1 00:00:00,070 --> 00:00:02,500 The following content is provided under a Creative 2 00:00:02,500 --> 00:00:04,019 Commons license. 3 00:00:04,019 --> 00:00:06,360 Your support will help MIT OpenCourseWare 4 00:00:06,360 --> 00:00:10,730 continue to offer high quality educational resources for free. 5 00:00:10,730 --> 00:00:13,330 To make a donation or view additional materials 6 00:00:13,330 --> 00:00:17,217 from hundreds of MIT courses, visit MIT OpenCourseWare 7 00:00:17,217 --> 00:00:17,842 at ocw.mit.edu. 8 00:00:26,115 --> 00:00:29,244 PROFESSOR: Otherwise class announcements. 9 00:00:29,244 --> 00:00:31,160 Sprint task lists due today, hopefully you all 10 00:00:31,160 --> 00:00:32,412 turned them in. 11 00:00:32,412 --> 00:00:34,370 Paulina's going to check that out and make sure 12 00:00:34,370 --> 00:00:37,392 that each team has a new sprint task list turned in. 13 00:00:37,392 --> 00:00:39,100 We're asking for one of those once a week 14 00:00:39,100 --> 00:00:41,240 because we want to know the state of your game 15 00:00:41,240 --> 00:00:43,000 as it is right now. 16 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:46,190 A lot of it is for our use to track where your game is going 17 00:00:46,190 --> 00:00:47,590 and how your game is going. 18 00:00:47,590 --> 00:00:50,320 The actual format you're using isn't as important to us 19 00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:52,220 for this last project. 20 00:00:52,220 --> 00:00:55,350 Again, if you're using a non-standard format, 21 00:00:55,350 --> 00:00:58,315 once we get to the next product backlog presentation-- which 22 00:00:58,315 --> 00:01:01,840 I believe is next week, I could be wrong about that, it's 23 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:04,519 in Stellar-- we'll be asking about your project management 24 00:01:04,519 --> 00:01:07,070 process, what you've been using, how it's been working, 25 00:01:07,070 --> 00:01:09,245 what changes you've made, stuff like that to know 26 00:01:09,245 --> 00:01:11,870 how you're tracking what you're doing and when you're doing it. 27 00:01:15,930 --> 00:01:18,300 Yeah, so today. 28 00:01:18,300 --> 00:01:19,990 I've got another minute. 29 00:01:19,990 --> 00:01:22,640 Today we're going to talk about story in video games, 30 00:01:22,640 --> 00:01:24,348 then you have time to work on your class, 31 00:01:24,348 --> 00:01:26,800 and then at 3:00 PM Ed Barrett's class is coming in. 32 00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:30,221 We've got 18 folks coming in to play test your games. 33 00:01:30,221 --> 00:01:31,720 Remember, we did require you to have 34 00:01:31,720 --> 00:01:34,620 a playable digital build today. 35 00:01:34,620 --> 00:01:35,810 Please test that build. 36 00:01:35,810 --> 00:01:38,400 If that bill does not get you the test data 37 00:01:38,400 --> 00:01:40,522 you need, also test another one. 38 00:01:40,522 --> 00:01:42,980 So if you have a paper prototype and you want to test that, 39 00:01:42,980 --> 00:01:45,180 you can test that concurrently. 40 00:01:45,180 --> 00:01:47,941 Again, just like before, having three workstations open 41 00:01:47,941 --> 00:01:49,190 at each team would be awesome. 42 00:01:49,190 --> 00:01:51,990 It means everybody gets to play the games quickly and get out 43 00:01:51,990 --> 00:01:54,390 quickly so that you can then finish up working. 44 00:01:56,940 --> 00:01:58,690 You don't need to test each other's games. 45 00:01:58,690 --> 00:02:02,067 So actually allow our guests to test games first 46 00:02:02,067 --> 00:02:04,150 before you start testing each other's games today. 47 00:02:06,740 --> 00:02:11,990 Any questions about procedures and whatnot? 48 00:02:11,990 --> 00:02:15,680 All right, so we're going to talk about stories in games. 49 00:02:15,680 --> 00:02:18,890 This is a lecture that I've adapted 50 00:02:18,890 --> 00:02:21,780 from a previous colleague of ours, Claire Fernandez Vera. 51 00:02:21,780 --> 00:02:24,840 She studies adventure games. 52 00:02:24,840 --> 00:02:27,590 She studies games through the lens of theater, 53 00:02:27,590 --> 00:02:30,300 so she's got a really interesting view on play 54 00:02:30,300 --> 00:02:31,680 as performance. 55 00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:34,530 This is much more of a talk about what 56 00:02:34,530 --> 00:02:36,530 is usable for you right now in the games you're 57 00:02:36,530 --> 00:02:38,930 making in this class. 58 00:02:38,930 --> 00:02:42,160 I'll start out with talking a little bit about bigger games, 59 00:02:42,160 --> 00:02:43,640 but then I'm going to move quickly 60 00:02:43,640 --> 00:02:45,710 into talking about things are more useful for you all right 61 00:02:45,710 --> 00:02:46,210 now. 62 00:02:48,930 --> 00:02:50,240 Just a question for you. 63 00:02:50,240 --> 00:02:53,951 Do games tell stories? 64 00:02:53,951 --> 00:02:54,450 Yes? 65 00:02:54,450 --> 00:02:55,220 I see you nodded. 66 00:02:55,220 --> 00:02:55,630 Why? 67 00:02:55,630 --> 00:02:56,130 How? 68 00:03:00,206 --> 00:03:02,027 AUDIENCE: Obviously there are games 69 00:03:02,027 --> 00:03:04,485 that are more narrative-heavy like with cutscenes and words 70 00:03:04,485 --> 00:03:05,673 and happening. 71 00:03:05,673 --> 00:03:08,903 But I feel like you can also easily convey stories 72 00:03:08,903 --> 00:03:11,259 just with the images and the way the player interacts 73 00:03:11,259 --> 00:03:12,134 with the game itself. 74 00:03:12,134 --> 00:03:13,128 You kind of create a narrative then. 75 00:03:13,128 --> 00:03:14,735 PROFESSOR: Great, you did my lecture. 76 00:03:14,735 --> 00:03:15,360 I'm done. 77 00:03:15,360 --> 00:03:15,985 AUDIENCE: Yeah. 78 00:03:15,985 --> 00:03:16,910 PROFESSOR: Thank you. 79 00:03:16,910 --> 00:03:18,435 Any other ways games tell stories? 80 00:03:21,369 --> 00:03:23,660 We heard cutscenes, we heard narrative, we heard words, 81 00:03:23,660 --> 00:03:25,170 we heard pictures. 82 00:03:25,170 --> 00:03:27,580 Yeah? 83 00:03:27,580 --> 00:03:28,350 One more hand? 84 00:03:28,350 --> 00:03:30,990 Where? 85 00:03:30,990 --> 00:03:33,460 AUDIENCE: Game books also tell stories. 86 00:03:33,460 --> 00:03:34,750 PROFESSOR: Yes. 87 00:03:34,750 --> 00:03:37,340 Game books, the physical things around games. 88 00:03:37,340 --> 00:03:40,304 AUDIENCE: It's also really rare and hard to do, 89 00:03:40,304 --> 00:03:42,526 but it's really great when games can tell the story 90 00:03:42,526 --> 00:03:43,270 through the mechanics. 91 00:03:43,270 --> 00:03:44,690 PROFESSOR: Yes, absolutely, telling the story 92 00:03:44,690 --> 00:03:45,675 through the mechanics. 93 00:03:45,675 --> 00:03:46,800 Which game did you mention? 94 00:03:46,800 --> 00:03:47,430 Papers, Please? 95 00:03:47,430 --> 00:03:49,535 AUDIENCE: I think so. 96 00:03:49,535 --> 00:03:51,404 PROFESSOR: Excellent. 97 00:03:51,404 --> 00:03:53,070 So when we talk about games and stories, 98 00:03:53,070 --> 00:03:54,460 sometimes we think about these. 99 00:03:54,460 --> 00:03:56,668 Actually, you're good, you mentioned some other types 100 00:03:56,668 --> 00:03:57,600 of games. 101 00:03:57,600 --> 00:03:59,395 Final Fantasy 13, Metal Gear Solid 102 00:03:59,395 --> 00:04:03,260 4, both games kind of derided for, in certain circles, 103 00:04:03,260 --> 00:04:05,310 the linearness of their games. 104 00:04:05,310 --> 00:04:07,860 You start the game, you watch the movie, 105 00:04:07,860 --> 00:04:10,190 you hit some buttons, you watch the next movie, 106 00:04:10,190 --> 00:04:11,260 you hit some buttons. 107 00:04:11,260 --> 00:04:13,650 Some people like that, that's one way to play games. 108 00:04:13,650 --> 00:04:16,603 That's one kind of game that is out there. 109 00:04:16,603 --> 00:04:18,269 Not exactly the kind of games that we're 110 00:04:18,269 --> 00:04:19,950 making in this class. 111 00:04:19,950 --> 00:04:23,160 But also not exactly the kind of games-- not the only way 112 00:04:23,160 --> 00:04:27,060 to tell stories in games, as you just mentioned. 113 00:04:27,060 --> 00:04:30,610 To make those kind of games, we're calling them AAA games 114 00:04:30,610 --> 00:04:32,550 if anybody's heard that phrase before. 115 00:04:32,550 --> 00:04:35,300 AAA just meaning expensive. 116 00:04:35,300 --> 00:04:37,520 Blockbuster. 117 00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:39,620 The Marvel blockbuster movies are basically 118 00:04:39,620 --> 00:04:42,400 what's happened to film, Call of Duty 119 00:04:42,400 --> 00:04:44,610 is the game version of that. 120 00:04:44,610 --> 00:04:46,720 So they require many expensive resources, 121 00:04:46,720 --> 00:04:47,980 artists, sound designers. 122 00:04:47,980 --> 00:04:51,200 We heard an artist talk earlier this week 123 00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:55,070 about how art's important and why art is important, 124 00:04:55,070 --> 00:04:56,750 and how difficult it is for one person 125 00:04:56,750 --> 00:04:59,780 to do all those different kinds of tasks that are required 126 00:04:59,780 --> 00:05:03,060 for a complicated game. 127 00:05:03,060 --> 00:05:05,070 Just to note that those two games 128 00:05:05,070 --> 00:05:07,530 that I mentioned previously usually 129 00:05:07,530 --> 00:05:08,880 borrow techniques from cinema. 130 00:05:08,880 --> 00:05:12,270 So things like camera placement, lighting, visual effects 131 00:05:12,270 --> 00:05:14,060 and sound effects, a lot of those things 132 00:05:14,060 --> 00:05:16,750 are their borrowing concepts from cinema 133 00:05:16,750 --> 00:05:18,500 that have been proven to work in cinema, 134 00:05:18,500 --> 00:05:20,125 and then just throwing them in the game 135 00:05:20,125 --> 00:05:22,750 because they know they work. 136 00:05:22,750 --> 00:05:29,016 One way a AAA studio might think about making a game with story 137 00:05:29,016 --> 00:05:31,390 is, all right, so it's this balance between interactivity 138 00:05:31,390 --> 00:05:33,230 and narrative, right? 139 00:05:33,230 --> 00:05:37,345 And there's this cost, so think of that triangle as the cost. 140 00:05:37,345 --> 00:05:39,310 It costs money to make these games, 141 00:05:39,310 --> 00:05:41,930 and that money is generally either spent on people 142 00:05:41,930 --> 00:05:46,342 or it's spent on time, so people times time, basically. 143 00:05:46,342 --> 00:05:48,050 And the idea is that, all right, so we've 144 00:05:48,050 --> 00:05:50,220 got this interactive stuff going on right here, 145 00:05:50,220 --> 00:05:51,922 the player presses buttons, great. 146 00:05:51,922 --> 00:05:53,380 We've got this narrative stuff here 147 00:05:53,380 --> 00:05:56,600 and I'm borrowing comedy and tragedy. 148 00:05:56,600 --> 00:05:59,810 When I say narrative, think back to your Aristotle. 149 00:05:59,810 --> 00:06:02,700 So plot, comedy, tragedy, melodrama. 150 00:06:02,700 --> 00:06:05,780 A lot of the AAA games tend to just basically be 151 00:06:05,780 --> 00:06:07,356 big melodrama pieces. 152 00:06:07,356 --> 00:06:08,480 But it could be folk tales. 153 00:06:08,480 --> 00:06:10,890 That narrative could be-- sometimes it has conflict, 154 00:06:10,890 --> 00:06:12,181 sometimes there's not conflict. 155 00:06:12,181 --> 00:06:15,677 Sometimes there's a dramatic arc or not. 156 00:06:15,677 --> 00:06:18,010 So they say, all right, so we've got to balance the two. 157 00:06:18,010 --> 00:06:19,950 And how do we do that? 158 00:06:19,950 --> 00:06:23,690 State of the art AAA 2011, this is Arkham City, that's Batman, 159 00:06:23,690 --> 00:06:24,960 his parents are dead. 160 00:06:24,960 --> 00:06:28,920 Press X to pay your respects. 161 00:06:28,920 --> 00:06:31,430 You press the X button, he places down the rose, 162 00:06:31,430 --> 00:06:34,047 you get a nice little cutscene reward with it 163 00:06:34,047 --> 00:06:35,630 so you can see a little bit of a movie 164 00:06:35,630 --> 00:06:40,017 going on with him being grim and putting down the rose. 165 00:06:40,017 --> 00:06:42,350 But you also get a little achievement, so it's a reward, 166 00:06:42,350 --> 00:06:44,292 it's an Easter egg. 167 00:06:44,292 --> 00:06:46,250 But it's a crucial back story to the character, 168 00:06:46,250 --> 00:06:48,080 they put it in the game. 169 00:06:48,080 --> 00:06:50,660 They spend a lot of money making that animation. 170 00:06:50,660 --> 00:06:53,201 Not all players are going to see it, and when they do see it, 171 00:06:53,201 --> 00:06:55,190 it only lasts for a very short period of time. 172 00:06:55,190 --> 00:06:56,270 That was 2011. 173 00:06:56,270 --> 00:06:59,190 It's 2014, we've got really cool computers, 174 00:06:59,190 --> 00:07:00,990 we've got Xbox One, PS4. 175 00:07:00,990 --> 00:07:04,960 Your state of the art, AAA, 2014 Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. 176 00:07:04,960 --> 00:07:06,300 We've got an upgrade. 177 00:07:06,300 --> 00:07:09,652 Hold X to pay respects. 178 00:07:09,652 --> 00:07:11,110 Basically, it's a quick time event. 179 00:07:11,110 --> 00:07:13,160 We've seen quick time events with other games 180 00:07:13,160 --> 00:07:17,260 before, if anybody's played Heavy Rain, if anybody's 181 00:07:17,260 --> 00:07:21,120 played the Shenmue games, Resident Evil games, 182 00:07:21,120 --> 00:07:22,100 things like that. 183 00:07:22,100 --> 00:07:24,690 Basically, you've got a video footage going on, 184 00:07:24,690 --> 00:07:26,620 and you can press a button and it'll give you 185 00:07:26,620 --> 00:07:29,690 a new set of video footage. 186 00:07:29,690 --> 00:07:31,190 There's a lot of animation going on, 187 00:07:31,190 --> 00:07:34,070 there's a lot of cost going into this. 188 00:07:34,070 --> 00:07:36,320 I think the hope for this kind of thing, 189 00:07:36,320 --> 00:07:39,880 why it's hold X instead of press X, is by holding X, 190 00:07:39,880 --> 00:07:43,170 you're embodying that action. 191 00:07:43,170 --> 00:07:44,920 Maybe you're grieving, maybe it's praying, 192 00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:46,670 maybe it's holding the button. 193 00:07:46,670 --> 00:07:49,180 Maybe the longer you hold it, the more you grieve. 