- Copyright
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Foreword
- Gallery
- I. Introduction
- 1.1. Communicate… Explore… Help… Words… Edge…
- 1.2. An Introduction to Emotioneering
- 1.3. Why Put Emotion into Games?
- Reason #1: Expanded Demographics
- Reason #2: Better Buzz
- Reason #3: Better Press
- Reason #4: So Games Don't Seem Amateurish
- Reason #5: An Inspired and Dedicated Creative Team
- Reason #6: Consumer Loyalty to the Brand, Which Is Worth a Fortune
- Reason #7: So You Don't Burn Millions of Dollars of Potential Profit
- Reason #8: Competitive Advantage
- Reason #9: So You Don't Come in Last
- Summary
- 1.4. 17 Things Screenwriters Don't Know About Games
- 1.5. Why Game Designers Often Find Writing to Be So Challenging
- 1.6. Why “Writing” Is a Bad Word and “Emotioneering” Is a Better One
- 1.7. How to Hopefully Be Unappreciated
- 1.8. Where Screenwriting Leaves Off and Emotioneering Begins
- II. The 32 Categories of Emotioneering Techniques
- 2.1. Emotioneering Techniques Category #1: NPC Interesting Techniques
- 2.2. Emotioneering Techniques Category #2: NPC Deepening Techniques
- 2.3. Emotioneering Techniques Category #3: Dialogue Interesting Techniques
- 2.4. Emotioneering Techniques Category #4: Deepening Deepening Techniques
- 2.5. Emotioneering Techniques Category #5: Group Interesting Techniques
- 2.6. Emotioneering Techniques Category #6: Group Deepening Techniques
- 2.7. Emotioneering Techniques Category #7: NPC Toward NPC Chemistry Techniques
- 2.8. Emotioneering Techniques Category #8: NPC Toward NPC Relationship Deepening Techniques
- 2.9. Emotioneering Techniques Category #9: NPC Character Arc Techniques
- 2.10. Emotioneering Techniques Category #10: NPC Rooting Interest Techniques
- The Sorcerer Among Us Is You
- Relationship to the Character Diamond
- Put the NPC in Danger
- Self-Sacrifice
- Undeserved Misfortune
- Learn About a Painful Part of Their Past
- Bravery
- Some Techniques Fall into Two Different Categories
- Characters You Invest with Life
- Characters for Whom You're Responsible
- A Note About Multi-Function Techniques
- Using Rooting Interest Techniques and Their Opposites to “Dial Up” or “Dial Down” an NPC's Likability and the Degree to Which We Identify with Him or Her
- Final Thoughts
- 2.11. Emotioneering Techniques Category #11: Player Toward NPC Chemistry Techniques
- 2.12. Emotioneering Techniques Category #12: NPC Toward Player Relationship Deepening Techniques
- 2.13. Emotioneering Techniques Category #13: Player Toward NPC Relationship Deepening Techniques
- 2.14. Emotioneering Techniques Category #14: Group Bonding Techniques
- Elements of Shared Appearance
- Shared Goals
- Shared Rituals
- Going Through Shared Ordeals and Adventures
- Taking Heroic Actions to Protect Each Other
- Complementary Skills
- Say Good Things Behind Each Others' Back—Even if They Don't to Their Faces
- Bam-Bam Dialogue in Cinematics
- Shared References
- Group Bonding Challenges in Squad-Based First-Person Shooters
- Final Thoughts
- 2.15. Emotioneering Techniques Category #15: Emotionally Complex Moments and Situations Techniques
- You Are Forced to Do Potential Evil
- You Are Forced to See Through the Eyes of Someone You Don't Like or Are Ambivalent About
- Ambivalence Toward a “Friend”
- Ambivalence Toward an “Enemy”
- Ambivalence Toward a Situation
- You Discover You've Been Tricked
- Helpless to Aid Someone You Love
- What's Good and What's Evil Is Not Black and White
- Forced to Violate Your Own Integrity
- Creating Emotionally Complex Moments and Situations Through Incongruence
- Final Thoughts
- 2.16. Emotioneering Techniques Category #16: Plot Interesting Techniques
- 2.17. Emotioneering Techniques Category #17: Plot Deepening Techniques
- Two Key Characters Trade Places
- The Story Makes a Spiritual Power Palpable
- A Symbol Takes on More and More Emotional Associations
- A Character We Like Dies
- A Bittersweet Ending
- An Ending That's a Little Uncertain
- Greetings from a Land Outside Your Awareness
- Relevance of Crouching Tiger for Games
- A Downside to Victory
- Emotion Mapping
- Idea Mapping
- Final Thoughts
- 2.18. Emotioneering Techniques Category #18: World Induction Techniques
- Creating a Rich World
- Creating a Rich World Through Visual Incongruence Using Emotionally Resonant Items
- A World That Takes A While to Figure Out
- Friendship or Responsibility Toward NPCs You Care About
- Revenge
- Don't Hold Back on Cool Weapons or Cool Things to Do
- Don't Change All the Rules at the End
