THATCamp Games: Narrative Puzzles

Links for the Bootcamp:

Used during presentation:

Personal Effects: Dark Art http://bit.ly/Ao1LYd

http://www.ethanhaaswasright.com/

www.exoriare.com and www.arg.exoriare.com

The Portal 2 Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i-nMWgBUp0

http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/hunt/2006/hunt/mirror_mirror/

Used during hands-on puzzle activity:

arcanegalleryofgadgetry.org/bootcamp/BenFranklinPuzzle.pdf (by Amanda Visconti, based on Elisabeth Cohen’s “Lost In Paraphrase” mechanic)

http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/hunt/2005/lip (by Elisabeth Cohen)

Links for Further Reading:

“General” puzzle-related

Microsoft College Puzzle Challenge (resources):

https://www.collegepuzzlechallenge.com/PuzzleTools.aspx

Harvard Hunt Archive

http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/hunt/

http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/hunt/2005/tm/ (a sample metapuzzle, with solution)

MIT Mystery Hunt

http://web.mit.edu/puzzle/www/

ARG-related:

Unfiction.com (forum for ARG aficionados/newbies) Online resources for solving various types of puzzles: http://www.unfiction.com/resource/otools/

Cloudmakers list of puzzles from The Beast (along with solutions and some discussion): http://cloudmakers.org/trail/#3.0

(Complete trail can be found at: http://cloudmakers.org/trail/)

Note: The Cloudmakers were the largest and most active “team,” or group of players working to solve the mystery behind Evan Chan’s death and to explore the A.I. universe

Interesting (very) early ARGnet forum discussion (~2002) on “starting a game.” That is, what makes a game “good”, and why cryptographic puzzles are not always enough (without some compelling hook into the narrative):

http://www.argn.com/forums/index.php?topic=185.0

Bibliography of digital resources for ARG design and play:

http://www.arcanegalleryofgadgetry.org/bibliography/

A …

Work doc – http://goo.gl/LiUBd

Practomime –
Ancient Epic and Modern Narrative video games – as the bard could not sing the same song on successive nights, so too the Halo player can’t play the same exact level from night to night.

The Plato’s cave model of education needs modification.

Continuous narrative instead of modules.

Map learning objectives to play objectives.

Learning objectives: one big, two sub
ARG play objective: generally “Save the world by X”
RPG play objective: narrative object McGuffin style, and/or final product like a report to an authority figure
Outline story-arc of RPG (including time period, setting, characters, etc.)
Integrate mechanics/activities: collect important objects? annotate important primary and/or secondary sources? Role-playing! (Mastery of a learning objective can always be expressed as performance as a master of that learning objective.)

My group (Snow Crash ARG):

Objectives:

Read and demonstrate understanding of the novel. (summarize the narrative / identify the key characters)

Defining/understanding cyberpunk as a genre.
Using the novel to help analyze the genre.

Getting the cyberpunk literacy (you don’t know what is going on but you’re ok with it.)
Connect the contemporary context.

ARG Objective:

Discover the power and repercussions of online avatars through discovering and uncovering ‘code words’ of power.

Connecting the metaverse and the real world – what happens in one can influence …

Possibly up for discussion:

Reader response theory applied to games
Teaching writers as part of game design programs
Narrative Design practices
Narrative combined with game mechanics
Teaching narrative design (to help teach writing)
Teaching narrative design (to help teach everything else)

Proposed by:

Aram Zucker-Scharff @Chronotope

Present:
Bryan Alexander @bryanalexander
Gavin Craig @craiggav
Melissa Peterson @mwbtle
Mark Hebert @drphilprof
Thor Gibbins @sonofodin0913
Todd Bryant @bryantt
Gerol Petruzella @gpetruzella
Stephen Slota
Jeffrey Gruen @theblondeguywiththeblackshirton
Kevin Ballestrini @kballestrini
John Murray @lucidbard
Emily Lewis @blueathena14
Jason Rhody @jasonrhody
Bill Deal @wdeal
Matt Kirschenbaum @mkirschenbaum

http://www.hacktext.com/2011/02/crowd-sourced-television-goes-to-the-next-level-with-bar-karma-and-storymaker-477/
@therealcliffyb <- I think the creator of Gear of Wars
Interactive fiction as a way to learn in a smaller scale narrative design for interactive games.
Emergent narratives – those that come out of sandbox designs that are a consiquence of the gamer’s interaction.
Vast narrative – styles of writing that work in cultural properties, recognize that the story will exist everywhere. – “Third Person”
Progression – tension between progression and emergence
Encoded practices – what may seem emergent is actually a scripted trigger
Story vs Discourse – discourse = presentation of story
Narrative of a character vs the story of the game
Player agency – the degree to which the game provides verbs to allow you to influence the world in the ways that the story suggests you can.
reader-response theory
Experience vs creation of the story
Character authorship
Tweaking notions of authorship
Planescape …

With Ken Rolston

Descrip: The road to success as a narrative designer is long and arduous. But you don’t want to hear that. So Ken Rolston, Executive Design Director for critically acclaimed Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, and former Lead Designer of Oblivion, Morrowind, and other light classics, reveals the carefully hoarded treasury of cheap tricks and short cuts that enable him to achieve respectability while avoiding Real Work. In this fast-paced and charming presentation, Rolston spreads out his tools, illustrates their use in the production of his Great Works, and shows you how to project a shallow but persuasive mastery of the craft of narrative game design.

Who is Ken Rolston?
“Internationally Celebrated Game Designer Ken Rolston designs Big Huge computer roleplaying games. Executive Design Director and “Visionary” [No. Seriously. “Visionary”] on Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning™ for Big Huge Games and 38 Studios, Ken was formerly lead designer for Bethesda’s award-winning The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Previously Ken was an award-winning designer of paper-and-pencil roleplaying games, including games and supplements for PARANOIA, RUNEQUEST, WARHAMMER FANTASY ROLEPLAY, AD&D, D&D, STAR WARS, GHOSTBUSTERS, and STORMBRINGER. Ken served as roleplaying director for West End Games, Games Workshop, and Avalon Hill …

With  Laura Packer

Storytelling

Inherent to all humans
Conveys culture and history
Allows people to talk about tought stuff safely
Persuasive
Transfers knowledge more effectively than charts and slides
Builds community
Fosters new way of thinking
We all tell stories
Basic ingredients of narrative media:

Emotional hooks
plot
cultural element
characters
delivery system
structure

All narrative is interactive
Elements:

The creator
Audience
Story

relationship between performed story and audience can inform relationship between games and their audience.
The audience needs to have their own relationship and experience with their story.
Creator to Story is a close relationship.
In some cases the audience can have an impact on the story, sometimes they can have an impact on the …

With Keaven Freeman

Descrip: “An in depth look at the game creation process from a writer’s point of view, attendees will get an industry veteran’s take on moving an idea from thought to implementation in a working game.  What role does writing play once the production process has begun, and what does a writer need to be prepared for?”

Phases of Game Development:

Green-light – producers give you a go

Taking your idea and giving it more form for an executive
Research
Who wants to play this game? Who do I not even know about who might want to play this game?
Start prototyping, including paper prototyping.

“Here is a snapshot of the experience of playing the game.”

Sometimes you may have to go back to concept if it doesn’t work. Iteration!
Pitching – “A very Caligula thumbs up/thumbs down moment.”

If it doesn’t pass, the exec might tell you to shelve the idea for now and start all over again.
If success then: funding!

Preproduction – bulk of writing.

Story Arc

“If you do nothing else for the writing of a video game, do the story arc … everything else branches off of that”
Story of the Game
Role of the Player
High-Level Chapter Breakout

Small incremental parts of the story that propel your character through the story …