Friday, 3 February 2017

Task 3 - Creating Dialogue for Games - Game Dialogue Development Log

Game dialogue sources - Design documents, game story, scripts

Video games have plenty of dialogue sources, these can be the main characters having their own conversations while you play, letters and such written notes, along with other forms of communication. NPCs can also have dialogue: some talk with the player and some talk with each other, even cutscenes can be labeled a source of dialogue.

An interesting example of a dialogue source can be seen in the game Super Smash Bros Brawl where by playing as Snake and taunting at a character you are given a small conversation between snake and his partners about the other player, there's variety in the conversations; some of the characters explain the opponent's backstory, some bicker between each other and some even fangirl over their opponent. A similar source of dialogue is also seen in the 3DS and WIIU editions of Super Smash Bros where Pit, Lady Palutena and Viridi converse about their opponent.

Video Of Snake Codec Here-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNNvvymdceU

Video Of Pit Conversations Here-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrlHPDx-LRQ



Another example of dialogue sources can be seen in Dragon Age: Origins, in this game a max of 3 companions can accompany a player, while exploring they have a chance of striking up a conversation, depending on the player's choices, the state of factions, approval and many other variables the conversations can vary, some are funny: like the dwarf trying to put a saddle on a dog and ride him like a horse, while some a sombre and depressing like a wise, elderly mage shunning a king for sacrificing some of his people for the greater good.


Verbal elements - Narration, voice-over, off-screen, monologue, dialogue

Monologue, Dialogue and Narration correspond with the first, second and third person. These verbal elements change how a story is told, they allow the writer to specifically alter the feelings and expectations someone has for the product. Monologue is used in games like Mass Effect, where the main character (Sheppard) has their own feelings and beliefs instead of being an empty shell for the player. Dialogue is used in conversations, it allows (for example) a character to give their opinions on another character. Finally monologue, this form of storytelling is most similar to fairy tales (aka "once upon a time") where the story is told to the observer through an omnipresent voice (normally called the storyteller) like in the game Dragon Age 2 where everything has already happened and is being read from a book.

I want my story to feel like a fairy tale, that's why I will mainly use narration to prevent the reader from putting themselves in the shoes of the main protagonist and instead imagining themselves looking down at them as they go about their adventure, sometimes a monologue is required as the main character can be quite mysterious and hard to figure out without listening to what they're thinking.

Script writing - Layout (Action, scene headings, character name, extension...), Storyboard, Flowchart

Writing a script can be a complicated endeavour, so many standards and parts go into it and its extremely difficult to find a reliable source of information for free, an easy way to understand it is to break it down into chunks and explain how they work, the ways to write them and things to look out for. Courier New (size 12) is the font used for scripts, it is a fundamental touch that increases the genuinity of your work and gets you on the right track when writing your script.

Actions are the descriptions of a scene and the happenings of it, they are aligned to the left and describe instructions for a faithful recreation, an example of this can be seen below.
Scene headings are split up into 3 parts, you have the "EXT." which stands for "Exterior" amd is used when a scene takes place outside, this can be a forest or a town, "INT." Is used when a scene takes place inside like a house or cave. The second part is the location name, this is a simple name given to the scene, it could be someone's house or a temple, it doesnt matter. The last part is only written if your scene is a "EXT." or the outside can be seen clearly. It is the time of day, this could be morning or afternoon or something more specific like 5 AM. Dont forget, every letter on this line should be capital.

Character name is the label placed on a character to easily identify them, these are commonly their name but can sometimes be different like "MYSTERIOUS MAN" or "OLD LADY". The name should only be displaced in the middle of the page and only below dialogue.

Extension is an additional note that states how the character should read out their line. This is extremely useful for giving the actor a push in the right direction when it comes to the expressions and emotions behind the words.
Storyboards are documents that help with the planning and development of entertainment

Industry practice - Reflect on finished product, production skills & management.

My 10 page script uses the contrast between its cast's personalities and ideologies to further flesh out their character, the use of depressing and cheerful scenes are used to give the reader perspective over the characters, it lets them be shown in different light and allows for further exploration of characters and their reactions to the world around them. The scenes are designed to be unique, letting the reader gauge the way the world affects the heroes and villains and how their choices impact it back. The script itself follows closely to the standard conventions of script writing, it uses the correct font and font size along with mirroring of anatomically correct formatting.

On the other hand the script had several minor and major problems that should definitely be addressed and/or removed, these include the extremely horrendous attempt at a sappy scene, not only was the writing akin to those seen in pre-teen fanfiction but it was placed right at the start of the 10 page extract leaving a sour taste in the mouth of the reader, this could be fixed of only the emotions were toned down slightly and the scene been given some traction before diving deep into the angst. Another thing that stuck me as problematic was the personality/mood of the characters, in my personal opinion a good character should not easily be summarizable in one sentence, characters like Amaias can easily be "innocent child that wants everyone to be happy" and Vishnu can be described as "Father figure with parental problems". This shouldn't be that big of a problem when a full script is created as it would account for the character growth talked about in Task 2.

The final thing I believe required an update is the overall scene structive, I've allowed myself to write scenes without much direction, this has visibly tainted my creation; Dialogue can and is just used as filler to pad out the story instead of focusing on important character building or world exploration. A great example of this is the dog, while it was originally meant as a peak at Shiva's hidden personality it fell flat as I did not work well in the context of an extract, not only that but a scene like this would have worked much earlier in the story, way before Vishnu or any main character's character arc came to its conclusion.

10 Page Script -
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BztnG-hQrLyfV3VLM2JaUXFvOEU/view?usp=sharing

Sources -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_design_document
http://www.paladinstudios.com/2012/08/06/how-to-write-a-good-game-story-and-get-filthy-rich/
http://www.scripts.com/
http://www.simplyscripts.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts
http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Script
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narration
http://www.monologueblogger.com/monologues/
https://www.soas.ac.uk/courseunits/15PANH050.html
http://www.adacore.com/developers/development-log

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