Games Business - Guest Lecture Synopses

GUEST LECTURE 1: Arthur Parsons, Traveller’s Tales [http://www.ttgames.com/]

Our first guest lecturer was Arthur Parsons, Games Designer from Traveller’s Tales. Arthur has been a lead designer at TT Games for twelve of his fifteen-year industry career, following three years testing at Psygnosis. His presentation focused on getting design placements within industry, as he himself does the interviews for TT Games and plays a part in hiring new design staff. He mentioned how the industry is traditionally quite migrational and internal, with lots of inter-company movement. Another important facet of his presentation was the importance of ‘selling yourself’ to the company, and how work experience is integral to getting your foot in the door.

He also discussed his attitude towards games design, with the tenets that ‘Creativity doesn’t have to stop for branding’ and ‘Evolution through osmosis’, taking elements of past successes and refining them. He said designers often didn’t need to know how something worked as much as why it worked, as there are specific technical staffs for those problems. He finished by discussing his experience in Q&A and offering Q&A as the best way for designers to break into the industry, as well as showing constant enthusiasm for prospective companies and their products.


GUEST LECTURE 2: Cameron Thompson, Angel’s Den [http://www.angelsden.co.uk/]

Our second guest lecturer was Cameron Thompson, Regional Director of Angels Den. Cameron had two decades of experience banking before becoming a private investor four years ago. He describes Angels Den as a ‘dating agency for entrepreneurs and investors’ and discussed the various different sources of finance and their pros and cons. The five sources he examined were; Family, Public Sector, Banks, Venture Capital and Angel Investors. He explained how investors look for simple explanations; ‘What do you do? Who are you? Why should I listen? How will this make money?’ and how a business plan is only usually the province of public sector and bank investment.

As his presentation was based around seeking investment and various forms of financial dealings, it was not particularly helpful until the later phases, which were based around presenting one’s self in interviews, from the importance of facial hair to pitching and presentations. It was established that honesty was the best policy in deals such as these, and how any vaguely-financial arrangement has similarities to a romantic relationship.


GUEST LECTURE 3: Nicholas Rathbone, Codemasters [http://www.codemasters.co.uk/]

Our third guest lecturer was Nicholas Rathbone, Games Designer from Codemasters. Nick graduated from Bolton University’s Games Programming course in 2008, and was hired by Climax Studios before moving to Codemasters. The focus of his presentation was ‘breaking into the industry’ by means of an interesting CV, exciting portfolio and well-researched interview technique. He also discussed the difference between applying directly to a company and using an agency, suggesting the former is better for both individual freedoms and for saving the prospective employer money.

The most interesting part of Nick’s presentation regarded life as a Games Designer; what was expected in the role and the perks, such as training and bonuses. The final part of Nick’s presentation was to break down the different roles within the industry and demonstrate how long it takes to ascend to each one, from entry-level positions to experienced, senior and finally lead in each field.


GUEST LECTURE 4: Thomas Hulvershorn, I-Play [http://www.iplay.com/]

Our fourth guest lecturer was Thomas Hulvershorn, head of Q&A at I-Play. I-Play was founded as Digital Bridges in 1998, making mobile phone games before being bought by Oberon Media in 2003 and becoming the world’s leading casual games company. I-Play maintains strong links with universities as student testing costs nothing and provides valuable work experience, and one of the best things demonstrated during this presentation was the use of project methodologies within industry.

He took great care to explain the casual games market and how design relates to Q&A within his chosen field, especially regarding the idea of application virulence, and the idea of using players’ social links as a currency in itself, essentially monetising the game without having outright micro-transactions. The most important part of Thomas’ presentation concerned the industry itself, as he said ‘testing can be used as an entry to industry, but it’s also a profession within itself’.


GUEST LECTURE 5: David Bramhall & Vicky Rowley, Sony Evo [http://www.evos.net/]

Our fifth guest lecture was taken by David Bramhall and Vicky Rowley, designer and HR representative respectively. They were visiting on behalf of the Sony North West Group, comprising Studio Liverpool, Evolution Studios and Bigbig. Dave’s part of the presentation explained how he’d joined the industry and how Sony’s studios were structured in terms of having leads for each field instead of general leadership.

