Warm greetings to everyone who stumbled upon this blog! This time I am not presenting myself in the classic text blog format. Today I want to talk about my own column, the purpose of which is to present the viewer with the gameplay from the developer’s point of view: what narrative design techniques do game studios use to present the plot the way they intended, is the design related to the scenario part of the game, what elements of narrative design exist and in what cases should they be used. I tried to understand all these points using the example of Disco Elysium.
The sound is far from the best quality (to put it mildly)! Any dissatisfaction and objections in the technical part (installation, sound) are accepted adequately and with understanding.
Narrative system
Before moving on to the analysis itself, let’s dive into the structure of narrative design: what is a narrative system, what does it include, what techniques are used to achieve certain scenario solutions, etc. Let’s make it clear right away: script and narrative design are not the same thing. Yes, they intersect, but they are not identical. Narrative design is a collection of elements and mechanics that a developer uses to bring a narrative to life so that the player can relate to the story and understand it through not only storytelling, but also game elements. The script is just a “shell” in the form of text and replicas, behind which lies the enormous work of designers who think about how to correctly present to the player what is written on paper. This is the difference between a film and a game: we do not take any part in the development of the events of the film; the actors and scenery do everything for us; games, in essence, are a kind of “interactive cinema” in which we take part. Without our intervention, the character will not move, will not talk to NPCs and will not make the decisions we need.
When writing a script for their game, developers usually use a three-act narrative technique: initiation, confrontation, and resolution. This structure is often used in literary works: first we are told some kind of “ground” that serves as a starting point in the development of the plot, then we are faced with the main events that heat up the situation and make us worry, and in the end everything goes down, logically completing the narrative. However, in modern realities, such a structure is trivial and simple enough to lure a player hungry for something unusual. To create player involvement, developers use all sorts of mechanics that help maintain the user’s interest until the end of his playthrough – this is called a narrative system.
This is a multi-level structure that includes many elements. Among the main ones are the plot (the general game story that the developers want to tell us), style (game mechanics through which the player, interacting with the game world around him, studies the storyline and participates in its development) and plot – this is the player’s position in relation to what is happening on the screen. When working on these aspects, designers rely on the point of view of the screenwriter – how to correctly present the plot to the player, written by them and the player’s point of view, trying to understand how the user will use certain game mechanics, and what reactions they will cause in him.
To achieve these goals, narrative designers rely on three criteria: logic (the cause-and-effect relationships between the player’s decisions and their consequences), time (the correct depiction of how events of the past and present affect the hero), and space (it gives the direction the player needs to move in order to progress through the story). However, this is not enough for the correct construction of the game narrative: in order to correctly implement the above elements, the designer needs to maintain contrast, semantic load, player involvement and rhythm when creating the game.
How it works in practice: Disco Elysium
Having plunged a little into the theory, we can consider what specific techniques the ZA/UM studio used to implement its project and forced many players around the world to replay their creation more than once. We will look at each element of the narrative system separately and see how exactly it is reproduced in Disco Elysium.
Contrast – this is an alternation of https://nonukgamblingsites.co.uk/review/betfoxx/ sharp and intense moments of the game along with smooth ones, allowing the player to relax and, as they say, take a breath. This technique is used in order not to oversaturate the game with serious and turning points in the plot, but to present them to the player gradually, replacing them with leisurely and not intense episodes in which he can escape from the events of the main story arc and do other things. Agree, no one wants to experience unnecessary tension in those moments of the game that really don’t deserve it. For this purpose, narrative designers try to alternate such moments of the game so that the user remains interested in the development of the plot. The developers do not lay out all the cards in front of the player at once. The game is made in the detective genre and, accordingly, we get all the pieces of the puzzle only by moving along the progress of the investigation. Only at certain moments do we discover some new details of the case that can surprise us and make the situation escalate. From my own experience, I can highlight only one really tense moment – the shootout with the Wild Pines mercenaries. This was the only situation where I felt the effect of “oh, now something is going to happen, at least I don’t screw it up”. In the video I also mention the moment with finding my service weapon, but now I can’t say that this moment really makes me hold my breath, rather I’m just surprised by the plot twist of this particular quest, but nothing more.
