Procedural Storytelling in Game Design

This edited collection of chapters concerns the evolving discipline of procedural storytelling in video games. Games are an interactive medium, and this interplay between author, player and machine provides new and exciting ways to create and tell stories. In each essay, practitioners of this artform demonstrate how traditional storytelling tools such as characterization, world-building, theme, momentum and atmosphere can be adapted to full effect, using specific examples from their games. The reader will learn to construct narrative systems, write procedural dialog, and generate compelling characters with unique personalities and backstories.**Key Features**Introduces the differences between static/traditional game design and procedural game design Demonstrates how to solve or avoid common problems with procedural game design in a variety of concrete ways World's finest guide for how to begin thinking about procedural design Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 Foreword 10 About the Editors 14 Contributors 16 SECTION 1: Introduction 18 CHAPTER 1: Getting Started with Generators 20 Building Your Artist-in-a-Box 21 From Rules to Generative Methods 22 Ways that Generators Fail 30 Notes 32 CHAPTER 2: Keeping Procedural Generation Simple 34 Two Examples from Spelunky 35 Perception versus Reality 36 Using Context to Take Your Work from Trivial to Impressive 37 The Problem Might Not Be Your Procgen 38 Conclusion 39 CHAPTER 3: Generated Right in the Feels 40 Note 52 CHAPTER 4: Adapting Content to Player Choices 54 Choosing Which Parts to Adapt 55 Combining Bits 59 Creating the Right Bits 60 Papering over the Seams 62 Control over Specificity 62 ACompletely New Way of Creating Content 63 The Big Picture 64 Notes 65 CHAPTER 5: Ethical Procedural Generation 66 Talking in Code 67 The Big Wide World 69 You Are What You Eat 74 Talking the Talk 75 The Future 79 SECTION 2: Structure and Systems 80 CHAPTER 6: Retrospective: Murder on the Zinderneuf (1983) 82 CHAPTER 7: Designing for Narrative Momentum 92 Only Forwards Design 93 Opening the Flow 95 The Design of Ink 96 The Weave Structure 96 Content as Conditionals 98 Sequences and Loops 98 Narrative Momentum in aGraphical Context 100 Knowledge as an Acyclic Directed Graph 101 Knowledge Webs 103 Using the Knowledge Model 104 Conclusion 106 CHAPTER 8: Curated Narrative in Duskers 108 Explore, Adapt, Survive 108 When All You Have Is aHammer 109 Order Matters 110 Let the Player Drive 114 Narrative as aLure 116 Compiling It All Down 118 CHAPTER 9: Uncanny Text: Blending Static and Procedural Fiction 120 Southern Monsters 120 Battlecakes 122 Playful Text 124 The Domovoi 125 Memory Blocks 126 Matul Remrit 127 The Future 128 CHAPTER 10: Dramatic Play in The Sims 130 Design Examples in The Sims 132 Dramatic Design Patterns in Other Games 141 CHAPTER 11: Memorable Stories from Simple Rules in Curious Expedition 144 Three Levels of Abstraction 145 Same Event, Different Interpretations 148 Story Arcs 150 CHAPTER 12: Amplifying Themes and Emotions in Systems 152 The Emotions of Colonialism in Triple Town 153 Identifying aTheme 155 Using Theme to Amplify Gameplay Emotions 157 Triple Town as aNarrative Failure 159 Failures of Communication 160 Failures of Taste 161 Closing Thoughts 163 Notes 164 CHAPTER 13: Emergent Narrative in Dwarf Fortress 166 Designing for Emergent Narrative 166 The Player’s Perspective and Exposition 171 CHAPTER 14: Heavily Authored Dynamic Storytelling in Church in the Darkness 176 Motivations 178 Inspirations 179 Core Systems 182 Player Choices 188 Conclusion: Why Build It? 192 SECTION 3: Worlds and Context 194 CHAPTER 15: Generating Histories 196 Entities and Events 197 Subjectivity in History 198 History Generation in Practice: Caves of Qud 199 Conclusion 208 Notes 209 CHAPTER 16: Procedural Descriptions in Voyageur 210 Setting the Stage 211 Improv: The Tool 213 Filtering, Reincorporation, and Sources of Truth 217 Where World Models Come From 219 Conclusions 222 CHAPTER 17: Generating in the Real World 226 How Do Analog Works Use Procedurality? 