Vicky’s part of the presentation dealt with applying for jobs within the games industry, stressing again the need to be smartly-presented but not overdressed, as well as being clear on my goals and my chosen role. She suggested that a portfolio be focussed on my chosen field, but still to demonstrate other skills. She added that Sony has a large training budget for ‘investment in staff’ and explained many perks of a job at Sony; pension, health insurance, equipment allowance to name just a few.


GUEST LECTURE 6: Peter Akrill, Codemasters [http://www.codemasters.co.uk/]

Our sixth guest lecture was Peter Akrill, Expert Programmer from Codemasters. Peter graduated from Bolton on the first iteration of the Games Programming course, and worked at Traveller’s Tales before moving to Codemasters. He recommended moving around within the industry for the sake of pay and experience, and described the industry as being mainly contacts, tight-knit but spread out. He described the makeup of a studio and the different kinds of roles and people to be found within it.

The most interesting part of Peter’s lecture was to do with staying healthy within the industry, from when to take breaks and the kind of hours we should work, to asking questions and keeping a slew of healthy snacks to hand. He also recommended preparing food in the office, doing exercises in the morning and keeping a active social life as ways to stay healthy within the games industry.

Team Project Final Overviews

WEEK 20:
During Week 19 I consulted briefly with Lee on the Testing documentation, while continuing to make notes on the other design documentation.
WEEK 21:
During Week 21 work increased again on completing a playable final build of the level. Every team member was involved at this point.
WEEK 22:
During Week 22 the team delivered their Milestone 3 presentation, which went very well and raised many questions from the tutors.
WEEK 23:
During Week 23 we discussed with the tutors how we would demonstrate some of our writing, and it was agreed that I would be responsible for this piece. We also performed our Milestone 4 presentation, which was a disappointment due to lack of preparation.
WEEK 24:
During Week 24 the team prepared for testing, with Lee emailing tutors whose lessons we would be taking candidates from while I prepared a chart of rooms and lessons we could use for testing. We finalised the questionnaires ready to begin testing next week.
WEEK 25:
During Week 25 we presented the sample report work I’d written and we began testing. Testing was a slow process but our method is very robust and we were able to get many candidates tested. We aim to have tested 50 candidates total by next week, ready to begin data analysis before Christmas.
WEEK 26:
During Week 26 we met with Dr. Steve Manning, a statistician who offered to help us with our data analysis. We continued to test candidates and provided Dr. Manning with a complete set of our data before beginning work on our final milestone presentation.
WEEK 27:
During Week 27 we had several more meetings with Dr. Steve Manning where I was taught how to properly analyse our data, including an introduction to statistics and a piece of practice analysis. This will be very helpful for my work over Christmas. We also delivered our Milestone 5 presentation, which was a great success and made up for the weaker previous milestone.
WEEK 28:
The team spent Week 28 discussing the Final Report and allocating writing sections. We decided to keep our formatting similar to the way I’d demonstrated during milestone 1, and everyone ended the week with a clear idea of what they needed to contribute. I continued in greater detail the data analysis I’d begun for the final milestone presentation.
CHRISTMAS:
During Christmas I spent a lot of time updating and preparing the documents that would make up my part of the report and the data analysis. The latter was quite difficult but I’m confident in the work that I’ve produced and my understanding of it. Despite the multiple updates I made to the existing documents, I’m concerned there may be too many words for my section available, as there are several areas (such as Personality Modelling) that very much informed the creation of our NPC I would be wary of ignoring.

Week XIX - Overview

During Week 19 we had a brief meeting to discuss how the level designs lined up, and work has begun on the first draft of the current design documentation.

Week XVIII - Overview

During Week 18 we worked on our second Milestone presentation, though the delivery was disappointing as we hadn’t thoroughly prepared. We have scheduled and are preparing our next two Milestones, while still working on collating our summer work.

Week XVII - Overview

During Week 17 the group has been collating the work performed over the summer, which consisted of the admittedly Spartan Alpha Build and various relevant researches.

Week XVI - Overview

During Week XVI we allocated Summer roles according to the set plan. My roles include overviewing the research of other team members and producing the 'Underground' section of the level.

Week XV - Overview

During Week 15 we finalised our Summer Plan and presented it in the form of a verbal report during our meeting.

Week XIV - Overview

During Week 14 project progress was slow due to deadlines approaching in other subjects. We started work on our Summer Plan, which we will pitch next week during our meetings.