194 00:07:49,180 --> 00:07:51,680 So maybe there should have been a score that's counting down 195 00:07:51,680 --> 00:07:53,590 how much grief you got. 196 00:07:53,590 --> 00:07:55,770 But if you've read the internet about the game, 197 00:07:55,770 --> 00:07:57,634 you notice that, yeah, it hasn't quite 198 00:07:57,634 --> 00:08:00,050 worked out the way that they might have thought it worked. 199 00:08:02,700 --> 00:08:07,160 You don't have AAA resources, so why did I talk about all that? 200 00:08:07,160 --> 00:08:11,050 And you should probably just give up on stories, right? 201 00:08:11,050 --> 00:08:13,470 I'm going to say no, of course, that's 202 00:08:13,470 --> 00:08:17,580 why I'm talking about this for about another 45 minutes. 203 00:08:17,580 --> 00:08:20,020 But some games don't need stories 204 00:08:20,020 --> 00:08:21,900 to be fun or have a meaning. 205 00:08:21,900 --> 00:08:24,940 Anybody recognize the pieces on the screen? 206 00:08:24,940 --> 00:08:26,000 Tetris. 207 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:28,060 The tetrominos of Tetris. 208 00:08:28,060 --> 00:08:31,140 Is there a story to Tetris? 209 00:08:31,140 --> 00:08:34,167 Some people say there is. 210 00:08:34,167 --> 00:08:35,750 And I'm talking about this Tetris too, 211 00:08:35,750 --> 00:08:37,041 there's not even color in that. 212 00:08:37,041 --> 00:08:39,820 You can't even tell what the tetrominos are once they hit 213 00:08:39,820 --> 00:08:42,880 the pile, they're just there. 214 00:08:42,880 --> 00:08:44,880 And actually, that might be that-- I don't know, 215 00:08:44,880 --> 00:08:46,870 I think the bottom of that bottom row 216 00:08:46,870 --> 00:08:49,040 is the bottom of the bucket that's holding it. 217 00:08:49,040 --> 00:08:51,770 So our own MIT's Media Lab Janet Murray 218 00:08:51,770 --> 00:08:55,830 would say that Tetris is the monotony of the work day, 219 00:08:55,830 --> 00:08:59,306 of putting things in their places. 220 00:08:59,306 --> 00:09:01,680 Another professor, Jim G. over at University of Wisconsin 221 00:09:01,680 --> 00:09:05,210 Madison, he says Tetris is an escape 222 00:09:05,210 --> 00:09:08,830 into the very desire for order, control, and workable solutions 223 00:09:08,830 --> 00:09:12,080 that we have all the time. 224 00:09:12,080 --> 00:09:14,300 Some other less notable but equally valid 225 00:09:14,300 --> 00:09:17,390 people on the internet say it's the story of life, 226 00:09:17,390 --> 00:09:19,230 it's never won, it always has an ending, 227 00:09:19,230 --> 00:09:22,850 and that ending is your death or everything just 228 00:09:22,850 --> 00:09:26,080 piling up to the top. 229 00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:27,830 Because it was made in Russia, some people 230 00:09:27,830 --> 00:09:30,180 might say that it's a critique of communism, maybe, 231 00:09:30,180 --> 00:09:32,710 or of sameness, or of bureaucracy. 232 00:09:32,710 --> 00:09:34,540 Although the creator, the Russian creator 233 00:09:34,540 --> 00:09:38,780 Alexey Pajitnov would say-- he does say-- that for him, 234 00:09:38,780 --> 00:09:40,890 it's about playing on the edge of your abilities 235 00:09:40,890 --> 00:09:43,280 and about playing to a life well lived. 236 00:09:43,280 --> 00:09:45,350 So the point of all this stuff is 237 00:09:45,350 --> 00:09:48,150 people read patterns in the most abstract things. 238 00:09:48,150 --> 00:09:49,650 So maybe you don't need story, maybe 239 00:09:49,650 --> 00:09:53,700 you just give them some abstractness and then move on. 240 00:09:53,700 --> 00:09:59,260 Tetris was made in 1981 or thereabouts, on that one, 1983? 241 00:09:59,260 --> 00:10:01,520 I should have put that in the slide. 242 00:10:01,520 --> 00:10:04,350 So that was 30 something odd years ago. 243 00:10:04,350 --> 00:10:06,550 What if they made Tetris today? 244 00:10:06,550 --> 00:10:09,600 Here's Tetris today, or one version of Tetris today. 245 00:10:09,600 --> 00:10:12,170 Why would somebody make a Tetris game with story? 246 00:10:12,170 --> 00:10:16,234 This is the Japanese only Puyo Puyo Tetris. 247 00:10:16,234 --> 00:10:17,900 It's taking two different game mechanics 248 00:10:17,900 --> 00:10:19,320 and splicing them together. 249 00:10:19,320 --> 00:10:21,660 Why would they put characters in the Tetris game? 250 00:10:24,990 --> 00:10:25,610 What's up? 251 00:10:25,610 --> 00:10:27,020 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]. 252 00:10:27,020 --> 00:10:28,232 PROFESSOR: It might, yeah. 253 00:10:28,232 --> 00:10:29,940 And people are used to seeing characters. 254 00:10:29,940 --> 00:10:31,636 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]. 255 00:10:31,636 --> 00:10:33,620 PROFESSOR: Possibly, yeah. 256 00:10:33,620 --> 00:10:34,360 Any others? 257 00:10:34,360 --> 00:10:36,121 Any other ideas? 258 00:10:36,121 --> 00:10:36,620 Yeah? 259 00:10:36,620 --> 00:10:38,707 AUDIENCE: Tetris already exists, so they 260 00:10:38,707 --> 00:10:40,540 need to make it at least slightly different. 261 00:10:40,540 --> 00:10:42,529 PROFESSOR: Absolutely, yeah. 262 00:10:42,529 --> 00:10:44,820 Actually, we were just talking about this before class. 263 00:10:48,180 --> 00:10:50,540 Would you be able to sell this today? 264 00:10:50,540 --> 00:10:53,490 Do you think this could sell today? 265 00:10:53,490 --> 00:10:55,932 You've never seen Tetris before, it's a brand new thing, 266 00:10:55,932 --> 00:10:56,640 you'd look it up. 267 00:10:56,640 --> 00:10:58,540 Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't. 268 00:10:58,540 --> 00:11:01,550 Has anybody played the game Hexagon or Super Hexagon? 269 00:11:01,550 --> 00:11:02,860 AUDIENCE: Yes. 270 00:11:02,860 --> 00:11:05,110 PROFESSOR: Does Hexagon or Super Hexagon have a story? 271 00:11:05,110 --> 00:11:06,610 AUDIENCE: No. 272 00:11:06,610 --> 00:11:08,130 PROFESSOR: OK. 273 00:11:08,130 --> 00:11:11,530 Then why is there a narrator and a voice? 274 00:11:14,100 --> 00:11:15,420 Why is she telling you-- 275 00:11:15,420 --> 00:11:17,344 AUDIENCE: It sounds like-- I feel 276 00:11:17,344 --> 00:11:19,760 like it's partially to let the player know where they are, 277 00:11:19,760 --> 00:11:20,260 maybe? 278 00:11:20,260 --> 00:11:23,380 PROFESSOR: How does she talk? 279 00:11:23,380 --> 00:11:24,050 Kind of robotic? 280 00:11:24,050 --> 00:11:26,300 AUDIENCE: It's robotic, but also like a woman's voice. 281 00:11:26,300 --> 00:11:29,120 PROFESSOR: There's a little bit of story. 282 00:11:29,120 --> 00:11:32,140 Why is the character a triangle? 283 00:11:32,140 --> 00:11:33,890 AUDIENCE: Why is the character a triangle? 284 00:11:33,890 --> 00:11:36,310 PROFESSOR: The thing that you're moving on a screen. 285 00:11:36,310 --> 00:11:38,420 Why a triangle and not a square? 286 00:11:38,420 --> 00:11:39,912 Or circle? 287 00:11:39,912 --> 00:11:40,828 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]. 288 00:11:40,828 --> 00:11:41,977 PROFESSOR: Maybe. 289 00:11:41,977 --> 00:11:42,976 AUDIENCE: It shows you-- 290 00:11:42,976 --> 00:11:44,580 PROFESSOR: I'm going to argue that there's a little bit of-- 291 00:11:44,580 --> 00:11:45,580 AUDIENCE: Triangles are non-deformable. 292 00:11:45,580 --> 00:11:46,590 PROFESSOR: What's that? 293 00:11:46,590 --> 00:11:48,405 AUDIENCE: They're more sturdy than squares. 294 00:11:48,405 --> 00:11:50,738 If you squish a square it turns into like a weird slanty 295 00:11:50,738 --> 00:11:50,982 square. 296 00:11:50,982 --> 00:11:51,981 PROFESSOR: There you go. 297 00:11:51,981 --> 00:11:53,810 AUDIENCE: Rhombus. 298 00:11:53,810 --> 00:11:55,960 PROFESSOR: There's little hints of story there. 299 00:11:55,960 --> 00:11:58,876 AUDIENCE: The character is the triangle. 300 00:11:58,876 --> 00:11:59,848 I think. 301 00:11:59,848 --> 00:12:00,820 PROFESSOR: Yeah? 302 00:12:00,820 --> 00:12:03,250 AUDIENCE: One other reason for characters is merch. 303 00:12:03,250 --> 00:12:04,740 PROFESSOR: Merchandise. 304 00:12:04,740 --> 00:12:08,050 Actually, yeah, especially with this one. 305 00:12:08,050 --> 00:12:10,600 What do they call the characters when they make-- like, 306 00:12:10,600 --> 00:12:12,052 Internet Explorer as a character. 307 00:12:12,052 --> 00:12:13,510 Is it [INAUDIBLE], or is it a tomo? 308 00:12:13,510 --> 00:12:14,871 AUDIENCE: It's like something tan, 309 00:12:14,871 --> 00:12:15,230 so like Internet Explorer tan. 310 00:12:15,230 --> 00:12:17,200 PROFESSOR: Something tan, yeah. 311 00:12:17,200 --> 00:12:20,920 So L-tan and other L-tan, maybe. 312 00:12:20,920 --> 00:12:22,950 So that's story. 313 00:12:22,950 --> 00:12:26,950 That's reason is the story that historians of a game play 314 00:12:26,950 --> 00:12:30,450 purpose I would argue that Pac-Man has a story. 315 00:12:33,150 --> 00:12:34,310 A noticeable story, right? 316 00:12:34,310 --> 00:12:36,070 There's cutscenes in this Pac-Man. 317 00:12:36,070 --> 00:12:39,200 But what's the story of Pac-Man? 318 00:12:39,200 --> 00:12:42,307 Where are the hints of story there? 319 00:12:42,307 --> 00:12:46,059 AUDIENCE: I guess it could be in how the enemies have names? 320 00:12:46,059 --> 00:12:47,070 PROFESSOR: Absolutely. 321 00:12:47,070 --> 00:12:49,125 And why did they give the characters names? 322 00:12:51,950 --> 00:12:54,735 Why is Blinky Blinky, and his character, his personality 323 00:12:54,735 --> 00:12:55,460 is shadow? 324 00:12:55,460 --> 00:12:57,424 AUDIENCE: I think as far as I remember, 325 00:12:57,424 --> 00:13:00,070 that's really-- the English translation is a really 326 00:13:00,070 --> 00:13:02,332 poor translation of it. 327 00:13:02,332 --> 00:13:05,343 In the original, it's very clear as to their names 328 00:13:05,343 --> 00:13:06,884 gives a hint as to how they will act. 329 00:13:06,884 --> 00:13:08,090 PROFESSOR: Absolutely. 330 00:13:08,090 --> 00:13:09,880 They have deterministic actions. 331 00:13:09,880 --> 00:13:13,010 So I've given them a little bit of character, 332 00:13:13,010 --> 00:13:15,810 but that's going to help you to identify one before the other. 333 00:13:15,810 --> 00:13:18,290 If anybody's played the Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man, 334 00:13:18,290 --> 00:13:22,660 my first experience with it, all the ghosts had the same image. 335 00:13:22,660 --> 00:13:25,400 You couldn't tell which one had which type of action. 336 00:13:25,400 --> 00:13:27,990 They probably actually didn't have different AI. 337 00:13:27,990 --> 00:13:29,990 It was a really difficult game for them to make. 338 00:13:29,990 --> 00:13:32,310 They had to make it in two or three weeks, I believe. 339 00:13:35,230 --> 00:13:36,860 What do we gain from story? 340 00:13:36,860 --> 00:13:38,780 This is where I come in and say, this 341 00:13:38,780 --> 00:13:40,600 is what I think story is going to give to your games. 342 00:13:40,600 --> 00:13:41,920 Even if you're making a strategy game, 343 00:13:41,920 --> 00:13:43,795 it doesn't matter what kind of game you make, 344 00:13:43,795 --> 00:13:45,940 you're going to get something out of a story. 345 00:13:45,940 --> 00:13:48,660 We understand our lived experiences as stories, 346 00:13:48,660 --> 00:13:51,300 so providing a story is going to help a player understand 347 00:13:51,300 --> 00:13:52,592 what's going on in the game. 348 00:13:52,592 --> 00:13:54,800 If you think about what you've ever done in the past, 349 00:13:54,800 --> 00:13:57,170 you're always telling it to another person as a story. 350 00:13:57,170 --> 00:13:59,141 The way you are able to memorize things, 351 00:13:59,141 --> 00:14:01,640 often, is you're constructing stories in your head of things 352 00:14:01,640 --> 00:14:02,780 that you've done. 353 00:14:02,780 --> 00:14:04,169 It's events with causes. 354 00:14:04,169 --> 00:14:06,210 You're placing together, you're finding patterns, 355 00:14:06,210 --> 00:14:07,793 and you're putting the story in there. 356 00:14:07,793 --> 00:14:10,380 It helps you understand what's going on around you. 357 00:14:10,380 --> 00:14:12,720 A story can help you explain the world to the player, 358 00:14:12,720 --> 00:14:15,200 it can also encourage the player to explore it. 359 00:14:15,200 --> 00:14:17,180 So if you've got something in the game that's 360 00:14:17,180 --> 00:14:19,390 hidden later on, you want them to find it, 361 00:14:19,390 --> 00:14:21,990 you can use story to give them hints towards, 362 00:14:21,990 --> 00:14:23,450 there's this cool thing coming up 363 00:14:23,450 --> 00:14:26,700 that you might want to check out. 364 00:14:26,700 --> 00:14:28,640 On a parallel level to explanation, 365 00:14:28,640 --> 00:14:31,600 stories provide consistency to the world. 366 00:14:31,600 --> 00:14:34,920 So if you've got various things going on within your game, 367 00:14:34,920 --> 00:14:37,520 the way you can kind of massage the differences between things 368 00:14:37,520 --> 00:14:39,050 going on, between the mechanics, is 369 00:14:39,050 --> 00:14:40,920 by covering that up with story, or rather, 370 00:14:40,920 --> 00:14:42,790 embellishing and supporting it with story 371 00:14:42,790 --> 00:14:45,460 rather than covering it up. 372 00:14:45,460 --> 00:14:48,322 So a couple quick videos. 373 00:14:48,322 --> 00:14:49,780 When I'm talking about story games, 374 00:14:49,780 --> 00:14:51,363 especially in this lecture, I'm mainly 375 00:14:51,363 --> 00:14:54,444 talking about games with story, not story-driven games. 376 00:14:54,444 --> 00:14:55,860 The games we talked about earlier, 377 00:14:55,860 --> 00:14:57,610 those were story-driven games. 378 00:14:57,610 --> 00:15:02,228 This is a game with a story. 379 00:15:02,228 --> 00:15:07,664 [VIDEO PLAYBACK] 380 00:15:07,664 --> 00:15:09,788 -The heroes finally meet under the star of destiny. 381 00:15:09,788 --> 00:15:13,106 PROFESSOR: That's Sophitia, in the white we've got Cassandra. 382 00:15:13,106 --> 00:15:16,910 -I'm sorry, but I can't back down. 383 00:15:16,910 --> 00:15:18,905 -What do you want? 384 00:15:18,905 --> 00:15:21,380 -Battle one, fight. 385 00:15:21,380 --> 00:15:24,845 PROFESSOR: Have you heard of this game? 386 00:15:24,845 --> 00:15:26,825 Soul Calibur, yeah. 387 00:15:26,825 --> 00:15:27,815 I think it's 3. 