Game Story Animatic

In response to our brief, our task was to create an Animatic for our game story. This here is the process of how I created said animatic, which required a lot of pre-production. I followed a script I made and voiced the animatic myself whilst also modifying my voice.

Script (Click for script)

To begin, I had to make a script to structure it all. When starting this project I instantly knew I didn’t want to have any character dialogue. Instead, I wanted to have someone narrate a story of the characters as I felt like it was better suited for this kind of story due to it being about 3 characters who play equal roles. I started with writing the dialogue before including little sub-notes stating what sounds should be played and what would happen at that particular moment. This was useful as it structured the entire animatic with words which helped me better understand the vision I had for the animatic.

Storyboard (Photoshop)

Here we have a storyboard. Having only done concept art for one of the 3 characters made it a little more difficult as I had to improvise on the look for the other 2 characters. As for that, I never planned to include many backgrounds as I felt it was a little unnecessary for a narrator explaining the story. I did this all in photoshop as I was most familiar with the application. It also provided me with a lot of the helpful tools such as the brush tool and the ruler tool for precise measurements when it came to drawing the faces. I decided to do this digitally too as I felt it was easier to manipulate, plan and draw.

 

Voice over (Audacity)

After that, I went onto voicing the script. Me being the voice for the video, I wanted to go for a deep voice. I thought adding character dialogue wouldn’t really fit the atmosphere of the game as much so instead I preferred a narration over the family story. I chose a deep voice as I thought it would work well. It’s not 100% what I was going for but it was the best I could get it. I achieved this by recording my voice in Audacity, (an audio editing software) and lowering the pitch of my voice. Later I then exported them as mp3 files.

Animatic (Premiere Pro)

Once that was done, it was time to turn it into an animatic. I imported all of the images from photoshop onto Premiere Pro and placed them accordingly to fit the storyboard. Instead of using still images I decided to use moving imagery instead to emphasise on the mood of the animatic. It’s more accurate on what I want to happen and it looks nicer too. When doing this, I seemed to struggle a lot with the keyframing in premiere pro as the motion curves work differently then After Effects for example. I chose premiere pro over After Effects as it runs better for me.

To this day I’m still unaware of how the graph editor on premiere pro works as it made it harder for me to get the smooth movement I wanted. Thankfully there were presets that helped me when keyframing the images which helped.

Music and sound

Choosing the music was another thing that was difficult as I originally didn’t have an idea of what kind of music I wanted. All I knew was that I wanted music. I eventually chose 2 different music pieces that resembled an orchestra. I thought this was fitting for the 3 characters together as it starts comfortable when the narrator begins, then it sounds rough and slightly chaotic when their dispute is mentioned. I did this to emphasise on the tone of the situation. A problem I have with this though is that I don’t think the 2 music scores transition well when they change over. I think this is due to the tempo of the music being slightly different. I originally had a different score for when the animatic mentions the dispute but I figured it was too quiet for the sound effect that takes place.

And as for sounds, I didn’t create the sounds myself, but I did use a combination of a few swords clashing sounds to create a noise. Either way, I felt that the animatic was better off with fewer sounds. Creating these sounds myself would have proven very difficult.

Overall I think the animatic went well. I do like the quality of it and how it isn’t conveyed by still imagery, but rather, moving images as it gives it more attitude. The storyboard hopefully follows the principles that industry storyboards use and I feel the music is quite fitting. Though despite this, I think it could use a little more work to better understand what’s going on, e.g the shots with the burning hats and the knives on the painting. People may not understand that it’s to represent the hate these characters have towards each other. The one big thing I should improve on is the time. This sort of thing should have taken me a day or 2 but instead, it took around 4 or 5. This is due to me being a perfectionist and is something I should work on. And lastly, i probably should have included time stamps on the storyboard as it would make more sense on when these actions should occur.

Game Mechanic Narrative Table

First Person Shooter (FPS)

Core mechanics: Aiming, Shooting, Dodging

Good Narrative Focus Technique: Action-oriented, fast-paced, moment to moment storytelling with fast beats. The story is usually kept longer for breaks between action.