Week XIII - Overview

During Week 13 I wrote an 'Environment Study' of the Janus Syndicate Base from GoldenEye, which can be found here.

Week XIII - Environment Study

GoldenEye: Source's remake of the Control level, Janus' secret Cuban base..

For a quick environment study I cast my memory back to the halcyon days of 1997, and the FPS phenomenon that was GoldenEye (and its namesake film), and decided to produce a quick overview of what we can learn from the two and how we can apply it to our forthcoming level design. Bond villains are the world's greatest super-villains, and their underground bases are a hallmark of the role. I'm sure there are other examples within the series, but here is the first..

"Possibly the best example of a villainous control room is that found in GoldenEye. Situated in Cuba and below a satellite dish (which is itself hidden under a lake), the Janus syndicate’s hidden base blends earth walls and polished, futuristic technology excellently. This is the kind of style we should be aiming to ape as it gives our level a sense of super-villainy, which will make the experience more fun. Having previously been made and remade in videogame form, GoldenEye is an excellent example for considering the addition of gameplay elements, and as one of the most famous FPSes in history, there’s no more deserving candidate of study."

Week XII - Overview

During Week 12 the group prepared and delivered Milestone 1, demonstrating the research phase of our project and discussing a general overview of our project. I feel the Milestone went comparatively well, though we had many different facets to our presentation and over-ran slightly.

Week XI - Overview

During Week 11 the group discussed testing methodologies and planned the types of data we were aiming to collect. We also discussed methods of provoking interaction with the NPC, such as simple puzzles and combat sections.

Week XI - Pre-Vis 1

During the time we were pitching our respective ideas for the level, I produced a short untextured Pre-Vis to demonstrate my ideas for layouts and traps. I decided it would be more interesting to present this with a mysterious framing sequence as we had not yet decided on many of the narrative aspects (indeed, neither had we decided the gameplay yet.) Here is my short Pre-Vis, ‘The Miranda Incident’.

“With this M-I-R-A-N-D-A*, The world is practically ours!”

Easter - Overview

During the three Easter weeks I worked on many ideas for the project, including the design of the character and level, as well as ideas for the testing and further research. These are all available in the post 'Elements Of Consideration'.

Easter - Elements Of Consideration

"Elements Of Consideration"
being the most marvellous notes
of the renowned scholar Kyle Cherry

1.1 Refinement of our test.
-One of our current problems with the test is that we have not chosen a ‘victory condition’. This problem is easily remedied:
Our test has been successful if the player found the NPC too plausible as a friend to believe they could ever turn upon them. Essentially, that the ‘Nice’ level variant would be ‘canon’ in their eyes. One of the most important questions to include in the questionnaires is which level the player found most believable, because if our NPC is too friendly to be a threat players will tell us that the level where the two leave happily was the most believable. Our test will have been a success.

1.2 Defining sympathy, empathy and chivalry – Emotional Factors of our test.
“The Nature Of Sympathy”
(Max Scheler, 2008 / ISBN-10: 1412806879)
“The Role of Sympathy And Altruistic Personality Traits In Helping: A Reexamination”
(Nancy Eisenberg et al. / http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119431381/abstract)
“The Distinction Between Sympathy And Empathy”
(Lauren Wispé, 1986 / Journal of Personality And Social Psychology)
"The Sacred Rights Of The Weak"
(Elizabeth B. Clark, 1995 / http://www.jstor.org/pss/2082183)

2.1 Refinement of personality modelling chart to better suit our NPC.
-Reduce the variables -2/+2, representing the strongest realistic responses.
-Increase list of variables:
Hateful / Loving
Discontent / Content
Disillusioned / Hopeful
Cautious / Trusting
Cowardly / Courageous
Arrogant / Modest
Selfish / Selfless
Indifferent / Caring
Immature / Mature
Dishonorable /Honorable
-Addition of ‘Inert/Driven’ axis which charts the character’s ambition or lack thereof.
-Addition of ‘Independent/Dependent’ axis which charts the character’s need or lack of need for other characters.
-Addition of ‘Introvert/Extrovert’ axis which charts how the character presents themselves to social situations.
-Addition of ‘Chaotic/Ordered’ which charts the character’s attitudes to their clothing, possessions and situation.
We can use these personality modelling charts in our data-collection, asking players to mark the NPC. This is interesting, because with two NPCs to describe, the player will invariably pick the one they found most believable.

