Environmental Narrative - Online Lecture

During my travels across the internet I found a lecture online which was actually, shock horror, relevant to my honours project. It focused specifically on narrative environments for games and is the first of it's kind I've managed to come across. Every other source I've found has either been more relevant to films or more inclined towards narrative in general, rather than environment-specific.

The lecture was presented at the GDC 2010 conference from two speakers, Harvey Smith - Game Director at Arkane Studios and Matthias Worch - Senior Level Designer at Visceral Games

Details can be found here http://www.worch.com/2010/03/11/gdc-2010/
and although I'm, going to go into detail about their lecture and apply their knowledge to my own research, the slides and speakers notes can be found directly here http://www.worch.com/files/gdc/What_Happened_Here_Web_Notes.pdf


The lecture examines game environments as a narrative device with focus on player interpreting/pulling information, in opposition to traditional fictional exposition.

The session is divided into five sections;

• 1. Game Environments- Lays the foundation and looks at what a game environment actually is and what it represents.
• 2. Environmental Storytelling - Define it, and looks at examples
• 3. Practical Techniques - 
• 4. Systemic Environmental Storytelling - The two main forms of environmental storytelling, designer-authored and systemic. Presenting techniques and ideas.
• 5. Conclusion

In following blog posts I'll be covering these chronologically and relating them to my own research where I can.

The Evoloution of Visual Storytelling....Sort of

Visual storytelling finds it's roots in Cinematography. The principles with which we deconstruct a scene in a game are derived from the very same principles of early cinema and film, however they do not fully translate over to the realm of video games, in which the player is offered substantially more freedom.(Lowndes. 2010) The level of interactivity in games renders them completely different from more traditional media such as books and films, and presents a challenge to game writers as they must consider relatively unheard of factors such as the marriage between story and gameplay, to create and conserve a proper pace for story progression.(Lebowiz, Klung. 2011)

Visual storytelling in games first began (arguably) with the original Donkey Kong (1981), which was the first game to visually convey story progression through a series of cutscenes.

 Technology back then placed a lot of limitations on what video games could and could not achieve. Early hardware meant that there was barely enough memory to do any more than move a few dots around the screen, and displaying a short text-based backstory on the side of the arcade machine was the established storytelling convention for games. However, technology has come on in leaps and bounds and now we have extremely powerful gaming systems which are capable of displaying impressive graphics and audio, and are now being used to explore the possibilities of varying storytelling techniques. Stories for games have developed from the simplistic kidnapped-girl plot of Donkey Kong to the complicated and interwoven novel length tales associated with modern RPG's such as Final Fantasy XIII.

 With such powerful hardware, memory is no longer an issue and the true potential of rich and elaborate narratives can finally be realised. The interactivity offered to the player in relation to story manipulation have resulted in many different types of stories and many differing ways of telling stories within games, which is extremely difficult if not entirely impossible to convey in any other medium.(Lebowiz 2011) In addition to the extreme advances with graphics, sound and interactivity, narrative is fast becoming a highly important factor for contemporary games. The huge successes of character-driven games such as Tomb Raider and Hit Man, in conjunction with story-driven games such as   Myst and Max Payne, have resulted in the games industry making an effort to develop more games with compelling narratives, and indicates that narrative is obviously now a "killer application" in the computer games industry. (Vordere, Bryant. 2009.)

Computer games are changing the way stories are being told. New narrative-driven games such as QuanticDream's Heavy Rain and their new development Beyond:Two Souls are pushing the boundaries for game narrative, and receiving high critical acclaim for their efforts. K Santiago described games as "the birth of an entirely new artistic medium". stating that games could in fact be the "collaboration between everything we've learned to date, as humans, about telling stories through visuals, through audio and now with the added component of interactivity." (Santiago. 2009) 

More books...

Got an absoloute bible out the library today, a massive book called Mastering Autodesk Maya by Eric Keller with Todd Palamar and Anthony Honn.
It has quite a few chapters dedicated to lighting with mental ray so I'm going to be delving into that to improve the lighting in my room scene.

Methodologies.