Meaning. This concept refers to guesses and hypotheses that the player builds during the passage: he studies the world around him, finding a refutation or confirmation of his hypotheses regarding the development of the plot. The developer, as they say, encourages the player to comprehend what is happening and think ahead, giving him various kinds of hints in the form of food for thought, and when the player gets the desired answers, the developer knows in advance what emotions he will experience. In simple terms, when a developer adds some kind of narrative point to a game and then gives the player a response to it, he expects the user to receive a reaction like “I thought so.”!" or " oh well! cannot be,” otherwise such elements are of no use if they do not evoke the proper reaction from the viewer. However, direct and frequent hints have the opposite effect and, on the contrary, rather irritate the player due to the lack of opportunity to independently reflect on the development of the plot; in essence, the developer does not leave him a chance to do so. On the contrary, you can give him false clues through game mechanics that will confuse the player so that the plot twists are even more epic and unpredictable, but this whole aspect also has its own risks: while giving the player food for thought, you cannot leave him without certain answers, because after completing the game he may still have open questions to which the game did not give him any answers, so you need to think through this moment and one way or another justify your scenario decisions.
Returning to my gaming experience and attitude towards the game, the detective genre plays into the hands of the project. The scenario is worked out in such a way that not every decision we make and not every trace we make will be correct, however, step by step we discard certain theories, leaving only the correct one, and the developer himself will complete what we have come to. This is the essence of a detective story: you look for clues, interview people around you and study the situation around you – all these actions lead to certain clues regarding the plot and its further development.
Take the situation with the Hardy Boys being suspected of committing a lynching: the workers directly admit that it was they who hanged the mercenary, arguing that he pestered one of the guests at Dancing in Rags, and in general behaved rather obscenely. It would seem that you can close the case and roll the final credits, but it’s not so simple. Having examined the corpse of the hanged man, we can find a bullet in his skull from an old rifle from the time of the Revolution, then, after conducting a ballistic examination, we come to the conclusion that the victim was shot and the hanging was just a cover-up. Next, we learn that a radio operator named Ruby spent time with Tit Hardy’s guys, who had a certain kind of sympathy for the deceased’s mistress, Klaasje, and who, the day before the appearance of the main character, decided to run away and lie low. Well, here you go, the motive is obvious, the actions speak for themselves, she clearly did it, they even built a theory with a secret passage in the attic, where old pinball machines are stored, through which she could climb up and shoot the victim. However, this will also be a false trail, and when it already seems that all options and clues have been checked, the killer will never be found, and the player will continue to think about who did it after all. And then at the very end we unravel this tangled tangle of events and everything falls into place. The player’s questions are not left unanswered, and he feels calm.
Engagement. To keep the player interested in further playthroughs, narrative designers need to maintain harmony in the narrative without creating dissonance that could scare the player away. The narrative should push the player and keep him motivated. To achieve these goals, developers have a number of game mechanics and elements that they can use to achieve this. Firstly, there are dialogue boxes so that the player feels like he is involved in making decisions and thinks that he plays a role in the development of the plot, although we all know that everything is pre-written by the writers. In this regard, Disco Elysium stands out among its competitors: games, probably 70 percent, consist of dialogues and text, and, accordingly, their reading. This may repel some, but on the contrary attract others, for example, loyal fans of the Pilars of Eternity or Divinity Original Syn series, where we are literally forced to read a lot of text in order to understand the essence of the game. It’s the same here: in order for the player to understand the essence of what is happening and understand the personality of the main character, he will have to read a lot and, based on what he read, make decisions. In this aspect, the player is essentially in the dialogue window all the time and feels involved in the investigation. The game must gradually increase the player’s motivation in order to maintain his interest in it. There are two ways to implement this aspect: tie motivation to the emotions and feelings of the hero (especially suitable for detective games) and set a clear goal for the player through narrative or gameplay. Studio ZA/UM did not deny itself the opportunity to take advantage of both functions. The game provides us with variations of what characteristics of the hero we can play through it with. In the process of dialogues, we often encounter the inner voices of some of the character’s feelings, be it logic, empathy, internal empire, etc. d., why we have a clear understanding of what the hero is experiencing and feeling at the moment and understand the motivation for his actions and decisions. In addition, the plot and gameplay itself motivate us to move on and investigate the case. We play as a drunk cop with mental trauma and amnesia, this affects his dialogues with others, his relationships with them, gameplay this can affect the absurdity of some of his actions and judgments, but this depends on the player and his choices. The plot also gives us the foundation for developing motivation through storytelling, be it some books bought in a bookstore or found while exploring locations, be it notes from Harry DuBois (that’s our protagonist’s name), or his dream at the end of the game, which complement the dialogue system and tell us some extraneous information or talk about events that happened before the events of the game, in our case about Harry’s life before the investigation of the lynching. A clearly defined goal should accompany the character and not differ from what he does throughout the game, otherwise this will lead to the same dissonance and push the player away from further progress.
