Theory and practice of narrative in creative media – LO1
Elements that form a narrative
The elements of a narrative are the characteristics it is built on, story, plot, characters, dialogue and so on are all segments that when built-on together form a fully functioning narrative for an audience to digest. Breaking these elements apart can outline the building blocks of all narratives, ranging from elements such as Chekhov’s gun to the Greek 3 act structure. Starting with plot, the plot of narrative is the key points of a whole narrative and is the chronological structure of a the narrative. The plot is used to maintain the order of a story and give the audience straws to grasp at. Story is the content of a narrative, what happens in-between and during the plot is story. The plot gives the audience the want to continue and the story is what happens whilst they continue. Other then the plot and story a key characteristic is characters, the characters are tools of the story or sometimes their journey is the story. Protagonists is the person the narrative focuses on and the antagonist is their villain or enemy. The dynamic between the pro and ant agonist is what creates the tension and challenge in the story. Plot devices, also called MacGuffins are is a driving force behind the protagonist, in LOTR, the One Ring is the plot device, Frodo is the protagonist and Sauron the antagonist. The way that story is delivered can either be linear or non-linear. Some media uses a non-linear story as a means of not revealing information to the audience such as Memento. Non-linear narratives shuffle the plot points of a narrative around and take the audience through the story by taking them backwards through events, opening at the end and then showing how it reached this point whilst a linear narrative would start with the first plot point and continue the story as it happens. Omniscience is an element used in some narratives and is where the audience learns or knows information that the protagonist does not, the opposite of that is a limited narrative where information is revealed to the audience as the protagonist learns that information. Chekov’s gun is a narrative element that is used to foreshadow the story, an upcoming event or a gun is shown early on the narrative and by the conflict, that event happens or the gun is used.
Narrative elements of Mad Max: Fury Road and Skyrim
Narrative elements can be applied to anything with a narrative, such as books, films, and games. Mad Max Fury Road is a film released in 2015 to critical acclaim and as such I feel it is an appropriate film for me to look into the narrative elements of. First of all the plot, a major part of the narrative as it is the bones it is built on. Movie opens with the protagonist Max narrating about his current life which is continued on into a car chase where he is caught by the antagonists, Immortan Joe, War Boys, wrapping up the first act. The second act of the film follows Immortan Joe’s lieutenant Furyosa who was sent out for fuel but frees Immortans wives and flees. This leads to a large scale chase through the desert where Max is held prisoner on the helm of a car, frees himself and joins Furyosa. After many more tribulations, Immortan Joe is killed, a canyon is collapsed leaving his army unable to reach Immortans Citadel which is then taken over by Furyosa and Max resumes where he started, roaming the wasteland.
Skyrim is the fifth addition to the main line of Elder Scrolls and after its release in 2012 was met with multiple awards including multiple game of the year awards. Among those awards is one for story which makes Skyrim an adequate example of narrative in games. The stories protagonist is the Dragonborn and the antagonist Alduin, The World Eater, a dragon who has spent an eternity outside of time. Breaking the story into 3 acts, it starts with the protagonist a prisoner on a cart on the way to be executed after being mixed up in an ambush but when the dragonborns head is on the block Alduin attacks the town and the dragonborn escape. At this point the player is free to take whatever path they want but eventually the dragonborn fights a dragon and absorbs its soul which alerts the greybeards who mentor the dragonborn on whatever path they choose wrapping up the first act. Starting the second act the dragonborns journey leads them to an Elder Scroll, a mystical artefact and the MacGuffin used to progress the story. The dragonborn talks to an ancient dragon above the highest peak and learns what they must do to prevent the return of all dragons and the end of the world. They must capture a dragon to take them east, deep into the mountains and do so in Dragons Reach, a palace built for that exact purpose, ending the second act. The last act involves the dragonborn reaching a dragon cult monastery and entering a gate to the afterlife where they fight and defeat Alduin, the world eater and return to the world and can live on however they choose. The setting is a medieval fantasy province called Skyrim.
There are many ways that games can expand on the narrative outside of direct play like in Skyrim such as cutscenes which take the player out of the game for a moment to spotlight a moment in the narrative such as a crucial plot point, Skyrim tells its story through dialogue as well as the environment. The audience can learn more about the history through reading some of the many books that can be found in the world. Some games take a similar action and have audio logs that don’t require the player to sit and read a book in a game.