3.1 Design of our NPC – Career & Background.
-NPC must be sympathetic; unfulfilling day job? Money issues? NPC must be thoroughly sympathetic; Under-valued?
-Possible careers; IT Consultant, office drone.
When considering the chosen career of our NPC, we must pay attention to whether the setting places any additional restrictions on our character, for example ‘Job Strain’ and other traits.
“Does it matter where you work?"
(E. Jeffrey Hill, 2003 / Journal Of Vocational Behavior)
“A longitudinal test of Karasek's Job Strain model among office workers.”
(Pascale Carayon, 1993 / Work And Stress)
“A Brief Introduction to Job Strain”
(Peter Schnall M.D., 1998 / http://workhealth.org/strain/briefintro.html)
“The World Of The Office Worker”
(Michel Crozier, 1971 / Journal Of Contemporary Ethnography)

3.2 Design of our NPC – Appearance.
“A Measure Of Emotional Empathy”
(Albert Mehrabian, 2006 / http://dionysus.psych.wisc.edu/lit/Articles/MehrabianA1972a.pdf)
-Our NPC must be ‘average’ to best fit plausibility;
“Why are average faces attractive?”
(Tim Valentine, 2004 / http://www.valentinemoore.co.uk/trv/Attractive.pdf)
“Eyeglasses and gender stereotypes.”
(Roger Terry, 1989 / http://journals.lww.com/optvissci/Abstract/1989/10000/Eyeglasses_and_Gender_Stereotypes.6.aspx)
-This study suggests that women with glasses are considered to be more intelligent, feminine and introverted than otherwise.
"What is the female image projected by smoking?"
(John Beech, 2001 / http://www.le.ac.uk/psychology/jrb/PDF2000/Beech&Whittaker01.pdf)
-This study shows how smoking is considered to make a female seem more sexually interested, and glasses more intelligent. Variables such as these can easily be added to our character to make them seem more realistic, and the effects are clear for us to see.

4.1 Design of our Level - Situation.
-An everyday setting plays well to the strengths of the Hammer editor. IE; streets, shops.
-Setting must be fairly normalised so that the player is less concerned with that than with the NPC herself. IE; an alien invasion would have the players looking for aliens instead of interacting with our NPC, and would render our test useless.
“Fear of Crime and Handgun Ownership”
(James DeFronzo, 2006 / http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119597174/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0)
“Determinants of fear of crime: The effect of cultural setting”
(Richard Bennet, 1994 / http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a718869555&db=all)
-The two above are important to consider if we plan to use many firearms upon our level- how did they get there?
The link below is an interesting proposition to consider if we stick with horror elements in a civilised setting.
“Setting in Horror Fiction"
(Teresa Hopper, 2002 / http://www.fmwriters.com/Visionback/Issue9/horror.htm)
Above all, the rule of a normalised setting must be upheld, otherwise we risk spoiling the test with nonsense.

4.2 Design of our Level - Layout.
-The level must incorporate spaces for the player to directly interact with the NPC (through triggers, essentially ‘helpful’ and ‘unhelpful’) so we can better directly monitor the two. This can also play to the idea of using Bioware-esque conversational trees.
“Sick Building Syndrome: A Study Of 4373 Office Workers"
(Sherwood Burge, 1987 / http://annhyg.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/31/4A/493)
“Non-Specific Symptoms In Office Workers”
(Mark Mendell, 2004 / http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119306861/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0)

5.1 Further Reading.
“Consistency of personality in interactive characters”
(Katherine Isbister, 2000 / http://www.fineminddesign.com/site/media/Readings/Week%208/Isbister_nass_2000_consistency_of_personality_in_interactive_characters.pdf )
“Engaging Characters: Fiction, Emotion, and the Cinema”
(Murray Smith, 1995 / ISBN-10: 019818347X)
Research on tabletop games- how do they encourage creating and playing believable characters?

Week VII - Overview

During Week 7 I wrote a Source Analysis of E. Hall's 'The Silent Language'. I also started making notes for my work over the Easter break, in three main fields; Test Design, NPC Design and Level Design.

Week VII - Source Analysis IV

Players in Warhammer Online: Age Of Reckoning demonstrate distances in MMORPGs.