388 00:15:30,785 --> 00:15:38,210 2008 or 2010, I think it's from. 389 00:15:38,210 --> 00:15:39,695 Did anyone catch what she said? 390 00:15:39,695 --> 00:15:41,180 AUDIENCE: Don't try to confuse me. 391 00:15:41,180 --> 00:15:44,150 PROFESSOR: Don't try to confuse me. 392 00:15:44,150 --> 00:15:47,115 So KO, you basically have-- 393 00:15:47,115 --> 00:15:47,615 -You win. 394 00:15:47,615 --> 00:15:50,090 -God, please forgive me. 395 00:15:50,090 --> 00:15:52,660 PROFESSOR: God, please forgive me, what is she talking about? 396 00:15:52,660 --> 00:15:53,020 [END PLAYBACK] 397 00:15:53,020 --> 00:15:55,478 PROFESSOR: Does anybody know what what she was saying there 398 00:15:55,478 --> 00:15:57,205 and why she was saying it? 399 00:15:57,205 --> 00:15:59,580 You might only know this if you've played the game before 400 00:15:59,580 --> 00:16:01,700 and you're really, really into the game. 401 00:16:01,700 --> 00:16:03,581 So Matt? 402 00:16:03,581 --> 00:16:04,080 Yeah. 403 00:16:04,080 --> 00:16:08,190 So Cassandra is Sophitia's sister, 404 00:16:08,190 --> 00:16:10,250 and they're fighting for the Soul Edge, 405 00:16:10,250 --> 00:16:13,400 for this demonic sword that's going to destroy the world. 406 00:16:13,400 --> 00:16:15,590 And she has to fight her sister and kill her sister 407 00:16:15,590 --> 00:16:17,070 to get to the sword. 408 00:16:17,070 --> 00:16:19,740 I think that for Sophitia's version it's to save the world. 409 00:16:19,740 --> 00:16:21,240 Why didn't she work with her sister? 410 00:16:21,240 --> 00:16:24,780 It's a fighting game, who knows? 411 00:16:24,780 --> 00:16:27,330 I meant to update the slides to something 412 00:16:27,330 --> 00:16:29,526 a more modern audience might understand. 413 00:16:29,526 --> 00:16:32,150 In particular, League of Legends does this kind of thing a lot, 414 00:16:32,150 --> 00:16:32,734 right. 415 00:16:32,734 --> 00:16:34,400 There's story moments going on in games. 416 00:16:34,400 --> 00:16:37,620 You had mentioned a moment in the game. 417 00:16:37,620 --> 00:16:40,518 AUDIENCE: Certain characters on the same team, 418 00:16:40,518 --> 00:16:42,450 I believe, they have different voice prompts 419 00:16:42,450 --> 00:16:44,543 or different vocal lines that they 420 00:16:44,543 --> 00:16:48,610 would say to acknowledge that they have a history. 421 00:16:48,610 --> 00:16:51,295 PROFESSOR: Does that help you play the game Better 422 00:16:51,295 --> 00:16:52,795 AUDIENCE: No, no gameplay mechanics. 423 00:16:52,795 --> 00:16:54,010 PROFESSOR: No. 424 00:16:54,010 --> 00:16:56,049 It's a valid use of story, but it's not 425 00:16:56,049 --> 00:16:57,590 an efficient use of story, especially 426 00:16:57,590 --> 00:16:59,080 for your kind of games, right? 427 00:16:59,080 --> 00:17:00,730 It doesn't directly connect. 428 00:17:00,730 --> 00:17:02,230 The story doesn't directly connect 429 00:17:02,230 --> 00:17:04,690 to the player's experience of the game, 430 00:17:04,690 --> 00:17:06,066 but it is something players like. 431 00:17:06,066 --> 00:17:07,606 Like we talked about with characters, 432 00:17:07,606 --> 00:17:09,222 like we talked with merchandise. 433 00:17:09,222 --> 00:17:11,180 And in particular, in particular for this game, 434 00:17:11,180 --> 00:17:13,390 for Soul Calibur, why is Soul Calibur 435 00:17:13,390 --> 00:17:15,760 doing this but Street Fighter isn't doing this? 436 00:17:15,760 --> 00:17:19,440 Soul Calibur stands apart from the other fighting games 437 00:17:19,440 --> 00:17:22,234 by having these complex story lines that 438 00:17:22,234 --> 00:17:24,400 are actually visible to the player within the games. 439 00:17:24,400 --> 00:17:26,233 Street Fighter does have complex storylines, 440 00:17:26,233 --> 00:17:30,940 but they're largely fan service or outside 441 00:17:30,940 --> 00:17:33,200 of the game, merchandise, books, things like that. 442 00:17:33,200 --> 00:17:36,850 You maybe see a little cutscene or two at the end of the game, 443 00:17:36,850 --> 00:17:38,226 but not while you're playing it. 444 00:17:38,226 --> 00:17:40,100 And also, to really enhance the single player 445 00:17:40,100 --> 00:17:41,240 experience of the game. 446 00:17:41,240 --> 00:17:43,490 That's actually how I know of the Soul Calibur series, 447 00:17:43,490 --> 00:17:45,780 I played it single player. 448 00:17:45,780 --> 00:17:47,605 Because they added an RPG to it that 449 00:17:47,605 --> 00:17:50,250 was really basic and stupid, but it made the story 450 00:17:50,250 --> 00:17:52,420 a little bit more concrete. 451 00:17:52,420 --> 00:17:53,925 They took the RPG out, that's when 452 00:17:53,925 --> 00:17:55,120 I stopped playing the game. 453 00:17:55,120 --> 00:17:57,040 Because that story didn't have any-- 454 00:17:57,040 --> 00:17:59,414 there's no reason for that story in the gameplay anymore. 455 00:18:03,752 --> 00:18:05,710 So I was asking you about games telling stories 456 00:18:05,710 --> 00:18:07,504 and how do games tell stories. 457 00:18:07,504 --> 00:18:09,670 What I'm going to say now is that technically, games 458 00:18:09,670 --> 00:18:12,260 don't exactly tell stories, if you think about it. 459 00:18:12,260 --> 00:18:14,280 Like, who is the storyteller in a game? 460 00:18:18,650 --> 00:18:19,980 You. 461 00:18:19,980 --> 00:18:22,120 So it's not storytelling, it's story building. 462 00:18:22,120 --> 00:18:24,420 The game, the designer, the developer 463 00:18:24,420 --> 00:18:29,000 is giving you the tools to build a story of your own. 464 00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:32,460 Why we say they're different, so just to compare and contrast, 465 00:18:32,460 --> 00:18:34,070 storytelling is continuous. 466 00:18:34,070 --> 00:18:37,820 There's a one way communication, it is from auteur and author 467 00:18:37,820 --> 00:18:39,590 to the player. 468 00:18:39,590 --> 00:18:42,030 The order and, more in particular, the order of events 469 00:18:42,030 --> 00:18:44,570 and disclosure of information is determined 470 00:18:44,570 --> 00:18:45,870 by the author of the game. 471 00:18:45,870 --> 00:18:48,328 I'm going to show you this, and I'm going to show you this, 472 00:18:48,328 --> 00:18:49,630 and I'm going to show you that. 473 00:18:49,630 --> 00:18:51,980 Story building is more fragmented. 474 00:18:51,980 --> 00:18:54,381 It could be as simple as I'm going to show you this, 475 00:18:54,381 --> 00:18:56,130 now you can go see all these other things, 476 00:18:56,130 --> 00:18:57,404 but I'm going to pull you back and I'm 477 00:18:57,404 --> 00:18:58,550 going to show you this next thing, 478 00:18:58,550 --> 00:19:00,620 and you have to see those two things in order. 479 00:19:00,620 --> 00:19:02,100 In a more open oriented game, you 480 00:19:02,100 --> 00:19:04,500 can see everything at any point of time 481 00:19:04,500 --> 00:19:07,000 depending on when you like it. 482 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:08,500 Rather than a one way communication, 483 00:19:08,500 --> 00:19:10,416 there's collaboration between narrative design 484 00:19:10,416 --> 00:19:11,310 and the players. 485 00:19:11,310 --> 00:19:15,300 Anybody heard the term narrative design before? 486 00:19:15,300 --> 00:19:19,010 Or the job title narrative designer? 487 00:19:19,010 --> 00:19:20,702 What do you think that is in a company? 488 00:19:20,702 --> 00:19:21,660 And let's say Rational. 489 00:19:21,660 --> 00:19:23,650 Rational has narrative designers, 490 00:19:23,650 --> 00:19:27,200 she was actually a CMS student for Infinite. 491 00:19:27,200 --> 00:19:31,915 What would a narrative designer do in Bioshock Infinite? 492 00:19:31,915 --> 00:19:35,715 AUDIENCE: Probably write all the [INAUDIBLE] and stuff, 493 00:19:35,715 --> 00:19:37,341 and all the little pops that you hear? 494 00:19:37,341 --> 00:19:38,174 And what's going on? 495 00:19:38,174 --> 00:19:39,910 PROFESSOR: A little bit. 496 00:19:39,910 --> 00:19:42,967 I think Ken wrote a lot of that, Ken the director wrote 497 00:19:42,967 --> 00:19:43,550 a lot of that. 498 00:19:43,550 --> 00:19:45,445 They touch that, though. 499 00:19:45,445 --> 00:19:46,236 Yeah? 500 00:19:46,236 --> 00:19:49,163 AUDIENCE: Think of how the story motivates the player and ties 501 00:19:49,163 --> 00:19:50,204 into the actual gameplay. 502 00:19:50,204 --> 00:19:53,676 So like, Bioshock, you're told to do this and the reason 503 00:19:53,676 --> 00:19:55,164 is the story. 504 00:19:55,164 --> 00:19:57,283 I guess figuring out how that fits in 505 00:19:57,283 --> 00:19:58,866 and how the mechanics will be fit into 506 00:19:58,866 --> 00:20:01,060 PROFESSOR: Yep, they touch that, too. 507 00:20:01,060 --> 00:20:03,980 The other thing they do is, you've got a level designer, 508 00:20:03,980 --> 00:20:04,980 and you've got a writer. 509 00:20:04,980 --> 00:20:07,313 And right in between, you've got the narrative designer. 510 00:20:07,313 --> 00:20:09,630 In some companies, this isn't for all companies. 511 00:20:09,630 --> 00:20:11,575 This is just for some. 512 00:20:11,575 --> 00:20:13,200 In particular, this is how I understand 513 00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:15,985 how Rational works, right, is the level designer creates 514 00:20:15,985 --> 00:20:18,270 a level based on how a person's going to play it, 515 00:20:18,270 --> 00:20:19,770 how they're going to get through it, 516 00:20:19,770 --> 00:20:21,690 how they're going to get from point A to point B. 517 00:20:21,690 --> 00:20:23,960 Writer says, here's the story I need everybody to see, 518 00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:25,810 here's all the elements I need them to see. 519 00:20:25,810 --> 00:20:28,018 Narrative designer figures out where within the level 520 00:20:28,018 --> 00:20:29,550 those things are going to exist. 521 00:20:29,550 --> 00:20:31,383 And we'll talk about that when we're talking 522 00:20:31,383 --> 00:20:33,379 about environmental design. 523 00:20:33,379 --> 00:20:35,920 I'll point out a couple places where a narrative designer had 524 00:20:35,920 --> 00:20:37,320 an active role in that game. 525 00:20:39,887 --> 00:20:41,470 All right, so I'm going to say that we 526 00:20:41,470 --> 00:20:43,960 don't need expensive cut scenes to tell stories. 527 00:20:43,960 --> 00:20:46,180 We've come up with a few, we've kind of 528 00:20:46,180 --> 00:20:47,950 touched on this a little bit. 529 00:20:47,950 --> 00:20:49,780 And instead, what I want to say is, 530 00:20:49,780 --> 00:20:51,490 let's reduce the cost of the game, 531 00:20:51,490 --> 00:20:54,040 but let's keep interactivity and narrative. 532 00:20:54,040 --> 00:20:56,690 So things a player does and the story 533 00:20:56,690 --> 00:20:59,690 that the player experiences are about similar. 534 00:20:59,690 --> 00:21:01,790 So what tools are we going to give the player 535 00:21:01,790 --> 00:21:03,730 to build their story? 536 00:21:03,730 --> 00:21:06,380 And where we give them the tools depends on the type of story 537 00:21:06,380 --> 00:21:07,590 we're giving them. 538 00:21:07,590 --> 00:21:12,360 So there's two stories to games that the player builds. 539 00:21:12,360 --> 00:21:14,230 There's the story of the world, which 540 00:21:14,230 --> 00:21:17,630 largely is seen and heard, and it's interpreted by the player. 541 00:21:17,630 --> 00:21:19,740 And there's the story of the player, the actions 542 00:21:19,740 --> 00:21:21,850 that the player does, and why I say told, 543 00:21:21,850 --> 00:21:23,880 I kind of mean built as well. 544 00:21:23,880 --> 00:21:25,990 Told is in that the player is telling it, 545 00:21:25,990 --> 00:21:27,730 not the-- so the world might be something 546 00:21:27,730 --> 00:21:30,074 that the game is telling the player, 547 00:21:30,074 --> 00:21:31,740 but the story of the player is something 548 00:21:31,740 --> 00:21:33,660 that the player is telling back to the game, 549 00:21:33,660 --> 00:21:37,839 or back to their friends, or in their own head. 550 00:21:37,839 --> 00:21:40,130 So story of the world, it's the world's history, right. 551 00:21:40,130 --> 00:21:42,340 It's the events that happen in the fictional world 552 00:21:42,340 --> 00:21:43,880 before the game starts. 553 00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:46,860 You've got a lot of control over all of this. 554 00:21:46,860 --> 00:21:49,145 As a developer, you're writing all of this. 555 00:21:49,145 --> 00:21:50,770 For the player, they're discovering it. 556 00:21:50,770 --> 00:21:51,940 They're discovering it piecemeal, 557 00:21:51,940 --> 00:21:53,815 they're discovering it through the game play. 558 00:21:53,815 --> 00:21:55,820 So that story, with a great world, 559 00:21:55,820 --> 00:21:59,920 that story becomes a puzzle for the player to want to explore. 560 00:21:59,920 --> 00:22:02,920 It can be as literal as in Myst, where it literally 561 00:22:02,920 --> 00:22:05,010 is a puzzle that you were going around and solving 562 00:22:05,010 --> 00:22:07,060 a puzzle here and solving a puzzle there, getting 563 00:22:07,060 --> 00:22:08,710 little snippets of background and putting them together 564 00:22:08,710 --> 00:22:11,250 in your head to come up with a whole view of what 565 00:22:11,250 --> 00:22:12,250 the world is. 566 00:22:12,250 --> 00:22:13,750 Or it could be things like I'm going 567 00:22:13,750 --> 00:22:16,160 to show you with environmental. 568 00:22:16,160 --> 00:22:16,879 Yeah? 569 00:22:16,879 --> 00:22:19,813 AUDIENCE: Ideally, too, if your story is becoming a puzzle, 570 00:22:19,813 --> 00:22:22,835 it would be really, really cool if it 571 00:22:22,835 --> 00:22:24,810 was useful to have solved it, right? 572 00:22:24,810 --> 00:22:27,610 So maybe as a player, if you can figure out something cool 573 00:22:27,610 --> 00:22:29,644 about the world that can be useful to you 574 00:22:29,644 --> 00:22:31,810 back in your game again, that would be really great. 575 00:22:34,726 --> 00:22:36,600 PROFESSOR: So the tools are giving the player 576 00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:39,164 to do that, to do exactly that. 577 00:22:39,164 --> 00:22:40,580 And these are three tools that you 578 00:22:40,580 --> 00:22:42,496 have at your disposal in your games right now. 579 00:22:42,496 --> 00:22:44,180 They're really simple and easy to use. 580 00:22:44,180 --> 00:22:46,420 At least the top two are. 581 00:22:46,420 --> 00:22:50,750 Title, character design, and your environmental design. 