Finishing / Liang Lotte

I believe that the cutscenes of the Uncharted series should have left a deep impression on many people.

But Kelsey Beachum, a narrative designer who has worked on games such as "Interstellar Frontiers", "The Outer Worlds" ·and "Dying Light 2", believes that if the developers only use similar cutscenes to tell the story, it may lead to the loss of players. The same problem is not exempt from gods such as Mario and Zelda.

At the end of Uncharted 4, Ethan and Sam escaped

During Gamescom recently, Kelsey gave the opening keynote of the Devcom conference, titled "A Case for Better Story Integration — or, "I Am Begging You People To Stop Calling It A Story." Wrapper"）》。

Although Kelsey is an overseas practitioner, the problem she pointed out is surprisingly consistent with the current situation of narrative work in the domestic game industry: many producers and bosses will first determine the core gameplay and level content, and then let the copywriter "wrap it up". And this kind of cognition and process also makes narrative the biggest shortcoming of the Chinese game industry, and there is no one.

A producer of the top 5 best-selling products once said that at the end of their game, they were still not satisfied with the plot reversal and restart a few times, so they had to hire a senior copywriter for a content-based masterpiece, hoping to redo the plot again without changing the game process. The producer felt very guilty about this and felt that he was not given enough space to create, but the copywriter said that he had long been used to it, because there were products that rewrote the copy, and even the order in which the dialog box appeared was not changed......

In Kelsey's opinion, storytelling is supposed to be a powerful tool for creating a great player experience. However, in the process of game development, most practitioners have relegated it to "story wrappers" such as cutscenes and linear dialogue. And the essence of packaging is a kind of garbage.

This takes control away from the player, making the game experience one of watching and reading the story rather than playing and driving it. We no longer feel like we're "playing" the game, but just "getting through" it.

Some of the projects Kelsey has worked on

To avoid this problem, she offers a range of solutions both individually and as a team, including planning fewer cutscenes and shorter dialogue, ensuring that the pacing of the story is consistent with the gameplay experience, getting writers on the team as early as possible, and integrating the story into the production pipeline.

I hope that Kelsey's sharing can make everyone change their inherent thinking and really make up for our shortcomings one day. After all, now we can't even talk about how beautiful the so-called packaging is.

The following is a summary of the shared content, and some of the content has been adjusted for ease of reading:

I've set an ambitious goal for today's talk: to help people create better game stories, and better games with stories, and that applies to almost every genre. Don't worry, I'm not going to be too profound, it's all familiar.

Do you know the term "plot packaging"? It's a common term in the industry, but it's probably not familiar to everyone. The packaging is not the item itself, but the part of the trash that you would normally throw away. Just like the picture below, the candy and its packaging, the two are separate, at a glance.

So, what is "plot packaging"? It refers to the fact that the plot and other parts of the game exist independently of each other. In this case, the story is told directly in chapters, rather than interspersed with gameplay. This means that players are more like watching and reading the story than playing and driving it. You've probably seen quite a few games like this.

For example, in Super Mario, every time you beat three levels, a cutscene will play on the screen telling you that the princess is in another castle, which I use in red in the image below. Because it's mandatory, they're actually where the game is paused, it's like a separate little theater where you have to wait until it's over before you can resume the game.

You might say Super Mario is a very old game, so we're definitely not doing that now, right?

In fact, modern teams are still doing this: although there are changes, most of the time they work separately on the story and the rest of the game. As a result, even if the game is well designed as a whole and has a high rating, the story may seem out of place.

The reason for this is simple: whether it's on-screen dialogue or beautiful cutscenes, these narrative devices will always interrupt the flow of the game, forcing players to pause what they're doing and focus on the story.

I can cite a few examples where Kingdom Hearts clearly has this problem; The Uncharted series is no exception; The Resident Evil series, especially Resident Evil 4, handles this rather poorly; There's also The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and the memory collection part at the end of the game is also a terrible experience...... A lot of triple-A titles that pursue a cinematic experience like to do this.