During Week 7 I borrowed E. Hall's 'The Silent Language' from the University library. I completed reading the book over the course of the week, and the source analysis report I wrote as a result can be found here.

"E. Hall's 'The Silent Language’ is an interesting source describing the myriad aspects of culture. While the book is probably required reading for anthropologists, I at first struggled to find meaning within it as relating to games design. Nonetheless riveting, it was only as I approached chapter ten, ‘Space Speaks’, which discusses from a Western point of view how distance affects communication. Within a three-dimensional space such as our level, this is integral."

Week VII - Personal Goals

During Week 7 the team again has no work to achieve, so I set myself a piece based on Phil's recommendation..
ii. Read and evaluate E. Hall's "The Silent Language" [1959].

I especially enjoy the perspective of authors writing before the advent of the internet, and hopefully this is no different.

Week VI - Overview

During Week 6 we presented our Design Document to Brian and Phil, and I think we were very successful with our demonstration. We were able to show a deep understanding of the research in our field, were able to demonstrate thoroughly why our project is worth its time and discussed any changes and additions the lecturers would make to our test.

I'm planning during the week to agree with the team some way of making the three-week Easter break productive but still a break, and my current thinking is to suggest a free-form assignment where each person produces a series of ideas and thoughts about how to design the level and character and brings them all to the table in the week following. This will be posted on the Team Blog when my idea is concrete.

Week VI - Personal Goals

During Week 6 the team again has only one goal to achieve.
i. Present the Design Document work to Brian & Phil.

As long as we remember our parts, the presentation's bound to go fine.

Week V - Overview

During Week 5 all that was required from our group was to finalise our Design Document, which we did relatively quickly and to a high standard, and to begin work on the presentation for Week 6. The first step was to single out elements of the document which translate especially well to presentation, and to put each element in the hands of someone who would have the most interesting perspective on each element.

Week V - Personal Goals

During week 5 I (and the team) have only two simple goals to achieve.
i. Finalise and hand-in the Design Document.
ii. Practice presenting the work with Claire & Amanda.

This should be very simple, as the work is near-finalised anyway.

Week IV - Overview

During Week 4 I had an uncharacteristically-simple week, where all I needed to do was write up the results of both of my surveys, tie together all the elements of our Design/Pitch/Plan document and write a Character Study of Mass Effect 2's Miranda Lawson. I also assisted in creating a 'work index' page for the Team Blog based on the one I use here.

Week IV - Research Exercise II

From the start of our project I wanted to hit the ground running with a quick survey to ask what traits were especially pronounced among characters of the recently-released Dragon Age: Origins. I decided the quickest way to do this was to produce a survey asking respondents to rank the game’s eight characters in order of how much the characters appealed to them. I distributed the completed survey to two groups of people; a group of predominantly-female Bioware fans on a Bioware fansite, and a predominantly-male group of games students. The information provided by the characters Morrigan, Alistair, Loghain and Oghren will be the most important, for reasons I will explain upon analysing the data (should my theories hold true.) The survey I performed and its analysis can be found here.

Week IV - Research Exercise

During my analysis of C.Crawford’s ‘Chris Crawford On Interactive Storytelling’ I discovered the concept of ‘personality mapping’- creating an image of a character through a series of traits that make them up. Comparing this with what I learnt from M. Krawczyk regarding a list of traits to look out for in characters, I had the idea of mapping the positive and negative traits suggested by Krawczyk to a -5 to +5 axis representing the strength. I theorised that with a list of characteristics scored either positive or negative, we would be able to make a character that was plausible for a realistic setting, and could then modify that to easily fit new characters. The test I performed and its analysis can be found here.

Week IV - Character Study II

Mass Effect 2 [Bioware, 2010]'s sexy super-spy Miranda Lawson.

For my second character study I chose Mass Effect 2's Miranda Lawson, reasoning that as I'd used her as an example previously, and that we'd named one of our possible tests in her honour, I should explain her importance. The character study I wrote as a result can be found here.

"Mass Effect 2 is a strange game. On the one hand, it represents something of a technical step back from Dragon Age’s approval system, replacing a slow build of trust with a one-shot mission to prove your loyalty. On the other hand, the characterisation is as good if not better, and I feel this is typified by Miranda Lawson, Commander Shepard’s second in command. Ostensibly a spy working for the mysterious Illusive Man, and indeed the only person in the galaxy who ever meets him in person, Miranda is both the stereotypical femme fatale; a sexy, sassy character almost painted into her uniform, and something entirely different. That she fits the setting so well and breaks beyond her stereotype are both testament to the skill of Bioware’s writers."