The key theories I'll be looking into will be Structuralist theory and Semiotics. Structuralism is the theoretical framework that is used to understand language in relation to a larger system or structure.  It is also used in conjunction with film theory to emphasise how films convey meaning though the use of signs and conventions, based on social and cultural expectations. Semiotics is the study of signs and the various connotations those signs may have within specific cultures and societal groups. The reason for adopting these particular theoretical approaches is because the environment I want to design must rely solely on visual cues to imply backstory and character, signs and connotations will be a fundamental part of my project.  

Tuesday's to do...

I got two new books out the library to help brush up on my practical skills in modeling assets and environments for games;

So today I'll be powering through some of the tutorials in Maya for Games, and making notes on game-specific modeling techniques.

Heavy Rain - Art Department

Some pretty pictures to follow (none of them mine though...)  as this blog has become a wall of text...

Started researching the main artists involved in Heavy rain and their stuff has blown me away. Seriously, it's brilliant. Its both inspiring and disheartening to look at..and was part of the reason I was so demotivated...

François Baranger - concept artist

Morgan Yon - concept and 3D environment

Stéphane Dufournier - characer and 3D artist

Benoit Godde - Graphic Artist and Illustrator

To do List!

I've been having trouble motivating myself over the past week, partly due to feeling ill. So this happened...

Sounds silly but I was in a rut and needed a way out of it! Found this website (http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pickthebrain.com%2Fblog%2Fhow-to-motivate-yourself%2F&h=vAQFwwPPM)

And I actually found it pretty helpful! It details the reasons we lose motivation and addresses the problem head on to understand it's more than just "I feel lazy therefore I'm not doing any work".

I found it really helpful, so if anyone is stuck in a rut or just finding it difficult to get on with work, I would really recommend you take at look at this webpage.

One of the things it suggests is to make a longterm "Focus" which is like a longterm Goal. For me this would be something like creating a milestone for work I need to have done such as;

Complete Research proposal

Although since I've got way more than just that to focus on I've picked a realistic list of things to get done, which won't be too overwhelming in the grand scheme of things.

Complete Research Proposal
Do more Concept Development
Continue Research into lead artists on Heavy Rain
Continue working on Heavy Rain case study

Now that I've identified my "focus" I need to find "Direction", which is a day to day strategy for achieving the Focus.

1. Block out remainder of Research Proposal.
2. Compile useful quotes into categories or chapters in the Lit Review
3. Take inspiration from Heavy Rain concept artists and continue modelling one of their concepts in Maya.
4.Find more info for Case Study, interviews etc.
5. Identify structure for Case study by looking at examples within dissertations on Blackboard.

So that forms the basis of my to do list. Depending on how much I get done over the weekened this will change on Monday.

Thinking it might be a good idea to come up with a new to do list or "Focus" each week and a smaller breakdown "Direction" of a daily to do list to achieve the weekly goal. If I put it up here it would probably motivate me more than just keeping it inside my brain and pushing it away. At least if it's up here it's out in the world and I'll feel the pressure to get it done!


Here's hoping anyway....

I'm also going to write it out and stick it on my wall so it's always there and I can't ignore it...

I'll add "buy a better colour highlighter" to that list....

Heavy Rain : Participant test - 1

I decided to conduct a test to see how different people would play through the finger cut off scene in Heavy Rain. The idea behind this was that I could see how different people with varying levels of game playing experience would play the game and what would influence the choices they would make in game.

I got two people to play through the same scene (isolated, one after the other, without seeing each other's actions or choices) and I presented them with a quick overview of the backstory in the form of this questionnaire sheet;

Participant experiment - "Finger Cutting Scene"

Backstory

The protagonist is Ethan Mars, a 30-something father who's son Shawn has been kidnapped by the serial killer dubbed as the "Origami Killer".

The killer is testing Ethan by leaving him a series of clues in the form of origami figures. When the figures are unfolded they contain clues to a series of traumatic and dangerous trials, which Ethan must chose whether to endure and complete in order to gain further information regarding where his son his being held, before the time is up and his son is killed.

The Test
This test involves a play-through of a single trial in which the player has a 5:00 minute time scale to chose whether to sacrifice something in order to gain more information about the whereabouts of his son. There will be a variety of objects scattered in the environment to aid the participant, and they can chose at any point within the 5:00 slot not to complete the trial. This will result in the trial being failed and no information will be gained from it.

Evaluation:

Did you complete the trial?