Tzvetan Todorov’s narrative theory
Tzevtan Todorov’s narrative theory has a narrative split into 5 parts. First the Equilibrium, this is where the story starts and the current life of the protagonist. Second the disruption, something that changes the equilibrium. Conflict, the section where characters attempt to resolve the disruption. Resolution is the resolution of the conflict and the protagonist may or may not have been successful in doing so. Lastly is the new equilibrium, the world of the protagonist has forever changed and they cannot return to the previous equilibrium.
No Man’s Sky launched in a sub-par state but since then has added large amounts of content as well as several stories with the main story considered to be the Artemis path. Applying this story to Todorov’s narrative theory brakes it into 5 sections: equilibrium, disruption, conflict, resolution, and the new equilibrium. The equilibrium is an open universe to explore, discovering and learning one galaxy at a time, until you receive a distress message from a stranger that seems to know and not know you, Artemis. Artemis is lost and asks you to help sending you around many worlds, which is the conflict of the story, the solving of the disruption is saving or reuniting with Artemis. The story delivers a major twist when you are at a point close to saving Artemis, the Artemis you have talked to is from a different universe and has died, Artemis’s grave and soul can be found however leading to two resolutions, upload Artemis to a simulated galaxy or leave them and move on, this resolution leads to the Atlas, the brain of the simulated universe the player is in, starts to crash and the player eventually is lead to its core and met with two more choices, reset the universe or don’t, resetting the simulation puts the player in a similar situation to the start of the game whilst leaving the Atlas and not resetting the universe allows the player to continue on whatever journey they choose.
Claude Levi-Strauss’ narrative theory
Levi-Stauss theory is based on binary opposition. This is based on two things opposing one another in the story or narrative, good against evil, fire versus ice or the strong against the weak are all examples of how a binary opposition could present itself in a narrative. In modern culture, narratives are conveyed through many mediums, games are a highly popular and successful one and for Levi-Strauss’ theory, I will be looking at Grounded to discuss the contemporary expression of this theory.
Grounded is a survival crafting game, you have been shrunk down to a centimetre and have woken up in the back garden filled with bugs critters and strange scientific mystery. The first moment of the game highlights a prevalent opposition, nature vs science. The baseball is representative of science in terms of human development. The baseball is only 7cm tall but towers the player like a three story building but the ball is towered by the blades of grass that surround it. Nature vs Science – all of the science posts around the garden have been bested by the insects that roam it, the prevalence of nature vs science is represented through the players fights against Ominent robots. Using chopped up insect and arachnid anatomy can best machines of steel. Science creating its own enemy is also a representation in the game. The games narrative takes a spin with nature vs science as at the start of the game, nature has trumped science but science is the only savior for the player. Evaluating the narrative of Grounded in terms of the mediums, it works best as a game, the battle between nature vs science is emphasised from the players struggles of facing both sides of the opposition. I believe that this is the case as the struggle is a closer experience for the player.
Roland Barthes narrative theory
Cultural Codes are the basis of Barthes narrative theory. There are multiple codes in this theory which correspond with an element of a story. Hermeneutic codes or enigma codes are for mystery, the part of the story that drives the reader to continue. Proairetic codes are related to action, these suggest something will happen as a result of an action. Semantic codes are representative of hidden meanings or connotations. Symbolic codes make a symbol mean something or change the meaning of a symbol. Referential codes or cultural codes are understandable to people within a culture and are not by people outside of that culture.
Continuing to explore contemporary mediums and the narratives in them through games, I will be looking at the cultural codes found within Skyrim. In a horse drawn carriage with your hands wrapped in binds, you start the game as a prisoner of the Imperial legion, whilst how this came to be is a mystery, the story starts soon after with an hermeneutic code, a giant dragon flies overhead and rains down brimstone and fair. Many of the characters during the siege will make it clear that dragons are thought to be myth and one to appear out of the mountains without warning is the mystery of the games first act, where did the dragons come from? Shortly after the attack, the player escapes execution and heads toward a nearby village with a person who helped them escape, during this walk a ruin on the top of a mountain is mentioned to be haunting and brings nightmares to the children of the village below. The mentioning of this ruin presents another enigma code as well as an Proairetic or action code, as the ruin is also said to house draugr, the restless dead which the player must face in combat. At the end of the dungeon the player battles against a mighty draugr and can obtain the Dragonstone. The name of the stone is a symbolic code, the player eventually learns of the stones message hidden in carvings on the stone, once an artefact, the stones prophecy has come true and is now the only hope for the player to understand what has come to pass. Moving onto a semantic code, the player is called the dragonborn, given to them due to their ability to consume the soul of a dragon, as the player continues their story, the name comes to mean more then a title, they are a piece of a prophecy set in motion over the 4 previous games of the series.