582 00:22:50,750 --> 00:22:53,440 So we're going to go through about four tiles. 583 00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:55,310 I'm going to give you the name of the game. 584 00:22:55,310 --> 00:22:56,750 I'm cheating a little bit because I'm actually giving you 585 00:22:56,750 --> 00:22:58,070 the cover art for the game. 586 00:22:58,070 --> 00:23:00,069 I'd like to know what the story is for the game. 587 00:23:00,069 --> 00:23:03,050 So, Zombies Ate My Neighbors. 588 00:23:03,050 --> 00:23:05,730 What is the story of Zombies Ate My Neighbors? 589 00:23:10,040 --> 00:23:11,405 It's about zombies. 590 00:23:11,405 --> 00:23:12,530 What are the zombies doing? 591 00:23:12,530 --> 00:23:13,410 AUDIENCE: Eating neighbors. 592 00:23:13,410 --> 00:23:15,079 PROFESSOR: They're eating neighbors. 593 00:23:15,079 --> 00:23:16,120 Where does it take place? 594 00:23:16,120 --> 00:23:17,670 AUDIENCE: In a neighborhood. 595 00:23:17,670 --> 00:23:19,650 PROFESSOR: In a neighborhood, all right. 596 00:23:19,650 --> 00:23:20,246 Anything else? 597 00:23:20,246 --> 00:23:21,621 AUDIENCE: They're coming for you. 598 00:23:21,621 --> 00:23:24,122 PROFESSOR: They're coming for you. 599 00:23:24,122 --> 00:23:26,000 Damn right. 600 00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:27,510 Yeah? 601 00:23:27,510 --> 00:23:28,440 In the back? 602 00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:32,340 AUDIENCE: It appears that it's in a kind of campy style. 603 00:23:32,340 --> 00:23:33,340 PROFESSOR: Absolutely. 604 00:23:33,340 --> 00:23:34,742 AUDIENCE: Maybe like '60s-ish? 605 00:23:34,742 --> 00:23:36,470 PROFESSOR: Mhm. 606 00:23:36,470 --> 00:23:40,360 You get the kind of distressed woman in the front. 607 00:23:40,360 --> 00:23:46,020 She's being chased by very slow, they're slow zombies, right? 608 00:23:46,020 --> 00:23:48,450 These days we have to kind of specify. 609 00:23:48,450 --> 00:23:53,240 Back in the day they were always slow. 610 00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:54,530 All right, next one. 611 00:23:54,530 --> 00:23:56,125 The Earth Dies Screaming. 612 00:23:58,680 --> 00:23:59,350 What's it about? 613 00:23:59,350 --> 00:24:00,670 AUDIENCE: Earth dying? 614 00:24:00,670 --> 00:24:01,472 AUDIENCE: Space. 615 00:24:01,472 --> 00:24:02,430 PROFESSOR: What's that? 616 00:24:02,430 --> 00:24:03,990 Space. 617 00:24:03,990 --> 00:24:06,305 Anything else? 618 00:24:06,305 --> 00:24:06,805 What's that? 619 00:24:06,805 --> 00:24:07,820 AUDIENCE: Aliens. 620 00:24:07,820 --> 00:24:09,860 PROFESSOR: War. 621 00:24:09,860 --> 00:24:11,720 Did I hear aliens? 622 00:24:11,720 --> 00:24:12,990 Something? 623 00:24:12,990 --> 00:24:14,020 Yeah. 624 00:24:14,020 --> 00:24:16,160 Anyone recognize the title? 625 00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:17,969 AUDIENCE: Was it a movie? 626 00:24:17,969 --> 00:24:18,635 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 627 00:24:18,635 --> 00:24:20,468 Do you think the game is based on the movie? 628 00:24:20,468 --> 00:24:22,078 AUDIENCE: Yeah. 629 00:24:22,078 --> 00:24:23,650 PROFESSOR: It actually isn't. 630 00:24:23,650 --> 00:24:29,301 So the movie's from '55, '57? 631 00:24:29,301 --> 00:24:31,590 I don't even remember if it's an alien invasion movie. 632 00:24:31,590 --> 00:24:33,590 It's just one of those things where in the '50s, 633 00:24:33,590 --> 00:24:35,548 you made a movie and then somebody came and put 634 00:24:35,548 --> 00:24:38,860 a title on it based on what titles were working that day. 635 00:24:38,860 --> 00:24:41,990 But they licensed it from 20th Century Fox. 636 00:24:41,990 --> 00:24:43,899 But there's these spaceships, these very '80s 637 00:24:43,899 --> 00:24:44,690 looking spaceships. 638 00:24:44,690 --> 00:24:47,090 This is actually a cartridge for the 2600. 639 00:24:47,090 --> 00:24:49,800 Looks awful. 640 00:24:49,800 --> 00:24:51,960 But yeah, The Earth Dies Screaming. 641 00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:53,460 What happens at the end of the game? 642 00:24:53,460 --> 00:24:54,918 AUDIENCE: The earth dies screaming. 643 00:24:54,918 --> 00:24:56,620 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 644 00:24:56,620 --> 00:24:58,892 Arcade games, back in the day. 645 00:24:58,892 --> 00:24:59,600 How did they end? 646 00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:01,070 They always ended with you dying. 647 00:25:01,070 --> 00:25:02,945 It was always about throwing another quarter, 648 00:25:02,945 --> 00:25:05,190 playing it some more, getting more time. 649 00:25:05,190 --> 00:25:07,280 That actually came back over to the consoles, 650 00:25:07,280 --> 00:25:09,960 especially in the 2600 days. 651 00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:12,590 We've moved beyond that, for the most part. 652 00:25:12,590 --> 00:25:14,810 In some cases, it's actually brought back in iOS. 653 00:25:14,810 --> 00:25:16,220 But yeah, Earth Dies Screaming. 654 00:25:16,220 --> 00:25:18,090 All right, next one, this is harder. 655 00:25:18,090 --> 00:25:21,000 A Mind Forever Voyaging. 656 00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:22,080 Ooh. 657 00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:24,790 What's going on there? 658 00:25:24,790 --> 00:25:25,670 AUDIENCE: Discovery. 659 00:25:25,670 --> 00:25:27,634 PROFESSOR: Discovery, yeah. 660 00:25:27,634 --> 00:25:29,633 AUDIENCE: So we're allowed to look at the images 661 00:25:29,633 --> 00:25:30,350 and make something up. 662 00:25:30,350 --> 00:25:31,266 PROFESSOR: Absolutely. 663 00:25:31,266 --> 00:25:35,017 AUDIENCE: So you're a guy, you imagine all these things, 664 00:25:35,017 --> 00:25:37,225 and your brain interfaces with some kind [INAUDIBLE], 665 00:25:37,225 --> 00:25:40,170 so you can see that sort of imaging. 666 00:25:40,170 --> 00:25:43,481 So maybe you're exploring all of these virtual worlds 667 00:25:43,481 --> 00:25:44,022 in your head. 668 00:25:44,022 --> 00:25:44,522 And maybe-- 669 00:25:44,522 --> 00:25:46,065 PROFESSOR: Have you played this? 670 00:25:46,065 --> 00:25:47,615 AUDIENCE: I just looked at the image. 671 00:25:47,615 --> 00:25:49,406 The title image, and that really helps me-- 672 00:25:49,406 --> 00:25:51,040 PROFESSOR: It does help a lot. 673 00:25:51,040 --> 00:25:52,737 But yeah, that's exactly right. 674 00:25:52,737 --> 00:25:54,320 Except you're wrong, you're not a guy. 675 00:25:54,320 --> 00:25:54,996 Right? 676 00:25:54,996 --> 00:25:55,750 You're not a guy. 677 00:25:55,750 --> 00:25:56,720 You're an AI. 678 00:25:56,720 --> 00:25:57,785 Right, yeah. 679 00:25:57,785 --> 00:25:59,410 I probably spoiled it for you, it's OK. 680 00:25:59,410 --> 00:26:03,530 It's an Infocom game, it's a text adventure from 1988. 681 00:26:03,530 --> 00:26:07,150 So you're exploring, text adventures were open door, 682 00:26:07,150 --> 00:26:12,470 go right, open mailbox, die from grue. 683 00:26:12,470 --> 00:26:17,030 And in this case, you're going to all these different worlds, 684 00:26:17,030 --> 00:26:18,110 and it's the mind. 685 00:26:18,110 --> 00:26:22,200 So it had to do with the AI attaining sentience 686 00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:23,659 and figuring out what was going on, 687 00:26:23,659 --> 00:26:26,325 and what was around it, and what the world was like at the time. 688 00:26:26,325 --> 00:26:30,210 Really good game, cool, little bit of tidbit of info 689 00:26:30,210 --> 00:26:31,210 for these kind of games. 690 00:26:31,210 --> 00:26:33,970 They came with these things called feelies, so elements, 691 00:26:33,970 --> 00:26:35,678 like physical elements, that were shipped 692 00:26:35,678 --> 00:26:38,530 with the game box that kind of added a little bit to the game. 693 00:26:38,530 --> 00:26:40,238 Because they didn't have graphics to show 694 00:26:40,238 --> 00:26:41,110 you everything. 695 00:26:41,110 --> 00:26:46,180 So in this case it was a file folder, a pen, 696 00:26:46,180 --> 00:26:48,080 I think it was related to a company 697 00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:51,500 that you thought you worked for. 698 00:26:51,500 --> 00:26:52,810 Here's a more recent game. 699 00:26:52,810 --> 00:26:55,604 868-HACK. 700 00:26:55,604 --> 00:26:56,270 What's it about? 701 00:27:00,450 --> 00:27:01,472 What is 868-HACK? 702 00:27:04,070 --> 00:27:05,111 AUDIENCE: A phone number. 703 00:27:05,111 --> 00:27:07,890 PROFESSOR: Yes, it's a phone number. 704 00:27:07,890 --> 00:27:09,760 There's no area code, right? 705 00:27:09,760 --> 00:27:11,490 Normally we'd have an area code there. 706 00:27:11,490 --> 00:27:15,195 So it's kind of referencing back to maybe the '80s? 707 00:27:15,195 --> 00:27:17,080 Are you a hacker? 708 00:27:17,080 --> 00:27:18,420 Maybe. 709 00:27:18,420 --> 00:27:20,840 Probably. 710 00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:22,962 Anything else we can get from the title? 711 00:27:22,962 --> 00:27:24,420 We're going to come back, I'm going 712 00:27:24,420 --> 00:27:27,490 to use this example again, because I love this game. 713 00:27:27,490 --> 00:27:31,330 So titles provide clues towards setting, character, action. 714 00:27:31,330 --> 00:27:34,130 Even better, while you're thinking of your title, 715 00:27:34,130 --> 00:27:36,290 think about what it's like on Google. 716 00:27:36,290 --> 00:27:38,020 Think about marketing right now if you're 717 00:27:38,020 --> 00:27:40,311 making a game that's going to be marketed to somewhere. 718 00:27:40,311 --> 00:27:42,680 Can you Google the title and come up with your game? 719 00:27:42,680 --> 00:27:44,619 If you can, you win. 720 00:27:44,619 --> 00:27:46,160 It's very hard for some of the games, 721 00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:48,890 unless you add a ton of money into it. 722 00:27:48,890 --> 00:27:50,660 Next up is character design. 723 00:27:50,660 --> 00:27:51,440 Who's that? 724 00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:52,152 AUDIENCE: Sonic. 725 00:27:52,152 --> 00:27:53,114 PROFESSOR: Sonic. 726 00:27:53,114 --> 00:27:53,905 What does Sonic do? 727 00:27:53,905 --> 00:27:54,660 AUDIENCE: Runs. 728 00:27:54,660 --> 00:27:55,720 PROFESSOR: He runs fast. 729 00:27:55,720 --> 00:27:56,515 What's he doing here? 730 00:27:56,515 --> 00:27:57,256 AUDIENCE: Stopping. 731 00:27:57,256 --> 00:27:58,050 AUDIENCE: Waiting. 732 00:27:58,050 --> 00:27:58,860 PROFESSOR: Yeah, why? 733 00:27:58,860 --> 00:28:00,401 AUDIENCE: Because you're not running. 734 00:28:00,401 --> 00:28:02,150 PROFESSOR: Exactly right. 735 00:28:02,150 --> 00:28:04,180 Wow, I could have written this out. 736 00:28:04,180 --> 00:28:05,100 Yeah, he's pissed. 737 00:28:05,100 --> 00:28:06,330 He's like, what the hell? 738 00:28:06,330 --> 00:28:06,994 Make me move. 739 00:28:06,994 --> 00:28:08,660 You're not moving him on the controller, 740 00:28:08,660 --> 00:28:09,910 this is his idle animation. 741 00:28:09,910 --> 00:28:12,347 So a ton of expressiveness in this idle animation. 742 00:28:12,347 --> 00:28:14,180 It's maybe three or four frames of animation 743 00:28:14,180 --> 00:28:17,880 of just him tapping his feet, looking at you, 744 00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:19,989 breaking the fourth wall. 745 00:28:19,989 --> 00:28:22,030 Some really great stuff you can do with character 746 00:28:22,030 --> 00:28:23,920 design in that way. 747 00:28:23,920 --> 00:28:25,452 Yeah, like why do we know he runs? 748 00:28:25,452 --> 00:28:26,910 If this were like the first time we 749 00:28:26,910 --> 00:28:28,850 saw this and this was Christmas Day, 750 00:28:28,850 --> 00:28:31,300 back in the time when we didn't find out about games three 751 00:28:31,300 --> 00:28:33,360 years before they came out. 752 00:28:33,360 --> 00:28:36,510 You get this spiky-haired dude with big feet, right? 753 00:28:36,510 --> 00:28:38,920 He's fast, he runs. 754 00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:41,410 So yeah. 755 00:28:41,410 --> 00:28:42,460 Back to 868-HACK. 756 00:28:42,460 --> 00:28:44,170 As I said, I love this game. 757 00:28:44,170 --> 00:28:45,610 Where is the player on the screen? 758 00:28:45,610 --> 00:28:48,455 What element of the screen is the player? 759 00:28:48,455 --> 00:28:49,880 AUDIENCE: The tile. 760 00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:51,290 PROFESSOR: Yes, which one? 761 00:28:51,290 --> 00:28:52,130 AUDIENCE: Left. 762 00:28:52,130 --> 00:28:54,530 PROFESSOR: Yeah, the top one, right? 763 00:28:54,530 --> 00:28:55,580 What are you? 764 00:28:55,580 --> 00:28:56,940 What is it doing there? 765 00:28:56,940 --> 00:28:58,940 How do you think it interacts within the system? 766 00:29:03,120 --> 00:29:03,620 Yeah? 767 00:29:03,620 --> 00:29:05,388 AUDIENCE: Walk down and [INAUDIBLE]. 768 00:29:05,388 --> 00:29:06,860 PROFESSOR: Basically, yeah. 769 00:29:06,860 --> 00:29:08,770 Do you see, you see, I kind of said. 770 00:29:08,770 --> 00:29:11,330 There's other smiley faces there, right? 771 00:29:11,330 --> 00:29:12,586 What do they do? 772 00:29:12,586 --> 00:29:14,370 AUDIENCE: Chase the [INAUDIBLE]. 773 00:29:14,370 --> 00:29:15,916 PROFESSOR: OK, so-- 774 00:29:15,916 --> 00:29:16,832 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]. 775 00:29:20,460 --> 00:29:22,960 PROFESSOR: Yeah, so there's the purple one, the magenta one, 776 00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:24,500 the purple one, the red one. 777 00:29:24,500 --> 00:29:26,790 Those are bad guys coming to get you. 778 00:29:26,790 --> 00:29:29,210 There's these little ones in the bottom left and right. 779 00:29:29,210 --> 00:29:32,395 There's a couple on the top row that say data siphon. 780 00:29:32,395 --> 00:29:34,020 That's something that you leave behind. 781 00:29:34,020 --> 00:29:36,600 So you're leaving behind a piece of yourself 782 00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:37,600 in order to claim space. 