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future_fabulators:notes_from_bbb13 [2013-11-12 12:19] – created timbofuture_fabulators:notes_from_bbb13 [2013-11-12 13:04] – Pratchett! section timbo
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-==== Notes From Bbb13 ====+==== Notes From BBB13 ====
  
-Biennale des Bewegte Bildes (or so) was a 4 day conference dealing with contemporary narrative with a concentration on moving images. Tina and Tim from Time's Up went there to see what we could learn, copy, steal, misinterpret and generally find useful. The following is a bit of a mess of notes from the event.+Biennale des Bewegte Bildes (or so) was a 4 day [[http://www.b3biennale.com/ |conference]] dealing with contemporary narrative with a concentration on moving images. Tina and Tim from Time's Up went there to see what we could learn, copy, steal, misinterpret and generally find useful. The following is a bit of a mess of notes from the event.
  
  
-==Weniger bleibt mehr: wann bewegt Bewegtbild?==+===Weniger bleibt mehr: wann bewegt Bewegtbild?===
  
 Peter Delius, Canan Hastik, Peter Paul Huth, Stephan Schwan. Mode: Martin Hegel. Museum Angewandte Kunst. Peter Delius, Canan Hastik, Peter Paul Huth, Stephan Schwan. Mode: Martin Hegel. Museum Angewandte Kunst.
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-Schwann: **Hands on ≠ Minds On**  based upon an example exhibition in teh German Museum in Munich. A series of experiment procedures could be started by pushing a button. But people would leave before they had really started. Interaction, but no further depth.+Schwann: **Hands on ≠ Minds On**  based upon an example exhibition in the German Museum in Munich. A series of experiment procedures could be started by pushing a button. But people would leave before they had really started. Interaction, but no further depth.
  
 Accidents and randomness must be allowed in an exhibition. Accidents and randomness must be allowed in an exhibition.
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 Comment: Authenticity might be important, but there was no significant difference in interest between replicas and actual historical objects, but there was a significant lowering of interest from real objects to mediated objects, a moving or still image. Comment: Authenticity might be important, but there was no significant difference in interest between replicas and actual historical objects, but there was a significant lowering of interest from real objects to mediated objects, a moving or still image.
 +
 +
 +=== Emergent <img> Exhibition tour===
 +
 +There was a handdrawn original map from Zork, the text based adventure game. It looked cool
 +and is discussed in a short note [[http://www.imaginaryatlas.com/2013/05/20/it-all-starts-here/ | here]].
 +
 +This was an emergent map from a player, not delivered with the game.
 +
 +=== Rhianna Pratchett ===
 +
 +A game designer, who comes from the world of journalism, to computer game journalism, to being a freelance game writer.
 +
 +Core message: Story gives a player motivation, context and meaning.
 +
 +Cinematics removes control, is non interactive. It is the most writerly part of the game writing job.
 +
 +Interactive Cinematics uses tricks such as being tied up as a "narrative conceit" allowing a fixed narrative to be played out. There are examples with more or less control of the character, the question remains what to do if the player breaks the scene, what are the character reactions.
 +
 +Environmental Sorytelling: This is the level deign, graffiti, advertising and other atributes that tell a story through the environment. Bioshock uses a lot of this. Has become much more important in the last 5 years.
 +
 +Dialogue: Guides the player, gives colour and context. Example:  the internal monologue, as the player's character talks to herself. Example: A Voice in the Ear is another example, a commander or guide who is continually speaking, but can not necessarily be spoken to directly. This can generate a lot of script. Example: choosing narrative from nonplayer characters - for instance a companion on a long ride, who will tell stories if prompted.
 +
 +Barks: Short lines, basic information, very gamey and repetitive. Example: in war games, commands like "to the left!", "forward!", "Shoot!" and suchlike. The main problem is to keep these interesting.
 +
 +She then talked about her experience as an external writer for one of the Tomb Raider games. This was partially a guide to how to go about getting such a position. The writer's job is very improvisational. with a mini synopsis and bio to start with (4-5 pages for all!), the writer's job is to strengthen the story arc, to breathe life into the graphics- As various elements of the game are developed, whole bodies of text are discarded or rendered obsolete. The writer fill sin the gaps. The first stage is a screenplay type of treatment, followed by voice casting scripts developed with the Narrative Designer.
 +
 +The Narrative Designer is the person between the writer and the more technical part of the team, coordinating how writing, images, game play, physics and suchlike all fit together. Also things like spin-off comics. This is a place that unused texts, especially backstory developments, can be used.
 +
 +There is a LOT of re-writing. And it is a long loop, as rewrites will come hand in hand with new graphics, behaviour, etc, and this will all need to be re-created. 
 +
 +There were questions about techniques for narrative coordination (to keep all the contributors moving in the same direction) as well as the tools used. It seems that skype and other personal contact, mixed with spreadsheets and standard wordprocessing tools, were the answers. Customised tools like FinalDraft were not appropriate. The first question was also looked at with the writer being a form of "Narrative Paramedic" who is brought in (too) late in the game development in order to scrape together the story elements that exist and fill in gams, bind wounds, suggest visuals, in order to keep the narrative alive and well.
 +
 +There was talk about the "Narrative Toolset" and a link was given to igda.org/writing. This is inactive in [[http://www.igda.org IGDA]]! I presume that the SIG Writers was meant: [[http://gamewriting.org/about-the-game-writers-sig/ |website]] but have not been able to find any indication of a toolset. Going to teh SIG website and following the "About"-> Tips & Guides link I get:
 +
 +Not Found
 +
 +No results were found for your request.
 +
 +So there is a bit more to be done!!
 +
 +She often talked about writers as vital and professional, that "everyone thinks they can write" almost in the same way that people who enjoy food can cook. NO! So there is an emerging understanding in game design that writing is a skill and that the game designer or level designer or programmer is not the person to be creating the writing.
 +
 +
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