227 Why Bother to Bring the Digital into the Physical? 231 An Attempt 232 Case Study: Computational Flâneur 235 But IJust Want to Keep Making Digital Things! 241 CHAPTER 18: Dirty Procedural Narrative in We Happy Few 244 You Have aSuperpower 246 Mental Work Makes Emotional Engagement 247 Pull vs. Push 248 Dirty Narrative Is Dangerous 255 The Holy Grail 256 CHAPTER 19: Beyond Fun in Frostpunk 258 Making Sense of the World 258 Developing Frostpunk 260 Prototype 1: Society 260 Prototype 2: Prophet 263 Prototype 3: Player Agency 265 Final Stretch 269 Notes 272 CHAPTER 20: Procedural Storytelling in Dungeons & Dragons 274 Moves 276 Dangers 278 Failing Forward 281 SECTION 4: Characters 286 CHAPTER 21: Maximizing the Impact of Generated Personalities 288 Tip 1: Define the Player’s Interpretation Process 288 Tip 2: Personalities Are Already Subtle 291 Tip 3: Comedy Is Close at Hand 294 Tip 4: Allow after-the-Fact Investigation 295 Tip 5: Reactions ≥ Actions 296 Tip 6: Change Is Powerful 297 Summary 298 Notes 299 CHAPTER 22: Procedural Characters in State of Decay 2 300 Blandness 301 Contradictions 302 Contradiction Winnowing 303 Identity Contradictions 304 Order of Operations 308 ORDER OF OPERATIONS, REDESIGNED 309 Summary 310 CHAPTER 23: Plot Generators 312 CHAPTER 24: Generating Personalities in The Shrouded Isle 320 Character Generation 321 Interaction 323 Trait Modification 328 Analysis and Conclusion 331 CHAPTER 25: Dialog 334 Use Cases 335 Context-Sensitive Vocalization 337 Automatic Triggers 339 Memory 340 Repartee 342 Complex Responses 343 Data-Driven Context 344 Usability 344 Data Structures and Their Implementation 346 Authoring Tools 350 Conclusion 352 Note 353 SECTION 5: Resources 354 CHAPTER 26: Tarot as Procedural Storytelling 356 Notes 367 CHAPTER 27: Things You Can Do with Twitterbots 368 CHAPTER 28: Creating Tools for Procedural Storytelling 378 What Can Authoring Tools for Procedural Storytelling Do? 379 Things to Think about while Planning aNew Tool 386 As You’re Building 387 Notes 392 Index 394 This edited collection of chapters concerns the evolving discipline of procedural storytelling in video games. Games are an interactive medium, and this interplay between author, player and machine provides new and exciting ways to create and tell stories. In each essay, practitioners of this artform demonstrate how traditional storytelling tools such as characterization, world-building, theme, momentum and atmosphere can be adapted to full effect, using specific examples from their games. The reader will learn to construct narrative systems, write procedural dialog, and generate compelling characters with unique personalities and backstories. Key Features Introduces the differences between static/traditional game design and procedural game design Demonstrates how to solve or avoid common problems with procedural game design in a variety of concrete ways World's finest guide for how to begin thinking about procedural design "This edited collection of chapters concerns the evolving discipline of procedural storytelling in video games. Games are an interactive medium, and this interplay between author, player and machine provides new and exciting ways to create and tell stories. In each essay, practitioners of this artform demonstrate how traditional storytelling tools such as characterization, world-building, theme, momentum and atmosphere can be adapted to full effect, using specific examples from their games. The reader will learn to construct narrative systems, write procedural dialog, and generate compelling characters with unique personalities and backstories"--Amazon.com