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Narrative Design Patterns for the Community Game Development Project

2008 Ford Scholars Project Description

Description of the Project:

Narrative role-playing computer games (RPGs) have become widely available in the commercial game market. RPGs are typically viewed by their authors as an effort to emulate or adapt other narrative media such as novels or films. Unfortunately, most RPGs, are lacking in narrative complexity, character development and range of interpretation. RPGs typically have a limited number of story lines. Once all are explored, the game has little more to offer. RPGs typically rely on a literal mode of representation -- lacking the ambiguity and multiplicity of interpretation found in works in older, more established media. At the end of the game there is usually only one interpretation of what happened or why. This state of affairs is lamented even by some of the most ardent proponents of the computer gaming medium. (See “Interactive Storytelling” by Chris Crawford, in The Video Game Reader, Mark Wolf and Bernard Perron, Eds.)

Our community-based game development project represents a new approach to overcoming the artistic limitations of existing role-playing computer games. Our goal is to develop a “multiform” interactive story, of the kind described by Janet Murray in “Hamlet on the Holodeck”, i.e., a role-playing computer game in which events, characters and story-lines have multiple complementary or conflicting interpretations. Our approach is inspired by an experimental novel by Italo Calvino: “The Castle of Crossed Destinies”. In this novel, a number of travelers, unknown to each other, have stopped at a castle for the night. They have mysteriously become mute. The host gives them tarot cards which they use to tell their stories. As the travelers place the cards on the table, they form an interconnected network of story lines. The stories share characters and locations represented by tarot cards at the points where the story lines cross each other. As a consequence of multiple authorship and such accidental juxtapositions, the overall structure is ambiguous and open to multiple interpretations.

Our work will proceed through an analogy with Calvino's novel: We are developing a web site through which a number of users, unknown to each other, can collaborate to build a narrative role playing game. Instead of using tarot cards to tell their stories, our users will draw upon a common library of narrative game components: sprites, audio clips, characters, scenes and plot patterns. The result, we hope, will be a “multiform” game that is more complex, and open to interpretation than a game that could be constructed by any one person alone.

The web site will use a technology from computer science, known as “generative programming”, to enable non-programmer users to participate in constructing the game. For this purpose we plan to develop a library of “plot patterns” and “character patterns” drawn from literature on mythology and creative writing. A user will select patterns from the library; refine the patterns with elements of his/her own choosing; and link them to existing elements of the evolving game.

We plan to work in collaboration with the Children's Media Project, and Maria Moreski, its Director. As a test bed for our research, we may attempt to develop a game aimed at youth at risk. The game would include situations, challenges and events often faced by young people on the verge of adulthood in an environment of drugs, crime and unemployment.

Anticipated Summer Activities:

• Review of gaming industry literature on narrative role-playing games, e.g., “Chris Crawford on Interactive Storytelling”, by Chris Crawford. Review of literature from mythology and creative writing on plot and character patterns, e.g., Joseph Campbell, “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”; Ronald Tobias, “20 Master Plots: And How to Build Them”; Victoria Lynn, “45 Master Characters: Mythic Models for Creating Original Characters”.
• Collaborate with Prof. Ellman to investigate the following issues: What is a plot pattern or character pattern as described in existing literature? How should these concepts of “pattern” be adapted or refined in the context of role-playing computer games? How can story lines developed by different people relate to each other? How should game building tools be structured so that story lines developed by different people can interface with each other and enrich each other? How should the web site be organized to keep the evolving game coherent and oriented toward a specified theme, while also allowing multiple complementary or conflicting story lines to develop?
• Collaborate with Prof. Ellman to develop a formal a language for describing plot and character patterns; to encode plot and character patterns in this language; and to organize a library of such patterns. Experiment with using the pattern library in combination with a generative programming tool (to be developed by Prof. Ellman) to build narrative role playing games.
• Collaborate with Prof. Ellman to design and implement a moderated web site that makes the game development system accessible to the Vassar community.

Preferred Student Qualifications/Skills:

The student should have taken MEDS 250 “Serious Play: Computer Games in Contemporary Culture”. Additional course experience in one or more of Media Studies, English, Film, Art and Computer Science would be useful, but is not required. Experience with web design technology would also be useful, but is not required.

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for the Student:

• Working as a research assistant with Professor Ellman in fall 2008 and/or spring 2009 continuing the research proposed in this document.
• Working as a research assistant in fall 2008 in supporting Professor Ellman and Professor Colleen Cohen in further developing the course MEDS250 Serious Play: Computer Games in Contemporary Culture.
• Working in the Media Cloisters as a consultant to faculty and students in media-related projects and/or doing technology demonstrations for Vassar faculty and students.