When misrule takes its place at the eight corners of the world – ES Arena
When the Brass Tower walks and Time is reshaped – ES Daggerfall
When the thrice-blessed fail and the Red Tower trembles – ES Morrowind
When the Dragonborn Ruler loses his throne, and the White Tower falls – ES Oblivion
When the Snow Tower lies sundered, kingless, bleeding – ES Oblivion
The World-Eater wakes, and the Wheel turns upon the Last Dragonborn. – ES Skyrim
Each story of the Elder Scrolls game results in the piece of the prophecy becoming true resulting in what is seen in the opening of Skyrim, the dragon first seen is Alduin, the World-Eater, Alduin’s purpose is to destroy the world and allow for the next to begin and ultimately it is the players hidden meaning to defeat the World-Eater to prevent the destruction of the world. Because of the prophecy the player is a key part in, when they learn what it means to be the dragonborn the perception of their goal changes, rather then fighting against the dragons it is their destiny to destroy them.
Narrative for the collaborative game
Briefs requirements for the narrative – P3
Understanding the key features the brief requires for the narrative approach of the collaborative game is important to understand before thinking of what the narrative of the collaborative game could be. The brief outlines the main requirements needed for the game: to work in a small team, create a demo sized game, a variety of levels, a theme around the climate crisis, a genre, story and setting decided by my team, and produce a level for the decided game and the evidence associated with that level. The content of the brief outlines the key theme the narrative needs to follow, some effect of the climate crisis, but leaves the plot points and content of that narrative open to be created by my team. The narrative is also free to be told however my team chooses be it notes, audio logs, cut scenes, or dialogue. The main theme of the game needs to follow some form of environmental or climate crisis, global warming, ice melting or resource depletion are some examples of this theme. Each member of the team must create their own level, which includes having a narrative tied to that level, as well as the content and design of that level. The setting of the level is decided by our team, the setting refers to where the level takes place and the design of the world, a western setting would have wooden buildings and wouldn’t have people wearing space suits or have content that does not match the period. The genre is decided by our team, genre refers to the gameplay, stealth, fps, simulator are all different genres of game and the gameplay is representative, the genre has some influence on the story. Having a genre and story that follow a similar goal prevents ludo-narrative dissidence which is a conflict of what the goal of the story is and what the gameplay has the player do, a story about preserving history and exploration and gameplay where the player kills multitudes of people and destroys multiple ancient ruins is ludo-narrative dissidence. The story is also decided by our team, the content of the story will be defined by the theme of the game, a story where the end goal is recovering an artefact whilst the theme of the game is rising temperatures is counter productive to creating a quality product, representative of what a full game would be. The game made is a demo of what the full game would be, there are different forms of demo but for this project, the game produced will be a vertical slice of the game, a section of the game that is representative of what the quality and content of the full product.
Narrative recipe – P4
After presenting our ideas to each other, the team has decided that the contents of this document is the outlines and content that the story will follow, the level I will be working on is the fifth and final level. Each levels plot point is based around Todorov’s equilibrium narrative theory, what I will be working on is the new equilibrium stage of this theory. The representation of the new equilibrium for Gary, the main character, is his life when he reaches the arctic where remaining people from around the world has traveled to escape the heat, the previously impossibly cold environment has been melted away over the many years of extreme heat which has allowed for people to live a mostly normal life, though the sun is still an incredible threat to life. The people who arrive there are boiled from the journey and the need anyone who can help is increased as each day goes by. The arctic survivors send search parties to large cities and call out on radios. These locations are where the largest focus of people lived pre-apocalypse and going to these locations gives the highest chance of reaching someone who can help. One search party in particular has reached Gary, a botanist in his old life, he was tutored out in the forest out skirting a nearby city about the benefits of medicinal herbs and the treatment of burns. It is in this forest where Gary hears the call of the search party asking for help with burns, the recent death of his mentor and the lack of other ties, Gary decides that this is his calling in life and sets himself on reaching the helicopter at the top of a skyscraper where he can help the most people and bring meaning to himself.