Week IV - Personal Goals

During week 4 I have set myself a series of goals to achieve.
i. Continue work on our Design Document.
ii. Writeup results of my two research exercises [Dragon Age and Personality Modelling].
iii. Write a Character Study of Mass Effect 2's Miranda Lawson.

Despite the workload of other units, I'm optimistic I'll complete all these goals in time.

Week III - Overview

During Week 3 I continued to gather questionnaires (my findings will be shown next week), as well as writing Source Analysis of C. Crawford's 'Chris Crawford On Interactive Storytelling' and S. Graner Ray's 'Gender-Inclusive Games Design'. I also wrote an External Research piece, 'Comic-Book Characterisation & Personality Theory' and completed Phase Two of our Design Document.

Week III - Research

Marvel Comics' The Sentry, the golden guardian of good... and bad?

During Week 3 I researched Personality Theory & Archetypes, and compared what I'd learnt to my existing knowledge of superhero comic-books and films. The report I wrote as a result can be found here.

"When designing characters to engage the player there are a multitude of elements to consider, such as the visual and auditory design of the characters, as well as their personality. These design elements become especially important when creating characters a player will only interact with for a short time, as a lot of the player’s opinion is formed with the first impression."

Week III - Source Analysis III

Dragon Age: Origins [Bioware, 2010]'s Alistair and Morrigan.

During Week 3 I borrowed C. Crawford's 'Chris Crawford On Interactive Storytelling' from the University library. I completed reading the book over the course of the week, and the source analysis report I wrote as a result can be found here.

"C. Crawford’s 'Chris Crawford On Interactive Storytelling’ is an intriguing book. On the one hand, it provides deep and detailed information regarding any way that plot and characters can be used in videogames, but on the other hand, is presented in such a confrontational and condescending way it’s hard to take the man seriously. This stems from the fact that while Crawford practically invented his field, other writers were published dealing with it prior to him, and there seems a kind of resentment present. Struggling through this, however, I found the book to be an excellent source for our project, as it presents further development in the ‘Personality Modelling’ I’ve been working on. While the entire book is useful from a narrative perspective, we are only concerned with Chapter 11, which deals with character-driven storytelling and believable NPCs."

Week III - Source Analysis II

Street Fighter II [Capcom, 1991]'s Chun Li battles Blanka on the game's US Box Art.

During Week 2 I borrowed S. Graner Ray's 'Gender-Inclusive Games Design" from the University library. I completed reading the book over the course of the week, and the source analysis report I wrote as a result can be found here.

”S. Graner Ray’s 'Gender-Inclusive Games Design’ is an unlikely source to draw upon for our project, but ultimately it proved at least a little rewarding. The book’s basic premise is that with Games Design being a male-orientated field, more should be done to make games accessible to females- after all, half the planet is female, and that’s a massive untapped market. Appealing directly to our project, however, are elements of chapters two and seven, ‘Evolution Of Female Characters In Computer Games’ and ‘Avatar Selection’ respectively. These were the titles that originally drew me to read the book, and they have proved quite interesting."

Week III - Personal Goals

During week 3 I have set myself a series of goals to achieve.
i. Continue work on our proposed tests and Design Document.
ii. Continue to gather survey data as started in Week 1.
iii. Read and evaluate S. Graner Ray's 'Gender Inclusive Game Design' [2004].
iv. Read and evaluate C. Crawford's 'Chris Crawford On Interactive Storytelling' [2005].
v. Research into characterisation within Super-Hero stories.

I estimate I will achieve at least half of these goals, as I achieved all of my week 2 goals before the weekend I'd set them was over.

Week II - Overview

During Week 2 I continued to gather questionnaires, as well as writing a Source Analysis of M. Krawczyk & J. Novak's 'Game Story & Character Development'. I also wrote a Character Study of Dragon Age's Loghain Mac Tir, and worked on many technical elements of the project, such as the Design Document and our possible tests.

Week II - Character Study

Dragon Age: Origins [Bioware, 2009]'s Loghain Mac Tir, and daughter Anora.

