Deconstructing%20Sam:

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Deconstructing Sam Narrative in Splinter Cell
by Clint Hocking chocking_at_ubisoft.qc.ca
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Preface
!! SPOILER WARNING !! This lecture will
cover story material central to Splinter Cell
Chaos Theory.
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Introduction

• Who Am I?
• Clint Hocking
• Ubisoft Montreal Studio
• Creative Director
• Script Writer
• Lead Level Designer
• Splinter Cell Chaos Theory

INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Introduction

• Before games?
• Mod Community
• Contract web writer
• Independent filmmaker
• MFA Creative Writing - UBC

INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Introduction

• This lecture is NOT about
• The story of SC titles per se
• Deconstructionalism
• Not a high level talk about competing with

INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Introduction

• This lecture IS about
• kinds of narrative used in games
• ways to improve dramatic depth
• rely on Splinter Cell games
• examples of good and bad
• from examples to principles

INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Terminology
Formal Abstract Design Tools An attempt by Doug
Church to develop a framework for a shared
language for talking about, and thereby
facilitating game design. Formal implying
precision, rigorous, scientific Abstract focus
ed on ideas, not specific constructs Design beca
use its about design Tools because theyre
tools
INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
More info http//www.gamasutra.com/features/1999
0716/design_tools_01.htm
CONCLUSION
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Terminology
Agency and Intentionality Agency the
satisfying power to take meaningful action and
see the results of our decisions and
choices. Intentionality the ability of the
player to devise his own meaningful goals through
his understanding of the game dynamics and to
formulate meaningful plans to achieve them
INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
Janet H. Murray - Hamlet on the
Holodeck Harvey Smith terminology bonus
materials GDC 2003 ppt. Orthogonal Unit
Differentiation
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Terminology
Abdication of Authorship A general concept
advocating more dramatic freedom for the player
and less prescribed story. Games made with this
concept in mind deliberately attempt to allow the
player, rather than the developer, to author the
narrative experience.
INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
Harvey Smith terminology bonus materials
GDC 2003 ppt. Orthogonal Unit Differentiation
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Examples

• The Wall Mine Trap
• Player can observe
• NPC Partnering behavior
• NPC Final Rush behavior
• NPC Player Position Memory
• Player can set Wall Mine trap
• Place mine
• Alert NPCs
• Sneak away from position
• NPCs rush position
• NPCs die

INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Concepts
Three broad types of gameplay High Level the
conceptual objective of the game Low
Level controller actions at the input
level Mid Level sub-objectives or gameplay
sequences on path to High Level
INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Examples

• High Level Gameplay
• performed only once
• not a new action
• completed using low level actions repeated
  everywhere in game
• different significance when tied to plot

Rescue Princess, Slay Dragon
INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Examples

• Low Level Gameplay
• performed constantly
• performed on controller at input level
• action is often rhythmic
• objective of each low level action is only to
  fulfill immediate intent

Run, jump, change direction
INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Examples

• Mid Level Gameplay
• Hockey
• High-Level win game
• Low-Level skate, pass, shoot, check
• Mid-Level score goals
• Mid-Level gameplay is performed with low level
  actions and marks important steps toward
  completing high-level goals

Score goals
INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Examples

• Mid Level Gameplay
• Splinter Cell - 1
• Consists of things like
• killing a particular person
• escaping from an ambush
• eavesdropping on a particular conversation

Kill Grinko
INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
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CONCLUSION
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Concepts

• Narrative Structure
• Aristotle gives us the components of action in
  narrative
• Exposition
• Inciting Incident
• Point of Attack
• Foreshadowing
• Complication
• Crisis
• Climax
• Denouement
• We currently tend to talk about these things more
  as rising action and climaxes in 3 Act Structure

INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
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CONCLUSION
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Concepts

• Three Act Structure
• adapted from Aristotle
• Comprised of
• Three Acts
• Rising Action
• Climaxes
• Denouement

INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Concepts

• Rising Action
• Elements that push story forward
• Driven by conflict
• Increasingly intense
• Increasingly engaging
• Climaxes
• important spikes in rising action
• often are crises or complications

INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Concepts

• Narrative tools
• Acts
• Paragraphs
• Sentences
• Level Design Tools
• Low Level Gameplay
• Mid Level Gameplay
• High Level Gameplay

INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
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CONCLUSION
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Examples

• Donkey Kong
• Low Level Gameplay
• Moving
• Jumping
• Rising action
• Go higher more barrels
• Climaxes
• End of each platform, can be hit on head

INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Examples
Donkey Kong The curve look familiar? NOTE th
is is not the curve of an embedded narrative this
is the curve of the rising action of the game
play No wonder Mario is so famous.
INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Concepts

