CALLUM COLLINS:
Exegesis Working Doc
GAME AND SOUND DESIGNER
Research Question/hunch
How does narrative in games affect the emotions of players
Keywords:
Game Design
Narrative
Emotion
Player Engagement
Sound Design
Hunting and Gathering
Wang, Hengbo. "Dear Diary: an investigation of emotionally engaging computer game narratives". Auckland University of Technology. (2015).
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In this exegesis, Wang discusses the connection between the different types of interactive narrative and how they affect player engagement and emotions. The two critical contexts of his contextual review were "Story vs Narrative" which describes the difference between the two and how they are connected; and "Ludology and Narratology" where he discusses the difference between the two fields of game study and how his research will be positioned in relation to these fields.
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The contexts that I found in this review were:
Narrative structure
Ludology
Narratology
Ludo-narratological
Storytelling
Narrative Play
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Some references that I will look into further from this exegesis are:
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Aarseth, E (2012). A Narrative Theory of Games. In Proceedings of the International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games. New York
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Salen, K., & Zimmerman, E. (2004). Rules of Play: Game design fundamentals. MIT press.
Updated research question
How can I design interactive narratives in games using [methods] to elicit an emotional response from the player?
Updated Keywords
Game Design
Interactive Narrative
Emotional Response
Player Engagement
Narrative Play
Psychoacoustics
Mapping my contexts
How can I design interactive narrative in games to elicit an emotional response from the player
Interactive narrative
player engagement
game design
narrative play
Emotional Response
psychoacoustics
Eduardo Coutinho
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Nicola Dibben
Hengbo wang
Narratology
Ludology
Speech prosody in game writing
Fredrick Aldama
Annotations
Erik Geslin, Laurent Jégou, Danny Beaudoin. "How Colour Properties can be used to elicit emotions in video games", International Journal of Computer Games Technology, vol. 2016. https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/5182768
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Keywords
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Emotional Environment
Emotional Valence
Colour Properties
Contextual Stimuli
Game Design
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Summary
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This article details the methods used to elicit emotional responses from players with a focus on colour and colour properties. The emotional environment of a game is created by optimising the state of flow, which is not limited to but includes, the ratios of challenge, boredom and engagement. The argument in this context is to prove the relationship between emotions and different colour properties; for example, the relationship between saturation and brightness and joy/sadness and the valence of these feelings. The authors measure this by targeting specific emotions and measuring the valence of that emotion, this shows how effective different colour properties are at triggering emotions.
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Assessment
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The authors of this context take a very objective approach by first recognising that the study of emotions and colour is entirely subjective based on the player's past experiences and how they perceive colour. Despite the subjective nature of the field, the methods outlined in this context highlighted an overlap between colour properties and emotions with relative certainty. The references cover a wide range of contexts across game design and neuroscience, however, one of the references is from one of the authors of the article.
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Reflection
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Using this research and the methods provided I can better understand the role of colour in design and factor that into my own research as an influence alongside narrative and sound design. The authors suggest focussing on a particular emotion and designing for that response. I can apply this to my own practice by creating prototypes surrounding different emotions to see which are more effective based on the valence of the emotional response.
Stephane Bura. "Emotional Engineering: A Scientific Approach For Understanding Game Appeal", Gamastura 2008. https://gamasutra.com/view/feature/3738/emotional_engineering_a_scientific_.php?print=1
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Keywords
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Interactivity
Gameplay Variables
Player Choice (Informed, Meaningful, Irreversible)
Emotion Engineering (nurturing instinct, Flow, being hunted)
Game Design
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Summary
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This context details the game design choices surrounding player choice and interactivity and how this alone can be used to engineer specific emotional responses from players; without the need for story or sound influences that are inherently emotional. The author analyses the different types of player choice and compares them against the design elements of freedom, mastery and data or rules. The process of analysing a game using this model is explained clearly and the author uses several examples to further explain how the model works.
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Assessment
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While the text itself is quite informal, it does reference a wide range of academic sources and I agree with the methods used. Since the study of emotion and interactivity is subjective, I found the static nature of the categories and systems described to be a solid foundation for further research. These categories are also flexible depending on the game being analysed as some variables may overlap across multiple categories. The model described in this article accounts for this. The games used as examples are all from different genres, showing the diversity of the model and proving that it can be applied to games regardless of their content/genre.