783 00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:40,120 It's a territory control game where 784 00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:43,490 you drop a piece of yourself to consume the things around it. 785 00:29:43,490 --> 00:29:45,610 You can consume the programs there 786 00:29:45,610 --> 00:29:47,960 and you can use the programs there. 787 00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:49,730 But I really like it for this. 788 00:29:49,730 --> 00:29:51,230 Why do you think I like it for this? 789 00:29:51,230 --> 00:29:52,729 When I'm talking about hackers, when 790 00:29:52,729 --> 00:29:55,360 I'm talking with a smiley face, what does that connote to you? 791 00:29:58,820 --> 00:29:59,550 What did I hear? 792 00:29:59,550 --> 00:30:00,341 AUDIENCE: It's fun. 793 00:30:00,341 --> 00:30:03,120 PROFESSOR: It's fun, yeah. 794 00:30:03,120 --> 00:30:03,895 Yeah, Matt? 795 00:30:03,895 --> 00:30:05,186 AUDIENCE: You're identity-less. 796 00:30:05,186 --> 00:30:08,060 PROFESSOR: Your identity-less, right? 797 00:30:08,060 --> 00:30:09,449 You're anonymous. 798 00:30:09,449 --> 00:30:10,490 I just kind of like that. 799 00:30:10,490 --> 00:30:12,820 All right, so moving on. 800 00:30:12,820 --> 00:30:15,340 Character design provides clues towards your actions 801 00:30:15,340 --> 00:30:17,510 and your verbs, although in that last example, 802 00:30:17,510 --> 00:30:19,830 it was actually not very good at that part. 803 00:30:19,830 --> 00:30:22,190 But it does give clues towards your background, who 804 00:30:22,190 --> 00:30:24,810 you are, what you are, why you are, and then the feel. 805 00:30:24,810 --> 00:30:26,980 What's the feel of that game supposed to be. 806 00:30:26,980 --> 00:30:28,605 What's the feel you're supposed to have 807 00:30:28,605 --> 00:30:29,813 when you're playing the game? 808 00:30:29,813 --> 00:30:30,430 Question? 809 00:30:30,430 --> 00:30:33,160 OK, cool. 810 00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:35,550 Environmental design is that third thing I talked about. 811 00:30:35,550 --> 00:30:38,030 This is Portal, this is when you first start Portal. 812 00:30:38,030 --> 00:30:39,840 It's very clean, it's very spacious, 813 00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:41,840 except for that little box that you're stuck in. 814 00:30:41,840 --> 00:30:44,250 You eventually get out. 815 00:30:44,250 --> 00:30:46,810 But something happens and you see something 816 00:30:46,810 --> 00:30:48,840 later in the game. 817 00:30:48,840 --> 00:30:51,960 Does anybody remember where this is? 818 00:30:51,960 --> 00:30:53,010 Oh, not played it? 819 00:30:53,010 --> 00:30:55,330 AUDIENCE: I'm like in the middle of playing it. 820 00:30:55,330 --> 00:30:57,580 PROFESSOR: Which level? 821 00:30:57,580 --> 00:30:59,940 Like three or four, or five or six? 822 00:30:59,940 --> 00:31:01,493 Have you seen a turret yet? 823 00:31:01,493 --> 00:31:03,650 AUDIENCE: Have I seen a turret? 824 00:31:03,650 --> 00:31:04,529 Oh, no. 825 00:31:04,529 --> 00:31:05,570 PROFESSOR: OK, all right. 826 00:31:05,570 --> 00:31:08,310 Close your eyes, shut your ears. 827 00:31:08,310 --> 00:31:12,960 It's 2014, come on. 828 00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:17,940 Yeah, so this is the cake is a lie. 829 00:31:17,940 --> 00:31:19,942 It's later in the game. 830 00:31:19,942 --> 00:31:21,400 It's actually in a part of the game 831 00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:23,149 where everything still looks really clean, 832 00:31:23,149 --> 00:31:26,000 that's as far as I'm going to go. 833 00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:27,850 Somebody left stuff back there. 834 00:31:27,850 --> 00:31:29,420 This is actually something that not a lot of players 835 00:31:29,420 --> 00:31:31,440 saw when it first came out and then a lot of other players 836 00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:32,977 told each other about it later on. 837 00:31:32,977 --> 00:31:34,476 So it's also a game event, which I'm 838 00:31:34,476 --> 00:31:36,610 going to talk about later when we're talking 839 00:31:36,610 --> 00:31:37,540 about the story of the player. 840 00:31:37,540 --> 00:31:39,914 But this is where level design and narrative design meet. 841 00:31:39,914 --> 00:31:42,320 So level is created, there's a story moment that 842 00:31:42,320 --> 00:31:44,400 had to be placed somewhere, the narrative designer placed it 843 00:31:44,400 --> 00:31:46,524 in a spot that was hidden, that was hard to get to, 844 00:31:46,524 --> 00:31:48,190 but still reachable. 845 00:31:48,190 --> 00:31:50,400 And when we talk about environmental storytelling, 846 00:31:50,400 --> 00:31:52,200 we often talk about-- there's been 847 00:31:52,200 --> 00:31:54,320 some articles about bad graffiti in games, 848 00:31:54,320 --> 00:31:58,520 and just how trite this has been used. 849 00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:00,984 We're trying to find new ways of doing the same thing. 850 00:32:00,984 --> 00:32:02,900 But it's basically, there was someone in there 851 00:32:02,900 --> 00:32:05,000 before you, is what happened there. 852 00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:07,185 That's as far as I'm going to go. 853 00:32:07,185 --> 00:32:08,810 Environment provides clues towards what 854 00:32:08,810 --> 00:32:10,351 happened in the past, but also what's 855 00:32:10,351 --> 00:32:11,650 going to happen in the future. 856 00:32:11,650 --> 00:32:13,275 And it provides clues towards the feel, 857 00:32:13,275 --> 00:32:16,250 so again, what's this game supposed to feel like? 858 00:32:16,250 --> 00:32:17,994 All right, so moving on. 859 00:32:17,994 --> 00:32:19,410 We've got the story of the player. 860 00:32:19,410 --> 00:32:21,160 So there's the embedded story of the player. 861 00:32:21,160 --> 00:32:22,970 And what I mean by that is that's the story 862 00:32:22,970 --> 00:32:24,970 of the player that's pre-established by the game. 863 00:32:24,970 --> 00:32:27,180 Has everybody played Ocarina of Time, or heard of it, 864 00:32:27,180 --> 00:32:29,140 or seen it? 865 00:32:29,140 --> 00:32:30,510 OK. 866 00:32:30,510 --> 00:32:33,580 So you're Link, you start out not knowing a lot 867 00:32:33,580 --> 00:32:35,080 about the world, and slowly the game 868 00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:37,230 lets you know more about what happened in the world 869 00:32:37,230 --> 00:32:39,000 behind you. 870 00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:41,060 You don't get to choose to have this friend, 871 00:32:41,060 --> 00:32:42,490 I don't think, right? 872 00:32:42,490 --> 00:32:44,280 What's her name, Saria? 873 00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:46,600 The game gave you this friend. 874 00:32:46,600 --> 00:32:48,840 And actually, later on, the other friends you get, 875 00:32:48,840 --> 00:32:49,910 the game's going to give you those, too. 876 00:32:49,910 --> 00:32:51,743 You don't get to choose to have them or not. 877 00:32:51,743 --> 00:32:52,910 She gives you this ocarina. 878 00:32:52,910 --> 00:32:55,210 The ocarina is a very important aspect of the game. 879 00:32:55,210 --> 00:32:58,399 So in this case, it's this embedded story of here's 880 00:32:58,399 --> 00:32:59,940 this object that you're going to use. 881 00:32:59,940 --> 00:33:01,520 It's going to be incredibly useful for you later 882 00:33:01,520 --> 00:33:02,600 in the game, to the point where you're 883 00:33:02,600 --> 00:33:04,266 going to get really annoyed about having 884 00:33:04,266 --> 00:33:06,622 to bring it up all the time and play the same song all 885 00:33:06,622 --> 00:33:07,380 the time. 886 00:33:07,380 --> 00:33:08,730 But it's also part of the character design. 887 00:33:08,730 --> 00:33:10,354 It's giving you what your capabilities, 888 00:33:10,354 --> 00:33:11,840 like what are you capable of doing? 889 00:33:11,840 --> 00:33:15,500 In this case, you're capable of playing songs 890 00:33:15,500 --> 00:33:19,250 on the ocarina that do magical effects within the game. 891 00:33:19,250 --> 00:33:21,380 There's also emergent, and this is the cooler thing 892 00:33:21,380 --> 00:33:23,090 that I want to spend more time on. 893 00:33:23,090 --> 00:33:25,890 This is the result of the player interacting with the system. 894 00:33:25,890 --> 00:33:28,690 In this case, it's Sims 3. 895 00:33:28,690 --> 00:33:31,120 And much of the systems of, at least, Sims 1, 896 00:33:31,120 --> 00:33:33,876 and I think still in Sims 3, the entire game 897 00:33:33,876 --> 00:33:36,015 is basically based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs. 898 00:33:36,015 --> 00:33:38,140 So I'll bring up the slide, I think I bring that up 899 00:33:38,140 --> 00:33:39,640 in a later version. 900 00:33:39,640 --> 00:33:42,714 Basically, it's a sandbox game. 901 00:33:42,714 --> 00:33:44,380 There are things you can do in the game, 902 00:33:44,380 --> 00:33:47,020 and the story that's being told is the events and things 903 00:33:47,020 --> 00:33:50,380 that happen to the characters based on changes 904 00:33:50,380 --> 00:33:52,302 you make in the environment. 905 00:33:52,302 --> 00:33:54,510 You're not to get the same story over and over again. 906 00:33:54,510 --> 00:33:56,610 You're going to get new stories. 907 00:33:56,610 --> 00:33:57,600 Some big. 908 00:33:57,600 --> 00:34:00,070 Like in this case, the entire game is that kind of thing. 909 00:34:00,070 --> 00:34:03,340 In other games it's more of a smaller aspect of the game, 910 00:34:03,340 --> 00:34:06,300 it's an added bonus to the game. 911 00:34:06,300 --> 00:34:08,299 The story of the player in either of those cases 912 00:34:08,299 --> 00:34:09,730 is usually told through three things, 913 00:34:09,730 --> 00:34:11,170 and these are three things that you can use in your games 914 00:34:11,170 --> 00:34:12,310 right now. 915 00:34:12,310 --> 00:34:15,590 Game premise, or the goal of the game, is your story, right. 916 00:34:15,590 --> 00:34:18,190 Why are you going, where are you going. 917 00:34:18,190 --> 00:34:19,639 Game events are things that happen 918 00:34:19,639 --> 00:34:22,357 within the game, either predetermined or emergent. 919 00:34:22,357 --> 00:34:24,190 And then micronarratives, which I'll explain 920 00:34:24,190 --> 00:34:26,929 what that is on at the end. 921 00:34:26,929 --> 00:34:28,530 Here is a premise. 922 00:34:28,530 --> 00:34:31,750 Again, we're at MIT so we talk about hacking, right. 923 00:34:31,750 --> 00:34:32,748 [VIDEO PLAYBACK] 924 00:34:32,748 --> 00:34:35,742 -A stroke of genius. 925 00:34:35,742 --> 00:34:36,570 A true original. 926 00:34:36,570 --> 00:34:38,736 From Introversion Software, the award-winning makers 927 00:34:38,736 --> 00:34:43,227 of Darwinia, a futuristic, high-tech computer crime game 928 00:34:43,227 --> 00:34:44,224 for the hacker elite. 929 00:34:44,224 --> 00:34:44,724 Uplink. 930 00:34:47,718 --> 00:34:50,211 You're an Uplink agent, a freelance hacker. 931 00:34:50,211 --> 00:34:51,710 Your clients, global multinationals. 932 00:34:51,710 --> 00:34:55,203 You hack into rival computer systems, steal research data, 933 00:34:55,203 --> 00:34:57,698 sabotage other companies, launder money, 934 00:34:57,698 --> 00:35:00,692 erase the evidence, even frame innocent people. 935 00:35:00,692 --> 00:35:02,688 And all from the comfort of your own home. 936 00:35:02,688 --> 00:35:05,183 In Uplink, you are the hacker elite. 937 00:35:05,183 --> 00:35:07,179 Find more dangerous and profitable missions, 938 00:35:07,179 --> 00:35:09,674 change peoples' academic, and even criminal, records, 939 00:35:09,674 --> 00:35:13,666 and then siphon money from their bank account into yours. 940 00:35:13,666 --> 00:35:16,660 And why not construct the most deadly computer 941 00:35:16,660 --> 00:35:17,658 virus ever designed. 942 00:35:17,658 --> 00:35:18,656 But watch out. 943 00:35:18,656 --> 00:35:23,645 When you're online, you're being traced. 944 00:35:23,645 --> 00:35:24,145 Uplink. 945 00:35:24,145 --> 00:35:26,640 The game for the corrupted heart, 946 00:35:26,640 --> 00:35:29,633 where trust is a weakness. 947 00:35:29,633 --> 00:35:30,133 PC Gamer-- 948 00:35:30,133 --> 00:35:30,716 [END PLAYBACK] 949 00:35:30,716 --> 00:35:32,180 PROFESSOR: Yeah, so. 950 00:35:32,180 --> 00:35:35,000 Threw a lot of words at you, but basically every single thing 951 00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:37,460 inside of that game is something you can do in the game. 952 00:35:37,460 --> 00:35:39,626 You can hack another person, you can create a virus, 953 00:35:39,626 --> 00:35:41,737 you can download their personal records, 954 00:35:41,737 --> 00:35:43,320 you can change their personal records. 955 00:35:43,320 --> 00:35:45,850 Every single one of those things mentioned in the premise, 956 00:35:45,850 --> 00:35:47,490 in the trailer, is a mechanic that 957 00:35:47,490 --> 00:35:50,450 is usable within the game in some form. 958 00:35:50,450 --> 00:35:52,550 A lot of it is a user interface. 959 00:35:52,550 --> 00:35:56,050 It kind of looks like a futuristic computer terminal 960 00:35:56,050 --> 00:35:57,362 or an interface terminal. 961 00:35:57,362 --> 00:35:59,070 Made by the same people, if you remember, 962 00:35:59,070 --> 00:36:02,132 we showed DEFCON earlier in the semester, same folks. 963 00:36:02,132 --> 00:36:04,090 They're really good at that kind of atmosphere, 964 00:36:04,090 --> 00:36:05,656 building atmosphere. 965 00:36:05,656 --> 00:36:07,995 AUDIENCE: Futuristic for the '90s. 966 00:36:07,995 --> 00:36:09,760 PROFESSOR: Yeah, it's still futuristic. 967 00:36:12,687 --> 00:36:14,770 So game premise, that's an easy one to get across. 968 00:36:14,770 --> 00:36:16,520 Basically, it's just, think about all the things 969 00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:17,520 that you do in the game. 970 00:36:17,520 --> 00:36:20,715 All those things, when you put them together one by one, 971 00:36:20,715 --> 00:36:22,090 that is the story that the player 972 00:36:22,090 --> 00:36:25,440 is going to be telling when they play your game. 973 00:36:25,440 --> 00:36:27,410 Think of it, in that case, what they're doing 974 00:36:27,410 --> 00:36:29,480 is they're using a genre convention 975 00:36:29,480 --> 00:36:31,896 and they're using some tropes that you might already know. 976 00:36:31,896 --> 00:36:34,840 Tropes can be useful, tropes can be baggage. 