Examples: Portal 2, Destiny, Battlefront 2

Tactical Strategy Game (TSG)

Core mechanics: Planning, strategy, control

Good Narrative Focus Technique: Paced gameplay dependant on the genre, usually attempts to make you think. The story is not focused as much, but the characters are greatly emphasised on.

Examples: Hearthstone, Civilization

Real-Time Strategy Game (RTS)

Core mechanics: Strategizing, Quick thinking, Performing on the move

Good Narrative Focus Technique: Similar aspects to TSG however in Realtime, making you think on the spot. The story revealed through the use of character bios and not extremely focused on.

Examples: League of Legends, Clash of Clans

Role Playing Game (RPG)

Core mechanics: Exploration, Fighting

Good Narrative Focus Technique: Free roaming with objectives, very focused on story as you, the character, builds and progresses the story.

Examples: Final Fantasy, Skyrim 

Simulation

Core mechanics: Creation, Immersion

Good Narrative Focus Technique: Put the focus on the accuracy of the simulation, giving you a feel of what it’s really like. Not very story based as it is focused more on simulation and gameplay.

Examples: Surgeon Simulator, Train simulator, Sims

Platformer

Core mechanics: Running, jumping, collecting

Good Narrative Focus Technique: Adventure based on running and jumping through a series of puzzled worlds. The story can be revealed by playing through the levels. 

Examples: Super Mario, Kirby, Sonic

Action Adventure

Core mechanics: Fighting, Interaction

Good Narrative Focus Technique: A combination of action and adventure games, which gives a more thrilling experience in terms of gameplay and story.

Examples: Batman, Dark Souls, Tomb Raider 

Action RPG

Core mechanics: Exploring, Fighting 

Good Narrative Focus Technique: Rpg and action genre mixed together. It slows down the pacing of action to balance that out with story development.

Examples: Fallout, Skyrim

Sandbox Game

Core mechanics: Building, Creation 

Good Narrative Focus Technique: A chance to let your imagination go wild as all the control is given to the player to do and create whatever they want. Not very story based most of the time. 

Examples: Minecraft, Gary’s Mod, Kerbal Space Programme

Adventure

Core mechanics: Exploration, Interaction, Storytelling

Good Narrative Focus Technique: Puts focus on story and puzzle solving. The main focus is exploration and interacting with the environment to progress.

Examples: Breath of The Wild, Life is strange, The Walking Dead

Lucid Charts

To layout and structure things well, a Lucid chart can usually help with this kind of thing. These lucid charts are based around the idea of a game story we were to develop.

General game

Although brief, this is to show the basic controls and ideas the game would have. These vary from the menu to options, to stages. These are to give direction on what everything does and I chose these parts specifically because I felt like they were the more important features that needed to be included.

Character Controls

Again, simple. This is to capture the controls of the characters and to tell us what they do. Due to the game being a simple fighter, platformer, the controls will go more into the fighting and movement. When it comes to controls, the story does not play a super big role. This also includes environmental features as they would play a good role in the game, wether it be aiding you, or being distructable.

Cutscene and Dialogue structure

Lastly, we have the Cutscene and Dialogue, structured for better understanding. I figured instead of implementing character dialogue, I would have the story between the 3 families narrated by an unknown character, which could better interest the viewers. However, if this is the case, I would have to illustrate it well via good imagery, so the story is not too confusing. This chart however only covers the start of the story before the gameplay and not the entirety of it as there is more than one ending.

Game script

[The screen starts and fades from black to a shot of the family’s 3 houses.]

[Music starts playing]

Narrator: 3 Families, specialised in marketing for many years.

[As the three family’s names are mentioned, portraits of their leaders slide into frame, in front of their houses.]

Narrator: The Feadom Family, the Lupid Family and the Grace Family.

[3 slides appear of the 3 family leaders looking neutral.]

Narrator: Once in harmony, working together to produce masses in business.

[A flash of lightning covers the screen. The lightning then goes and reveals the 3 family leaders looking angry.]

[Music sounds more dramatic]

[Lightning strike sound effect plays as the lightning strikes.]

Narrator: Now separated due to mere disagreements and competition.