Narrative research – P4
After researching some narratives that have some relation to the game idea, I have created a mind map to create a strong narrative premise that I will present to the team and they will present their own ideas where we will choose one or a combination of them all that we agree meets are own image of the game in our mind. On this minds map, I have also summarized the plots of some narratives I have researched to the points that relate to my narrative ideas. To create an effective story, researching the narrative of games with a theme related to a subject of the climate crisis will help in doing this. The theme of our game is rising temperatures which has resulted with the temperature if the world rising far above what it is. Raft [1] is a survival game in which the player builds up their raft to sail the seas the have risen due to extreme global warming which has melted ice and caused sea levels to rise. [2] The narrative of this game has the player follow a breadcrumb trail of information about the location of a utopia, a spot of land on which humans can live. As the story continues, the antagonist of the story is revealed to have forced out people from their settlements and has the people trapped inside of a skyscraper with a peak above the water. The story ends with the player freeing the people and trapping the antagonist instead of killing him, which would create ludo-narrative dissidence as the players goal is to help others.
Another game which has a narrative tied to the climate crisis is Biomutant [3], the 2021 RPG was developed by Experiment 101, a studio bought by THQ Nordic. The game takes place years after an apocalyptic event, in a world where humans are extinct and small mutant creatures are the intelligent life on the planet.[4] The story follows the players journey through branching narrative paths which impact the world. The main focus on the story is the Tree of Life which by way of natural disaster is under threat of oil seeping through the soil. The decisions made by the player change the ending of the game but the representation of the climate crisis. Chemicals dangerous to the environment seep into the soil of the world through the use of pesticides or fertilizers as well as many harmful by-products of humanity such as micro-plastics, nuclear waste, electronic waste, or land fill sites. The effects of soil pollution lead to catastrophic effects on ecosystems and effect humanity as well, the contamination of soil leads to worsening crop yields which lead to food shortages and as the population continues to grow, this aspect of the climate crisis, like all other, will bring issues that humanity may not be able to face. The effects that are caused by the environmental issues in the pre-apocalypse world in Biomutant can bring a more nuanced world building when it comes to development of the narrative I will be working on.
Outside of games, there is an antithesis of the heatwave narrative of our game, Snowpiercer was originally a graphic novel 1982 called Le Transperceneige, and was later adapted into a film released in 2014 [5] and an on-going TV series which started in 2020. The version I am familiar with is the film and so my research here will be based off of that. The background of the story [6] revolves around a train that constantly moves around a frozen earth, all who are alive are on the train as it is the only bastion of mankind. The story is about creating an equal life for everyone on the train as the further carriages of the train house the lower class and is representative of slums whilst the ones closer to the front act as everything from schools to saunas to night clubs. Having the difference in class is not something that I would say would be represented through our game, civilization is not centred in one location, the world is scattered. But the journey of someone seeking a better life and a higher calling is something to consider in the narrative of our game.
[7] Knowing is a 2009 disaster film about a solar flare that scorches the Earth, not to dissimilar from the working idea for the game which takes place in a post-apocalyptic scorched world that is ravaged by an intense heatwave but it is caused by unaccounted climate change as opposed to a solar flare. In Knowing, at the end of the film the solar flare demolishes all in its path, so much destruction is caused that life would not be able to continue into a post-apocalyptic state, which is the intended setting for this game. Research into this movie gives an upper-bound on the scale of destruction for when it comes to designing the world and history of the game.
The idea of the game is set inside the bounds of the climate crisis so creating an event on a cosmic scale as seen in Knowing would be out the question as it is not in the believable bounds of the climate crisis and would be counter-intuitive as the work and ideation that the team has already put towards would need to be re-considered to account for any large changes made. The aim of the narrative is conveying a message to the audience about environmentalism, the way that this is done in game can be through the design of the environment and levels but it can be taught to the player though the story that they play through in the game, research into other narratives bring formative ideas together that will create a deeper narrative in the game and communicate our intended message to the audience. The approach of the narrative in the game is split into five sections, one section for each level that the game will have, each level is representative of a step in Todorov’s equilibrium narrative theory, the overarching narrative follows the main characters journey to an outpost of survivors in the arctic, where the temperature is stable due to the increased global temperature, the characters purpose for being there is to help the community with their knowledge of medicine and burns, the arc of the character is the main development of the story and the world that they go through and their reaction to the long lasting effects of the unaccounted climate crisis which lead to the eternal heat wave is how the message of environmentalism is going to be conveyed. The game presents a bleak world but the main characters determination to help and assist others in need is intended to bring hope to the players that even through the world is in crisis, it can still be helped through courage and determination.