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Reflection
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I think it would be interesting to look at games that influence me and try to critically reflect on them using the model described. This way I can identify what variables and categories are important to me in a game and perhaps simplify the model so that I can compare my results to others who have played the same game. If this is a success, then I can use the model with my own games and collect data from playtesting to help iterate on my prototypes.
Thomas, K. "In the Games of Madness: 4 Layers, A Narrative Design Approach" Frictional Games (2014). https://frictionalgames.blogspot.com/2014/04/4-layers-narrative-design-approach.html
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Keywords
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Interactive Narrative
Storytelling
Narrative Goals
Mental Modeling
Emotional Significance (Assets)
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Summary
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In this blog post, Thomas from Frictional Games outlines the 4 layer approach to designing interactive narrative that they have used successfully in the past to create emotionally engaging games. The idea is to break "narrative" down into small interconnected parts and categorise them so that the designer can critically reflect on the individual elements of the interactive narrative, to refine these design elements more effectively on an intimate level. This helps the designer think about narrative as a design element, rather than as a byproduct of well-designed game elements.
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Assessment
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I personally think the arguments in this article are sound however since this is just the process that one single company uses to create their games, and as such, it's open to interpretation. They do, however, compare their 4 layer approach to other games in the article, stating why well-received story games may not necessarily have good narratives.
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Reflection
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I will use this article to help me break down "interactive narrative" as a context and further refine my research question. This should help me refine my research overall and if I can experiment with this 4 layer approach in my own prototypes then this could be a very valuable context for me. The only problem with this article is its lack of external source material. There is some further reading available on the concept of narrative but not on the game design techniques described in the 4 layer approach.
Formative assessment
Paragraph Writing
Context
Text References
Expand using worldview, personal ideas
Using sound as a narrative device in game design, using level design.
"Instrumental music consists of a series of events - To treat these events as behaviour, as actions."¹ By aligning musical notes with gameplay events, the narrative of play can be expressed.
In platformer games, the gameplay narrative is created using "Rhythm Groups" made up of platforms, obstacles, items and triggers.² By thinking of sound design in relation to these rhythm groups, I can use level design as a narrative device. This gives every level, area, and the game overall a narrative to engage the player.³
Citations:
1: Fred Everett Maus. "Music as Narrative". Indiana University Press. 1991
2: Smith Et Al. "Launchpad: A Rhythm-Based Level Generator for 2-D Platformers". COMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND AI IN GAMES, VOL. 3, NO. 1, MARCH 2011
3: Matt Thorson. "Level Design Workshop: Designing Celeste". GDC. 2017
Paragraph:
By examining the relationship between sound design and level design, in relation to rhythm groups², I believe narrative can be created or strengthened. Within the context of sound and music, each note or progression can be thought of as a character or event in a story.¹ A relationship between this and rhythm groups in games, described by Smith Et Al as "short, nonoverlapping sets of components that encapsulate an area of challenge. Each rhythm group consists of a rhythm of player actions, and level geometry that corresponds to that rhythm.", can be explored by designing sound and levels in unison. This unison of game elements will strengthen the level narrative on a moment by moment scale, engaging the player more effectively.
Draft Contextual Review
Abstract:
Game design is a new and emerging academic field. As it is still young, there is a lack of universal terminology to describe the procedures and practices.[1] When game design overlaps with sound design, the vocabulary is even more diffuse.[2] Despite the lack of a formal language, research in the game sound field persists because of the artifacts produced and their documentation. This research seeks to further game sound research by producing artifacts that will serve as case studies for other designers and researchers. These artifacts will take the form of game prototypes and explore game sound design and discover what techniques and tools effectively realise the potential of sound as a narrative device, and engage the player emotionally in that narrative. This research will include case studies from developers, Thatgamescompany and Playdead. These case studies will form the basis of ideation for the prototypes and serve as a reference during iteration and development.
[1] “the common discourse about these methods is quite diffuse. Within the game industry, and to a lesser extent within game research too, there is no fixed vocabulary.”
Petri Lankiski. Jussi Holopainen. "Game Design Research." ETC Press. 2017
[2] “Academic writing about game sound, its analytical and theoretical drivers , is a developing area and this is reflected by the diversity of theoretical methodologies and the variety of terminology in use.”
Mark Grimshaw. "Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments." University of Bolton, UK. 2011