:: Levels of Narrative Development ::
Using my ‘what if’ ideas I had three very broad ideas for world settings. However, after discussing these ideas with the lecturer it became clear I would need to explore these worlds further. While these ideas are a good start, they are very basic and desperately need further exploration. This environment is designed to tell a story, so, I will need to understand and implement methods to make the story told more engaging to the viewer.
:: Telling stories with level design ::
In there video ‘How Level Design Can Tell a Story’, Game Maker’s Toolkit discuss three stages to environmental storytelling (Game Maker’s Toolkit, 2020). The ‘high, medium, and low’ stories told in game worlds. By using this approach with my ideas I can further refine them, creating an environment that explores those settings in as interesting a manner as possible.
:: Low ::
The low end, they describe as being the world setting. Such as my ‘what if’ settings created previously. They set the broad tones of the story, as well as establish any factions you want to craft into the story. For example, my idea of ‘What if Jack the Ripper returned?’ is a low-end story, it’s the macro scale. Which on its own would only be able to craft a very rudimentary story. I need to implement the medium and high-end storytelling to create a refined environment that shows character and theme as well as tells that wider scale story.
‘To finish off our pyramid, we need the low level. Which is the overall setting of the world.’
Game Maker’s Toolkit (C) (2020)
That’s not to say that the low end is in any way less valuable than the high or medium end. The low-end, world idea is the bed rock of the environmental story being told. But it requires the additions of the themes, in the medium level and character in the high end in order for the final story to feel complete to the viewer.
:: Medium ::
With the medium level you’re exploring the themes you want to tell in that larger world setting. If I have chosen a wild west setting as my world, then a saloon location would help tell that story more than a bathroom or kitchen would. That’s not to say those locations don’t exist in that world, but the environment location chosen needs to help create that interesting story you are trying to tell.
‘Below that, then, is the individual places in a game. (…) a farmer’s market, a bar, a medical pavilion and a theatre district. (…) The individual rooms in those zones. That’s the medium level, which might be most accurately called, well, level design.’
Game Maker’s Toolkit (B) (2020)
For example, with my ‘What if Project Sealion Was Successful?’ world idea I theorise I would need to show a London landmark having been conquered. But that limits the story I could tell just the macro world setting alone. I would need to consider what themes I wanted to explore in that world. Perhaps I want to tell a story of resistance, and so choose a location such as a house or barn that has been modified to house a resistance movement. Or I could use the theme of hiding ones past, and show the house of a person who fought against the Nazi’s but now must hide their medals and military regalia.
By taking the macro world setting level idea and considering what theme I want to tell I can choose an engaging location. Adding another layer of interest and sophistication to the stories told.
:: High ::
They describe the high-end storytelling as the individual vignettes dotted throughout game environments. These vignettes serve to reinforce the larger themes and characteristics of that game world but also show moments of character driven narrative. If the low end is setting the macro theme for the world and the medium level is crafting themes to create a specific location the high end is exploring what characters populate that location.
‘”Environmental Storytelling” – if were using the term specifically to mean those micro-narrative vignettes. Is just one part of a larger structure of using the environment to suggest narrative. It’s the high end stuff.’
Game Maker’s Toolkit (A) (2020)
Going back to the ‘What if Project Sealion Was Successful?’ idea I need to look to the character populating the locations. The resistance fighters in the barn, did they fight in the war? Or are we so far into the occupation they were born subjugated? The soldier’s house, was he a decorated soldier? Does he have a family and that’s why he has to keep his past secret? Is he proud of his past? if so, maybe he keeps his medals and regalia on display, hidden just out of sight of the secret police.
Its through combining all three layers that you can create an engaging digital story. From the low end where you ask ‘What if’ to the mid-level where you explore what themes you want to tell, deciding what location would help show those themes. Finally, you add the high end, asking what characters inhabit those locations and how you show there character purely through the environment they inhabit.
At the moment my what if ideas are very basic. Waiting to be refined through the implementation of the mid-level themes, I will need to explore theme and decide on locations that help show those themes within my larger game worlds. Then, once I have selected an environment to help show those themes I can ask myself what characters inhabit that environment and how they fit into the theme and world created.
:: References ::
Game Maker’s Toolkit (2020). ‘How Level Design Can Tell a Story’ [YouTube Video]. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwlnCn2EB9o&ab_channel=GameMaker%27sToolkit [Accessed 23/10/2022]