One of the memories collectible in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom:

A master's sword that travels through time

01

The problem of "plot packaging".

Why do I think "plot packaging" is not good? There are several reasons for this.

First, the concept of "plot packaging" implies that the plot can be discarded. After all, packaging is garbage, and garbage should be thrown in the trash. Please stop calling my job garbage, I'm kidding, but this flippant approach to the plot is really frustrating.

What's more, "plot packaging" makes people underestimate the value of the plot. You might be thinking, "I don't need much plot for my game" or "I could add more plot later". However, whether it's more or less, the story is a powerful tool for building the game's framework.

The plot shapes the protagonist, the villain, the conflict, as well as the goals and plot; It provides a wealth of context and motivation for explaining why you do it, why you want to go to so many places, and why you want to beat the level; It tells you about the risks that failure can bring; It sparks the player's curiosity and makes one look forward to what will happen next; It can also respond to your actions...... That's the beauty of video games.

TGA Award for Best Narrative Game of the Year 2023

Winner: Alan Wake 2

In the game, some people want to be the best chef and racer in the world; Some people want to be the heroes who save the world. Every game has its core appeal, which is why you decide to buy it.

The story helps to create the right tone and atmosphere for these settings, building a meaningful game world; It provides and connects the setting, characters, and other narrative elements we care about; It provides support for the player's imagination and makes it clear who they are in the game world and what they are doing; It conveys the gist of the game; It helps the players understand the gameplay and tell them what to do.

Whether it's a story-driven game, or another type of game, the story is the key to translating its core appeal into a real-world experience. If we underestimate the value of the story, we may lose sight of its potential.

Second, "plot packaging" limits the space for telling the plot. It's like the "princess in another castle" mentioned above, because we lack the space to tell the story, so we can't provide more information.

In the game world, I love the amazing moments and unexpected encounters. These experiences are the most appealing part of the game. However, in many games, the player's experience is interrupted by the story, and they have to stop and watch cutscenes and dialogue before they can continue playing.

If you only have that much space, you can only tell so much story, which in turn limits the pace of the story. This can be a question you often hear writers complain about.

For example, if the game has five levels, and each level has a cutscene at the end, but if we only use those five places to tell a full story, we lose a lot of flexibility, and the pacing of the story may be either too flat or too tense. You can't cram a complex plot into just five nodes, and while it's theoretically possible, I strongly advise you not to.

At the same time, this practice also makes it difficult for players to keep up with the plot. If I rarely had the opportunity to interact with the story, I would have forgotten what had happened long ago after not being exposed to the story for a long time.

The main plot of "Death Stranding" plus the prologue teaching level,

There are 15 chapters in total

Third, "plot wrapping" limits the number of narrative tools available.

The plot is truly unique, and it touches almost every aspect of the game, including the user interface, animations, gameplay, and other parts that aren't mentioned today. I'd like to briefly introduce some of the storytelling tools.

First of all, we have a variety of cutscenes: non-interactive, from the simplest text displays, to Hollywood-style movie clips; and interactive, such as branching story decisions, and the much-maligned QTEs from the Resident Evil franchise.

In terms of dialogue design, we have simple and direct linear dialogue; There are also interactive dialogues, such as in role-playing games, where dialogue options change depending on the player's state; Narrator, it's just as important to us.

We have environmental narratives, such as doodles to hint at what has happened in the room to spark the player's curiosity; Or by designing more interactive elements that allow players to solve puzzles and increase engagement.

We have a variety of items, including objects to interact with, such as the pig from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, which you can not only see during quests, but also spend a lot of time throwing it from a cliff into the sea and watching it swim back; In addition, we have consumables, quest items, key items, background text, ......

In The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker,

You can throw the pig into the sea and watch it swim back

We have various missions, such as main quests, daily challenges. Although they are not a core element of the narrative, we can still convey a lot of information through them.

There are also a lot of things we can do in the art, including building the game's worldview, using props to bring out the mood and setting of the scene, and designing the personalized appearance of the characters and players.

