Week 5

General

• User testing will be in Week 7, but it is encouraged to do user testing outside of class as well.

• Make sure to watch testers play the game instead of just looking at feedback.

Presentation Notes - Narrative: Structure 

• Narrative structure is the way the narrative is presented to the audience. Something of note is a video where someone restructured the narrative of Passengers (2016) and it was better than the real movie (see video on right).

• Linear narratives are stories that are told in chronological order from beginning to end (point A to B, no detours).

• Non-linear narratives

• Freytag's Pyramid is a standard structure of narrative that features the introduction/exposition at the start, rising action after that, climax at the middle, falling action after that and then resolution finally.

• The Three Act Structure is a structure that consists of a beginning (setup), middle (confrontation) and end (resolution).

• The Hero's Journey is a book that is based on the Three Act Structure. One main part of the story is the hero's lowest of low, where the hero is at their lowest point in the story.

• Films that follow The Hero's Journey style is Star Wars, Harry Potter and Spider-Man: Homecoming. Games that follow The Hero's Journey style is The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Final Fantasy VII and Mass Effect.

• The Story Circle is a spin of the Three Act Structure that extrapolates on the structure, typically into 8 acts.

• Flashforwards and flashbacks disrupt the chronological order of the story where there is a main timeline by showing past or future events in the story. 

• In Medias Res means right in the middle, where the story puts you in the middle of the action first before then going back to the start. Two ways to present the background information is via flashbacks, which is where past events of the story leading up to this moment are showen, and weaving in the background, where it's weaved into the story through dialogue, internal thoughts, etc.

• Parallel stories are multiple storylines/perspectives occurring at the same time and meeting up at one point eventually or crossing over. Examples of this happening can be found in Resident Evil 2 Remake, The Last of Us Part 2, Game of Thrones and Man of Medan.

• Branching narrative is when the narrative is affected by the choices the player/reader/viewer makes.

• Know your target audience when making a narrative. Four types of players include: the player that just wants the gameplay; the player that loves a good narrative; the player that wants the story, but is critical; and the player that wants EVERYTHING.

• Something of note is Westerado: Double Barrelled, which kind of takes branching narrative in that if you walk away from someone during a dialogue, they give a unique piece of dialogue in direct response to you walking away, as well as you pointing a gun at the other person shifting the tone of the entire dialogue.