During Week 2 I wrote a character study of the Dragon Age character Loghain Mac Tir, reasoning that the game was still in my memory and I'd found the character incredibly compelling. The character study I wrote as a result can be found here.

"Bioware’s games are famed for their realistically-flawed and motivated characters. Their 2009 effort, Dragon Age: Origins is no different in this regard, and indeed is considered to have better characterisation than any of their other projects. The game pits the world-saving heroes of the Grey Wardens against a demonic horde set to overrun the country of Ferelden. Standing between the Grey Wardens and the unity required to stand against this Blight is general Loghain Mac Tir, Ferelden’s greatest hero and most valuable treasure, a man who truly represents the human ideal of hard work and dedication. A decisive, prideful and xenophobic man, Loghain’s defining character feature is that his ends always justify his means."

Week II - Possible Test Frameworks

POSSIBLE TEST 1 - "THE MERCY TEST"

OVERVIEW:
Player and NPC (Villain) are seperated by an unbreakable glass wall at all times. As the player pursues the Villain the Villain releases AI enemies to harrass and defeat the player. Upon reaching the final room, however, the level diverges. The villain finds himself in a dead-end, and buttons in front of the player determine his fate. His reactions are as follows (numbers represent test configures):

1. Repentant - The Villain begs for the player's mercy and surrenders.
2. Arrogant - The Villain taunts the player.

The player then has the choice between the two buttons- Kill or Save. Pressing the 'Kill' button causes the Villain to be killed by the room. A set time after the villain dies, the game ends automatically. The 'Save' button causes the Villain to thank the player for his kindness, and the game ends.


TESTING CONSIDERATIONS:

AIMS:
Players will either kill or spare our villain based on the characterisation we give them. This is a quick method of demonstrating whether or not players found our character believable, and will be backed up by the survey data they provide us.

PROS:
Players make a decision based on a judgement of an NPC they've had some manner of interaction with.
A life-and-death decision like this offers the player plenty of room for consideration.

CONS:
Would certain players be morally stronger? Thus, would they be less likely to even consider killing the villain?
Possibility of players for example sparing the Villain in the 2nd scenario, then killing him in the first simply to see the scene.

OTHER:
Playing the level more than once, the player knows what to expect- but they are then surprised by a different outcome. This test uses player choices as a barometer for testing the believability of our NPC and how engaging he is. This test also gathers certain ‘player choice’ data which can be an interesting field to consider in addition to how well our NPC worked.

MODIFICATIONS:
This test could be easily modified due to its simplistic nature. For example, a third option for the level could be to have the ‘Villain’ instead be a heroic character, who causes enemy-related problems for the player purely by accident. Would players make a snap decision regarding the value of the character’s life if they knew their troubles were simply accidental?

EXAMPLE TESTS:
POSSIBLE TEST 1 - "THE MERCY TEST" [PDF]
POSSIBLE TEST 2 - "THE FRIENDSHIP TEST" [PDF]
POSSIBLE TEST 3 -" THE SINISTER TWIN TEST" [PDF]

Week II - Research Survey [cont.]

As I first recieved the survey data from my chosen candidates I began to consider ways to collate it. I decided I would take case studies of the highest-ranked and lowest-ranked character. As of posting, those characters are Alistair Theirin (scoring an average score of 7.5/8.0) and Oghren (1.8/8.0). However, as the common reason for disapproval of Oghren was that he is simply the one-dimensional stereotype of the 'drunken dwarf'. With this in mind, I have decided to write the case study of the next-ranked character; Teryn Loghain Mac Tir (2.6/8.0)- as a character who starts the game as the player's enemy, how did players respond to him in the later stages of the game? Is his writing as a villain responsible for players' disapproval?

Another interesting facet of this stage in the research is the responses I have received are predominantenly-female. Thus, is Alistair's high position a matter of the game mechanic which allows him to be seduced by the player, or simply otherwise engaging writing? This will become clearer with more in-depth reading of the results. The female players also responded in unexpected ways to the female characters, and this was due to their considering the 'Catholic schoolgirl' character Leliana unrealistic compared to the snarky witch Morrigan and the wise mentor figure Wynne.

Week II - Source Analysis

Mass Effect 2 [Bioware, 2010]'s Miranda Lawson, one of my example characters.