We also have text and images of the user interface. As shown in the image below, in Star Frontier, we show the player the order of the planets through visual images, avoiding text descriptions to reduce the player's memory load.

The order of the planets in Star Frontier

We can also do a lot of things with NPCs, such as how do characters move? What does this reveal about their character?

We have visual effects, like visual cues, and if you see smoke in the distance, it's a cue for you to explore that direction, without the character directly telling you, "Hey, go over there." ”

We have music, like the music in Star Frontiers, that creates a coherent atmosphere for the game.

The vinyl soundtrack of "Interstellar Frontiers".

We have sound effects, such as the use of sound cues to grab the player's attention, which is widely used in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I once worked with the audio team on an interesting topic: how to simulate a robot's "stuttering" when speaking. Since the robot doesn't need to breathe, we had to imagine that sound.

We have gameplay designs, such as responsive feedback mechanisms. The Coo-Coo chickens from the Legend of Zelda series are one of my favorite examples, if you attack them too many times in the game, they will fight back en masse. Although this is only a small interactive part of the game, it is also part of the story.

The video uploaded by the UP master of station B @Ren Tiancheng attacking the cooing chicken

There is also a level design. In the case of Resident Evil 4, which I recently played, there was a section in the game where I wasn't in a zombie cutscene, but in a safe space with plenty of time for dialogue. In this case, I need to communicate with the level designer to make sure there is enough space and time to design the dialogue.

In addition, we have "Gameplay Verbs", which refer specifically to the actions that the player can perform in the game. The text translator in Star Frontier is a game verb. Once players find untranslated text in the game, they can translate them by scanning them.

Players don't like to read a lot of text. Although I'm a writer, I also don't like to read too many words because I'm playing games.

In the story part of Reeves in "Memories of Eddie · Fincher", you need to use the mouse to imitate the action of cutting the head of a fish on the assembly line, and at the same time use the WASD keys on the keyboard to control the character to explore the world.

In Resident Evil 4, players experience a knife fight with Kraussa. In this session, you're not just making dialogue choices, but you're also actively involved in the battle. This design allows players to move away from mere spectators and engage directly with Kraussa, providing a more immersive experience than traditional cutscenes.

The knife battle between Lyon and Clausa,

One of the most exciting knife fight scenes in the history of the game

However, even with so many narrative options to choose from, many games still only use cutscenes and linear dialogue to tell the story.

Narrative tools you can use

Why should we limit ourselves? Part of the reason is that the rest of our team hasn't been involved in the storytelling. We urgently need their assistance to share the burden of creation. Without this collaboration, we may only be able to narrate the plot in a less interesting way.

It's like in a filmmaking where you have to use a fixed camera and make the film black and white. While you can still tell the story, such restrictions will undoubtedly make it less appealing. If you can use more shooting techniques and tools, such as camera push and pull, color film, then your story will be more exciting.

The world's first film "The Train Arrives"

That's why the narrative team needs to work closely with other departments when making games. We're not lonely elves alone in the corner, tapping on a typewriter. If we just want to go it alone, we can write a novel. It is only through teamwork that we can present the story to the players in the most vivid and engaging way.

Delivering all information in a limited number of ways can lead to "Info Dumps", which are information densities that are difficult for players to digest and confuse.

In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, for example, when you first step into the plains of Hyrule, the camera slowly pans to reveal a magnificent panorama. This not only creates an immersive environment, but also showcases the game's high level of art through visual storytelling. The Mountain of the Dead looks majestic and mysterious in the distance, and the castle you're about to explore looms over, adding an anticipation to the adventure ahead. You're ready for an exciting journey of discovery awaits.

Immediately after that, an owl flew over and started explaining the plot to the player, which was the part I hated the most in the whole game.

During this forced conversation, the owl interrupted my experience by telling me where I was, reiterating the game's objectives, revealing what was about to happen, and even teaching me how to use the map. Seriously, I don't want to learn how to use a map at all right now, I just want to run freely on the plains of Hyrule and attack everything with my sword.