If No, why?

If Yes, why?

Which of the objects did you select and why?

What guided you to select these particular objects?

What did you feel during the trial? eg stress, anxiety, calm, focus.

Do you feel the environment in any way contributed to these feelings?

If so, what elements? eg colour, lighting, textures, contrast, props etc.


Do you feel the virtual environment/scene aided the plot?

Why?

The evaluation section was only revealed to them after the test, so their actions wouldn't be somehow influenced by what was written and cause them to anticipate certain circumstances. As they played I took notes on their playing style and afterwards I conducted a short interview based on the questions outlined above. Detailed results presented below;

 Both Participants were non-gamers, that is to say, playing computer games is not something they chose to do on a regular basis. It may be worthwhile conducting another small focus group test with participants who have more experience in playing computer games, but have not yet played through Heavy Rain.

It may also be useful to allow participants to first play through a "tutorial" scene in order to get them more familiarized with the controls as these proved to be a problem for the non-gamer group, and admittedly was something I should have considered.

Both participants were heavily influenced by the control interface, they relied on the white symbol buttons to highlight usable objects to them rather than taking time to scout the environment in their own steed. 

Participant 1

Participant 1 took a very direct route, heading straight for the chair and sitting down and pressing the play button. After the recorded message was played, they got up and pretty much went for the first object they could see which was the giant knife stuck in the wall.

Evaluation:

Did you complete the trial? Yes

If No, why?

If Yes, why? Because it asked me to, and I wanted to find my son.

Which of the objects did you select and why? Giant knife stuck in the wall, because it was the first thing I saw

What guided you to select these particular objects? Turned that way and saw it in the wall, and when I turned towards it the wee white symbol thing popped up.

What did you feel during the trial? eg stress, anxiety, calm, focus. Confusion, didn't really care about Ethan because he's not real and a pixelated man, the timer counting down was stressful and I didn't really understand so was even more confused.

Do you feel the environment in any way contributed to these feelings? It was dingy, made you feel dirty and in a place you really didn't want to be in. It looked boggin and was all burnt.

If so, what elements? eg colour, lighting, textures, contrast, props etc. It was dull, hardly any light - lead to more confusion, couldnt see a bloody thing. Colour - everything was dark and the same. Textures - looked like everything was falling apart, and elements of my life were falling apart.


Do you feel the virtual environment/scene aided the plot? yes

Why? pretty much all the reasons I said before. The white arrows were good at showing you where to go and what to do, they helped you see what was right.

I didn't want to mess about and go in other rooms cause I wasn't sure of controls and was pressured by the countdown timer. The knife was huge and in the wall at eye level so I saw it first.

Spotted a saw after I'd picked the knife up but didn't go for it cause it was serrated and would have taken longer. And I didn't know how to stand up...

The music built up the tension too.

Participant 2

Walked straight to the chair and sat down and pressed play, didn't have a look around. After recorded message, walked into bathroom and found the medicine  cabinet, opened it and found a bottle which they assumed were painkillers, brings it to the table and sets it down. Turned round and spotted pliers by the wrecked tv, picked them up and set them down on table. Turned and went into the other room - the kitchen. Immediately spotted the hipflask due to camera angle. Didn't go for it. Washed hands at sink "to be clean"

Walked around the main room looking for objects, picked up saw and put it down on table. Sits down at table and used what they thought were painkillers - it was actually disinfectant, which worked out well. Selects pliers over saw and goes through with cutting off finger. Immediately says "A wee swig of the brandy from the kitchen would have been good for him"

 

Evaluation:

Did you complete the trial? Yes

If No, why?

If Yes, why? Cause thats what the game told me to do and I wanted to find my son. 

Which of the objects did you select and why? Pliers, saw and disinfectant. I should have picked up the hip flask from the kitchen too.
What guided you to select these particular objects? Spotted the pliers and the saw because their green handles were brighter than the rest of the room so were more distinctive, and thats what attracted me to them. They were near the table too. Saw the scissors in the sink when i went to look at the medicine cabinet, spotted it because of the wee white symbol that appeared above it when I walked past. Saw the scissors in the sink but I didn't want them cause they were wee cheap scissors, common knowledge. I thought the disinfectant were painkillers and he would need them cause it would be sore. 

