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[Former EA and THQ design director Lopez continues his analytical series by looking at pacing in games versus films and TV, explaining how careful planning can produce a perfect intensity curve for games. In the next installment of Gameplay Fundamentals, Lopez will focus on how to build a pacing structure which can sustain the interest of gamers over the course of your title -- focusing on nine key points that will improve pacing and increase engagement.]
My initial Gameplay
Fundamentals article was oriented towards the macro concept of
gameplay progression in a campaign or career and how environmental content
should be planned and structured from level to level to support such a
progression in all areas (mechanics, duration, ancillary awards, practical
rewards and difficulty).
But the need to plan and structure
environmental content does not only support the concept of progression; the
structured environment plan is also very critical to the concepts of game
intensity and pacing at both the mission and campaign level.
All of the more
mature entertainment industries (movie, TV and books) successfully use
structured intensity and pacing to build the ultimate experience, and we should look to them for relevant lessons on both emotional control and production
efficiency.
The top Hollywood blockbuster movies, such
as the James
Bond films have successfully been utilizing intensity and
pacing structure for at least the last 30 years now, so we can learn a lot
about their techniques for how they pre-plan and structure the action into
their movies.
While movies and even written fiction have
some strong lessons to teach the game industry about pacing, it is really the
modern TV drama that lends our closest and most relevant comparison, where a
single episode is akin to a game level, mission, or course, and an entire season
to an entire campaign or career.
Just as the amazing teams on the top TV
dramas 24,
Prison
Break and Lost carefully pre-structure the plot and
shoot sequences to maximize the intensity and pacing, I believe that the games with
the highest quality experiences (Ratchet
& Clank, Splinter Cell, Halo, Zelda, Metal Gear Solid,
etc.) have carefully structured their single-player level content to precisely
control the pacing and to ratchet up the intensity.
In fact, if we designers are hoping
to deliver an experience as delightfully exciting and enjoyable as Lost, Prison
Break, or 24, we
need to begin during pre-production by pre-planning a carefully structured
intensity and pacing plan for all environments, levels, or courses.
Then, as
discussed in my initial article, we
need to create an overall gameplay progression plan to ensure that the
challenge and gameplay experience progressively increase throughout the entire
campaign or career.
Predicting
Intensity
Fig. 1: The Green Intensity Curve will produce the greater
excitement.
To illustrate the
benefits of structured intensity
and pacing, let's look at an
intensity graph. An average intensity graph for a single segment of entertainment
(e.g. an episode of a show or a level of a game) would display an ever
increasing curve, where the rate of growth is increasing over time (the black
arc in Figure 1).
In practice,
however, a perfectly arced intensity is impossible to attain since the intensity
of entertainment is always fluctuating -- and a perfect curve is even
undesirable since it lacks any contrast. Peaks in intensity occur during
exciting events, and troughs occur during lull periods lacking in excitement
or action. It is in fact the contrast between the two which makes the
action super riveting, exciting and satisfying.
Although both
graphs in Fig. 1 have the same
building intensity overall, the green graph will provide a much more exciting
and satisfying experience; the contrast between the peaceful calm and the
intense action will punctuate and maximize the impact of the events.
In the green graph of Fig. 1 above, the intensity is the excitement magnitude of
the event and the pacing is the frequency between similarly intense events
(peak to peak or trough to trough).
In the real entertainment world, the term "pacing"
is often used in a broader sense that encompasses both the rhythm of events and
the magnitude of intensity, so we will follow that convention moving forward
-- except where we specifically indicate the intensity component separate from the
time and distance pacing.
Movie Structure
Any movie review
which proclaims the experience is "a rollercoaster ride" is usually
a good indication that the intensity and pacing are well structured and
executed in the film.
So, how exactly
does Hollywood structure the
intensity and pacing for a blockbuster film? Simple -- they plan out a
relative intensity graph which shows an initial spike, then a wave with
incrementally increasing peaks and troughs.
Next they come up with the key
action or excitement scenes which they order in terms of the magnitude of
impact. Usually, they set these events to occur around the transition from
one act to another; this event sequencing fits within the three-act
structure (Figure 2)
that includes a setup act (optionally preceded by a prologue), a
confrontation act, and a final resolution act.