• Interactive Narrative, or
• Narrative in games
• Traditionally talk about three types
• Emergent
• Embedded
• Procedural
• GDC 2003, Jesse Schell lecture
• Story and Gameplay Are One The Grand Unified
  Theory of Entertainment
• Unifying interactivity and narrative is like
  unifying Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity

INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Concepts

• Fundamental Physical Forces
• Gravitational
• Electromagnetic
• Weak Nuclear
• Strong Nuclear
• Types of Interactive Narrative
• Emergent
• Embedded
• Weak Procedural
• Strong Procedural
• As in physics the Strong/Weak distinction is not
  a value statement

INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Concepts
Emergent Narrative The story that the player
tells himself
INPUT
Anticipated Encounter
Experience
Knowledge
META DATA
Narrative Hypothesis
Experience1
Knowledge1
DATA
Successful Elements of Hypothesis
Unsuccessful Elements of Hypothesis
Actual Encounter
INTRODUCTION
OUTPUT
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
Emergent Narrative
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Examples
Emergent Narrative
Tomorrow when we wake up from bed, first me and
Daddy and Mommy, you, eat breakfast eat breakfast
like we usually do, and then were going to play
and then soon as Daddy comes, Carls going to
come over, and then were going to play a little
while. And then Carl and Emily are both going
down the car with somebody, and were going to
ride to nursery school whispered, and then when
we get there, were all going to get out of the
car, go into nursery school, and Daddys going to
give us kisses, then go, and then say, and then
we will say goodbye, then hes going to work and
were going to play at nursery school. Wont that
be funny? Because sometimes I go to nursery
school because its a nursery school day.
Sometimes I stay with Tanta all week. And
sometimes we play mom and dad. But usually,
sometimes, I, um, oh go to nursery school. But
today Im going to nursery school in the morning,
Daddy in the, when and usual, were going to eat
breakfast like we usually do, and then were
going to and then were going to play. And then
were, then the doorbells going to ring, and
here comes Carl in here, and then Carl, and then
we are all going to play, and then
INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
Nelson, Katherine, Narratives from the Crib,
Cambridge Harvard University Press,
1989 Excerpted from Gladwell, Malcolm, The
Tipping Point, Little, Brown and Company, 2000
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Concepts

• Emergent Narrative
• Principles of use
• Something we facilitate
• Not something we create
• Objective
• Actual Encounter Narrative Hypothesis
• If successful
• Emergent Narrative will be better than
  Narrative Hypothesis
• Output will be better than Input
• Positive Experience

INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Concepts

• Embedded Narrative
• The authored narrative
• Written
• Modeled
• Scripted
• Hard-coded
• eg blood on walls in Doom
• Special Case
• Branching Embedded"
• Blurs line between Embedded and Procedural
  elements.

INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Examples
Embedded Narrative Factions Chinese Mafia GTA
3 When completing a certain mission, any time I
enter Chinatown, the Chinese Mafia will attack on
sight.
INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Concepts

• Weak Procedural Narrative
• Uses Game Systems to generate responses to
  possible player actions to form a more dramatic
  structure.
• Modifies game flow to make it potentially more
  dramatic.

INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
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CONCLUSION
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Examples
Weak Procedural Narrative Factions Hammers /
Pagans Thief Deadly Shadows Am able to perform
tasks to alter a dynamic level of standing with
either faction. Friendly factions wont attack me
or might even protect me.
INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
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CONCLUSION
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Concepts

• Strong Procedural Narrative
• Uses Game Meta-Systems to generate responses to
  possible player actions to form a dramatic
  structure.
• Modifies game fabric (as opposed to flow) to make
  it potentially more dramatic.

INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Examples
Strong Procedural Narrative Factions Hypothetica
l game Civilization 3 Most Powerful Romans
(AI) Second Most Powerful Chinese (Player) Third
Most Powerful Germans (AI) Chinese Germans gt
Romans Strong Procedural system forces alliance
to break. Chinese attack Germans rising
action Chinese conquer Germans climax Chinese
must now fight Romans final conflict established.
INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Examples

• Emergent Narrative
• The Wall Mine Trap - redux
• Player can observe
• NPC Partnering behavior
• NPC Final Rush behavior
• NPC Player Position Memory
• Player can set Wall Mine trap
• Place mine
• Alert NPCs
• Sneak away from position
• NPCs rush position
• NPCs die

INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Examples

• Emergent Narrative
• The Wall Mine Trap - redux
• Requirements
• NPC Partnering behavior
• NPC Final Rush behavior
• NPC Player Position Memory
• Wall mine trap impossible in SC-1
• Possible in Chaos Theory because
• Information is remembered
• Information travels, causes stress
• Dynamic AI state inputs to Actual Encounter
• Actual Encounter can have complications
• Complications assist Rising Action

INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Concepts
Emergent Narrative
INPUT
Anticipated Encounter
Experience
Knowledge
META DATA
Narrative Hypothesis
Experience1
Knowledge1
AI INPUT
Additional Input
AI Memory
Travelled Information
DATA
Successful Elements of Hypothesis
Unsuccessful Elements of Hypothesis
Actual Encounter
INTRODUCTION
OUTPUT
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
Emergent Narrative
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Concepts

• Emergent Narrative
• Splinter Cell Chaos Theory
• Increased dynamism affords greater probability of
  complications in Actual Encounter.
• Complications support Rising Action
• Strong Rising Action means Actual Encounter more
  likely to be superior (dramatically) to
  Narrative Hypothesis

INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Concepts

• Embedded Narrative
• Splinter Cell Chaos Theory
• The myth of the who and the what.
• Who is the villain?
• What is the story?
• What are the levels?
• Does Sam die?

Who cares??
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TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Concepts
Embedded Narrative The why and the how is
more important. Steve Galloway, Author of
Ascension
"It's not the whats of suspense, but the hows.
With the glass soldier it's the same thing.
Obviously, from the moment the soldier appears
you know it's going to get broken, and any
attempts to steer you away from that would be
false and irritating. But what we don't know is
how the soldier will break, and the circumstances
that arise before and after it breaks. That's why
we keep reading.
Steve Galloway
INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
Galloway, Steven, Ascension, Knopf Canada, March
2003 Quoted from The National Post, March 20,
2003 Noah Richler
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Examples

• Embedded Principles of Use
• The what doesnt matter.
• The how and the why matters
• Who is the villain?
• Otomo?
• Lacerda?
• Shetland?
• Zherkezhi?
• Better question
• What are their motivations?

INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Concepts

• Weak Procedural
• Splinter Cell Chaos Theory
• (with apologies for listing features)
• Closer than Ever system
• animation blending
• CTE Camera
• Dramatic Camera system
• finds open space
• cinematic feel
• Objective Structuring
• multiple objective types
• fallback objectives allow partial failure

INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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WARNING
!! SPOILER WARNING !! This time I mean
it. The How and the Why.
INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Examples
Combining Elements Embedded and Emergent Sam vs
Shetland
Anticipated Encounter
I am going to kill Shetland I will probably
have to shoot him, maybe stab him. Hong Kong
Stand-off, challenge You wouldnt shoot an old
friend... Shoot him, or lower your weapon.
Lowering weapon forces knife attack. I wouldnt
shoot an old friend. Double meaning. The meaning
is more important than the event.
Narrative Hypothesis
Actual Encounter
Branching Embedded Narrative
INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
Emergent Narrative
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Concepts

• Combining Elements
• Embedded and Emergent
• Sam vs Shetland
• Questions
• Why curtail interactivity?
• Is it a false choice?
• Is it meaningful or just clever?

INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Concepts

• Combining Elements
• Embedded and Emergent
• Why curtail interactivity?
• Reveals power relationship
• finish your dinner or you dont get dessert
• Is it a false choice?
• Not if choices are meaningfully differentiated
• Is it meaningful or just clever?
• I think its meaningful
• Player makes statement about self
• Meaning of statement is subjective to player
• Either statement is positively reinforced
• The How and the Why are revealed by player
• Actual Encounter is superior to Narrative
  Hypothesis

INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Conclusion

• Four kinds of narrative
• Emergent
• Embedded
• Strong Procedural
• Weak Procedural
• Games should use them all

INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Conclusion
How to use them Embedded Focus on the how and
the why, not the who or what Emergent Striv
e to make Actual Encounter superior to Narrative
Hypothesis Weak Procedural Use systems to
increase dramatic tension Strong
Procedural Dynamically modify game systems to add
complications and strengthen rising action
avoid perceptible cheating
INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Conclusion
How to use them Combining elements can make
unique narrative statements impossible to achieve
in other media
INTRODUCTION
TERMINOLOGY
CONCEPTS
EXAMPLES
CONCLUSION
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Questions?
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Thanks
Anne-Marie Dion Pascal Beaulieu Patrick
Redding JT Petty Andy Davis Alexis
Nolent Ubisoft Montreal Studio and of
course SCCT Dev Team
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Deconstructing Sam Narrative in Splinter Cell
by Clint Hocking chocking_at_ubisoft.qc.ca