Boy Meets Zombie

Austin Grossman

 

High Concept:  In this elective we take a game with a very basic story and find different ways of deepening and enriching it.  We’ll look at some of the tools we have for interactive storytelling, look at their strengths and weakness, and how they interact with different kinds of story ideas.

 

 

The idea here is fairly simple: take a simple, basic story, and make it richer and more complex, within a set genre of game.  Find different ways of telling this story, then look at the strengths and weaknesses of each.

 

The goal is to go over the tools we have for storytelling and get more a feel for what works with what, and try to shake up stereotyped ideas on how to tell story.  And to stay concrete and formal, not wander around saying, “yeah, story is so important…”

Part 1: The Story:  10 Minutes

 

You are the design team for a game called, Joe Black Is Back.  It is a first-person shooter with a simple narrative, which to begin with is laid out in opening and closing cut-scenes.

 

 

I.                     The Simplest Case: intro + closing cut-scenes:

·         Joe leaving prison

·         Joe gets off bus – (“duh…where’s Jane?”)

·         Joe sees zombies (!)

·         Joe gets mad (“grrr…”)

·         [play game, kill all zombies]

·         Hug Jane (“Oh Joe!”)

 

 

Or, to be less facetious

·         Joe leaving prison, his coat slung over his arm

·         Cut to: Blackville…rain falling, mood is sad, tired.  A bus pulls in

·         Joe stands there with his duffel bag, crosses street, eyes lingering

nostalgically on some landmark

·         Enter diner, ask for steak and eggs

·         The counterman turns around – it’s a zombie!!!!

·         Close-up on Joe, who grips his steak knife with weary determination.

·         [now kill all the zombies]

·         [kill Satanic cultist]

·         Hug Jane (“Oh Joe!”)

 

Now a producer has asked you, the Design Team, to “Add More Story.”  That’s all they say, but they’re enthusiastic.  “Push the envelope!  Expand the Medium!”  Great.  How do you do it?

 

Consider The Real Backstory

 

a)       Before the game started, Joe was falsely imprisoned for armed robbery. 

b)       Having served his time, he comes back to his hometown…to find it taken over by zombies!!! 

c)       The game begins.  Joe must kill all zombies to rescue what remains of the town’s real inhabitants, including his old girlfriend Jane.

d)      A satanic cult was behind it all, including the initial frame-up of Joe.  Might as well kill them too!

 

This is our jumping-off point.

Part 2: The Exercise: 30 Minutes

 

Think of one or more ways to convey this story in a first-person shooter format.  Participants are free to complicate or add to the plot as they see fit, keeping the basic elements.  The initial story is chosen for simplicity and cliché, and is there to be fixed, improved, elaborated on.

 

Please do add characters and plot twists, but be specific about how they are conveyed to the player, and stay within the technologies we know are possible.

 

The initial story is vulnerable to all of the usual criticisms of video game narratives:  Faceless hero; power fantasy; narrative is little more than a shallow premise for repetitive violence.  If we were faceless contractors, we could just slap down a bunch of levels with zombies and entrance and exit points – how can we do better?

 

QUICKIE REVIEW LECTURE: STORYTELLING IN THE FIRST PERSON SHOOTER (10 Minutes)

 

Talk some about what tools we have, e.g.:

·         Level geometry and textures – this is probably the most vivid and intuitive tool, so use it!

·         Playback of video

·         Playback of audio + speech

·         Geometry, npc’s

·         Displaying text

·         Scripted npc movement

·         AI

·         Traps/triggers: Collecting data about in-game events, using these to trigger/alter the above

·         Conversation interfaces – menu, keyword, &c.

 

Talk about embedded versus emergent narrative (examples: exploring a maze vs. playing a game of chess);

 

Think about how choices highlight certain aspects of the story – the past, the future, character, player choice. 

 

Make sure the storytelling isn’t just complexification -- errand-running and tactical choices, or if it is, justify that.

 

Sample Scenarios:

 

Lay out some sample scenarios, to give people some ideas.  These are intentionally slightly wacky, to try to shake people out of stereotyped first impulses.

 

I.                     Shooter As Journey into The Past

·         Joe must fight a succession of zombies, each representing part of JB’s past, i.e. former friends, teachers, etc.  They have memories and they talk to him.  Perhaps cut-scenes show flashbacks of his life.  Places, weapons can also serve this way. 

·         This deepens our sense of his character, of a small-town life.  Becomes a biography of Joe, told in shooter form.  On the other hand, not much of interest happens in the present – it’s all memory.

·         (perhaps ultimately it is Joe daydreaming in his cell, going over the past.  The game becomes about memory, past relationships.)

 

II.                   Emergent Story

·         Joe encounters 3 kinds of zombie, all of which hate each other.  (he can see them fighting -- it’s a small-town zombie war!)

·         There’s a backstory: 3 satanic cults (each controlled by a former acquaintance of Joe’s) are vying for control of this small town, which turns out to be one of the major magical “hot spots” of the western hemisphere.  A crude world-status-monitor actually tracks the fortunes of each cult, and repopulates the town according to who’s doing well.  It’s like a 1st-person shooter in the middle of a strategy game.

·         by talking to their leaders (straightforward conversation system) he can learn the goal of each one, and aid it by destroying its enemies and achieving its goals. 

·         if a given cult likes Joe enough, it will help him rescue Jane; all the other cults will hate him more

·         ?optionally, Joe can actually join a cult, and gain black magic powers…

·         Or Joe can just kill everybody he sees, although this is harder.

 

III.                 Arty/Wacky Progressions – what other kinds of story are there?

·         A set of levels progressing from early autumn to late spring – symbolic of Joe’s weariness and gradual sense that he can begin new life after prison.  Vague and artsy, but computer games are good at projecting season and mood rather than elaborate story, so that’s the win here.

 

Part 3: Share Results and Observations: 20 Minutes

 

What did you come up with? 

 

Groups must describe specifically how their story ideas are conveyed to the player, not just what they are.  Preferably through some kind of detailed content – a diagram or flowchart of some kind showing how player experience will be structured.

 

Part 4: Follow-up discussion: 15 minutes