Fig. 2: A Blockbuster Intensity Graph
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On another note, the notion that dramatic intensity is something that can be defined without story is wholly false. Sure with classic games like "Virtual Pinball" it might apply that a ‘game’ or 'level' designer would create a level for intense pinball, or FPS, action, but in today's development world it doesn't apply.
Modern interactive entertainment needs a synergistic approach whereby narrative is developed along side gameplay, so that play mechanics are deeply intertwined with story, and vica versa. While multiplayer modes might be a great place to emphasize pure play and system mechanics, singleplayer modes of play and co-op campaigns are what really drive most game sales. As such, narrative design is essential to creating the dramatic intensity you speak of, traditional gameplay unto itself is not the place to craft drama or the catharsis that experiences like "24" or "Prison Break" provide. We need Narrative Design from the get go so that any peak in dramatic intensity is a moment designed out of the tight integration of story and play elements; it is only in this way that we will be able to craft the kinds of interactive experiences that viewers/users/players are and will be looking for, in today and tomorrows market.
"A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter Miller
http://books.google.com/books?id=k53eZ2ARZPwC&dq=canticle+for+leibowitz&pg=PP1&o
ts=Enrfe0azOo&source=bn&sig=nmkkkfxGW1Tx3CyAnafTQrfTyUE&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_resul
t&resnum=4&ct=result
In games if you have not hooked the player in the first 5 minutes you are not going to convert the renters and demo players into buyers. Perhaps this is a sad commentary on American attention spans, but it remains a crucial fact of the business of making games.
I agree completely that narrative needs to come early and be evolved with gameplay and hopefully that will be clarified in Part II. Too often the narrative is not evolved with the level design and comes either so late it has to be shoehorned into the gameplay or so early it does not leverage the level gameplay that emerges towards the end of the project.
Also this is a structured design process that I believe can be applied especially well to the single player modes of action and racing games with large level design content needs and so thus would not apply to other genres as you note (sports, classic arcade, puzzle, etc.).
Ironically I was a jr. designer building tables for Virtual Pinball. :)
Creating spikes in tension is possible using these "cheating" methods. Adding bigger bosses or more fireballs will create the illusion of mapping onto the ideal narrative arc you've mapped. At the end of the day, however, people aren't stupid, and they will recognize these as cheats unless these spikes in tension are grounded with REAL stakes tied to REAL story twists and turns. Thus, even if you carefully design the gameplay to amp up, people will continue to experience the disjointed structure of games you describe if the story isn't tied to the intensity arc. For example, playing Final Fantasy VII I've never heard anyone comment on their powers at higher level -- everyone remembers the moment where Aeris dies (I'm nice about no spoilers, aren't I?). The ideal situation would have been to make this an epic moment from both a gameplay standpoint and a story standpoint.
Anne's assertion that we can't just try to trick people using intensity is spot-on; while we are illusion weavers we need to make sure that our peaks in intensity are believable and payoff for the player, while I think using the term "cheating" might be strong, when intensity rises are purposeful and rewarding it causes the player to keep playing, and in some cases keep buying! :)
Good gamestories only live through play.
I hear where Anne is coming from. My belief is that there is far too much reuse of generic events in games these days and as a player I feel let down when I recognize the monotony of constantly repeated gameplay.
I think everything will be more clear in Part II next week, but the idea is to define and implement unique action events that stand on their own and that contrast with the intensity of the gameplay before and after. The intention is very much to prevent gameplay elements from feeling like cheap insertions and the way to do that is through action event diversity and pacing.
Just a thought, it also seems that one of the key aspects of this 'building intensity' idea (aside from narrative and plot progression - and in our case 'events') that often gets left behind is visual intensity - intensity that arises from the player's movement through a game's visual space itself. While narrative aspects are a huge part of what makes a film or a tv show a pleasurable and a well paced experience, without the appropriate aesthetic reinforcement, more often than not, the experience can turn into a bit of a dud.
Thanks again for your work on this piece.
