Always fun to see people I know really well in the industry getting recognition -- like winning awards and being on cool panels. This one was quite inspiring, working with Ken & Greg in the past has been fantastic and I can't wait to see where they go next (and Ray is pretty inspiring as well).
Ken Levine
Greg LoPiccolo
Ray Muzyka
Q&A Panel
Narrative. All 3 games handle it in their own unique ways. Were there doubts on pulling it off? Bioshock had different goals than Mass Effect. Tell as much of the story in the world and visually, as well as making it optional for the player. Different levels – the player to delve deeply vs the average gamer just being about to enjoy it without taking a course about it. How do we tell a story where much of it is optional, and much of it is suggestive rather than being spelled out. All these games are different, from implied narrative to glorious hugeness. All valid approaches, great that the industry is learning how to tell these stories in different ways.
Definition of what narrative is, is evolving. Where is it going to be in 5. 10. 15 years. Open possibility space vs closed possibility space. Oblivion open, emergent narrative where players define their own narrative. Bioware in the middle, flows but directed. RB and Bioshock more directed, it is linear, tight and polished with a narrative flow. How the expression of narrative – text, voiceover, but also pacing and gameplay. In Bioshock you are a participant in the space to see the narrative unfold. We know we succeeded before launch if the people who made it are all still having different experiences.
Level of polish on the digital actors makes a big difference too. Ultimately about these emotions and experiences. This year at the awards it was about games of emotion, convey at a level that wasn’t sustained before.
Convey narrative in different ways. Expressed in different ways. Narrative of story and characters, or of multiplayer, or of the community entirely external to the game. Narrative of gameplay as it unfolds. Progression and customization of characters to make it intimate and personal. Narrative of combat (boxing game). Exciting to see how many are reaching new levels of quality.
Civilization is a game with a great narrative. No dialogue but “damn those Scots!”, the narrative that the player forms through their own gameplay. Abstract but it is a narrative. The more we move into spaces that are uniquely ours, the future lies there. Narrative of character growth – everyone remembers the moments they have in Azeroth, growing their characters. Narratives without words.
RB has loading screens and a map, in comparison to these big opuses with lots of words. Pragmatic goal in narrative, to bond people together emotionally in a band. Experience within the song working well, but wanted a toolkit to make a longer term emotional investment in the band. So ripped off the RPG design tools and simplified them and put them in the band mode. All about the emotion, to create that bond between players. Because people understand how bands work they can use a lot of shortcuts with the loading screens, and simple choices about fans and where to go. Ending up being enough.
Loading screens being personalized to reflect your own visual choices had an impact. Wasn’t just arbitrary, player had participation in those loading screens. “Well, it was all we had time and budget for.” Building these little vignettes about being broke down in the desert with their van.
Where is the line between taking suggestions to enrich the story, and making sure the story doesn’t go off into left field? Went back and looked at the original designs, and they were totally insane, covering huge swaths of time. So lots of paring things down, 5 characters into 1, removing notions altogether. Every character in the game became an expression of an idea, a particular meme in the game. Sander Cohen, the doctor in the first level. Limit the amount of ideas but sell those ideas really well through focus. Wanted people to be able to follow the story without cliffs notes. An exercise in discipline.
Building a foundation between projects, trying to advance the art. For Bioware these are difficult choices. Collaborative, so hard to say where you are making the exact decisions. Meritocracy of ideas, very humble and willing to change course. Dedicated game writers help. A lot come from linear media, and not everyone can make that leap. 6 months to a year of building the body of knowledge about the IP. World has to feel real. Most of the content ultimately created in 6 months to a year, the real work is creating the world. Iceberg, 90% of the work never seen by the fans, they only see the tip. The games resonate for a few reasons: activity chains and how they interact with the story. Always seeking improvement on that narrative flow. Expression comes from that foundation of knowledge, which makes it feel real. That’s the key to why they resonate, there is a universe we really built. Makes it ring true, even if it is just a small line.
Sculptors start with big piece of stone and they chip away. Game creators have to build the stone first, make a giant rock then bring out your chisel. Sometimes you ship with mistakes. Usually the problem is that people don’t chip away enough. Natural to want to protect your babies. If you write it you want it to get to the audience. Every artist needs an editor. In the Thief days that was a big deal, fleshing out the environment. But we had the toolkit so when people wanted to reach into the narrative space they could.
How did you decide how far to go with the music story experience in RB? Do you see having more of an RPG experience eventually? Kind of something they are debating right now. Sticking with the T rating takes a lot of content right off the table about the rock and roll experience. It’s a performance simulator not an RPG, so cautious of that. But could see stretching it a little.
Every game in a sense is an RPG, aren’t you always roleplaying in some degree? Embrace it, let people aspire to things they cannot do in everyday life. Bioshock is focused, but RB is fragmented – map doesn’t have to do with performance. How much can go in there before it dilutes the experience? Games are about a core fantasy. But that was a problem in Bioshock, what was the core fantasy there? The player being a cipher was a happy accident of never bothering to build the main character. Who doesn’t’ want to be a tool in a failed objectivist utopia. Maybe more about the everyman thrown into an environment. Responding to the environment.
Marketing guys “who is on the cover of the game”. Do players think they are the big daddy? An issue not having a person to hang the game on. Bioware struggles with that too, ME one of the first games where they had a defined character, but that didn’t reflect the customizable character. In the past focused on villains, which is a problem since you kill them off, and don’t always work as marketing focus. Can be hard to tell a story if the player can be whoever they want to be. All expressions equally valid.
Hard to do, requires a generosity of spirit. Levine much more greedy / lazy want to write a specific thing. Even harder for Oblivion, story is whatever you want it to be. Astonished that it worked as well as it did.
How do you wrestle with your message and telling it vs the T rating in RB. How do you balance art vs commerce? Bioware trying to think of both. Core stakeholders: employees need creative passion, customers have to have some fantasy aspiration, and businessmen, have to be able to sustain that business. Constraint is your friend. You can make any kind of game about anything, and that can be paralyzing. Having those constraints let you decide whether something serves the core or not.
Someone hands you 20 million, you have a lot of responsibility to get that paid back. You have to sell games ultimately, when 2 million people buy your games that indicates you are doing something right. LG didn’t sell a lot of games but they were loved, but you have to find both. Take that responsibility seriously. Empowering, keeps you honest about what you are making. Are people going to look at this and say “OMG that so awesome”. Maybe sounds stupid, but easy to get caught up in your systemic work. Job is to amaze people. If you amaze them they’ll buy the thing. Empowering to be ambitious. Not just selling, but to be inspiring. Inspire the teams, inspire the people buying your game.
Q: Everything we do is about story, literature about that in psychology. Narrative is much broader than just words. Social experience, so many things. The notion of the unreliable narrator was very exciting and inspiring to the Bioshock guys.
Q: If you could change anything about your games, what would it be? What kept it from happening? RB: online band world tour, was just a resource issue. Bioshock: underestimated how important narrative was going to be, that Ryan scene with nothing of that impact afterwards was a failure. That mystery was really important to people. Bioshock could have used some “make the great joke then get out”. Fight Club wrap things up quickly once the mystery is out. Bioware: shorten the phase of learning. Favorite moment when the galaxy opens up, want to be able to start at that point more quickly.