"Information pouring" is an inefficient way of delivering information. Every player has had the experience of constantly pressing the confirm button while playing a game, thinking "When will this end?" "It takes the player away from control – all of a sudden, we no longer feel like we're 'playing' the game, we're just 'getting through' it.

It weakens the appeal of the story and makes players feel bored. This, in turn, hinders the development of the plot. If players aren't interested in the story, how can they care about what's coming next?

Fourth, "plot packaging" implies that the plot and the game are independent of each other. But that's not the case, the plot touches every corner of the game.

Many times, even though we think we're creating the same content, it's not. The reasons for this are manifold, it could be that we lack a clear consensus on what we are producing, and we don't realize that there has been an inconsistency in the pace of our team members.

It could also be that we're too focused on cool design and neglect the overall coordination. While I, like many players, love cool ideas, if each designer only pursues individual creativity and ignores the unity of the whole, the story and gameplay experience will become fragmented and incoherent.

Ultimately, this can lead to a lack of unity between the game world, the player's imagination, and the player's actual experience.

Narrative designers can only be like surgeons, trying to make sense of the various elements in a limited space, trying to organize these scattered parts, rationalize the various settings, and piece them together into a whole. I'm more inclined to try to create a unified experience from the very beginning of the project, rather than trying to put the elements together into a more logical form after the fact.

"Narrative Surgeon" by Kelsey

This can also cause the player to experience a story that is inconsistent with the story we are setting. In theory, the protagonist's goal and the player's goal should always be consistent, or at least as close as possible. This consistency helps keep players engaged and move the story forward.

In Super Mario, the player's plot is to cross the finish line and lower the flag at the end of the game, but the game's plot is to save Princess Peach. There is no direct connection between the plot and the gameplay. In games from decades ago, this design was common. Whether it's Mario's rush home to file his taxes, forgetting to turn off the oven, or even rescuing Luigi, none of these plots detract from the game's core gameplay.

In order to enrich the player experience, modern game design is increasingly focusing on the combination of plot and gameplay. For example, if you're going to portray an elite street racer, your plot should revolve around cool driving skills and evading the cops. But if you set the racer's story as: drive safely to earn more points, it will feel incongruous.

At the same time, the impetus of the plot will also be greatly weakened. Because once disjointed, the plot cannot respond to the player's actions in any sense, and the player cannot feel that the plot is driven by their actions. In this case, players may be thinking, why bother going to the castle at all? We know that there is only one Toadio waiting to tell us: "The princess is in another castle." ”

Fifth, "plot packaging" can lead to problems in game production.

Storytelling is supposed to be a central component of game design, but in reality, the narrative department often doesn't work closely with other teams.

First of all, in order to make sure the story was consistent with the rest of the game, we needed to communicate with other departments frequently, which added an extra workload to us.

Second, it can cause unnecessary friction. If you design a laser unicorn and it doesn't fit the serious style of the game, we'll have to ask you to abandon the idea. Such conflicts could have been avoided if they had been communicated at an early stage.

Finally, this practice can also affect the final quality of the game. If the story content is not properly arranged in the project's timeline or is not fully integrated throughout development, it will be difficult for non-narrative team members to connect their work to the context and worldview of the story. As a result, even if everyone is doing their best, we can't be the best we can be.

02

How to avoid problems?

Here are some alternatives

Through the above narration, I hope you all have a preliminary impression of the problems that "plot packaging" may bring, and why I am so opposed to this approach.

So how can we avoid it? I'll start with the practice of narrative designers.

1. Fewer cutscenes.

I'm not against making cutscenes, but I'm saying to use them better. We often rely on cutscenes to grab the player's attention, but this approach requires restraint and doesn't force the player to sit and watch a series of movies like Alex in A Clockwork Orange. If I just sit there and watch my character make cool moves during cutscenes, it's far less exciting and fun than being in the game in person.

Directed by Stanley · Kubrick,

The 1972 crime film A Clockwork Orange

2. Shorter conversations.

It's shorter than that. While this isn't entirely under our control, we've been working hard to make the dialogue more closely integrated with the gaming experience.