[A slideshow of images symbolising the 3 leaders hating on each other. One shows an image with 2 of the leaders pictures on a wall, with a knife on it. One shows the 2 hats of the others burning, and another thinking of the other 2 angrily.]

Narrator: For years, they have lived in a hostile environment with each other, causing competition. Within each year were feelings of anger and torment from the opposing families. Despite this, they each refused to leave, just to prove a point.

[We then slide onto a shot of the 3 family leaders at a table, looking like they are discussing something.]

Narrator: Eventually, the 3 families seemed to agree on one thing. They were to settle things, once and for all so that no other family could interfere. That solution was a brawl.

[As the word Brawl is mentioned, two swords clashing appear on screen, covering everything else.]

Narrator: A brawl throughout the chaotic nightmare of Chasedale.

[The camera zooms out to show the entrance of Chasedale, 2 of the monsters slide into frame. 2 Seconds after they slide into frame, the camera zooms out a little more to show the 3 family leaders standing outside the entrance.]

Narrator: Whichever family prevailed would be on to fight one another, after that, game over. Which family will prevail?

[The screen is now split into 3’s showing each family leader, looking ready to fight. Then once the dialogue is finished, the screen fades to black.]

How do game designers use storytelling to enhance the player experience

History of storytelling

Cavemen Drawings

The first form of storytelling was with cave drawings. They were little pictures drawn onto a wall or mud which showed either a warning or a story to remember. It goes to show that something as simple as this is really effective as to this day, we still use a similar technique. Pictures are a great way of telling a story as it encourages people to think about what it could mean.

Hieroglyphics

Hieroglyphics were the next big thing to storytelling. It was subtle but effective as little symbols represented as letters and sounds were often left as a message to future visitors. This is one of the earliest forms of writing that started in ancient Egypt around 5000 years ago. These symbols were not only to document things but were also left to line tombs with various messages for people to see. These were mainly used to decipher the cavemen drawings.

Oral tradition

Oral tradition is less visual. This form of storytelling comes from poems songs and myths that come from different generations and point in time. Eventually, these would be written and published. Traditional storytelling still comes from word of mouth nowadays and has helped shape storytelling as a whole.

Written words

The introduction to mass printing meant that stories would be widely more available to people, and, as a result, it would help people improve upon their literacy skills. Johannes Gutenberg is considered the inventor of mass printing in the 15th century. 600 years before that, however, was the printing block mechanism which applied ink onto paper by using wooden blocks with carvings on them to create the symbol. Kind of like how a stamp works.

Technology and Media

To the current day, we use technologies such as mobile phones, pictures and social media to tell stories, unintentionally, just by simply using them. At around 1800, inventions like motion pictures, photography, digital media and tv have helped shape the way we make stories. Social media is also one of the main fundaments of storytelling now. Instead of coming up with a story, social media allows us to tell one instead with the ability to blog about experiences and send pictures.

How can you make a good story in a video game?

Making a story sound unique isn’t always the key to a good story, although it is nice to include some sort of twist to it if need be, without it being repetitive. I believe the story should include interaction and shouldn’t be too boring, that’s what the extra twist is for. Connecting the player with the characters by making them memorable and lovable is also a good way of helping with the story. These can vary from playing a big part in the story to being a sidekick throughout the entirety, or by simply having a good personality. The most important thing, however, is structure, specifically, beginning, middle and end, if you want a simple story structure. Without this, the story may sound confusing and unorganised as it could get to a point where the player won’t understand what’s going on.

Game genres and examples

Game genres can create emotional responses with their characters and the story’s, no matter what the genre. A great example would be the First Person Shooter, Call Of Duty WW2, specifically the story mode. As we all know how deadly WW2 was, we expect the worst, however, this game instantly introduces us to the main characters together as friends, launching into D-day and spending time together before launching. Throughout the entire story, the characters are always looking out for each other and make one of the worst moments in history seem like it wasn’t anything much, all because of their friendship with each other as it was a brother in arms kind of friendship. Normally a first-person shooter isn’t expected to have much of an insane story, however its the story mode, as expected, where it is at.