[1] Raft (2018) Redbeet Interactive. Available at: https://raft-game.com/ (Accessed: March 1, 2023).
[2] Raft Story (2018) Raft Wiki. Available at: https://raft.fandom.com/wiki/Story (Accessed: March 1, 2023).
[3] Biomutant (2022) Available at: https://www.biomutant.com/en/ (Accessed: March 1, 2023).
[4] Majoros, E. (2021) Biomutant: 10 things everyone missed in the story, Game Rant. Available at: https://gamerant.com/biomutant-story-details-missed-hidden/ (Accessed: March 1, 2023).
[5] Snowpiercer [film] (2014). Mazzo di Rho (MI): Koch media.
[6] Snowpiercer (2014) IMDb. IMDb.com. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1706620/plotsummary/ (Accessed: March 1, 2023).
[7] Knowing (2009) IMDb. IMDb.com. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0448011/ (Accessed: March 1, 2023).
How does the narrative communicate our message? – M2 D1
Communication is the intent of a story, Fables convey a moral, a deeper meaning to derive from the story. Understanding that, knowing the message of the games narrative is the first step conveying that message of environmental conscience and the dangers of the climate crisis. I would say that the approach of our narrative is justified because of the influence that the story has had on level and environmental design as well as the gameplay. How is the narrative shown in the game? Knowing the influences the story has on design does not mean that the narrative of the game is solely conveyed through these. To answer the question, I need to know how narrative can be told to my audience. In the past when I have made games and wanted to tell the player my story, I have used a scene in the game or a description on the store page. This is a rudimentary way of telling the story as many games would tell the story through conversation, cut scenes or a narrator. Doing this wouldn’t be feasible for our team, the development schedule is packed with what the game needs, there are simpler ways of telling the story, the ways I have done in the past, that will still convey our message of the game.
The narrative approach is going to be highlighted with a description on the store page of the game which outlines the story of the entire project and then a section dedicated to the content that my level is based off of. If the game was simpler to create, creating a mechanic to tell the story would be an amazing way to convey the message. 3D games are a massive undertaking, especially when it requires a mechanic made for the game. That’s the downside of a large project in a limited time frame, things that refine the game take less importance then the main pillars of the game. Looking at this critically, the message is conveyed through the environment, mechanics and a description in game. If I where to be working on a game with less scope and a message to convey, more work would be needed to convey the message in a more meaningful manner. Considering the work I have to do on creating a major mechanic that relates to the story, limited representation of the narrative would be expected from a developer working on a solo level. The game is split into 5 levels, each representative of Todorov’s narrative equilibrium. Creating a story that will be split into five allows for the narrative to communicate through the game moment by moment with each step along the players exploration of the world telling another chapter of the story, what I will be working on is the fifth and final level of the game, during this level what theories will I use to communicate a narrative? What elements will be representative of this? The major theme that I will be applying is Todorov’s equilibrium, the new equilibrium in this stage of the game, the new equilibrium is a stage in a characters story where their life has reached a point of no return, changed by the journey that they have undergone. What is the new life that is found in the narrative? The narrative seen in game revolves around Gary, the player character, venturing from the forest where he lives though to the city where he will be taken by a helicopter to help people with burn wounds in a outpost in the arctic, where the heightening heat has left the arctic at a temperature similar to pre-apocalypse equator, scorching hot but not death after exposure hot like many places in the rest of the world. In the level that I am working on, the new equilibrium works towards heightening the quality of the narrative by following a path of theory laid out in previous levels, there are many ways to communicate a narrative through the elements found inside of a game. What am I telling the player at this point of the story? At this point, the player has gone through the rest of the game and has reached a helicopter that will take Gary to the arctic where his skills in botany will be used to save and better the lives of many people for many years.
Narrative treatment – P5 P6
All of the research and discovery I have gone through as well as the discussions of the team as a whole about the game we are producing comes together in the narrative treatment, a presentation outlining the content of my level to the history of the location and then to the narrative that the game follows.
