EDIT : OMG the grammar WAS REALLY THAT BAD :( Hey all! It's been a long time I have not wander in these land, the last time I was 'annoying' Sunandshadow with the binary dm idea :). I thank her a lot, even if I didn't finish all the theorical aspect to go in practice (semantics coding is not structured yet). However, there is a lot of nice side effect, like in interactive dramatisation in game, and a better understand of the interactive writing for game. This had led to many concept like DRAMAPLAY, and had help me to go in a famous Gamedesign school (supinfogame, I have skip the first 2 school years) Thanks a lot Sunandshadow to have support me of these time :) In this topic I would propose an example of a simple implementation of dramatics in game, it's a not revolution, but provide (I think) a good understanding for those who start game writing. I present this, then you can comment and critic (both the essence and the style of the communication). Context: This design was proposed in an exercise at the Gamedesign School. It was to create a mod for never winter night in less than a week (4 days). This exercise is name ‘intense week’, and has purpose to create real condition and pressure about making a game in the industry. It's not a programming school, it's about game mechanics. A lot of us weren’t fluent in programming and none did know the aurora toolset. Worst some did not know how 'western style' rpg and DD work, or actually was repel with that sort of game mechanics. SURE it was funny! However every things goes (at least mildly) well, and we all had a complete project for the end. Still, it was not that polish because of the short time available (that's why it's call intense week). We DID learn a lot, and the most impressive lesson was that you can do a lot while the pressure and the motivation is here (for example learn how to code, even if it was only script). In this week I was suppose to be the writer and the game designer, while the others were level designer. I have start with an analysis of constrain, and then decide a story. At that time and with the pressure I didn't make any difference between the story and the gameplay. Shallow heart is the story of a venturing hero (you) who, after an accident, find himself trap in a cursed land. In order to go back at his regular world, he had to carry a child whose power is the only key to get out of here. Actually, in order to keep it simple, it was a plain hack and slash game, but with a twist, the child. The child idea was a response to some constrain. NWN mod allow a player to import is own character, with his own level. This is something that could greatly imbalance the game we had to make. I wanted to avoid artificial limitation, like warning the player to choose some specific requirement. I wanted the player jump and play with whatever he had, and still had a good game. This constrain also shape the story, the character must have been a foreigner of the land to keep consistency of the story. The entire scenario was design by constrain rather than my own fantasy, and still sounds good! The child main function was to act as a retro regulation of the player. Having to protect it should have 'slowdown’ hi level, because the difficulty is outside is own stat and the challenge emphasize brute skill and tactics, while weak player would be help by the child, a different kind of gameplay which work more like a survival game, with careful progression. But it was not enough; I wanted to create a dramatic tension between the two to make it really interesting. Dramaplay: Rolling back to the scenario, I have defined the child motivation. The land is cursed, if you helped him to cure the land then he would help you to escape. The child doesn't have the strength to travel alone, and need someone to protect it, while you need the child as the key to left the land. The tension raised from their different motivation, there is room where they would fail to agree. While the player would strike for efficiency and is able to plan thing, the child would react more emotionally to situation (then helped the AI less painful to code :), mostly when it's done in 4 day). The child also care for attitude, mean that if you act out of the scope of his moral value, it would not like it and this would effect the way you handle the game. This dramatic aspect is representing by two stats of the child, affinity and stress. Affinity provides the tension between the PC and the NPC, according to, the child would make it easy or worse. I also add a new game feature, zombies, which are cursed people. In this game you had to save the cursed people (mean not slaying it), save people fit with the motivation of the child, but had no consequence on the player motivation. This feature brings the argument between the player and the child. if you kill zombie to make progress easier, the child will start to blame you and then start to act of his own, following you at long distance, this make it difficult for you to protect her, and will not heal you. When she praise you, hide closer to you, care about order, and heal you when you are wounded. it also affect how events arrive (remember that if the child dies you can't go out the world, you can't defeat the last boss, if she doesn't like you the boss is stronger than if she likes you, then use more actively her power). Zombies are the weaker enemy but they attack the child in priority, while other enemy attack you first. This system force the player to adopt an attitude . He is still free to play like he want, but the consequences add a level of immersion, the player would face some dilemmas, like saving the girl without killing zombie. It also builds a relation between characters that make the actions more interesting, and less meaningless. Finally we didn't do this, because they wanted the child to be a spirit which make nonsense to the scenario and remove the need to protect the child and destroy all the dramatic arc (spirit are much cooler you know) Comment?? [Edited by - Neoshaman on February 9, 2005 6:48:12 AM]

I think this sounds interesting, but you have to seriously work on your grammar. I could only get a simplified idea of what you're trying to do, and you'll get much better feedback if you don't make people decipher your posts.

i have correct so much things, yet i hope it's more readable, remember, never post after a production management exercise :/

It's an interesting idea, but I might add more flexibilty for the player. If you want the kid to be a constraint, at least you should work her personality a bit more, in order to make it interesting for the player to protect or ignore her, depending on his thoughts on the matter. And how could someone be his 'only' hope of escaping? I guess there should be more room for investigation, where you would raise the interest of the player for the child.

But this is only my personal opinion, and I know you had a few days to work it out and tune it. So, I congratulate you, it is a good idea nonetheless.

Actually the idea was to play the tension in the story rather than illustrate it, and use gameplay to build drama. Players and 'driven characters' are set to impact each others.
However we did not have enough day to create a complex scenario with complex twist, but there is a lot of room for improvement. I did focus on mechanics rather than scenario in this presentation, but the child possess a unique power, the power of light, that the main character did not have, then they need each other to meet their respective goal.
Of course it is a simple example, but you can come with various character that impact many other aspect you can develop.