During Week 1 I borrowed M. Krawczyk & J. Novak's 'Game Story & Character Development" from the University library. I completed reading the book over the course of the week, and the source analysis report I wrote as a result can be found here.

"M. Krawczyk & J. Novak's 'Game Story & Character Development' is an important source for use with our project because its fifth, sixth and seventh chapters deal specifically with the traits our characters require to be believable. [...] This book has been a very useful source to study from both a theoretical and a practical standpoint. It has given rise to theoretical considerations such as to what extent a character is made from their design and their dialogue, and which traits are necessary and easy to replicate. From a practical standpoint it has enlightened us with regards to the danger of unsuited animations and voice acting, as well as providing a series of exercises that will help us create very well-rounded characters for use within our test."

I found this book especially useful, as I had not previously considered visual and auditory design of characters, only the personality traits they exhibited. This will make my forthcoming Character Study on Dragon Age [Bioware, 2009]'s Loghain Mac Tir deeper and more interesting.

Week II - Design Document Framework

The Title:
Creating interesting non-playable characters.
(Being a study into the contributing factors required to create interesting and believable characters within videogames.)

The Question:
What methods can we use to create realistic and engaging NPCs?

The Hypothesis:
If certain characteristics are considered more 'believable', then NPCs who have them will be more engaging to players.

Project Goals:
The ultimate goal of this project is to create some form of rule set for creating interesting Non Playable Characters (NPCs), and a clear explanation of the context these rules apply in. Through testing pre-defined characteristics that we theorise have positive or negative effects upon players, we should be able to create NPCs players consider 'realistic'. In order to reach this goal we will need to examine current thinking on the subject, case study games with interesting NPCs to look for common devices that we think make them interesting, and possibly distribute questionnaires/surveys to establish what type of person feels these characters are interesting, and how much they are in majority. Obviously it would be impossible to actually cover every possible device for making a character interesting and believable, so eventually it will be a requirement that we define the genre and subjects that will be tested (male 18-24).

The Test:
Our test will run a group of 'traditional videogamers' (males, 18-24) through a basic level and record their reaction to our NPC characters. We will gather qualitative and quantative data on their reactions through entry and exit questionnaires. To avoid an excessive number of personality variables, we must narrow down certain major traits. If we make characters too realistic (ie. totally multi-faceted) we will have far too many perspectives to test from. Our test framework must be such that variables can be changed without affecting the overall structure of the test. For example, making the character kind or callous- does the framework support this? By testing certain personality variables but leaving scope to modify them for repeat tests, we allow for the possibility of similar-conditions repeat testing.

Week II - Personal Goals

During Week 2 I have set myself a series of goals to achieve.
i. Finalise technical details such as our group hypothesis and how we will conduct our test.
ii. Read and evaluate M. Krawczyk's 'Game Story & Character Development" [2006].
iii. Continue to gather survey data as started in Week 1.
iv. Use survey data and developer commentary to write a character case study.
v. Begin the design document framework.
I estimate I will achieve at least half of these goals.

Week I - Overview

During Week 1 I created a research questionnaire, asking respondents to rank the characters from Dragon Age. The questionnaire has been sent to multiple candidates who will hopefully reply fairly quickly. The data I gather here is integral to moving forward with the right understanding of the traits we should and should not attempt to test. The data will be reposted in its completed form here, but relevant analysis will be contained on the aformentioned blog.

Week I - Research Survey

After the first team meeting I set myself the task of researching pronounced traits amongst videogame characters- these would be the easiest to utilise or negate when we come to test our own characters. To do this I produced a series of surveys asking candidates to rank the characters from Bioware's Dragon Age [2009] in order of preference and explain elements of the characters that either appealed to them or otherwise. Copies of the surveys are available below.

Research Survey 2 [Dragon Age]

I distributed the survey initially to two different groups of people; a group of predominantely-female Bioware fans on a Bioware fansite and to a predominantely-male group of Games Design students. I am not worried about patterns of character preference throughout the survey, this is merely a way of discovering which traits are most obvious to players and which provoke the most thorough reactions.

Week I - Introduction

This is the personal blog of Kyle Cherry, member of Level 3 Team Project Group "Team Fable."

Here I will record any elements of my personal work not directly related to the project's main aim; for example, write-ups of sources I find especially informative, research surveys and case studies. Other work will be found on the main Team Fable blog, and cross-linked here where necessary.