Production art – P6
There are three aspects to my level, split up into three buildings. The first building the player can look for the key or confront the big boss of the scavengers to unlock a path to the second building. The second buildings main aspect is pushing desks in order to climb onto the roof of the building to push an AC unit to knock an I beam down to create a bridge to the third and final building. On this building, the player must press the correct buttons to move solar panels to create a walkable path to the helicopter where they will finish the level. I am going to draw each building and design the boss of the scavengers as the first step in creating production art. The creation of materials help convey the design of my level in Heatwave.
These are my first designs for the visual aspect of the game, originally the game was set inside of two towers, the player would start in one building and must get across to the opposite building, get onto the next floor and then back over to the first building where they will reach the helicopter which didn’t land and Gary would climb up a rope ladder that was attached to the helicopter. The visual aspects of the game are not well represented through this art as I didn’t have a clear image in my mind about the visual aspects and design of the level and was working off of ideas and the collaborative brief the team had decided upon.
In my second design, the game had changed significantly. The level that takes place before mine is set inside of the same building and as building tend to stay in the same layout from top to bottom, the design of my level needed to change to reflect the three sections that level 4 was split into. With the change in structure, the player was no longer going to be climbing from one building to another and they would instead work their way around 3 sections of the same building and when they reach the third they would find a landing pad where the helicopter and search party would take Gary to the arctic, finishing of the narrative of the teams demo. In the narrative, the building that the helicopter is on is controlled by a group of religious extremists called the rogue scavengers and whilst they are present in the level prior, they are not present in the this level. The reasoning behind this was how Gary was leaving for the arctic. A group of people who patrol and control a building would not be oblivious to a helicopter landing on the roof of it and if they where on the top floor of that building, they wouldn’t allow for the helicopter to take off with no consequence, in the original production art, the helicopter did not land on the building and so the rogue scavengers would have been unable to stop the helicopter from taking off or landing. A confrontation with the leader of the rogues was also intended to take place in this level but due to this issue with the helicopter and some other issues, this was removed from the level.
Sound design – P6
The audio environment of a game has many effects, you could tell a game is focused on driving without visuals by hearing a gear change or engine revving, it has the same effect on the narrative. The style of music or sounds used at a specific point of the narrative can help deliver an emotion to the player. In RDR2, when the main story comes to a close with the death of Arthur, the music played matches the intended emotion delivered by the narrative. Knowing how important the sound design of a game is from my own experience with playing and making games and researching the subject several time, having an idea of what the audio of the final product will be will help create an intense experience that does more to immerse the player then just visuals and game play alone. In order to outline the sound design of my game, I have a list of the sound effects. There are a few terms on the list that are specific to audio: Diegetic refers to audio that the player would expect inside of the scene, Non-Diegetic refers to audio that is not in the scene, Foley is sound that I record and Library refers to sounds that I gathered from a pre-made library.
A variety of the sound effects are dependent on is inside of the game, if I where to not have dead plants, draws opening or moving solar panels, those sound effects wouldn’t be needed. Sounds that would definitely be needed for the game is wind, metal creaking inside of the skyscraper, walking and running sound effects that match the floor and background music that would set the tone of the level. The sound of wind howling and the creaking of metal twisting and settling as the player walk through the abandoned building would create an impact on the players experience of the level. Creating an auditory environment deepens the setting of the level and influences how the player experiences playing through it.
Asset list – P6
There are various sites to gather the assets that I need for the game, the site that have contributed the most is the Unity asset store. For my 3D games that I have developed in the past, the Unity store has provided a wide range of assets for me to use and that has been the case for this game too. After browsing the Unity store and other sites that I have used, SketchFab, Turbosquid and Mixamo, I found a rubble asset pack which was realistic enough to match the visual style that the team had decided upon as well as matching the quality that the skyscraper would be according to the narrative and setting. This asset pack is what the majority of the game environment is built with. There are many more assets that I have used and going through each of them would take an extensive amount of time but following good practice of the industry I have a long list of credits for the game which lists each team member and links to their game page and each asset pack that I have downloaded and a link to the page that I downloaded it off of.