I went into the kitchen cause I thought that's where all the sharp objects usually are. Noticed the hipflask in the cupboard cause of the camera angle, didn't think itd be useful but after I realised it would have been handy 

What did you feel during the trial? eg stress, anxiety, calm, focus. Stressed when the countdown started, I wanted to save the child

Do you feel the environment in any way contributed to these feelings?

If so, what elements? eg colour, lighting, textures, contrast, props etc. It just looked really dirty and I wanted to get out as soon as you could, no messing about. It was dead enclosed, and there was nobody to help you

Do you feel the virtual environment/scene aided the plot?

Why? The broken wooden floors, holes in the wall all added to the distress of him lost his child - it's like it reflected his stress at the situation. 

____________________________________________________________________

Being more of an experienced player of games, when I first played the game I chose a different route which was more than likely influenced by my previous knowledge and understanding of games, and especially how games of this particular genre tend to play out. Either that or I was just putting off sitting in the chair and starting the trial cause I felt uneasy (probably that one...)I recognised that sitting down in the chair and pressing play on the monitor would trigger some sort of task-related event, and drawing upon my experience of how the previous trials panned out, and the dank and oppressive nature of the environment I was currently in - I knew it wouldn't be pretty.    

So I didn't immediately sit down in the chair, I took the opportunity to walk around the environment at my leisure, and investigated all the rooms in the dingy flat. I walked around and examined everything from the disinfectant in the medicine cupboard in the bathroom, to the hipflask in the cupboard in the kitchen, I even washed my hands at the sink. (albiet, by accident)

Previous scenes of the aftermath of Ethan's trials and Madison patching him up, lead me to believe that the "sacrifice" the trial entailed would most likely be something painful for Ethan, and judging by the amount of sharp and crude objects scattered around the environment, it was going to be physical and it was going to be traumatic.  

With this knowledge in hand I had an inkling of what I would have to do so I sat down in front of the monitor and hit the play button.

Sure enough, the sacrifice was to cut off a section of your finger within a five minute time scale in order to prove your love for your son, and show your determination to gain further information from the killer.

Not gonna lie, I'm squeamish so even going through this in a virtual sence was freaking me out. However I'd already scouted the area for objects and I knew exactly what I'd need.

I went straight for the disinfectant in the medicine cupboard, which I only noticed at first partly because every other bathroom in the game had featured one, and also due to the shiny white handle on it which stood out from the rest of the dirty dark bathroom, acting as a beacon.

Once I had that in hand I went back to the table and set it down, then I went for the hip flask which I assumed would be full of alcohol - which in this situation, one would need either as another disinfectant if the first ran out, or for some dutch courage. I noticed that there didnt seem to be any numbing medicine or painkillers - this made sense since the killer obviously wanted Ethan to feel everything that was happening to him, and test his conviction.

Medical supplies gathered I now had to think about which object I was going to use to cut off his finger, and the cool female voice constantly reminding me how much time I had left, heightened my stress levels.

The big knife in the wall and the saw were obvious choices but I didn't go for them, the knife because it could have been blunt and might have taken more than one go to chop the finger off, and the saw because it was serrated and would take longer and be far more painful than a clean break. The scissors in the sink where no use either. Then I spotted the green handle of the pliers beside the battered TV, their slightly brighter tone helped distinguish them from the rest of the environment, much like the saw.

I brought the pliers to the table, thinking that once big forceful snap from them should be enough to break off his finger. Just thinking about that made me feel a bit ill, and there again was the woman telling me how little time I had to let to chop off my own finger. I felt like chopping off her head.

Sitting down, I used the disinfectant, then had Ethan take a swig from the hip flask, then had a brief moment where I sat back and knew that I could back out and not go through with it, but ultimately that everything else he'd gone through would have been for nothing without this information which could save his son. So with the vibrations in the controller increasing and making me feel even shakier, and the stupid woman again counting down the time, and the buttons jumping all over the place I went through it and had him chop off his own finger. Adrenaline jumping through me I felt horrible, not as horrible as Ethan who was writhing about in pain with half of his pinky finger missing but still pretty freaked out.

CONCLUSIONS

I'll need to do the test again with other participants, if possible, people who are experienced at playing games but have not yet played Heavy Rain. I will also allow them to play through a more instructive tutorial level instead of just explaining the controls and hoping they understood.

