Systemic Design for Game Narratives
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- Опубліковано 9 тра 2024
- Today we take a brief dive into Systemic Game Design and use those principles in game narrative. This can help create a reactive story that feels alive and unique to the player's playthrough!
*The Dwarf Fortress Stories site seems to be offline as of time of posting, so here's the Tumblr alternative: / dfstories
This video is based off of my blog post: newtonarrative.com/blog/syste... Check it out! There are other informative blog posts soon to drop.
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#gamedev #narrativegames #gamedesign #writingtechniques - Ігри
Now imagine if Prequildo doesn't know anything about the egg, but directs you to another antiquarian who does. But after speaking to one antiquarian, the player is tagged as having a powerful item and is set upon by assassins and mercenaries who want it. Now you're on a proper quest.
Now you're cooking with gas! Thats a systemic story without ever even writing a plot!
I love when the algorithm gets it right. This channel is a hidden gem.
Thanks! Commenting and subscribing helps getting it out there!
@@NewToNarrativeSupporting both sentiments with this comment, a like, and a subscribe.
Indeed. Glad it got me here. Working out the narrative elements to something I am making.
This is genuinely helpful, yet so obvious! Object oriented programming for games can be a nightmare but this kind of system would make game programming far more error resilient and work on its own.
Agreed, and theres even a programming pattern out there that does this exact thing: ECS, entity-component-system. It focuses on individual systems much like this
FINALLY!! FINALLY I FOUND ONE!!
I found someone else who talks about the unique stories that games can tell
no one else respects video games as a storytelling medium, i am so glad i finally found someone
Glad you like it! More incoming 👍
great video. we need more content like that, game design at its core
Thank you! Much appreciated
This is great. What a gem. I've been having fun with Gameplay Tags in UE5 and GAS with a custom system for global calls/receiver. Its been incredibly fun to test and play with. For some reason I didn't think anyone else was thinking this way or at least not as deeply so I'm glad I found this.
Oh yeah its a whole thing! It can be argued that some veeeery early RPGs (mud based) are big on systemic design, and a little later immersive sims like Thief. So its always been around but its popularatity comes in waves in the mainstream design zeitgeist!
Fantastic explanation, systemic design seems such a "simple" yet extremely versatile tool! I just found your channel, it's really great content!
Thanks so much! Im glad its been useful. I love systemic design, hope I can inspire you to use it too!
Please keep posting this is exactly what I've been looking for!
Great! Glad its helpful
awesome stuff, really like the explanation of meeting Prequildo and using that flag to call back the player in an open world!
Thanks, Joppe!
Love your videos! Can't wait to see more as the theme of emergent narratives etc intrigues me very strongly.
Thanks, I appreciate it very much. Emergent stories is in the works but will take a while! My one man production is very slow haha
Nice! Great summary. I like using Inkle to execute what you're talking about, and it works really well to limit repetition.
Ive had flings with Inkle but have yet to use it in a bigger projecf. Will do soon tho!
You need to combine multiple character flags Antiquarian + a flag that determines what they’ll do with the relic (Good, Evil, Indifferent) to get exponentially more outcomes for players
Exactly! Adding more of these options and intertwining them with gameplay systems is how you get a great, engaging and reactive narrative.
Design includes narrative design
Reducing design to just the ludic aspect of design is limiting and implies that games are just used to elicit fun instead of being able to elicit a broad set of emotions
Agreed! In bigger teams game design, writing and narrative design are often seperated principles.
The intro is an anecdotal riff on that, and putting the spotlight on the lesser known narrative design. In the video I take design principles typically known for its ludic aspects and applying them to narrative.
Do you think that was clear enough, or should I have made the distinction clearer?
Great explanation and breakdown of this topic and the examples further helped understand how these systems can be used.
Thanks! Im happy its helpful
Damn good video. Keep these coming!
Thanks, will do!
Antiquarian flag, relic interaction, reactive event, artificial scarcity,
Gotta take those notes!
neat - like the way you explaining the topic.
Thanks! I was afraid the video would be too explainy, but your comment makes me think its OK
Lord Algorithm again strikes me with Gold
thanks man , apricate your work , its not much talked about
keep growing
Thanks, it means a lot to me!