977 00:36:34,840 --> 00:36:36,422 Tropes are usually baggage. 978 00:36:36,422 --> 00:36:38,880 But genre conventions are great, especially when it's just, 979 00:36:38,880 --> 00:36:40,504 I want to get this theme across to you, 980 00:36:40,504 --> 00:36:42,220 I want to get this hard punch of you 981 00:36:42,220 --> 00:36:43,810 know exactly what you need to do. 982 00:36:43,810 --> 00:36:45,750 I don't need to explain the game to you because you know what 983 00:36:45,750 --> 00:36:47,230 a hacker is supposed to do. 984 00:36:47,230 --> 00:36:49,230 That's where those things are incredibly useful. 985 00:36:51,440 --> 00:36:53,261 Give me my slides. 986 00:36:53,261 --> 00:36:53,760 Game events. 987 00:36:53,760 --> 00:36:56,640 Has anybody played Final Fantasy 4? 988 00:36:56,640 --> 00:36:59,210 Or 2, if you played the original, or the US version, 989 00:36:59,210 --> 00:37:00,000 I mean? 990 00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:02,440 So there's a character called Rydia the Summoner, 991 00:37:02,440 --> 00:37:04,315 that is not what she looked like in the game. 992 00:37:04,315 --> 00:37:06,580 That was the illustration that she looked like. 993 00:37:06,580 --> 00:37:11,260 She looked like a very small green haired person. 994 00:37:11,260 --> 00:37:15,155 She is a summoner, she has magic powers. 995 00:37:15,155 --> 00:37:17,530 What kind of magic powers are common in the Final Fantasy 996 00:37:17,530 --> 00:37:18,135 series? 997 00:37:18,135 --> 00:37:19,135 What's the three basics? 998 00:37:22,907 --> 00:37:25,000 AUDIENCE: Fire, ice and thunder. 999 00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:25,960 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 1000 00:37:25,960 --> 00:37:27,668 Or blue or, yeah, fire, ice, and thunder. 1001 00:37:27,668 --> 00:37:29,900 Exactly right. 1002 00:37:29,900 --> 00:37:32,610 So she's a summoner but she has other black mage powers. 1003 00:37:32,610 --> 00:37:36,960 Pretty common, most characters would have those three powers. 1004 00:37:36,960 --> 00:37:38,830 Except for her. 1005 00:37:38,830 --> 00:37:40,690 She hates fire. 1006 00:37:40,690 --> 00:37:43,490 You don't have fire for a good part of the game. 1007 00:37:43,490 --> 00:37:46,220 There's a moment in the game, you're at Mount Hobs, 1008 00:37:46,220 --> 00:37:50,260 there's an ice mountain, you need to get through. 1009 00:37:50,260 --> 00:37:52,630 You can kind of see ice in the background there. 1010 00:37:52,630 --> 00:37:54,965 You need to get through the cave, 1011 00:37:54,965 --> 00:37:56,090 and there's a story moment. 1012 00:37:56,090 --> 00:37:57,400 One of the characters, Cecil, on the left 1013 00:37:57,400 --> 00:37:59,830 there says she's afraid of fire, because her village was 1014 00:37:59,830 --> 00:38:01,220 destroyed in a fire. 1015 00:38:01,220 --> 00:38:03,750 And you see a snippet of this early in the game. 1016 00:38:03,750 --> 00:38:06,370 You get moments that she's got this backstory 1017 00:38:06,370 --> 00:38:10,049 where traumatic past, it's preventing her 1018 00:38:10,049 --> 00:38:10,840 from doing a thing. 1019 00:38:10,840 --> 00:38:12,900 Again, this is a trope that's pretty common. 1020 00:38:12,900 --> 00:38:14,670 After this point, they're all like yeah, you can do it, 1021 00:38:14,670 --> 00:38:16,130 you're awesome, you're great. 1022 00:38:16,130 --> 00:38:17,610 And then she gets fire, now all of a sudden you've 1023 00:38:17,610 --> 00:38:19,190 got the fire skill for this character 1024 00:38:19,190 --> 00:38:21,080 for the rest of the game. 1025 00:38:21,080 --> 00:38:23,869 Any time you play the game after that and you're using fire, 1026 00:38:23,869 --> 00:38:26,410 there's some part of you that might be remembering this story 1027 00:38:26,410 --> 00:38:28,540 moment and how important the story moment was. 1028 00:38:28,540 --> 00:38:30,456 It's being linked back into the game mechanics 1029 00:38:30,456 --> 00:38:31,380 really, really well. 1030 00:38:31,380 --> 00:38:32,380 But it always happens. 1031 00:38:32,380 --> 00:38:34,500 Every time you play the game, that's embedded. 1032 00:38:34,500 --> 00:38:36,310 That's always going to happen. 1033 00:38:36,310 --> 00:38:36,970 One more video. 1034 00:38:36,970 --> 00:38:38,380 Here is an emergent event. 1035 00:38:38,380 --> 00:38:41,370 Has anybody seen this video? 1036 00:38:41,370 --> 00:38:43,451 Everyone recognizes the game though, yeah? 1037 00:38:49,116 --> 00:38:49,782 [VIDEO PLAYBACK] 1038 00:38:49,782 --> 00:38:51,243 -All right, guys. 1039 00:38:51,243 --> 00:39:00,400 And just for video here, I'm getting some mushrooms on hand 1040 00:39:00,400 --> 00:39:04,010 to make indefinite fire. 1041 00:39:04,010 --> 00:39:06,460 PROFESSOR: So indefinite fire, that's cool. 1042 00:39:06,460 --> 00:39:12,830 --[INAUDIBLE] or a castle. [INAUDIBLE] 1043 00:39:12,830 --> 00:39:14,610 PROFESSOR: Here comes the room. 1044 00:39:14,610 --> 00:39:16,490 -The bedroom. 1045 00:39:16,490 --> 00:39:16,990 [INAUDIBLE] 1046 00:39:28,610 --> 00:39:32,954 So let's go ahead and just make a fireplace. 1047 00:39:32,954 --> 00:39:38,960 They're already made it, as you see, is intact here. 1048 00:39:38,960 --> 00:39:41,410 That's the swimming pool. 1049 00:39:41,410 --> 00:39:43,370 So yeah. 1050 00:39:43,370 --> 00:39:47,000 Now all you need is some flint and a log, 1051 00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:51,850 and just to chop down a tree to get a log. 1052 00:39:51,850 --> 00:39:57,470 Oh yeah, [INAUDIBLE] and to the fire. 1053 00:39:57,470 --> 00:40:02,364 And I always, or mostly-- uh oh. 1054 00:40:02,364 --> 00:40:07,554 AUDIENCE: I knew that was going to happen. 1055 00:40:07,554 --> 00:40:10,039 -Crap. 1056 00:40:10,039 --> 00:40:15,009 PROFESSOR: He gets some water to try it. 1057 00:40:15,009 --> 00:40:17,494 -Uh oh. 1058 00:40:17,494 --> 00:40:18,985 Sorry. 1059 00:40:18,985 --> 00:40:19,979 Sorry guys. 1060 00:40:19,979 --> 00:40:22,464 This was not supposed to happen. 1061 00:40:28,925 --> 00:40:36,877 And-- 1062 00:40:37,871 --> 00:40:39,920 -Yeah. 1063 00:40:39,920 --> 00:40:42,512 What the hell just happened. 1064 00:40:42,512 --> 00:40:44,672 AUDIENCE: Fire. 1065 00:40:44,672 --> 00:40:45,963 -You have got to be kidding me. 1066 00:40:48,847 --> 00:40:49,430 [END PLAYBACK] 1067 00:40:49,430 --> 00:40:50,690 PROFESSOR: There is a system within the game 1068 00:40:50,690 --> 00:40:53,260 that fire burns pretty much anything it touches, 1069 00:40:53,260 --> 00:40:55,599 that's wood, and it just travels, right. 1070 00:40:55,599 --> 00:40:58,140 You set this little system up, you use it the way you use it, 1071 00:40:58,140 --> 00:41:00,705 and in this case, he tried to tell 1072 00:41:00,705 --> 00:41:02,580 a story of building a fire, and it turned out 1073 00:41:02,580 --> 00:41:05,320 he burned his house down. 1074 00:41:05,320 --> 00:41:08,506 You also see this Minecraft, the Creepers. 1075 00:41:08,506 --> 00:41:10,130 Everybody hears that hiss of a Creeper, 1076 00:41:10,130 --> 00:41:12,380 especially after you've built something. 1077 00:41:12,380 --> 00:41:14,780 You've got this tension, this moment of panic. 1078 00:41:14,780 --> 00:41:16,155 That's all a memorable game event 1079 00:41:16,155 --> 00:41:18,363 that you're going to tell another person after you've 1080 00:41:18,363 --> 00:41:19,240 played the game. 1081 00:41:19,240 --> 00:41:21,030 And especially these days, you're 1082 00:41:21,030 --> 00:41:23,750 going to record it onto YouTube and put it online. 1083 00:41:23,750 --> 00:41:26,020 This was, I think, from 2010, because it's 1084 00:41:26,020 --> 00:41:29,240 an alpha build of Minecraft. 1085 00:41:29,240 --> 00:41:33,130 Continuing on the theme, here's the Sims. 1086 00:41:33,130 --> 00:41:36,190 Has anybody had this happen to them in The Sims? 1087 00:41:36,190 --> 00:41:37,690 They're just trying to have a party, 1088 00:41:37,690 --> 00:41:40,064 they're trying to meet their Maslow's hierarchy of needs, 1089 00:41:40,064 --> 00:41:41,190 right? 1090 00:41:41,190 --> 00:41:43,390 They're trying to love and belong to each other, 1091 00:41:43,390 --> 00:41:45,870 and build some esteem, and self-actualize themselves, 1092 00:41:45,870 --> 00:41:48,010 but they forgot about the safety part of it. 1093 00:41:48,010 --> 00:41:51,280 So the oven blew up and their fire happened, 1094 00:41:51,280 --> 00:41:54,790 and they all burned and died. 1095 00:41:54,790 --> 00:41:59,230 Common trope with The Sims. 1096 00:41:59,230 --> 00:42:00,590 Another example I love. 1097 00:42:00,590 --> 00:42:02,690 Anybody played Far Cry 2? 1098 00:42:02,690 --> 00:42:04,060 Yeah? 1099 00:42:04,060 --> 00:42:06,020 So fire exists in Far Cry 2. 1100 00:42:06,020 --> 00:42:07,840 I love fire. 1101 00:42:07,840 --> 00:42:09,310 Far Cry 2 takes place in Africa. 1102 00:42:09,310 --> 00:42:12,521 You're a mercenary, you're going to find a warlord 1103 00:42:12,521 --> 00:42:14,020 and kill him at the end of the game. 1104 00:42:14,020 --> 00:42:15,490 That's basically what you're trying to do. 1105 00:42:15,490 --> 00:42:17,073 You have different ways of doing that, 1106 00:42:17,073 --> 00:42:18,876 different means of doing that. 1107 00:42:18,876 --> 00:42:20,500 You are in the savannah, it's very dry, 1108 00:42:20,500 --> 00:42:22,610 you can burn the savannah, it's great. 1109 00:42:22,610 --> 00:42:27,470 And you can use that to get past machine gun emplacement, 1110 00:42:27,470 --> 00:42:29,610 or set a trap for somebody. 1111 00:42:29,610 --> 00:42:34,080 In game character, not another PC, but in game. 1112 00:42:34,080 --> 00:42:38,560 In an early version of this, an early test, 1113 00:42:38,560 --> 00:42:41,872 playtesters set fire to the savannah, and then 10, 15, 1114 00:42:41,872 --> 00:42:44,645 20 minutes later it said OK, you won the game. 1115 00:42:44,645 --> 00:42:47,310 What happened? 1116 00:42:47,310 --> 00:42:49,080 Fire spread. 1117 00:42:49,080 --> 00:42:53,300 The boss was set in the fire, in dry grass. 1118 00:42:53,300 --> 00:42:55,900 The fire spread all the way through the game, 1119 00:42:55,900 --> 00:42:58,320 the many, many miles, square miles of gameplay, 1120 00:42:58,320 --> 00:43:00,874 and it killed the boss and ended the game. 1121 00:43:00,874 --> 00:43:03,290 I really wish they had kept that in, or a version of that. 1122 00:43:03,290 --> 00:43:06,750 They ended up reducing the spread of fire because of that, 1123 00:43:06,750 --> 00:43:08,270 they moved the character from it. 1124 00:43:08,270 --> 00:43:10,730 But that's a game event they could have capitalized on. 1125 00:43:10,730 --> 00:43:12,740 That's a piece of emergent storytelling 1126 00:43:12,740 --> 00:43:16,170 that's going on that people tell the story to each other. 1127 00:43:16,170 --> 00:43:19,220 In the developer circles I heard about this in GDC 1128 00:43:19,220 --> 00:43:21,170 the year after this came out. 1129 00:43:21,170 --> 00:43:22,810 That's a great one. 1130 00:43:22,810 --> 00:43:24,360 So that's game events. 1131 00:43:24,360 --> 00:43:26,160 Next up micronarratives. 1132 00:43:26,160 --> 00:43:27,970 These are similar, but different. 1133 00:43:27,970 --> 00:43:30,670 A micronarrative is basically a little bit 1134 00:43:30,670 --> 00:43:34,870 of storytelling inside of the game that, again, really, 1135 00:43:34,870 --> 00:43:35,520 really small. 1136 00:43:35,520 --> 00:43:36,645 So maybe it's an animation. 1137 00:43:36,645 --> 00:43:38,430 In this case, this is Jet Set Willy. 1138 00:43:38,430 --> 00:43:41,040 In Jet Set Willy, you are a rich guy. 1139 00:43:41,040 --> 00:43:44,470 You made all your money in the previous game by mining, 1140 00:43:44,470 --> 00:43:47,740 and you came home, and you've invited a bunch of friends 1141 00:43:47,740 --> 00:43:50,060 to your house and you had this awesome raucous party. 1142 00:43:50,060 --> 00:43:51,630 And you trashed the place. 1143 00:43:51,630 --> 00:43:52,702 Unfortunately, you rent. 1144 00:43:52,702 --> 00:43:54,660 You rent a mansion instead of buying a mansion. 1145 00:43:54,660 --> 00:43:56,701 And you're trying to go to bed, and your landlady 1146 00:43:56,701 --> 00:43:59,060 is just like no, you don't get to go to bed, 1147 00:43:59,060 --> 00:44:00,687 you don't get to sleep. 1148 00:44:00,687 --> 00:44:02,270 You've got to clean all this stuff up. 1149 00:44:02,270 --> 00:44:03,820 She doesn't say any of that, though. 1150 00:44:03,820 --> 00:44:06,730 This is all she does. 1151 00:44:06,730 --> 00:44:10,430 Just, she's standing in front of the bed, she's going that. 1152 00:44:10,430 --> 00:44:13,420 This is for the ZX Spectrum. 1153 00:44:13,420 --> 00:44:18,375 I think it had 64k of RAM, maybe. 1154 00:44:18,375 --> 00:44:19,250 You can look that up. 1155 00:44:19,250 --> 00:44:21,350 Maybe it's 8k, it's really small. 1156 00:44:21,350 --> 00:44:25,174 Really bad keys, really bad keyboard. 1157 00:44:25,174 --> 00:44:26,090 Not a lot of graphics. 1158 00:44:26,090 --> 00:44:27,950 That version is actually a later version, 1159 00:44:27,950 --> 00:44:31,450 I couldn't find-- this is the closest thing we found for what 1160 00:44:31,450 --> 00:44:32,930 it originally looked like. 1161 00:44:32,930 --> 00:44:35,055 You can really see, there's character design there, 1162 00:44:35,055 --> 00:44:39,047 but it's also just saying no, you can't come back here. 1163 00:44:39,047 --> 00:44:46,042 AUDIENCE: 16k at launch, it did go up to 128. 1164 00:44:46,042 --> 00:44:48,470 PROFESSOR: Now that I've spewed all this out, 1165 00:44:48,470 --> 00:44:49,824 what can you do with all this? 1166 00:44:49,824 --> 00:44:52,240 So I'm actually going to show an example of a game created 1167 00:44:52,240 --> 00:44:58,020 last semester by a team in this class for the final project. 1168 00:44:58,020 --> 00:45:00,480 They made a game called Sugar Rush. 1169 00:45:00,480 --> 00:45:01,870 What's the game about? 1170 00:45:01,870 --> 00:45:02,870 First, what's the title? 1171 00:45:02,870 --> 00:45:04,040 Well, I told the title. 1172 00:45:04,040 --> 00:45:04,540 Sugar Rush. 1173 00:45:04,540 --> 00:45:06,380 What's the game about? 