Next time I will also revise my questions by running them past my supervisor first and getting their opinion on what to improve, add, or change about them.

Pitch and Crit

Okay, so since I kept forgetting to do a post about pitch week feedback and now it's time to do one about crit week feedback, I figure I'll just combine the two and show the progress between.

Here is my Pitch week presentation;

Honours Project - Pitch Week LMCS from mcsheff90

The general feedback I got from staff about this was positive in relation to my ideas and the amount of background work and research I was doing into Narrative Theory and Design. They did say however that they wanted to see more practical work and to be honest, at this point my practical work was being neglected in favour of research and trying to create a substantial bibliography of published literature to draw some knowledge and insight from.

So taking the feedback in mind I started to conduct some practice based research and drew out a few quick sketches of how I thought Topher's room would look.
I tried to delve back into my days of doing perspective drawing during graphic comm but since it's been years since I've even attempted this I was really rusty. Still, these were only very quick sketches I wanted to get down before going to model the room in 3D.

Once again though, during to a summer-long hiatus from practice and using maya at all I found it slow getting back into the process and had forgotten quite a bit. I spent a few hours mucking around, making objects which I thought Topher would have in his room and which would depict some manner of her personality or give insight into some part of his life.

Honours Presentation 2 LMCS from mcsheff90

(for some reason some of the text in the above slideshow has gone a bit weird...not sure why but you get the gist of it...hopefully)


From doing this test (which is still unfinished and needs to be put to focus group testing) I found that I really need to improve my lighting and texturing skills. Brushing up on practical skills was also an element of feedback I got from staff which is fair enough considering I hadn't done anything of the sort all summer.
I also need to think about manageable ways of asking people questions and sit in on the focus groups and look at techniques for focus group testing. Improvements to be made with the room are including a lighting source, such as a bedside lamp or a ceiling light from which you can actually see the light being emitted. It was recommended I have a look at the Gnoman DVD'S on lighting and normal mapping skills for games, so I need to go to the library and give them a look.
Ryan also recommended the Maya Texturing and Lighting book so I'll need to try and get a copy for myself.

There were also suggestions that I should go and play Journey or look at the Art of Journey book, as the environment in Journey is about more than just being an environment, it's about an environment as an experience. I will also look into the environments in Uncharted, particularly Uncharted 3.

Ryan also suggested that I compare the scene in heavy rain with it's unnerving environment to an environment that makes you want to say (friendly final fantasy towns for example) and look at why that is. I also need to consider formalistic staging, and look at poetics in stories and why things work as devices.

Looking into visual poetry - creating scenes for functions or staging an action, ask "what happened here" in the scene and look into drawing the eye to certain things in order to reach a conclusion.

Looking at characters in their own environments I should contrast this and take them out of their comfort zone, so looking at the opening scene of farenheight as an example where the character is taken completely out of his comfort zone.

Sooooo......

OKAY. After all that, my next steps will be;

• Do some research into the lead artists on Heavy Rain, look at their other work and try and find out their methodology for work and their practices. Look at how their work in Heavy Rain was constructed and try to find interviews where they talk about the design process behind creating the extremely emotive environments in Heavy Rain.

• Play through the opening scene in Farenheight and take notes

• Improve 3D room test by getting some books on lighting and texturing and brushing up on practical skills by doing some more tutorials on normal mapping for games etc.

• revise "case study" participant test by producing the questions and getting approval and advice from supervisor before going ahead with another test.

• Finish case study on Heavy Rain and ensure that I have enough sources and references in it, built on from previous research into narrative and mise en scene, to make it substantial enough.

  

More prop ideas - Video game merch.

Looking into symbols and semiotics, I thought of some props which would help give a good insight into certain aspects of Topher's personality. Including the Xbox tells the player/viewer that he likes games, and that's all. It doesn't say what particular kind of games he likes and that in itself is a good indication of someone's personality because it's all about preference. Topher is a sci-fi fan and likes retro games, but he also likes to keep up to date with current technology, so including movie merch of a futuristic Tron Legacy Light Cycle model ornament/toy would be a good way to portray this preference. A well known symbol associated with nostalgic retro gaming is the Mario Mushroom head. So I think it would be a good idea to include this in the environment to symbolise retro games and indicate the fun and upbeat side of him. 