3. Make sure your story aligns with the game's goals, making it easy for players to understand and follow the story, while avoiding being too annoying.

4. Always ask yourself, "Is this the best way to get your message across?" ”

This is one of the most useful questions I've ever asked myself in my work, so I highly recommend that you consider this during your creative process.

5. During the development process, other departments are encouraged to think more about the plot.

Don't let worldview become the preserve of the narrative team. At the same time, don't let "this is not your area of responsibility" become an obstacle to cooperation. If it's just an abstract discussion, the plot can quickly become obscure, so it's always best practice to provide concrete context when discussing this issue.

6. Good documentation habits.

Make sure other departments can easily fit into the story and be able to quickly find the information they need. If they only want to know the background of the character, they should be able to get that information effortlessly. The plot is your treasure, and no one will pour so much love into it like you, so you should try to keep the documents as archived so that others can understand and use them.

Next is the part of the team practice.

1. Be aligned with your team.

If we can align it, we can reduce unnecessary friction in the development process.

All information should be easy to find and quickly located with a simple search. If I get hit by a bus tomorrow, I need to make sure the team knows how the plot is going, so the details of the plot can't just be stored in my head.

At the same time, avoid piling up the plot into an impenetrable wall of text. Even if you only write one page, that's too much. We're all busy people, how often do you go to other departments to go through their documents?

2. The creation should be in line with the worldview of the game.

When you're creating, you should pay attention to the worldview of the game, not just the story. This doesn't make it feel like it's just part of the story, forcing us to explain why it's there. If it needs to be explained, it's usually a bad sign. The story should support the game's setting, but explaining its existence is another matter.

3. Have a clear design goal.

This helps keep the story consistent with the gameplay experience, reducing the amount of work required to make subsequent adjustments to match them.

4. When you ask for information to be delivered through the story, consider the player's experience, and consider how large and complex the information you want to convey.

5. Try to get involved in the plot as much as possible.

We need our team members to be as involved in the story as possible so that we can get the job done more efficiently. Part of the reason why "Interstellar Frontier" was able to make it was because everyone took the plot very seriously.

6. Get writers on the team as early as possible.

If you wait until you need a plot to hire a writer, it's too late. At that point, they will either have to rush to catch up or will have to act as "narrative surgeons."

7. Don't isolate your narrative department.

If you're interested in the story, reach out to the narrative department and let them know about it. Sometimes, writers face many narrative challenges and may feel isolated because of the lack of opportunities for collaboration, so it's great to have someone willing to participate. We can discuss your ideas and see how we can help you.

8. Integrate the plot into the production pipeline.

9. Cultivate an environment that supports the plot, preferably from the top.

10. Embrace the role of being the storyteller.

You can freely add plot elements and create your own story. As the collaboration progresses, you'll eventually realize how ridiculous the idea of separating the story from the game is, as you've put a lot of effort into making that story a reality.

You can also ask yourself a few questions that may help:

1. Are there representatives from the narrative department during the production meeting?

2. Do you communicate with the narrative team?

3. Does the content you create make sense in the context of the game, and do you rely on the plot to explain their existence?

4. Is there too much to be asked of the plot to convey?

5. Can this concept be passed on in different ways?

I understand that sometimes you have to do that, and if you have to use "story wrapping", then you should limit the story to a reasonable limit, don't make a game with too much story, and avoid having players sit there and listen to a bunch of dialogue or unimportant text that they don't care about.

If you're not working on a story-driven game, don't make the mistake of thinking that you can create a compelling story on its own, even if you don't reinforce it with gameplay and other gameplay elements.

You may have heard writers claim that they can do it — and I've been so confident in the past — but in reality, they can't. This approach is not going to work.

In addition, we need to work together as a team to make the story and the game as a whole even better.

Finally, if there's one thing I want you to remember, it's "The more closely the story blends into the rest of the game, the better the story and the game as a whole." ”

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