Branching Story, Unlocked Dialogue

Branching Story, Unlocked Dialogue
Author: Toiya Kristen Finley
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2022-12-07
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1000798364
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This book covers the distinguishing characteristics and tropes of visual novels (VNs) as choice-based games and analyzes VNs like 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors; Hatoful Boyfriend; and Monster Prom, some of the best examples of the genre as illustrations. The author covers structuring branching narrative and plot, designing impactful and compelling choices, writing entertaining relationships and character interactions, understanding the importance of a VN’s prose, and planning a VN’s overall narrative design and story delivery. The book contains exercises at the end of chapters to practice the techniques discussed. By the end of the book, if the reader finishes all the exercises, they may have several portfolio pieces or a significant portion of their own VN project designed. Features: Discusses different aspects and genres of VNs, what makes them enjoyable, and successful techniques developers can incorporate into their own games Analyzes various VNs and choice-based games that use these successful techniques Shares tips from developers on portfolio pieces, hiring a team to work on VNs, and plotting and outlining VNs Branching Story, Unlocked Dialogue: Designing and Writing Visual Novels is a valuable resource for developers and narrative designers interested in working on VNs. The book will show them how they can design their own VN projects, design branching narratives, develop entertaining plots and relationships, design impactful and compelling choices, and write prose that’s a pleasure to read.

The Game Narrative Toolbox

The Game Narrative Toolbox
Author: Tobias Heussner
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 363
Release: 2023-08-16
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1000921778
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Learn how to create compelling game storylines. Four experienced narrative designers from different genres of game development have banded together to create this all-inclusive guide on what it's like to work as a writer and narrative designer in the video game industry. From concept to final testing, The Game Narrative Toolbox walks readers through what role a narrative designer plays on a development team and what the requirements are at every stage of development. Drawing on real experiences, authors Tobias Heussner, Toiya Kristen Finley, PhD, Ann Lemay, and Jennifer Brandes Hepler provide invaluable advice for writing compelling player-centered stories and effective dialogue trees to help readers make the switch from writing prose or screenplay to interactive. Thoroughly revised, the Second Edition includes updated content reflecting the industry’s latest developments. In addition to revised and updated chapters, this new edition features two additional chapters covering more advanced topics that are applicable to the lessons learned from the original chapters. Accompanying every chapter are exercises that allow the reader to develop their own documentation, outlines, and game-dialogue samples for use in applying for industry jobs or developing independent projects.

The History and Allure of Interactive Visual Novels

The History and Allure of Interactive Visual Novels
Author: Mark Kretzschmar
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2023-06-15
Genre: Games & Activities
ISBN: 1501368621
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Visual novels (VNs), a ludic video game genre that pairs textual fiction stories with anime-like images and varying degrees of interactivity, have increased in popularity among Western audiences in recent years. Despite originating in Japan, these stories have made their way into global culture as a genre accessible for both play and creation with wide-ranging themes from horror and loneliness to sexuality. The History and Allure of Interactive Visual Novels begins with a comprehensive overview of the visual novel genre and the cultural evolution that led to its rise, then explains the tropes and appeal of subgenres like bishojo (cute girl games), detective games, horror, and eroge (erotic games). Finally, the book explores the future of the genre in both user-generated games and games from other genres that liberally borrow both narrative and ludological themes from visual novels. Whether you're a long-standing fan of the genre or a newcomer looking for a fresh experience, The History and Allure of Interactive Visual Novels will provide an accessible and critically engaging overview of a genre that is rich in storytelling yet often overlooked.

Narrative Design for Mobile and Live Games

Narrative Design for Mobile and Live Games
Author: Valentina Tamer
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2023-12-12
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1000992438
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Provides unique guidance on how to craft narrative for mobile and live games. Includes practical exercises to help readers apply the knowledge gained within to their own games and design processes. Covers both development and production processes for open-ended and seasonal storytelling.

CheeveGuide - Achievement Guide for Dragon Age: Inquisition

CheeveGuide - Achievement Guide for Dragon Age: Inquisition
Author: Matt Fuller
Publisher: Matt Fuller
Total Pages: 22
Release: 2015-03-07
Genre: Games & Activities
ISBN:
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CheeveGuide's help players along the way to the elusive 1000/1000 gamerscore or Platinum Trophy. In this Dragon Age: Inquisition edition, we show how to get all achievements including "The Brightest of Their Age" and all possible party member locations, how to complete "Belle of the Ball" and the locations of all dragons for the "Dragons' Bane" achievement to name but a few. This guide can be used with all platforms, including Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3 and PS4. Not only that but it will also provide the most efficient way of unlocking all achievements so you spend the least aount of time unlocking them. If you enjoy unlocking all achievements in a game, this guide will be invaluable to you all for an unbeatable price.