Prop concepts

Topher is childish in some ways, as indicated by his liking for junk food and video games. He spends his birthday in the Dollhouse playing xbox with a "doll" he programmed to be his friend. While this is pretty sad and poignant, the point still stands - he likes games and xbox in particular, so I'm going to put an cboc-style console in his room. It'll serve as an indication of his childish side and imply that he likes to escape reality or control it - which is complimentary to his lack of morality, which more than one person in Dollhouse picks up on.

Concepts - Prop development

Props in an environment say a lot about the person who lives there. This technique is called Embedding.

A concept idea for Topher's desk.He has an extremely important, well paying job at Dollhouse, in which he programs people. A high powered computer with multiple monitors would be a good prop design because it hints at how busy he is, and that he needs to keep on top of various tasks constantly. Crisps and chocolate lie on his desk, along with his work, again showing that he is untidy. This also hints at his childish behaviour as it conveys his preference for junk food.Post-it notes stuck to the monitors show he has to keep reminders near in order to keep on top of everything. Loose paper and notes litter his desk, showing that he is untidy and somewhat lazy.

Room Concept Painting

I painted a concept of the main feature of Topher's room, his big multi-purpose desk with multiple monitors. Painted in photoshop. Colours look a bit muted and weird here, but in photoshop they look fine....Whenever I save out to JPEG or PNG it makes the image a lot darker. Couldn't figure out why...

I also came up with a few floor plans of the bedroom, looking at the key points of interest and how they could be arranged.

Found that this plan wouldn't actually be very effective because from the doorway entry point, the first thing visible is the couch and bed, which would immediately convey an idea of rest and relaxation, which is in fact contradictory to Topher's occupation and priorities.

Re-arranged the props and decided this plan would work better in 3D because the prop in the immediate line of sight of the door is the desk. This plan works off the basis of there being dedicated "zones". The front right area is the "work zone", where the desk and bookshelf with it's science journals are housed. The front left area houses the dresser which will be open to reveal sweatervests and convey Topher's nery/geeky side. The back area of the room is the "rest and recreation zone". It houses the bed, sofa and TV and due to the placement of fun/quirky video game merchandise on the left side of the bookshelf, blends into the work zone in an attempt to imply that Topher enjoys his work, he enjoys being in control of programming people as much as he enjoys playing his games.

An important fact I should mention is that I decided not to include any windows in the room design. This might seem really odd, but in Dollhouse, Topher expresses feelings of great anxiety whenever he has to go outside of the Dollhouse, and as the facility is underground and he spends so much time there, I thought that he would be far more comfortable in a room which doesn't have any immediate links to the outside world that he fears so much.

Research Proposal : Abstract

I started looking at example dissertations to kick start myself into producing a draft of my research proposal since in order to get feedback from lecturers, we have to produce a draft before the end of week 8, which starts on Monday....

Mainly, I've been studying the Abstract section of the example Dissertations currently on Blackboard, because summarising my project up in 200 - 300 words is something I struggle with.

( Abstract extracts from top to bottom -

"Visual Metphor" Julia Gompertz, University of Abertay, Computer Arts, Year 4.

"Adaptive Cinematography" David Robert Taylor, University of Abertay 2012, Game Design and Production Management Year 4.

"Games as Art" -Evlampia Marvidou, University of Abertay 2012. )

I chose three examples which were somewhat relative to my project idea, and examined the way they were written in order to formulate a structure for writing my own abstract. I also found a really helpful guide structure for writing an abstract from here ;http://research.berkeley.edu/ucday/abstract.html


1)Motivation/problem statement: Why do we care about the problem? What practical, scientific, theoretical or artistic gap is your research filling?
2) Methods/procedure/approach: What did you actually do to get your results? (e.g. analyzed 3 novels, completed a series of 5 oil paintings, interviewed 17 students)
3) Results/findings/product: As a result of completing the above procedure, what did you learn/invent/create?
4) Conclusion/implications: What are the larger implications of your findings, especially for the problem/gap identified in step 1?

However, it's important to note that the weight accorded to the different components can vary by discipline. For models, try to find abstracts of research that is similar to your research.