1174 00:45:06,380 --> 00:45:07,360 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]. 1175 00:45:11,770 --> 00:45:14,500 PROFESSOR: Yeah, candy, candy, candy, candy, candy. 1176 00:45:14,500 --> 00:45:16,510 Look at him and all that candy. 1177 00:45:16,510 --> 00:45:17,890 And it's a kid. 1178 00:45:17,890 --> 00:45:20,660 So title, character design, all working really 1179 00:45:20,660 --> 00:45:22,590 well right there. 1180 00:45:22,590 --> 00:45:24,790 Here's the game premise. 1181 00:45:24,790 --> 00:45:26,870 One day, strange leafy beasts spawn 1182 00:45:26,870 --> 00:45:28,880 from four mysterious portals, and they 1183 00:45:28,880 --> 00:45:31,980 plundered the villages, terrorizing Candyland. 1184 00:45:31,980 --> 00:45:34,610 What do you think you're going to have to do? 1185 00:45:34,610 --> 00:45:37,020 Kill the vegetables. 1186 00:45:37,020 --> 00:45:39,400 And they're mean, because look at them. 1187 00:45:39,400 --> 00:45:41,390 So mean. 1188 00:45:41,390 --> 00:45:43,630 Now, when we say, we said don't use 1189 00:45:43,630 --> 00:45:47,110 cutscenes, that doesn't mean we say don't use exposition. 1190 00:45:47,110 --> 00:45:49,590 A simple screen with a little bit instructions. 1191 00:45:49,590 --> 00:45:52,830 Basically, we told them, have an instruction screen. 1192 00:45:52,830 --> 00:45:54,580 This was part of their instruction screen. 1193 00:45:54,580 --> 00:45:56,621 They had the screen that says these are the keys, 1194 00:45:56,621 --> 00:45:58,490 but also, this is what you do. 1195 00:45:58,490 --> 00:45:59,950 Really, really useful. 1196 00:45:59,950 --> 00:46:03,160 We want something that fulfills that for a game the way 1197 00:46:03,160 --> 00:46:04,644 it's necessary for your game. 1198 00:46:04,644 --> 00:46:07,060 The difference between a game that has something like this 1199 00:46:07,060 --> 00:46:08,601 and doesn't have something like this, 1200 00:46:08,601 --> 00:46:10,214 is basically it's a level of polish. 1201 00:46:10,214 --> 00:46:12,380 A game that has a little bit of exposition like this 1202 00:46:12,380 --> 00:46:15,490 feels a little bit more concrete. 1203 00:46:15,490 --> 00:46:17,880 It just feels like it's more complete, 1204 00:46:17,880 --> 00:46:19,470 there's more thought put into it. 1205 00:46:19,470 --> 00:46:21,680 It just feels a little bit richer. 1206 00:46:21,680 --> 00:46:24,310 It's still playable without it, it doesn't need this screen, 1207 00:46:24,310 --> 00:46:27,590 but this screen's really, really helpful. 1208 00:46:27,590 --> 00:46:29,720 And the game play itself. 1209 00:46:29,720 --> 00:46:33,170 It has mechanics that are consistent with the design. 1210 00:46:33,170 --> 00:46:35,810 You are a kid, you are fighting a tomato. 1211 00:46:35,810 --> 00:46:37,630 What do you fight with? 1212 00:46:37,630 --> 00:46:40,640 You have weapons, what are your weapons made out of? 1213 00:46:40,640 --> 00:46:41,940 Candy. 1214 00:46:41,940 --> 00:46:43,990 How do you heal yourself? 1215 00:46:43,990 --> 00:46:45,320 You eat candy. 1216 00:46:45,320 --> 00:46:46,750 How do you make new weapons? 1217 00:46:46,750 --> 00:46:49,160 You combine and craft candy. 1218 00:46:49,160 --> 00:46:51,630 Everything's revolving around that premise of candy 1219 00:46:51,630 --> 00:46:53,140 is the world. 1220 00:46:53,140 --> 00:46:57,010 You are the lone human being in this world that we see. 1221 00:46:57,010 --> 00:46:59,660 And so it's not like Adventure Time, 1222 00:46:59,660 --> 00:47:02,660 you're not harvesting candy from candy people. 1223 00:47:05,139 --> 00:47:06,680 The weird thing about it, I think you 1224 00:47:06,680 --> 00:47:09,490 when you kill vegetables, you take the candy from them. 1225 00:47:09,490 --> 00:47:11,472 Maybe they're stealing your candy? 1226 00:47:11,472 --> 00:47:13,680 Yeah, you are stealing the candy, it says plundering. 1227 00:47:13,680 --> 00:47:17,100 A ha, they thought ahead. 1228 00:47:17,100 --> 00:47:18,316 And yeah, the health points. 1229 00:47:18,316 --> 00:47:20,566 What are the health points called, if you can read it? 1230 00:47:20,566 --> 00:47:21,585 AUDIENCE: Blood sugar. 1231 00:47:21,585 --> 00:47:22,607 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 1232 00:47:22,607 --> 00:47:23,440 Really simple stuff. 1233 00:47:23,440 --> 00:47:24,356 Really, really simple. 1234 00:47:24,356 --> 00:47:26,500 Just theming it, thinking about what 1235 00:47:26,500 --> 00:47:29,760 you call things, how you call things, where you place things, 1236 00:47:29,760 --> 00:47:31,360 what verbs you're using. 1237 00:47:31,360 --> 00:47:33,660 All that ties into the game. 1238 00:47:37,935 --> 00:47:39,310 Here's another student made game, 1239 00:47:39,310 --> 00:47:41,010 it was actually made by a larger team 1240 00:47:41,010 --> 00:47:42,260 over the course of the summer. 1241 00:47:42,260 --> 00:47:44,660 So they actually had nine weeks to make the game. 1242 00:47:44,660 --> 00:47:47,730 And they had dedicated artists on this game. 1243 00:47:47,730 --> 00:47:49,550 But this is a game called Gumbeat which 1244 00:47:49,550 --> 00:47:51,570 we have our website there. 1245 00:47:51,570 --> 00:47:55,260 You are a little girl going around chewing bubblegum 1246 00:47:55,260 --> 00:47:58,771 in this idyllic land that, I don't think, 1247 00:47:58,771 --> 00:48:00,270 there's an information sign up there 1248 00:48:00,270 --> 00:48:01,840 that says keep the place clean. 1249 00:48:01,840 --> 00:48:03,110 Basically, gum's not allowed. 1250 00:48:03,110 --> 00:48:05,670 It's not clean. 1251 00:48:05,670 --> 00:48:07,280 But you go around, you recruit people. 1252 00:48:07,280 --> 00:48:10,040 You blow bubble gum in front of them, they say pop the bubble, 1253 00:48:10,040 --> 00:48:12,640 you pop it, they're like sweet, I'm joining you. 1254 00:48:12,640 --> 00:48:15,152 And then they trail behind you. 1255 00:48:15,152 --> 00:48:17,110 And you see on the right there, a little guard. 1256 00:48:17,110 --> 00:48:19,990 Metal Gear Solid style, he's got his own line of sight, 1257 00:48:19,990 --> 00:48:23,170 if he sees you, he's going to chase you down and hit you. 1258 00:48:23,170 --> 00:48:27,020 Early in the development, someone-- 1259 00:48:27,020 --> 00:48:33,160 so if you pop the bubble on somebody, like on your friend, 1260 00:48:33,160 --> 00:48:34,330 they'll get stuck with gum. 1261 00:48:34,330 --> 00:48:37,300 You pop the bubble on the guard, they'll get stuck with gum 1262 00:48:37,300 --> 00:48:39,020 and they'll not be able to move. 1263 00:48:39,020 --> 00:48:42,050 But we found if you put the bubble gum on the guard, 1264 00:48:42,050 --> 00:48:45,570 and you have a guard, basically a second guard looking 1265 00:48:45,570 --> 00:48:51,530 for people, all the AI was was if gum, attack. 1266 00:48:51,530 --> 00:48:56,034 Guard with gum found the guard, attacked. 1267 00:48:56,034 --> 00:48:57,450 They didn't even think about this, 1268 00:48:57,450 --> 00:48:59,908 this wasn't a feature they were planning, it just happened. 1269 00:48:59,908 --> 00:49:02,400 And it happened in the space of gameplay, play testing, 1270 00:49:02,400 --> 00:49:05,250 just like that fire in Far Cry 2. 1271 00:49:05,250 --> 00:49:07,250 Except in this case, they're like, that's really 1272 00:49:07,250 --> 00:49:08,139 freaking awesome. 1273 00:49:08,139 --> 00:49:09,930 We are going to polish the crap out of that 1274 00:49:09,930 --> 00:49:13,340 and make that a really interesting feature 1275 00:49:13,340 --> 00:49:13,887 in the game. 1276 00:49:13,887 --> 00:49:15,970 We're not going to tell the player how to do that, 1277 00:49:15,970 --> 00:49:17,386 but we are going to create a level 1278 00:49:17,386 --> 00:49:20,040 design that encourages the player to experiment with that. 1279 00:49:20,040 --> 00:49:21,998 So that's where you get that kind of game play. 1280 00:49:21,998 --> 00:49:24,730 So play testing is a way to discover emergent game events. 1281 00:49:24,730 --> 00:49:27,271 So that's why we're asking to play test your game, especially 1282 00:49:27,271 --> 00:49:29,900 people who are not you, is to see what-- you've created 1283 00:49:29,900 --> 00:49:31,830 this amazing possibility space, you 1284 00:49:31,830 --> 00:49:33,850 can't explore the entire thing on your own. 1285 00:49:33,850 --> 00:49:36,030 They might see something and not knowing 1286 00:49:36,030 --> 00:49:37,799 what the game is possible to do and what 1287 00:49:37,799 --> 00:49:39,340 you should be doing in the game, they 1288 00:49:39,340 --> 00:49:41,990 might come up with some cool things to do in the game. 1289 00:49:41,990 --> 00:49:45,000 So play testing is key. 1290 00:49:45,000 --> 00:49:50,837 Lastly, not a student game, but another favorite of mine, FTL. 1291 00:49:50,837 --> 00:49:52,920 There is a story to FTL that's really complicated, 1292 00:49:52,920 --> 00:49:56,460 and I'm not asking you to try to emulate that sort of thing. 1293 00:49:56,460 --> 00:49:57,372 It's really hard. 1294 00:49:57,372 --> 00:49:59,330 It's a lot of detail and it's a lot of writing. 1295 00:49:59,330 --> 00:50:02,070 A lot of thought being put into this randomized event thing. 1296 00:50:02,070 --> 00:50:04,680 But there's a feature in the game 1297 00:50:04,680 --> 00:50:06,830 that I'm showing here right now that is only 1298 00:50:06,830 --> 00:50:08,330 used on this screen. 1299 00:50:08,330 --> 00:50:11,960 It's probably kind of-- it was probably a high price for them 1300 00:50:11,960 --> 00:50:13,590 to put the feature in. 1301 00:50:13,590 --> 00:50:15,257 Can you-- maybe you can't read it. 1302 00:50:15,257 --> 00:50:16,840 Actually, you can't read it that well. 1303 00:50:16,840 --> 00:50:19,170 Basically, you can change the name of the characters. 1304 00:50:19,170 --> 00:50:20,920 This is something that strategy games have 1305 00:50:20,920 --> 00:50:22,830 had for a long period of time. 1306 00:50:22,830 --> 00:50:28,540 I think we remember through XCOM back in '93, '94. 1307 00:50:28,540 --> 00:50:29,220 Earlier? 1308 00:50:29,220 --> 00:50:30,740 No, '94. 1309 00:50:30,740 --> 00:50:31,970 So you name your characters. 1310 00:50:31,970 --> 00:50:33,790 If you name your characters, you might 1311 00:50:33,790 --> 00:50:36,870 be more inclined to make stories of their game play. 1312 00:50:36,870 --> 00:50:40,680 So I've got my ship as the good ship GameLab with my buddies 1313 00:50:40,680 --> 00:50:42,980 Andrew, Philip, and Sarah, and we're 1314 00:50:42,980 --> 00:50:44,729 going to be awesome and take down-- 1315 00:50:44,729 --> 00:50:46,020 are you taking down the empire? 1316 00:50:46,020 --> 00:50:47,090 I can never remember. 1317 00:50:47,090 --> 00:50:47,780 Empire or rebel? 1318 00:50:47,780 --> 00:50:49,020 Are you a rebel or are you the empire? 1319 00:50:49,020 --> 00:50:50,103 AUDIENCE: You are a rebel. 1320 00:50:50,103 --> 00:50:52,550 PROFESSOR: We're the rebel, OK. 1321 00:50:52,550 --> 00:50:54,392 AUDIENCE: No, actually, I think you're-- 1322 00:50:54,392 --> 00:50:55,850 PROFESSOR: Yeah, you're the empire. 1323 00:50:55,850 --> 00:50:56,840 You're trying to take down the rebels. 1324 00:50:56,840 --> 00:50:58,423 AUDIENCE: You have to run from rebels. 1325 00:50:58,423 --> 00:51:01,120 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 1326 00:51:01,120 --> 00:51:02,745 OK, cool. 1327 00:51:02,745 --> 00:51:04,870 So one thing that sometimes happens with this game, 1328 00:51:04,870 --> 00:51:07,290 though, some players are going to optimize it. 1329 00:51:07,290 --> 00:51:08,790 What did they name their characters? 1330 00:51:11,880 --> 00:51:14,950 Pilot, Shields, Engines. 1331 00:51:14,950 --> 00:51:15,882 Who's dying? 1332 00:51:15,882 --> 00:51:17,090 Looks like the pilot's dying. 1333 00:51:17,090 --> 00:51:18,380 How do you know? 1334 00:51:18,380 --> 00:51:21,192 It's named Pilot. 1335 00:51:21,192 --> 00:51:22,650 I forget if you can-- I don't think 1336 00:51:22,650 --> 00:51:25,550 you can rename characters when you bring them back 1337 00:51:25,550 --> 00:51:26,770 on your ship. 1338 00:51:26,770 --> 00:51:27,770 I should looked that up. 1339 00:51:27,770 --> 00:51:29,910 If anybody plays, take a look at that. 1340 00:51:29,910 --> 00:51:31,819 But you can get new characters later on. 1341 00:51:31,819 --> 00:51:34,360 Whether or not you can name them or not, you might name them, 1342 00:51:34,360 --> 00:51:35,370 you might not name them. 1343 00:51:35,370 --> 00:51:39,090 But either way, they've spent a lot of time and money 1344 00:51:39,090 --> 00:51:41,690 putting this feature in, some players aren't going to use it. 1345 00:51:41,690 --> 00:51:43,000 So what do you do? 1346 00:51:43,000 --> 00:51:45,480 You blow shit up. 1347 00:51:45,480 --> 00:51:50,210 The game is basically about traveling the ship, 1348 00:51:50,210 --> 00:51:53,080 things catch on fire, and hopefully, 1349 00:51:53,080 --> 00:51:54,860 maybe they're not concerned about Pilot, 1350 00:51:54,860 --> 00:51:56,980 but they are concerned about their ship. 1351 00:51:56,980 --> 00:51:59,972 So give them these cool little game events to keep them going. 1352 00:51:59,972 --> 00:52:01,930 GUEST SPEAKER: So one of the interesting things 1353 00:52:01,930 --> 00:52:04,744 about this kind of story is that it's actually-- 1354 00:52:04,744 --> 00:52:06,160 for all that you're talking about, 1355 00:52:06,160 --> 00:52:08,120 it does take time and money to create it, 1356 00:52:08,120 --> 00:52:09,620 but it's actually pretty cheap to be 1357 00:52:09,620 --> 00:52:11,610 able to let players name their characters. 1358 00:52:11,610 --> 00:52:13,114 But it's even cheaper to do it, FTL 1359 00:52:13,114 --> 00:52:15,030 did at the beginning, where they automatically 1360 00:52:15,030 --> 00:52:16,114 name all their characters. 1361 00:52:16,114 --> 00:52:17,863 When you get a random human, the character 1362 00:52:17,863 --> 00:52:19,720 isn't named human number 38, the character 1363 00:52:19,720 --> 00:52:21,721 is named Fred or something. 1364 00:52:21,721 --> 00:52:23,970 And that was actually originally from the Kickstarter. 1365 00:52:23,970 --> 00:52:26,550 Backers got to have their names in, which is kind of cool. 1366 00:52:26,550 --> 00:52:28,910 But it's actually worth doing, because there 1367 00:52:28,910 --> 00:52:30,840 are certain kinds of players will really 1368 00:52:30,840 --> 00:52:33,120 get into those names in a way that you don't expect. 