- World Induction Techniques Commonly Used in Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs—Sometimes Called MMOs)
- Final Thoughts
- 2.19. Emotioneering Techniques Category #19: Role Induction Techniques
- Skill Sets
- Rewards for Playing the Role
- Against All Odds
- Accomplishment
- Leadership Attitudes and Abilities
- A Valuable and Appreciated Role
- License to Break the Rules
- Beguiling New Identities
- Abilities Beyond the Norm
- The Character Has Emotional Responses We Recognize and Can Identify With
- Self Auto-Talk and Self Auto-Thought
- Fewer Words Usually Invites the Player to Identify with the Character
- Character Silence (No Self Auto-Talk and No Self-Auto Talk)
- Generalizing a Problem
- Tradeoffs When Using Role Induction Techniques
- A Case Study in Role Induction: Thief
- Final Thoughts
- 2.20. Emotioneering Techniques Category #20: First-Person Character Arc Techniques
- Defining the Problem
- Past Attempts to Create a First-Person Character Arc
- Emulating Life Itself
- Should Going Through a First-Person Character Arc Be Essential to Winning a Game?
- Various Types of Rewards and Punishments
- Where a First-Person Character Arc Begins
- Alternative Character Arcs
- Final Thoughts
- 2.21. Emotioneering Techniques Category #21: First-Person Deepening Techniques
- Emotionally and/or Morally Difficult Decisions
- Hypothetical Game Case Study: Woman from the Future
- Hypothetical Game Case Study: Choice of Player Character
- Hypothetical Game Case Study: The Kidnapped Teenager
- Responsibility
- Hypothetical Game Case Study: The Terrellens
- Multiple and Sometimes Even Conflicting Viewpoints (Learning from Mr. Bill)
- Hypothetical Game Case Study: Return to the Terrellens
- Certain First-Person Character Arcs
- Hypothetical Game Case Study: Returning to the City
- Seeing Situations That Aren't Black and White
- Final Thoughts
- 2.22. Emotioneering Techniques Category #22: Revealing Complex Characters Through Their Actions
- 2.23. Emotioneering Techniques Category #23: Enhancing Emotional Depth Through Symbols
- Usable Symbols
- Symbol of a Character's Condition or Change in Condition—Visual or Verbal
- Game Case Study: Ico
- Hypothetical Game Case Study: Symbols of Sadness and Achievement
- Symbolic Subplot
- Game Case Study: Aidyn Chronicles
- Symbols Used in Foreshadowing
- Hypothetical Game Case Study: The Samurai
- A Symbol That Takes on Increasing Emotional Associations—Visual or Verbal
- Hypothetical Game Case Study: The Pendant
- Game Case Study: Max Payne
- Hypothetical Game Case Study: The Hood Ornament
- Final Thoughts
- 2.24. Emotioneering Techniques Category #24: Self-Created Story Techniques (a.k.a. Agency Techniques)
- 2.25. Emotioneering Techniques Category #25: Motivation Techniques
- Don't Interrupt Gameplay
- If Possible, Try Not to Let the Way the Player Receives Information Interrupt the Game
- Don't Hold Back Too Long on the Carrots
- Avoid the Feeling of Repetitive Gameplay…Sometimes
- Keep Those Plot Twists Coming
- Sometimes Provide Unexpected Consequences to the Player's Actions
- Action Puzzles
- A Mysterious or Interesting World That Takes A While to Sort Out
- An Interesting Plot That Unfolds in an Interesting Way
- A Higher Score
- Final Thoughts
- 2.26. Emotioneering Techniques Category #26: Cohesiveness Techniques
- Your Character Gets a Reputation
- Karma
- NPCs in One Part of the Game Refer to NPCs in Other Parts of the Game
- Give Your Game a Theme
- Relationships Between People or Groups That Take A While to Decipher, But Eventually Form Their Own Coherent World
- Abilities You Learn in One Part of the Game Are Useful Later in the Game
- Remind Us of the Stakes
- Final Thoughts
- 2.27. Emotioneering Techniques Category #27: “True-to-Life” Techniques
- 2.28. Emotioneering Techniques Category #28: Cross-Demographic Techniques
- 2.29. Emotioneering Techniques Category #29: Injecting Emotion into a Game's Story Elements
- 2.30. Emotioneering Techniques Category #30: Tying Story to Gameplay and Mechanics
- 2.31. Emotioneering Techniques Category #31: Writing Powerful Pre-Rendered and In-Game Cinematics
- Learning from Film
- Few or No “Blocks”
- Give Major Characters Interesting Diamonds
- Ambivalence Between Characters Can Make a Cinematic More Interesting
- Use Layer Cakes Between Characters to Give Their Relationships Complexity Beyond Simple Ambivalence
- Watch Out for the Clichè and Bland Lines
- Can It Be Said or Told Better with Actions Rather Than Words?
