In this course, you will examine how storytelling acts as a vital mechanism for driving video gameplay forward. Looking at several historical and contemporary games, you will be asked to evaluate and interpret different story styles with the goal of identifying themes and procedures for your own game ideas. We'll examine traditional narrative story processes, such as three-act structure, and how they fit into game story flows and the strategic elements of gameplay. Ultimately, you will learn how to define character, setting, and structure to create a compelling game concept.
The Shooter's Rising Gameplay
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From the course by California Institute of the Arts
Story and Narrative Development for Video Games
602 ratings
California Institute of the Arts
602 ratings
Course 2 of 5 in the Specialization Game Design: Art and Concepts
From the lesson
Week 4: From Story to Game
For this last week of class, we will begin by seeing what a game design document is, and evaluate a few different templates you can use. Then, we will take the story we built in last week’s course, The Shooter, and define it as a playable game outlined in a game design document.
Meet the Instructors
Dariush DerakhshaniFaculty, Character Animation
School of Film/Video
Now from the settings idea sheets from last week, I hope you found a few
ideas for the first and subsequent arenas for your own version of the shooter.
Now let's discuss how we can keep this gameplay rising,
as we do with the story's actions and its tensions.
As an example, let's continue where we left off in the last lecture and
walk through the shooter, level by level, starting with Level 2.
Level 2.
After the first level, we know that each round of the competition gets tougher, and
that Jake will have a harder and harder time beating each of these levels before
the big death match with Dead-Eye Jane at the end.
So how do we up the ante and
make the targets harder in this Level 2, to improve on the gameplay?
We could just make the targets smaller, and put them further away from the shooter
with each level, but think of the player here.
It is true that smaller targets are gonna be harder to hit, but is that exciting for
the human player of the game?
I personally would get bored with it and I'd move onto something else.
So in the detailed game overview, you could start writing something like this.
After the player beats the first level, we cut into cinematic cut scene sequence
where we see some of Jake's past comrades congratulating him on the win and
how they're glad to see him back, exposing more of the story of him and
his family's loss.
He's touched, but he's eager to move on,
thinking nothing of the greater conspiracy to come.
The second gameplay level has The Shooter shooting at moving targets
with a selection of cooler,
more capable weapons to balance out the tougher arena in this level.
Not only are the target circles smaller, but the targets also move up,
down, and side to side in each of the shooting lanes.
And then you go on to describe how Jake meets another competitor, Emily,
in the second level.
And we start hearing about Dead-Eye Jane through the heads-up display chats.
And of course, after this shooting gameplay, it is an opportunity for
another cut scene to give out more story before we go on to Level 3,
which you would describe in this text, of course.
Now also with this harder gameplay at this Level 2,
the perspective of the human player gets challenged.
And their ability to use the mouse and
keyboard controls has got to improve to be able to beat the level,
to advance to the third level where we're gonna see Jake competing alongside an old
confidant, Phil, where he learns more about Dead-Eye Jane being a crook.
Level 3.
We need to make this third level harder to play, but
add new weapons and ammo to help keep the game in balance.
In the detailed game overview we could start writing something like,
in the elite third round of gameplay, our arena is designed to be immersive.
The players don't just stand in lanes to shoot at moving targets,
they are inside the shooting range itself.
Each character, including Jake the player, takes timed turns
shooting targets inside a room where targets drop in from the ceiling and
spring up from the floor all around the player.
Here we see a shift in the core first-person gameplay, and
introduce a third-person view as the player now
gets to control the movement of the shooter inside the arena space.
Targets are much more surprising on this level, and are faster and harder to hit.
Using audio cues, we can have targets come up behind the shooter,
forcing the player to have to turn, jump, duck and
maneuver their way around the shooting course.
Scoring is as before, based on time and accuracy,
with only the top four shooters advancing to the semi-finals.
And you just keep this momentum going as you design your gameplay.
Keep asking yourself, how do I make it more challenging?
How do I keep the game in balance?
How do I keep it exciting and engaging for the player?
This level that we just talked about not only made the game more interesting, but
it twisted on the core gameplay and got us out of that familiar first-person shooting
mode and has the player controlling more than just that perspective.
This all works in tandem as well with the rising stakes at this part of the story,
which have gotten pretty high at this point.
We know Dead-Eye Jane is a cheater, and
she's power hungry and is the real antagonist in this story.
Level 4.
Level 4 is where Jake in our story is going to be shooting against a few
of Dead-Eye Jane's henchmen, including Patrick.
So we would write something like this.
The fourth gameplay level has The Shooter shooting shifting targets from
a moving vehicle in a new outdoor arena.
The player chooses from a new lineup of assault rifles and
submachine guns, as well as a vehicle to control during the competition.
A topless jeep, a motocross bike, or a magnetic levitation board.
During this gameplay, we meet Patrick, one of Jane's henchmen.
And then you go on to describe the gameplay level and
how it's beaten and how it leads to a new cut scene
where we see that Jake learns from Patrick that Dead-Eye Jane is actually the one
who caused the accident that took his family's life.
This is, of course, if the player manages to beat Patrick in that level.
This last level we talked about is also another opportunity to twist on
the core gameplay and go from being in first-person shooting mode
to that third-person mode, where you have to control not only the aiming and
the shooting, but also drive the moving vehicle.
This elevates the gameplay as the story gets tenser, and
gives the player more motivation to keep trying to beat that level.
Level 5.
Now knowing the stakes are as high as they can get,
that Jane killed Jake's family and has rigged the final arena against him
into this death match, hoping to actually kill Jake.
We're coming to the last level in the game itself, and the final crisis of the story.
So this gameplay must be adequately difficult and engaging.
Our overview would then read something like this.
The fifth and final level of the shootout competition
is where Jake squares off with Dead-Eye Jane herself.
Both players start at opposite sides of a large maze arena that has targets that
pop in and out all around the characters.
These targets are also armed with Taser pistols
that stun the players as they progress through the maze.
A player, when stunned, loses time and the chance to score on targets, but
also is prone to being ambushed by the other player in the maze.
Because this is a death match, as we learned in the preceding cut scene,
the player's ammunition is live and deadly.
And again, the overview would describe how the level plays out, and how the player
can defeat Jane and set off the final cut scene of the game that resolves the story.
Of course, that is, if the player can actually beat Jane.
Otherwise they get a very different cut scene with Jake being carted off
on a stretcher to the morgue.
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