Video Game Writing

Video Game Writing
Author: Maurice Suckling
Publisher: Mercury Learning and Information
Total Pages: 436
Release: 2016-12-16
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1683920309
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This insightful, revised book explores the challenging and evolving world of the games writer. Part I provides a fascinating overview of the history of games writing following its humble roots in the '60s to today’s triple-A titles; Part II asks and answers the key question: what does a games writer do and how do they do it? Especially useful reading for novice game writers, its chapters cover a broad range of topics including contracts, NDAs, creative collaboration, narrative design, editing, adaptations, and environmental storytelling. Part III, of particular value for more advanced students of writing, addresses deeper theoretical questions increasingly relevant in today’s games titles, including: "Why have story at all? What is plot and how does it work? How best can a writer use agency?" Finally, Part IV presents readers with hard-earned nuggets of wisdom from today’s game writers working in the US, Europe, and Japan. Packed with practical samples, case studies, and exercises, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in the world of games writing. Features: • Covers history of games writing, narrative design, storytelling, plot, contracts, and packed with practical samples, case studies, and exercises • Presents readers with opinions and suggestions from today’s game writers who are working in the US, Europe, and Japan • Includes a broad range of topics e.g., creative collaboration, editing, adaptations, and environmental storytelling • Mentions games such as Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Borderlands 2, The Walking Dead, L.A. Noire, Grand Theft Auto V, Mass Effect 3, The Stanley Parable, The Last of Us, Alien Isolation, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Life is Strange, Until Dawn, Quantum Break, BioShock, World of Warcraft, and more.

Interactive Storytelling

Interactive Storytelling
Author: Mei Si
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 374
Release: 2011-12-03
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 3642252893
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This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, ICIDS 2011, held in Vancouver, Canada, in November/December 2011. The 17 full papers, 14 short papers and 16 poster papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 72 paper and poster submissions. In addition, the volume includes 6 workshops descriptions. The full and short papers have been organized into the following topical sections: interactive storytelling theory, new authoring modes, virtual characters and agents, story generation and drama managment, narratives in digital games, evaluation and user experience reports, tools for interactive storytelling.

Procedural Storytelling in Game Design

Procedural Storytelling in Game Design
Author: Tanya X. Short
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2019-03-14
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0429948581
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This edited collection of chapters concerns the evolving discipline of procedural storytelling in video games. Games are an interactive medium, and this interplay between author, player and machine provides new and exciting ways to create and tell stories. In each essay, practitioners of this artform demonstrate how traditional storytelling tools such as characterization, world-building, theme, momentum and atmosphere can be adapted to full effect, using specific examples from their games. The reader will learn to construct narrative systems, write procedural dialog, and generate compelling characters with unique personalities and backstories. Key Features Introduces the differences between static/traditional game design and procedural game design Demonstrates how to solve or avoid common problems with procedural game design in a variety of concrete ways World’s finest guide for how to begin thinking about procedural design

Game Development with Ren'Py

Game Development with Ren'Py
Author: Robert Ciesla
Publisher: Apress
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2019-06-29
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1484249208
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Get your feet wet in developing visual novels and take a guided tour through easy to follow tutorials using three of the most popular tools (Ren'Py, TyranoBuilder, and Twine). This book uses a two-pronged approach into the fine art of text-based games, showing you what makes for compelling writing as well as the programming logic and techniques needed to bring your visual novels to life. In this book, you will uncover the rich history of interactive fiction from the bare-bones 1970s games to the audiovisually rich modern output. You will take a detailed look at how to work with some of the most popular and exotic sub-genres and tropes of interactive fiction, such as nakige ("crying game"), dating sims, and horror. Once the stage is set, you will learn to use all-purpose programming logic and techniques in three mini tutorial games and also learn how to deploy your titles to both desktop and mobile platforms. Not solely relegated to the ancient historical period of the 1980s and 1990s, interactive fiction has again become appealing to developers as new tools became available. The visual novel is an increasingly popular and potentially lucrative genre of video game, being deployed for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and more. Game Development with Ren'Py reveals how multi-platform tools such as Ren'Py, TyranoBuilder, and Twine are becoming ever more plentiful for creating games in this genre. What You'll Learn Gain a working knowledge of Ren'Py, TyranoBuilder, and Twine Examine the basics of general programming logic Deploy to all available operating systems and platforms Review different approaches to fiction writing in the context of text-based games Who This Book Is For People with no programming experience who are interested in working in the genre of visual novels or interactive fiction.

Game Sound

Game Sound
Author: Karen Collins
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 213
Release: 2008-08-08
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0262292602
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An examination of the many complex aspects of game audio, from the perspectives of both sound design and music composition. A distinguishing feature of video games is their interactivity, and sound plays an important role in this: a player's actions can trigger dialogue, sound effects, ambient sound, and music. And yet game sound has been neglected in the growing literature on game studies. This book fills that gap, introducing readers to the many complex aspects of game audio, from its development in early games to theoretical discussions of immersion and realism. In Game Sound, Karen Collins draws on a range of sources—including composers, sound designers, voice-over actors and other industry professionals, Internet articles, fan sites, industry conferences, magazines, patent documents, and, of course, the games themselves—to offer a broad overview of the history, theory, and production practice of video game audio. Game Sound has two underlying themes: how and why games are different from or similar to film or other linear audiovisual media; and technology and the constraints it has placed on the production of game audio. Collins focuses first on the historical development of game audio, from penny arcades through the rise of home games and the recent rapid developments in the industry. She then examines the production process for a contemporary game at a large game company, discussing the roles of composers, sound designers, voice talent, and audio programmers; considers the growing presence of licensed intellectual property (particularly popular music and films) in games; and explores the function of audio in games in theoretical terms. Finally, she discusses the difficulties posed by nonlinearity and interactivity for the composer of game music.