hey guys before we begin today I just
wanted to say that if any of you are
going to be down at South by Southwest
this year come hang out James will be
running a room called the game
developers Meetup for people to get
together and discuss the medium in the
future of games we had a room like it at
PAX and it was awesome so go say hi
anyway today we're going to talk about
story structure in games specifically
the whole amnesia cliche you ever wonder
why it feels like you see amnesia pop up
in almost every other game is it just a
trope game writers keep pulling out over
and over because no one can think of
anything new to do well no I mean I
guess they could try making a play
character with aphasia or some other
weird thing but these game writers
aren't just throwing a psychiatric
affliction at you for the fun of it nope
amnesia serves a very distinct if stupid
narrative purpose but before we go into
more detail about that we're going to do
a little talking about story structure
one of the simplest and most common
types of story structure you'll find is
called the three act structure you see
it in almost everything in act one we
set up the story first showing the
normal lives of the characters
establishing their relationship and
personalities and then moving to some
dramatic event that shifts the character
out of their normal paradigm of life
this is often called the call to action
inciting incident or the dramatic
question this dramatic event sets up the
storyline questions which most of the
rest of the story will be spent
resolving will he get the girl will she
escape will they succeed in robbing that
casino this brings us to act 2 act 2 is
where most of the action is in general
the protagonist starts off act 2 lacking
the necessary skills knowledge equipment
partners or whatever to successfully
resolve the dramatic question raised in
act 1 therefore almost all of act 2 is
spent acquiring these things this is
where a number of small conflicts and
resolutions can occur in rapid
succession allowing for the most
exciting or dramatic elements of the
piece this is as true in romances and
dramas as it is in action films once the
protagonist has everything they need and
is ready to answer the overarching
dramatic question posed in act 1 the
final act begins in act 3 we reach the
climax and resolution of the piece the
main dramatic question is resolved the
loose ends are tied up and we're given a
moment to contemplate the characters
we've become attached to throughout the
story let's run through a quick example
of the structure in action can I safely
assume we have all seen Star Wars that
was a stupid question I'm sorry act 1 we
see Luke's everyday life on the farm
Princess Leia's messages revealed Luke
refuses the call to action but upon
returning with obi-wan finds his home
destroyed and his relatives killed
so he accepts the dramatic question will
you rescue the princess and save the
rebellion from the Death Star act 2 here
Luke gears up and gets his party then
c-3po and r2d2 become permanent party
members we had Han and Chewie later he
gets the Millennium Falcon Luke gets
basic Jedi training we add the princess
to the group Ben dies but through his
death Luke becomes a completely
independent person and grows as an
individual
Luke joins the rebel army they find the
Death Star's weaknesses which sets up
act 3 here we have the resolution the
showdown at the Death Star the big
dramatic question is resolved the heroes
are awarded medals and we get a chance
to think about the struggles ahead okay
so now that we've talked about three act
structure there's one more narrative
concept we need to cover before we can
really talk about amnesia it's called in
medias res and medias res just means in
the middle of its when a story starts in
act 2 instead of act 1 and then either
jumps back to act 1 later in the story
or delivers act 1 in small segments
throughout the tale now why would a
storyteller choose and middy s.res over
a more standard story structure because
it lets you get to the action right away
act 2 is the juicy bit so why not start
there which finally almost brings us to
amnesia videogames use and midi s.res a
lot more than most other media they do
this because they're interactive they're
based entirely around action so game
developers usually want to get to the
action as quickly as they can the
problem is that game developers often
forget to go back and never give us an
act 1 most games simply start an act to
spend a 90 percent of the time there and
then end with a quick rushed act 3 this
structure tends to leave us with
characters we can't associate with in a
story we don't really care that much
about this is for example the key
difference between fallout 3 and Fallout
New Vegas fallout 3 had a clear three
act structure even though it was a
nonlinear game in fallout 3 you start
playing your early life in the vault
seeing your character's birth family and
formative years then the big dramatic
event plays out and your characters
thrust out into the wasteland for act 2
where most of the gameplay takes place
finally after many hours of exploration
and preparation out in the wastes
everything comes to a big climax and
dramatic conclusion Fallout New Vegas on
the other hand starts off in act 2 and
never really concerns itself with its
theoretical first act so why amnesia
well because it's a cheap way to get
away without ever having to have a first
act or to simply deliver the first act
as an expository dump at some random
point in the game so how do we resolve
this problem well I guess the simplest
answer is to stop writing lazy amnesia
stories but I guess that's kind of
so well since we're talking about an
interactive medium and all let's come up
with some ways that games can jump right
to act 2 without sacrificing the
backstory the answer lies in using non
dialogue methods of conveying narrative
let's take a look at some examples both
good and bad first since we already
brought it up let's look at Fallout New
Vegas again in New Vegas you start as a
courier on a delivery gun bed you get
shot in the head and of course end up
with amnesia naturally and from what we
can tell after playing the first 20 or
30 hours we never really seem to hear
about our pre getting shot in the head
life again
maybe they throw it in at the very end
or something but by then it's a little
late to have much of an impact so how
might they have filled us in on that
first act without dropping a huge pile
of text on us well maybe by something as
simple as starting the player with a
group of perks related to who they once
were say they had given you +1 to
perception for being a veteran courier
plus 2 to endurance for being a desert
native and +1 to intelligence for simply
being literate out in the waist and then
taking it all away with a was shot in
the head perk leaving the character
mechanically and perceptually identical
to how they now start even something as
simple as that would at least give a nod
to the characters past life giving the
player and the story a more fleshed out
more believable character a fantastic
example of this sort of characterization
can be found in Dominion 3 units like
Philosopher's or the Crone we'll start
with the debuff called
old age the all-father begins with blind
and one eye now theoretically these
debuffs do reduce the character stats
but the designers compensated for this
by balancing the characters first
choosing what debuffs they wanted to use
to characterize each unit and simply
raised their stats by that much the
designers also use each character's
magic types weapons and even equipment
slots to fill in their backstory and
give their world a feeling of living
history without using a single printed
word of exposition hopping back to new
vegas when your character wakes up
you're not given any of your personal
effects this is another missed
opportunity because what we carry on us
says a lot about who we are
was this the kind of guy to navigate the
wastes with med X ran away and a gun or
did he travel around carrying a baseball
an old photo in a candy bar those
belongings suggest radically different
people does he do his career runs in a
wasteland trader outfit or a pre-war
suit or maybe he's the type to roll out
and raid or paint spiked armor who knows
all of these things help us to
understand and contextualize the
character in the story without
additional text now some of you may
argue the reason the developer didn't do
any of these things was to allow the
character to be an empty vessel molded
by the player and sure there's a lot to
be said for the blanks
late player-character one that lets the
player decide who he is but this guy
isn't the blank slate either they gave
you a previous life you had a day job
you worked as a courier they didn't tell
us anything about it but the guy already
has a history if you're already set on
defining some aspect of the character
for the player you might as well give us
a bit of an act 1 to show us why it
matters or why we should care you want
to know a really great example of in
medias res in gaming Bioshock what's
amazing here is that they turned
standard narrative delivery on its head
the designers of Bioshock start the game
in act 2 but they tell act 2 entirely
through the environment in the
interaction everything you learn and
know about what's going on in rapture
right now you learn through play but
then they give the player a series of
monologues and audio records filling
them in on act 1 revealing the series of
events that turn to rapture into a
nightmare they actually use almost all
of their writing on the first act and
convey the narrative of the second act
entirely through play now that is how
you do in medias res share beat your
standard amnesia story anyway you know
we better wrap this up Allison's
starting to get that eraser look see you
next week