Great video! Very informative, and i will be here for future videos!
Thanks so much! Hope the next ones will be equally helpful
Oh hell yeah thanks algo for putting this in my feed !!
Glad the algoritm got it right!
Awesome video... Thanks for sharing, exactly what I needed when I needed it.
Nice! Glad I could help!
love it, hope you make more vids like this!
Will do!
Woahhhhhh!!! That was beautifully articulated. Gave me so many ideas!!
Thanks, thats fantastic! Glad I could inspire a little!
yes please! a video on emergent stories
Will do!
This was really well done. Thank you, and subbed!!
Thanks, hope we can learn more together!
Prequildo is such a ballr!
Finally getting the attention she deserves
What an asset in my subscriptions! Inspired a lot
Thats high praise, thanks so much!
Underrated
Much appreciated!
Fantastic video! Looking forward to more!
Thanks! More will come soonTM
jon ingolds heavens vault bro
Yup, Inkle's games has been taking the systemic approach for a good time now, and is on the forefront of why systemic design works.
Will definitely drop something on Heavens Vault in another video
@@NewToNarrative i love your channel♥
love this vid ! helpful
First seconds enough for me to subscribe. Thanks
Haha, glad to hear!
great video!
Thanks! Hope it was helpful
Hi. For emergent histories. Do you mean like, the player creating a new history from playing? 'Cause, I saw that term on Spanish communities, and it's like, well, not quiet correctly. Because an emergent history has to be an entirely new way of the system to act, that will be mods or similar things. Because a system has all of the histories written on its code, the player just play a portion of it, and at the same time the player gives the meaning of the current history the system is running. I know, you haven't upload the video yet but, I want to add my gram of knowledge to those new terms that are coming up but they were established long ago, they are just not acknowledged
Thats an interesting interpretation! Generally speaking, when we talk about emergent stories in game design, we talk about how a player experiences a story thats not predetermined by the games authors.
As you say, in a lot of games, the story is written and the player experiences it in linearly. Thats not emergent.
But in a game with a lot of interlocking systems, like Minecraft, there is a chance that you experience a sequence of events that can be seen as a story. For example: a player cuts down all the trees in a forest to make a huge house, and then gets attacked by a bunch of creepers that blow up the house. Now theres only a wasteland and a ruin left, and it can be seen as an emergent story: "nature strikes back against this person"
Not the greatest example, but at least it explains the term in a way that is often used among game designers.
Im curious how it is defined in the communities you know it from however!
Nice one!
Thanks for the great video :)
Thanks for leaving a comment!
Very cool!
Thanks!
Really great video
Thanks, stick around for more!
interesting...Keep it up!
Thanks, will do!
Vance!
Not sure what youre referring to, but OK!
Any ideas on how to mix mechanics into narrative for TTRPGs?
Absolutely! A whole bunch of them. Though I would say, there are already a bunch of resources on them.
Check out Fate Core, its a system thst rewards players for weaving the story into their gameplay input.
Narrative boy summer
Haha i love that
There's already a technical term for this architecture: ECS
Entity component system
ECS and systemic design go hand in hand yes! However its not the only architecture that is applicable for this design, I have personally used an MVC approach to it in the past, and that can work fine too
Great video! That's exactly how Hades works and I love it.
Thanks! Interesting, Ive heard a similar comment before, but I believe Hades works a little different. As far as I can tell, the dialogue in Hades gets prompted by specified in-game conditions, and are then sorted by priority to make sure the most important information is conveyed first.
Thats a bit different from tags and systems, I envision it more as a big stack of cards that get pulled when certain conditions are fulfilled. Im actually working on a video about that as well!
Google what is audio compressor and normalizer.
Ah yeah is the audio shit? I tried my best but its not really my expertise haha
@@NewToNarrativeit’s not so bad, mostly it sounds like you’re in a room that could use more sound absorption (big heavy soft things). Could help to mic closer with a cardioid pickup pattern (so it rejects sound coming from the back). And then following up with some compression would be good too.
But I wouldn’t stress too much! It’s a good vid and you’re still audible and understandable :)
@@NewToNarrativeNo. The audio really isn't bad. Great video!
great video!
Thanks, Im glad it was useful!