Rhythm of the game. This aspect works in the same way as the narrative on contrasts: it is impossible for the player to constantly be in suspense without giving him a break from the growing events of the game. To achieve this, narrative designers also have a whole arsenal of techniques that they can use for the above purpose. For example, there may be dialogue options, but this can either help or hurt the pacing of the game since the player sets the pace depending on how quickly they move through the dialogue thread. In Disco Elysium, it is quite difficult to work superficially in the process of choosing answers in dialogues, since many of your answers and choices will affect the subsequent development of the game narrative, so you need to make decisions thoughtfully, and this requires a certain amount of time. It is also worth alternating the narrative, combat and free stages of the game so that the player does not get the impression of monotony of the gameplay, and the passage itself does not seem forced. The majority of the game time in Disco Elysium is spent leisurely exploring the world around us and progressing through the plot. In fact, the game is not linear: the player can run around locations as much as he likes and complete side quests that interest him. However, excessive freedom of gameplay will only harm the gameplay, therefore, in games with an open or near-open world, where there is a non-linear plot, you need to “let” the player go freely, but at the same time, in order not to lose involvement and rhythm, it is necessary to introduce some kind of system of reminders or restrictions, for example, giving access to quests only during a certain game time or giving the player a partner, who will serve as a reminder that you should not leave for a long time plot and that it is worth returning to more important things. In Disco Elysium, this role is played by our partner from the 57th precinct, Kim Kitsuragi, who follows us everywhere and periodically inserts his 5 cents in dialogue about the fact that we still have an unsolved case. We can listen to him, or we can ignore his words. However, the game gives us the opportunity to do something independent on our own, when Kim takes the body to the station or goes to bed, then the game world partially falls asleep, and we can do something for ourselves. Creating meaning can also be part of the rhythm of the game, this is especially evident in games with a lack of loud and abrupt plot twists. The plot of Disco Elysium is presented in a smooth manner, even many of the plot twists and details of the investigation sometimes look like something ordinary and ordinary, unable to surprise the player, so the game begins to give us meanings that make us feel awe and maintain rhythm in the game. Throwing up new topics for thought in the cabinet of thoughts or hints about the existence of Harry’s long-forgotten love, which still torments him, the player begins to ask questions that encourage him to move on and not slow down the pace of play.
Visual
Narrative design would not be complete if it did not include work on the visual part of the game. As I mentioned earlier, the narrative system includes the style of the game, namely the game mechanics through which the story is told. One of the style elements is the image on the screen. This term is called “Environmental narratives” or narrative environment. It contains 4 main functions: limiting and directing the player’s movements; indicating to the player the limits of the simulation of the possible; strengthening and shaping the player’s identity; providing narrative context. I would like to dwell on the latter in more detail, since the narrative context includes several aspects, namely, the history of the location of the event; what will happen in the future; history in a global sense; information about the character who was here, which expands his characteristics; information that reveals the story of the character’s past; quest and functional elements; creating minor little stories that relate to the main narrative. I have spent 90+ hours in the game and I can say that the environment is probably one of the best aspects of the game that can immerse you in this beautiful fictional world.
Our protagonist works within the boundaries of Revachol, a small district of the city with a very rich cultural and historical layer. In communication with various residents of this area and just people meeting on our way, we learn the history of this city, we learn the history of the revolution that took place at the beginning of the 20th century, we reconstruct the picture of the execution, getting to the coast, we learn the history of the “cursed trade zone”, we learn how politics developed, what regime is now flourishing, what views people have on the world. We find out what religion is here, where its origins come from, when we find ourselves in an abandoned church; Communicating with people and looking at the surroundings of the same abandoned village, we understand what an essentially unhappy fate the majority have and how the literary device popular in the nineteenth century is used to depict a “little man”, whose fate has no global significance and his contribution has remained underestimated. The player begins to identify with the protagonist, learning more and more about his past, he either blames him, or, conversely, sympathizes with him.