- Time Permitting, It's Okay to Briefly Stray from the Topic at Hand
- No Predictabilty
- Obstacles and Interruptions Can Make a Cinematic More Interesting
- Use Dialogue Devices to Make the Dialogue Sound Natural
- Summary
- The Example
- Final Thoughts
- Glossary for This Chapter
- Learning from Film
- 2.32. Emotioneering Techniques Category #32: Opening Cinematic Techniques
- III. An Emotioneering Gallery
- 3.1. Introduction
- 3.2. Chasm
- Hypothetical Game Case Study: Boston Physicist
- NPC Interesting Techniques (Chapter 2.1)
- Player Toward NPC Chemistry Techniques (Chapter 2.11)
- World Induction Techniques (Chapter 2.18)
- First-Person Deepening Techniques (Chapter 2.21)
- Player Toward NPC Relationship Deepening Techniques (Chapter 2.13)
- Emotionally Complex Moments and Situations Techniques (Chapter 2.15)
- Plot Deepening Techniques (Chapter 2.17)
- Adding Emotional Depth to a Game Through Symbols (Chapter 2.23)
- Final Thoughts
- 3.3. Styx
- Hypothetical Game Case Study: The Roman Empire
- Emotionally Complex Moments and Situations Techniques (Chapter 2.15)
- NPC Deepening Techniques (Chapter 2.2)
- NPC Toward Player Relationship Deepening Techniques (Chapter 2.12)
- First-Person Character Arc and First-Person Deepening Techniques (Chapters 2.20 and 2.21)
- Plot Deepening Techniques (Chapter 2.17)
- Final Thoughts
- 3.4. Rough Trade
- Hypothetical Game Case Study: Cyberpunk Novelist
- NPC Interesting Techniques (Chapter 2.1)
- NPC Deepening Techniques (Chapter 2.2)
- Player Toward NPC Chemistry Techniques (Chapter 2.11)
- Player Toward NPC Relationship Deepening Techniques (Chapter 2.13)
- Role Induction Techniques (Chapter 2.19)
- First-Person Character Arc Techniques (Chapter 2.20)
- First-Person Deepening Techniques (Chapter 2.21)
- Motivation Techniques (Chapter 2.25)
- Plot Deepening Techniques (Chapter 2.17)
- Final Thoughts
- IV. Magic
- V. Addenda
The richest
emotional experiences in a game are created by layering, or stacking, one Emotioneering technique on top of another.
There are a number of color pictures in the center of this book. Of the eight color images, five of them have already been discussed in Part II, “The 32 Categories of Emotioneering Techniques.” In this section, we'll continue with the same method and look at the remaining three pages of images, which illustrate case studies of hypothetical games.
As we've seen through numerous past examples, the richest emotional experiences in a game are created by layering, or stacking, one Emotioneering technique on top of another. Let's delve further in this direction and explore a few of the countless ways Emotioneering techniques can be woven together to strengthen and deepen a game's emotional impact.
Since I began brainstorming these three game case studies by mentally springboarding off of pictures containing fantasy elements, the game stories followed in kind. But never believe that Emotioneering techniques apply only to games that involve fantasy or science fiction.
If you comb back through the book, you'll see that it is populated with numerous examples of hypothetical games based in WWII, the American Revolution, a Desert Storm kind of war, a SWAT team, and a present-day police department, as well as with a film noir-style detective.
These choices were intentional, designed to show the wide range of games to which Emotioneering techniques can be applied. My game design and writing consultancy, The Freeman Group, and I are regularly called to work on games that are completely reality-based, as well as fantasy games and sci-fi games.[1]
Let's take a look at ways Emotioneering techniques can be stacked in order to, as the definition of “Emotioneering” states, move the player through an interlocking sequence of emotional experiences.
[1] Emotioneering is also useful for games of every type. I know this from personal experience. I and my team have applied Emotioneering techniques to RTS (real-time strategy) games, action-adventure games, first-person shooters, platformers, fighting games, driving games, adventure games, and online games.
-
No Comment
..................Content has been hidden....................
You can't read the all page of ebook, please click here login for view all page.