................16 2.4.1 History of storytelling in games.......................................................................................16 2.4.2 Types of storytelling.........................................................................................................18 2.4.3 Gameplay and storytelling...............................................................................................20 3. Implementation...............................................................................................................................21 3.1 Software choices......................................................................................................................21 3.2 Hardware choices.....................................................................................................................22 3.3 Story design.............................................................................................................................24 3.3.1 Text-based storytelling.....................................................................................................24 3.3.2 NPC-based storytelling....................................................................................................25 3.3.3 Story creation...................................................................................................................25 3.3.4 Sound elements................................................................................................................26 3.4 Graphical implementation........................................................................................................27 3.4.1 Character design and animation.......................................................................................28 3.5 General implementation...........................................................................................................31 3.5.1 Initiation & progression methods.....................................................................................31 3.5.2 Story methods..................................................................................................................34 3.5.3 Interaction methods..........................................................................................................34 3.5.4 Animation methods..........................................................................................................35 4. Results............................................................................................................................................37 4.1 Research method......................................................................................................................37 4.2 Target group.............................................................................................................................38 4.3 Test goal...................................................................................................................................38 4.4 Test setup.................................................................................................................................38 4.5 Test process..............................................................................................................................41 4.6 Test results...............................................................................................................................43 5. Discussion.......................................................................................................................................47 5.1 Reflection on results................................................................................................................47 5.2 Implementation limitations......................................................................................................48 5.3 Project evaluation....................................................................................................................50 5.4 Further possibilities..................................................................................................................51 5.5 Business plan...........................................................................................................................52 6. Conclusion......................................................................................................................................54 7. References......................................................................................................................................55 David Lindholm 4 of 55 1. Introduction Before the project could properly begin, it was necessary to establish the aim, the general goals, and the problem formulation. First the scope of the project was set, and then the problem was formulated based on the goals. In order to further direct the project, the motivational factors behind it were also determined. 1.1 Project description Stories can be told through many vastly different media, and in vastly different ways even within one medium. Storytelling is a major topic in game development, and in the past many games have relied heavily on it to compensate for various shortcomings due to the technology behind the game. This was the case in many early role-playing and adventure games for the PC, such as the 1975 role-playing game Colossal Cave. In these games the graphics would typically be poor, and the gameplay often repetitive. As such, the main selling point of