The kind of games that are usually heavily story based is RPG’s, Action adventure, adventure, free roaming and possibly first-person shooters. Another good game example would be an RPG named Undertale,  The game’s story may sound a little cliche at first as you traverse through an underground world filled with monsters in hopes to return home, but its the little things like the fourth wall breaking and the mechanics of the game acting as a unique part of the story, such as saving and loading a game, that make the story so great. The characters are very memorable too due to their very different personalities and interesting designs. One of the key features of the game that impacts the story is decision making. The game doesn’t tell you this, but you have the ability to impact your relationship with the characters by your actions, and as a result, you can get different endings, giving control of how the story ends to the player. For example, Seeing as it is an RPG, every player expects to fight. This is emphasised by the fact that you are kind of introduced to a fight, however, the story is based on this. If you kill no one, you get the best ending which is completely different, but you can also kill every enemy in the game to get the worst ending. The game is aware that you are playing the game and it essentially implements you, the player, into the story as the game knows you are controlling what happens within the game, which is a clever way of storytelling.

Specific genres that convey stories

Interactive films

These are self explanatory. The reason for this genre doing story telling so well is because the gameplay is minimal and often makes you watch cutscenes that are a good length. However despite this, it still does a good job when it comes to story telling as it’s almost the equivalent of watching a movie. Not only that, but this method focuses on the player getting to understand the story and characters more. Games like The Walking Dead do this well as it also gets the player to interact with the story by making decisions, small or big. The walking dead specifically takes place in a Destroyed World.

RPG

RPG games puts a balanced focus on both gameplay and story. RPG’s often do this by creating their own worlds as there are infinite possibilities due to the wide variety of ideas. The main concept of these RPG games is to go on an adventure which is the first step to creating a story within RPG games. The objective in these games are story based and create lovable characters who grow on us over time by allowing the npc to travel along or aid you on your adventure. The world types can vary from a load of options, however a good option would possibly be Perfect Utopia as . it usually starts as a good world, until the game starts, when some kind of event occurs.

FPS

Whilst they are more focused into the gameplay, fps’s tend to put the focus on the story through a story mode, or by implementing it subtly by showing a reason as to why everything is happening, instead of telling it. Story is told by simulating the environment you’re in, as your character interacts with it and the NPC’s. The Call Of Duty franchise does this well with their ability to create memorable characters simply because of the way your character builds up their friendship with the npc’s. The world type this is often associated with is a Changing World or War Torn World due to the fact that most FPS’s are based on some kind of war, real of fake.

Fighter games

Fighter games are interesting because they develop their stories through either simple interactions before the fights start, character bio’s or by a campaign mode. These little interactions can help define the relationship the characters have with each other. The actions the characters perform can also have an impact on what kind of personality they have. Some fighter games like Mortal Kombat have a campaign mode whilst others just include fighters from other series’ like Jump Force, who’s entire roster consists of characters from an already existing universe from a manga or anime.

Game one-liner

A 2D fighting platformer where 3 separate family’s dispute and cause chaos upon each other via magical fights. Only one family must win. Can things get any more bizarre?

Game preview

If I were to make a game, it would be a 2D bizarre, non-realistic fighting game with a unique way of fighting that requires more precise options and timing. It would require less button mashing as using the joysticks on a controller will also play an important role in the gameplay, not just on moving, but in combat too. The story would be introduced during the fight in the forms of special moves. In terms of character story, the story of the characters will be explained via mini bio’s they each have and can be viewed before the fighting begins, whilst also referencing story-related dialogue at the start and during the fight. This has been inspired by the works of Mortal Kombat, which has a fully fledged campaign mode which tells a story and includes little conversations the characters have before the fight, and Brawlhalla, which also have the mini character bio’s featuring a very diverse roster all being from either similar or different universes. Brawlhalla also inspired the fast-paced combat this game was looking for.

“3 Families, specialised in marketing, settle their troubles the best way they know how. With a brawl throughout Chasedale, a deadly place of creature filled arenas. Jump and fight your way through the chaotic nightmare and survive each arena to be in with a chance to fight one of the opposing families in a deathmatch at the final arena. Last man standing wins. Which family will prevail?”