1369 00:52:33,120 --> 00:52:36,060 I've got two friends who really get into their games. 1370 00:52:36,060 --> 00:52:38,992 One, Marc LeBlanc, was playing XCOM. 1371 00:52:38,992 --> 00:52:41,200 Some of you have seen the more recent XCOM, I assume? 1372 00:52:41,200 --> 00:52:43,060 But maybe not the old one? 1373 00:52:43,060 --> 00:52:44,910 So you can name your characters or whatnot. 1374 00:52:44,910 --> 00:52:47,570 And it gives you some names that you can use. 1375 00:52:47,570 --> 00:52:49,460 He had went through the entire game, 1376 00:52:49,460 --> 00:52:53,410 and this is back when games were hard, 1377 00:52:53,410 --> 00:52:56,710 so 40 to 60 hours of gameplay, and he had 1378 00:52:56,710 --> 00:52:59,030 a squad of super uber soldiers. 1379 00:52:59,030 --> 00:53:00,067 They all had names. 1380 00:53:00,067 --> 00:53:01,900 He didn't quite have personalities for them, 1381 00:53:01,900 --> 00:53:04,350 but they were kind of like personalities. 1382 00:53:04,350 --> 00:53:07,630 And the second to final battle, one of his top A 1383 00:53:07,630 --> 00:53:09,837 squad people got a broken leg or something. 1384 00:53:09,837 --> 00:53:12,170 And he was like, oh, that's really annoying, because I'm 1385 00:53:12,170 --> 00:53:13,330 going to Mars tomorrow. 1386 00:53:13,330 --> 00:53:17,220 Well, all my guys that are high level are gone, 1387 00:53:17,220 --> 00:53:19,430 but I've got these guy's really cool equipment. 1388 00:53:19,430 --> 00:53:22,810 Like he'd got the laser rifle of doom and the super uber armor, 1389 00:53:22,810 --> 00:53:24,560 and so he went to his second string squad, 1390 00:53:24,560 --> 00:53:26,145 the guys who were second level. 1391 00:53:26,145 --> 00:53:29,440 He was like you, suit up, son, you're going to Mars. 1392 00:53:29,440 --> 00:53:32,320 Which for him was a story, and it was all inside his head. 1393 00:53:32,320 --> 00:53:33,626 The game didn't make that. 1394 00:53:33,626 --> 00:53:35,000 The game did not make that story. 1395 00:53:35,000 --> 00:53:37,880 The designers could not have anticipated that story. 1396 00:53:37,880 --> 00:53:39,880 But in his head, because he's the kind of player 1397 00:53:39,880 --> 00:53:42,500 who really tried to personify his characters a little bit, 1398 00:53:42,500 --> 00:53:44,969 it was actually a really big thing for him. 1399 00:53:44,969 --> 00:53:46,510 Similarly, another one of my friends, 1400 00:53:46,510 --> 00:53:49,480 who will probably come in for a lecture later, Laura Baldwin, 1401 00:53:49,480 --> 00:53:50,910 was playing XCOM as well. 1402 00:53:50,910 --> 00:53:52,550 Basically the same game. 1403 00:53:52,550 --> 00:53:55,949 She, in her head, kept all the default names. 1404 00:53:55,949 --> 00:53:57,740 The default name is a randomized first name 1405 00:53:57,740 --> 00:53:59,540 and a randomized last name. 1406 00:53:59,540 --> 00:54:02,130 And in her head, when she saw the same last name, 1407 00:54:02,130 --> 00:54:04,256 she assumed that meant the characters were related. 1408 00:54:04,256 --> 00:54:06,130 Now of course this meant nothing in the game, 1409 00:54:06,130 --> 00:54:07,202 the game didn't care. 1410 00:54:07,202 --> 00:54:08,660 But here are the two brothers, here 1411 00:54:08,660 --> 00:54:11,050 are the two sisters, here's the married couple. 1412 00:54:11,050 --> 00:54:14,420 And so apparently in the final, final battle, 1413 00:54:14,420 --> 00:54:16,447 you're going in to destroy the big bad thing, 1414 00:54:16,447 --> 00:54:18,530 and the big bad thing does horrible psychic damage 1415 00:54:18,530 --> 00:54:20,920 to all of your soldiers on the map every turn. 1416 00:54:20,920 --> 00:54:22,236 And she was losing horribly. 1417 00:54:22,236 --> 00:54:24,610 And the husband and wife team made it into the final room 1418 00:54:24,610 --> 00:54:28,750 with the big brain alien, and the wife runs in 1419 00:54:28,750 --> 00:54:32,330 and discovers the final boss. 1420 00:54:32,330 --> 00:54:35,380 And in XCOM, you had movement points. 1421 00:54:35,380 --> 00:54:39,780 So she went in and revealed the fog of war, here's the bad guy. 1422 00:54:39,780 --> 00:54:42,746 She has not enough movement points to run away. 1423 00:54:42,746 --> 00:54:44,620 And the husband, meanwhile, is at the doorway 1424 00:54:44,620 --> 00:54:47,260 with a rocket launcher. 1425 00:54:47,260 --> 00:54:49,420 And so apparently, Laura, the way she tells it, 1426 00:54:49,420 --> 00:54:52,620 she spent about 15 minutes having a conversation 1427 00:54:52,620 --> 00:54:55,097 between these two characters. 1428 00:54:55,097 --> 00:54:57,180 As the husband's like, I've got a rocket launcher, 1429 00:54:57,180 --> 00:54:58,980 get out of the way, honey. 1430 00:54:58,980 --> 00:55:01,375 And she's like, I don't have enough movement points, 1431 00:55:01,375 --> 00:55:03,500 fire the rockets. 1432 00:55:03,500 --> 00:55:04,720 I can't. 1433 00:55:04,720 --> 00:55:06,120 I'll kill you. 1434 00:55:06,120 --> 00:55:08,900 I'm going to die anway, fire the rocket. 1435 00:55:08,900 --> 00:55:10,950 And this goes back and forth until finally she 1436 00:55:10,950 --> 00:55:14,920 decides all right, boom, fires the rocket, 1437 00:55:14,920 --> 00:55:18,250 kills the person next to the big bad guy, and wins the game. 1438 00:55:18,250 --> 00:55:20,570 But again, this is because you had 1439 00:55:20,570 --> 00:55:23,130 a player who's very cooperative, something as simple 1440 00:55:23,130 --> 00:55:24,635 as the names actually helped. 1441 00:55:24,635 --> 00:55:27,260 Now, you can't guarantee you're going to get players like that. 1442 00:55:27,260 --> 00:55:28,756 But those players do exist. 1443 00:55:28,756 --> 00:55:30,630 And if it's easy to give them the opportunity 1444 00:55:30,630 --> 00:55:37,820 to have that awesome experience that she tells 20 years later, 1445 00:55:37,820 --> 00:55:38,510 do it. 1446 00:55:38,510 --> 00:55:42,122 It's relatively cheap. 1447 00:55:42,122 --> 00:55:42,840 All right. 1448 00:55:42,840 --> 00:55:44,060 That's it for lecture. 1449 00:55:44,060 --> 00:55:46,150 Any questions about any of this stuff 1450 00:55:46,150 --> 00:55:48,605 and how it applies to your games? 1451 00:55:48,605 --> 00:55:49,980 Anyone have an idea what they can 1452 00:55:49,980 --> 00:55:53,690 do in their game right now just thinking about any of this? 1453 00:55:53,690 --> 00:55:57,790 Has anybody thought about their title, at least? 1454 00:55:57,790 --> 00:55:58,490 Yes, now. 1455 00:56:03,270 --> 00:56:04,710 OK. 1456 00:56:04,710 --> 00:56:05,310 All right. 1457 00:56:05,310 --> 00:56:07,770 So take a couple minutes. 1458 00:56:07,770 --> 00:56:11,030 It's 2:03 right now, break. 1459 00:56:11,030 --> 00:56:12,920 Work in your teams, whatever that might be. 1460 00:56:12,920 --> 00:56:15,710 We've got a test coming in at 3:00, so be ready for the test 1461 00:56:15,710 --> 00:56:16,664 at 3:00. 1462 00:56:16,664 --> 00:56:18,580 I'll remind you maybe five minutes beforehand. 1463 00:56:21,485 --> 00:56:22,471 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]. 1464 00:56:36,275 --> 00:56:38,840 PROFESSOR: So everyone, raise your hand 1465 00:56:38,840 --> 00:56:41,680 if you are ready to test at a workstation, 1466 00:56:41,680 --> 00:56:43,370 if you are ready to test. 1467 00:56:43,370 --> 00:56:44,380 So I can count off. 1468 00:56:44,380 --> 00:56:46,380 Two, three, four. 1469 00:56:46,380 --> 00:56:49,940 One, two, one, two, kind of. 1470 00:56:49,940 --> 00:56:52,010 All right. 1471 00:56:52,010 --> 00:56:53,380 You get two more minutes. 1472 00:56:53,380 --> 00:56:56,020 Philip, you want to talk to? 1473 00:56:56,020 --> 00:56:58,424 PHILLIP TAN: May I speak to Ed's students, 1474 00:56:58,424 --> 00:57:00,090 I don't know if you're scattered around, 1475 00:57:00,090 --> 00:57:02,754 but it would help if you could meet up here. 1476 00:57:02,754 --> 00:57:03,420 You one of them? 1477 00:57:03,420 --> 00:57:07,360 Yeah, you can come here. 1478 00:57:07,360 --> 00:57:11,030 So the first thing I want to say is thank you so much for coming 1479 00:57:11,030 --> 00:57:14,470 and you may have overheard what Rick was saying earlier, 1480 00:57:14,470 --> 00:57:17,770 this is going to be our first digital playtest for the games. 1481 00:57:17,770 --> 00:57:19,710 There are five games, some of the teams 1482 00:57:19,710 --> 00:57:25,047 have multiple stations, and there's probably not 1483 00:57:25,047 --> 00:57:27,380 going to be enough computers for every single one of you 1484 00:57:27,380 --> 00:57:28,050 who are here. 1485 00:57:28,050 --> 00:57:29,640 So some of you may be waiting in line, 1486 00:57:29,640 --> 00:57:33,470 but please be patient with us, and we'll hopefully 1487 00:57:33,470 --> 00:57:37,980 get your feedback on at least one or two games, if not more. 1488 00:57:37,980 --> 00:57:41,920 It's good for you to give us feedback 1489 00:57:41,920 --> 00:57:43,670 while you are playing the game. 1490 00:57:43,670 --> 00:57:47,370 So if you are-- and the students will 1491 00:57:47,370 --> 00:57:50,070 get more specific about the kind of feedback that they need. 1492 00:57:50,070 --> 00:57:52,550 But if something's frustrating, if something's confusing, 1493 00:57:52,550 --> 00:57:56,660 if something's intriguing, or you really 1494 00:57:56,660 --> 00:58:01,410 think something looks cool or is an interesting decision, 1495 00:58:01,410 --> 00:58:03,880 try to verbalize it so that we can actually 1496 00:58:03,880 --> 00:58:07,870 realize that something's working or something's not working. 1497 00:58:07,870 --> 00:58:10,400 Don't worry about our egos at this point. 1498 00:58:10,400 --> 00:58:13,870 We absolutely need the harshest criticism 1499 00:58:13,870 --> 00:58:16,040 that you can possibly give us at this point, 1500 00:58:16,040 --> 00:58:17,960 because it's easy for us to change things 1501 00:58:17,960 --> 00:58:19,470 at this point of our project. 1502 00:58:19,470 --> 00:58:22,270 If we learned about the same things that bother you 1503 00:58:22,270 --> 00:58:24,994 two weeks from now, reversing all of those changes 1504 00:58:24,994 --> 00:58:25,910 is going to be harder. 1505 00:58:25,910 --> 00:58:29,255 So please be harsh now. 1506 00:58:29,255 --> 00:58:34,480 Other than that, if anything is confusing, do of course 1507 00:58:34,480 --> 00:58:36,530 vocalize it. 1508 00:58:36,530 --> 00:58:41,510 But the people who are making the game 1509 00:58:41,510 --> 00:58:43,960 may not tell you what to do next, 1510 00:58:43,960 --> 00:58:46,830 because they want to see if you can figure it out. 1511 00:58:46,830 --> 00:58:49,920 If you can't figure it out, that's not a problem with you, 1512 00:58:49,920 --> 00:58:51,840 that's a problem with the game. 1513 00:58:51,840 --> 00:58:55,350 But they need to be able to see you sort of muddle 1514 00:58:55,350 --> 00:58:58,430 through what's already there in order to figure out 1515 00:58:58,430 --> 00:59:00,260 how to fix it later. 1516 00:59:00,260 --> 00:59:02,304 So if you do start getting frustrated, of course, 1517 00:59:02,304 --> 00:59:04,470 you can always say, I'm done with this game and move 1518 00:59:04,470 --> 00:59:06,051 on to another game. 1519 00:59:06,051 --> 00:59:07,592 PROFESSOR: That's a very valid datum. 1520 00:59:07,592 --> 00:59:09,010 That's a very valid datum. 1521 00:59:09,010 --> 00:59:11,040 PHILLIP TAN: Yeah, that's very valid data. 1522 00:59:11,040 --> 00:59:13,422 It's like, I'm done, no more. 1523 00:59:13,422 --> 00:59:14,380 That's absolutely fine. 1524 00:59:14,380 --> 00:59:16,592 It would be great to be able to then tell 1525 00:59:16,592 --> 00:59:20,600 the students why you're done. 1526 00:59:20,600 --> 00:59:23,537 Maybe it's because you feel like you've 1527 00:59:23,537 --> 00:59:25,370 seen everything there is to see into a game, 1528 00:59:25,370 --> 00:59:28,020 and that's very different from, I have no idea what's going on. 1529 00:59:28,020 --> 00:59:30,080 That's two different reasons to leave a game, 1530 00:59:30,080 --> 00:59:34,440 and they need to know what that reason is. 1531 00:59:34,440 --> 00:59:40,220 Otherwise this, by the way, it is Creating Video Games. 1532 00:59:40,220 --> 00:59:42,944 It's 6-- what's the course number? 1533 00:59:42,944 --> 00:59:43,610 PROFESSOR: 6073. 1534 00:59:43,610 --> 00:59:48,750 PHILLIP TAN: 6073 or CMS 611. 1535 00:59:48,750 --> 00:59:51,940 As a course it is joined humanities and computer 1536 00:59:51,940 --> 00:59:52,600 science. 1537 00:59:52,600 --> 00:59:55,440 And it runs the full semester, students actually 1538 00:59:55,440 --> 00:59:57,696 work on four projects for the entire semester. 1539 00:59:57,696 --> 01:00:00,320 But the first three are really, really short two week projects, 1540 01:00:00,320 --> 01:00:04,364 and this is kind of like the mega big project. 1541 01:00:04,364 --> 01:00:06,649 PROFESSOR: If you have questions about the class, 1542 01:00:06,649 --> 01:00:07,106 feel free to grab us. 1543 01:00:07,106 --> 01:00:08,680 We're the instructors, we can answer those questions for you. 1544 01:00:08,680 --> 01:00:11,590 PHILLIP TAN: This is Rick, I'm Phillip, you all know Ed, 1545 01:00:11,590 --> 01:00:15,500 and Sarah and Paulina are over there. 1546 01:00:15,500 --> 01:00:19,006 Just look for any one of us and we'll be happy to help. 1547 01:00:19,006 --> 01:00:21,950 PROFESSOR: So playtest workstations, 1548 01:00:21,950 --> 01:00:25,260 stand up if you are a computer that someone 1549 01:00:25,260 --> 01:00:28,850 can come to to play your game, and testers in the back, 1550 01:00:28,850 --> 01:00:30,750 stand up if you are a test station. 1551 01:00:30,750 --> 01:00:33,940 And testers please go find a standing person 1552 01:00:33,940 --> 01:00:34,790 and play their game. 1553 01:00:34,790 --> 01:00:37,840 AUDIENCE: See what's currently active on the sign. 1554 01:00:37,840 --> 01:00:39,268 AUDIENCE: OK. 1555 01:00:39,268 --> 01:00:40,696 And it's going to come up. 1556 01:00:44,028 --> 01:00:48,450 AUDIENCE: So for improvements, I figured out what to do. 1557 01:00:48,450 --> 01:00:51,140 I think the instructions are clear this time.