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At this
year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Dr. Greg Zeschuk,
one of the joint CEOs of BioWare, explained the role of stories in videogames
such as Baldur's Gate and the forthcoming Jade Empire, detailing
the process that takes place at BioWare to generate the narrative component
for their games. Being a studio that prides itself of the depth and immersiveness
of their titles (some of them boasting well over a hundred hours of gameplay
in story-mode), it was a deep, exhaustive session where many perspectives
on story-making were observed.
Zeschuk
started by stating BioWare's compromise with story-based games: the studio
has a permanent staff of writers, most of which have published in traditional
media before. Thus, when a project is started, BioWare spends well over
one year just world-building, to make sure the universe they are trying
to make is coherent and provides room for interaction. Then the story
arcs are built, and only after this stage does the content pipeline actually
create the assets for the game world.
The Story
Blueprint
Story at
BioWare is constructed according to a story blueprint that has been devised
and refined through the years. Following this blueprint, the story should
commence with an introduction, which accounts for less than one percent
of the actual play time. This is often an intro movie, or an interactive
but simple level which establishes the mood and setting of the game (the
train rides at Half-Life 1 and 2 are perfect examples).
From this introduction story should move on to the prelude, which is about
five percent of play time. The prelude tells the player who he is, what
his goals are, and gives a short tutorial on how to control the action.
The city of Candlekeep in Baldur's Gate, or the train station at
Half-Life 2 would be examples here. By having a prelude you can
ensure the player actually reaches a minimum set of skills before embarking
in the adventure. Preludes can be linear or non-linear, depending on game
design, but they actually have an exit condition which gives access to
the third portion of the story, which is the Linear Start.
In the Linear
Start, players embark on their first adventures in the game world. As
such, they should be guided towards clear objectives, and thus this phase
tends to be linear. Irenicus Dungeon in Baldur's Gate 2 would be
an excellent example of this stage, which approximately takes ten percent
of the play time. From there, the player enters the Wide Open World, which
is the middle segment of the game, encomprising about seventy percent
of the play time. Here the game unfolds in a nonlinear way, combining
quests, exploration, and both linear and non-linear segments. Knights
of the Old Republic by BioWare worked this way, while Doom 3,
with its almost corridor-like advance, would be a clear exception. By
using this approach, the game gives a greater illusion of freedom and
exploration.
To complete
the journey, Zeschuk suggested the use of a Linear Finale, accounting
for approximately fifteen percent of the gameplay. KOTOR is again
an example, while games such as the Grand Theft Auto series are
exceptions.
Once the
blueprint was set, Zeschuk explored dialogs and characters. For their
new Jade Empire, he said they crafted 340,000 words of dialog,
in more than 300 speaking parts for NPCs alone. But dialog without emotion
is nothing, and so BioWare is currently very interested in the field of
virtual actors. So far, they have integrated lip-synching, autonomous
facial animation, emotional responses, procedural body movements and NPC
intelligence to raise the bar with regards to character realism and interaction.
In a short demo from Jade Empire attendees could see all this in
action, in a three-way conversation between characters full of cinematography
and virtual drama.
According
to BioWare, their NPCs can be classified in a set of predefined character
types, with regards to their role in the story. Among others, this list
of archetypical characters includes the Villain, the Henchman, the Love
Interest, the One-Liner, the Information-Giver, the Rival, etc. By classifying
them, they can streamline their use and easily understand the implications
of each one.
As a series
of interesting story telling techniques, Zeschuk mentioned telling the
story of the player not directly, but through the reactions of NPCs towards
him: we can show the character is someone of importance by just making
NPCs react in a certain way to his presence. This technique has been used
in games like Fable or even Half-Life 2, saving lots of
dialog or exposition text.
The BioWare
Rules for Story
Finally,
Zeschuk explained what makes BioWare different with regards of story telling
in three factors. First, he spoke about player influence: all BioWare
stories orbit around the player, who is the center of everything. He even
mentioned BioWare believed in the concept of games providing a sort of
fantasy fulfillment, allowing you to become your secret dreams and desires.
The second factor that sets BioWare apart is personalization of the story.
All BioWare games allow the player a certain level of non-linearity, often
linked to moral choices he must take during the course of the adenture.
By doing this, the player is actually asserting who does he or she want
to be within the game: a good or evil character, a hero or a villain.
In Jade Empire this can notably be seen in the two sides: the way
of the Open Hand and the way of the Closed Fist. Last, he spoke about
the non-linearity present in all BioWare games. While he said a story-based
game needs to have a story by nature, he said at BioWare they believe
in non-linearity with guidance, this is, a linear story that can be advanced
in non-linear ways. An example architecture for this would be a central
hub location used to acquire new quests, and several non-linear satellite
locations where actual adventuring takes place.
Conclusion
As a final
statement, Zeschuk stated that stories need not be genre-specific, and
all genres can be greatly improved by a high-quality story. Story will
require some engine features (a dialog system, in-game cinematics and
actors, mainly), and should never be added at the very end just to add
purpose to the gameplay: it should be planned early on, and add the gameplay
that best fits each narrative segment.
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