To help make those intensity ramps work, Act 1, following the Prologue, should be the setup during which we find out who the Protagonist is, who the enemy are and what is the reality of the world we find ourselves in. By the end of Act 1, the Protagonist encounters a challenge which forces him/her to act in extraordinary ways, triggering a journey against insurmountable odds. Act 2 adheres to the ebb and flow outlined by Mr. Lopez with ever-increasing intensity. The end of Act 2 finds our character nearly beaten and so-near-yet-so-far from completing the mission as the confluence of seemingly unbeatable odds makes success seem impossible. A great Act 3 finds our character unlocking some hidden potential or discovering a tool or method for overcoming the adversities which allow him to rise above the challenges. Act 3, as Mr. Lopez so rightly noted, is all about the final confrontation and ultimate success of the mission. But Act 3 does not end with this ultimate success. Let’s not forget the dénouement, a critical element of a great screenplay. This gives the writers a chance to explain the remaining mysteries, resolve the conflicts and exact justice providing the player an emotional release. Are we done? Not quite yet. Let’s not forget the last moment’s cliffhanger – the eyelid opening on the dead or the return of the enemy’s vengeful tribe – to setup the sequel.
How do we achieve that emotional connection? Great dialog for sympathetic characters who respond in believable, admirable ways to the challenges they face. And, of course, great music, sufficiently interactive, which triggers the emotionally appropriate response in the player.
For those who did not attend Brian Upton's excellent GDC 2007 lecture on Narrative Landscapes, try to get a hold of the archive video (your company does buy those, right?). His exceptional lessons from theme park design and urban planning provide all the tools a team needs to manipulate this layer. While out of the scope of this article I do reference visual intensity control in Part II and provide a link to Brian's lecture summary.
This is not an irrelevant distinction. There is probably little value to be obtained from maximizing tension that would be created if the game's narrative was a movie if the actual playing of the game does not create a similar tension profile.
This article, in my opinion, seems to take that blurry indistiction and run with it. Games are not movies or novels - it is important to remember this. Movies and novels can be successful in controlling tension only to the extent that they control the degree of interaction between the observer and the observed. Taken to it's extreme, the point of view advocated here would endorse the practice of removing interactive control from the user so long as the illusion of interactive control could be maintained.
Another way to look at it. Consider the relative tension levels across time as a child plays in a sandpit. Of course they do not rise systematically through time. Now suppose we interupted play periodically to tell the child another chapter of the story... we might get some degree of effectively rising tension... now go further and imagine that we decide when to tell the next part of the narrative depending upon the actions of the child... maybe you can see that we have probably lost too much control over flow of the narrative for any explicit attempt to control the tension to be meaningful. This last situation is somewhat analogous to the obstacle confronting a game developer when attempting to control the flow of tension in a game.
Lest my criticism be construed as simply to apply to cutscene based games, i'll just make explicit the breadth of the point. The flow of the game is controlled by the player whereever the actions of the player can alter the rate of progress of the game. Tautilogical, but it is the point. If the player can fail to conquer a level - if that is possible in the game - then that player can alter the temporial structure of the game, which intrinsically influences the flow of tension for that player with that game. If the player can spend time exploring a portion of the world you have created, then that player has also altered the temporial structure of the game. Whenever a player has any degree of control over the flow of the game, precise control of tension (as is practiced in cinemagraphic production) becomes impossible. It becomes a self deception to imagine it is important and a waste of resources to attempt to control it. When this article discusses the flow and pace of a game, the role of the player in regulating that pace is completely overlooked, whilst in practice the ability of the player to regulate that pace which has the largest implications for the ability or lack thereof for the designer to control the pace of the game.
I'm not trying to say that all tension management in games is mistaken... On the contrary, where it can be done, it should. However, there are theoretical constraints upon the ability of the author to control the flow of any interactive medium - these constraints are at their highest in the most interactive mediums, like games. The point that I initially set out to write about is that this article seems to take the wisdom of narrative design and attempt to apply it to game design way past the point where it continues to make sense...
I am not suggesting one can control the pacing perfectly for every player and I am a firm proponent of letting players play the game however they like. Will every consumer play the same and get the same value out of a structured level or mission experience? Certainly not, but we have all experienced the alternative of ill planned pacing and level structure in games and often that is one of the major factors causing a player to become bored with a title as the rhythm of gameplay becomes predictable and unmotivating.
All scientific discussion of theoretical constraints aside the question developers should ask themselves is whether they will be better off trying to structure the pacing and level content in a way that works for the majority of user play habits in the places we know they will eventually pass (i.e. in the missions of an open-world game). All 17 years of my experience tell me that the product will be better off with structured pacing and level content and in fact I wish I could go back and time and apply that to every one of my earlier projects.
I leave it up to the reader to decide for themself after reading Part II next week.