Kieranmcg – Team member, Heatwave Level 1 https://kieranmcg.itch.io/
Clostick93 – Team member, Heatwave Level 2 https://clostick93.itch.io/
Bpeo – Team member, Heatwave Level 3 https://bpeo.itch.io/
Amy’s Games – Team member, Heatwave Level 4 https://amyjade13.itch.io/
Jordi Krut – 3D modelling – Modular office interior – Creative Commons Attribution
“Modular office Interior assets (Post Apoc)” (https://skfb.ly/6STzy) by Jordi Kruk is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Thesighet – 3D modelling – Office box and lamp – Creative Commons Attribution
Terrasquall – 3D modelling – Sci-Fi office pack – Standard Unity Asset Store EULA https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/sci-fi/free-sci-fi-office-pack-195067#description
Ethan Taylor – Textures – Cyberpunk material pack – Standard Unity Asset Store EULA https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/textures-materials/cyberpunk-material-pack-six-high-quality-materials-188067
FrOzBi – Textures – wood pattern materials – Standard Unity Asset Store EULA https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/textures-materials/wood/wood-pattern-material-170794
Unity Technologies – Programming – Third person character controller – Non Standard EULA https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/essentials/starter-assets-third-person-character-controller-196526
Nathanael Gazzard – 3D modelling – Rubble Pieces Package – Standard Unity Asset Store EULA https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/rubble-pieces-detailed-package-74004
“Green Keycard” (https://skfb.ly/F7UT) by sookendestroy1 is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
“G U N Key Card” (https://skfb.ly/6UTzN) by sebyseb is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
“Papers” (https://skfb.ly/6Zo9M) by Cassy is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
“Helicopter” (https://skfb.ly/6yUvF) by irs1182 is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
“Solar Panel” (https://skfb.ly/ooyOn) by Harri Snellman is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Assessing the relationship between visual and written material – M3
LO4
Narrative in the final product – P7
The narrative in my game can be seen in my game and on the itch.io page where I have a blurb about the backstory of the game and level and what the player will see when they play through the level. Inside of the game the player can learn some backstory of the location through documents and notes that can be found and after completing the level where there is a brief description about what comes next for Gary in the story.
Assessing how the game communicates narrative – P8 M4 D2
The level that I have developed is part of a larger experience and so the narrative that is told is over multiple levels, each level is representative of one of Todorov’s steps of equilibrium, the stage that is told through mine is the new equilibrium. This point in the games story is where Gary is reaching the Arctic where he can help people with his knowledge of botany and burns. How is this shown to the player and how well is it done? Starting of easier, it is told to the player at the end of the level, when they successfully reach the helicopter that will take them there. Looking towards the complexity and how well this is communicated, it is done poorly. This information is told to the player through a short block of text after they complete the level, there are many ways to communicate a narrative in a game, I have researched them for this project yet I have not implemented any meaningful presentation of the narrative, looking at feedback for the game:
“I don’t think the narrative needs to be changed, I think it needs to be conveyed in an easier way to understand. Maybe when you pick up the collectibles, you could add in a small amount of text with some form of information about what is happening, maybe some sort of diary”
A portion of the player feedback about the communication of the narrative shows that some players don’t know what the narrative is, in a game where I present a narrative to the audience and half of that audience don’t understand the meaning behind that narrative, there are changes that would be made to reflect that and bring in narrative in a more meaningful way in the future. Introducing a voice that explains a portion of the story, more documents that bring meaning to the players actions from the point of view of Gary instead of a description of the item would deepen the players understanding, learning as Gary learns brings the players understanding of the world with the development and progression of their character.
Moving on from a weakness of communicating narrative, how is the user experience defined? How does the player feel and what do they think of the level? To answer this I am going to look at the sun sizzle / heat mechanic, this was a major part of representing the theme of the game through the gameplay and mechanics and was developed by me, because of that I want to assess how well I created it.
Questions 2, 3 and 4 are about the players understanding and thoughts about this mechanic. Reviewing the answers from question 2, when asked if they understand how it works, highlighting responses, the players say “Not entirely”, “I wasn’t sure which slide was which”, “sort of but wasn’t sure”. These responses highlight that I should not rely on my understanding to guarantee the players understanding. Labeling what the sliders mean rather then player intuition would bring the understanding of these players with the understanding of the other players who responded to the same question with yes and how the light areas influence the temperature. Highlighting this will allow for me to allocate space on a UI to label or describe a mechanic specific to the game, like this, and not depend on a players understanding from visual stimuli.
The next question is about bugs and issues with the mechanic. Whilst I did not encounter bugs with the mechanic before launching the game, that does not mean I should discount the responses of players who did.
The last question is asking about additional thoughts about this mechanic, not many conclusions could be drawn from this section but the additional feedback allows me to draw conclusions critical of the work I have done.
Jacob's game journal 