Presentation slides for a lecture I gave at the METU, Informatics Institute, Ankara, October 31, 2011

1. METU, Informatics Institute
Ankara, 31 October 2011

2.  This lecture presents a brief summary of the
Three-Act-Structure in Classic Drama Theory
 As we learn the basic concepts and
structuration principles of this approach, we
will also stop inbetween and see how video
games deal with these concepts and
principles.

3. Story: An Introduction for Game Developers

5.  Climbing Tension
 A story does not only progress horizontally, but also vertically
 A scene that doesn’t carry the plot to new heights is considered as wasting time and
stagnating story progress.
 Chrono-logy
 Events are related to each other in terms of causality and time
 Chrono-logical relations are often established in the mind of the player, as part of the
interpretation process
 This allows designers to play with the chrono-logy of things because the player would
complete the story mentally, and in retrospect
 Unity
 Due to dramatization requirements, anything that’s not central to the story will be eliminated
 In video games it often happens that side quests violate this rule
▪ They often do not contribute to the rise in plot per se
▪ Often this is done for the sake of variety
▪ Or they help the player in meeting other goals such as collecting extra points to increase the character
level

8.  Feature films stay often loyal to the Three-Act-
Structure
 However, they would divide the three acts into
four quarters
 While the Beginning and the Ending acts get a
quarter each, the Middle is alotted two
quarters, that is, half of the duration of the film
 Usually each of the Middle quarters deals with one
specific issue

9.  Quarter 1 (First Act): Set up of the plot, introduction of
characters, planting of middle acts.
 Quarter 2 (Second Act): The first of middle acts, in
which the goal is to free Sarah Connor from the clinic
in which she is being held.
 Quarter 3 (Second Act): The second of the middle
acts, in which the goal is to destroy Skynet and its
infobase.
 Quarter 4 (Third Act): Build-up to the
climax, resolution and denouement.

10. Story: An Introduction for Game Developers

13. Story: An Introduction for Game Developers

14.  Looking closer at the two previous slides, we
can identify three dynamics that a narrative
designer has to intertwine in order to get
good results:
 Plot Development
 Character Growth
 Middle Acts
 We will now have a closer look at how these
dynamics work

16.  Game and narrative designer often have to deal with the issue of
introducing the player vocabulary.
 The player needs not only to learn about the story, but how to use
controls.
 It is therefore a very delicate issue in design to set-up a teaser
scene that doesn’t frustrate the player in terms of learning the
gameplay.
 Often designers will solve this by splitting the task into two:
▪ They’ll use a cutscene that serves as a teaser
▪ They’ll usa a tutorial that teaches the player how to play the game
▪ Example: Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
 Examples where designers tried to combine the two are
 Max Payne (PC Version)
 Spiderman (Wii)

17.  In video games, intensification is often the result of
increasing complexity of the game systems that revolve
around the player.
 Sometimes intensification is based on enemy AI that adopts a
more aggressive stance
 Early sneak attacks of rival nations in Age of Empires tell us we’ve got to
hurry
 However there are games that have «scripted»
intensification
 In games like Metal Gear Solid, we are presented with
cutscenes that allow us to witness dialogues between game
characters which reveal that the complexity in the situation has
increased

18.  When it comes to plot, a lot of games do not waste even a
minute to set it up:
 Pong  The white dot comes at you  if you fail to bounce it
back  1:0
 Pac- Man  The ghost are coming at you  If you don’t move
your avatar  One life lost
 Good games will always make sure that the player has to
do something to get out of misery
 Half Life 2
 The Sims
 They will make sure that there is necessity, that is, an
inevitable challenge that motivates the player into action

20.  Many games are based on outer motivation
 That is, it’s mainly their actions and looks that reveal something about
characters
 Controls and affordances play a crucial part in this
 We can only carry a role that the controls allow us to carry out.
 For example special moves play an important role in distinguishing characters
in fighting games.
 However, modern games also reveal a lot about inner motivation, that
is, what the character feels about their own actions
 This will often come in cutscenes
▪ Final Fantasy series
▪ The cutscenes in Soul Calibur II
 Sometimes the player is allowed to keep character diaries in which they
pretend to know the inner motivations of the characters
▪ The Sims

21.  Another common thing in video games is that
character growth is often presented in
quantifiable terms
 RPGs have experience levels and character
inventories
 Many Tycoon games have star ratings or financial
indicators
 RollercoasterTycoon or Ceaser III on the other
hand, have a palette of «barks» for their character
that will change depending on statistics
▪ This is a nice way to add an inner motivation aspect to the
characters 
▪ It makes them look «deeper»

22.  Since many video games are built around
levels rather than quarters, we will see
reassessments or denouments being
presented immediately after a finished level
or play session
 The characters in Tekken will often say something
about their victory or defeat after a fight is over.
 Railroad Tycoon 2 has a narrator that talks about
our performance in the past level

24.  Video game progress is often based on levels.
 This means that the quarter rule doesn’t apply.
 Hence, it makes often no sense to apply planting methods during
the introduction of the game’s story
 Instead, in many games we see designers prefer to have
mission briefs
 In other words, the planting of the next act is done moments
before the level starts, and not in the introduction of the game
 The introduction of the games is used for other purposes
▪ Such as teaching the player the game vocabulary, presenting
backstory, or introducing the world settings
▪ This seems to be a significant difference between video games and
movies
▪ The product design and consumption method requires the video game
narrative designer to deal with planting differently

25. Story: An Introduction for Game Developers

27. Story: An Introduction for Game Developers

30.  Whereas the overall proportion of a video
game may fall wide apart from a four quarters
model, we may observe that levels are
structured closer to this approach

32. Story: An Introduction for Game Developers

35. Thank you very much…
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