WEBVTT 00:00:04.280 --> 00:00:08.740 Imagine a version of Bioshock without cutscenes. 00:00:08.740 --> 00:00:12.030 Without Andrew Ryan’s bathysphere Powerpoint. 00:00:12.030 --> 00:00:13.730 Without Atlas yapping in your ear. 00:00:13.730 --> 00:00:17.180 And without those juicy audio diaries. 00:00:17.180 --> 00:00:21.680 Do you think players would still understand what the game was all about? 00:00:21.680 --> 00:00:25.560 Well, I think they’d actually have a pretty good idea. 00:00:25.560 --> 00:00:29.269 Because all you have to do is look at your surroundings. 00:00:29.269 --> 00:00:33.870 The game is set in a massive city at the very bottom of the ocean. 00:00:33.870 --> 00:00:39.820 One clearly made for those in high society, considering the fancy bars, apartment complexes, 00:00:39.820 --> 00:00:40.960 and theatre districts. 00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:45.500 And it’s a place built on lofty philosophical ideals. 00:00:45.500 --> 00:00:48.660 But it’s also a place of ruin and despair. 00:00:48.660 --> 00:00:51.280 There was obviously a moment of downfall. 00:00:51.280 --> 00:00:56.100 Some people split into violent factions, and others just lost their minds. 00:00:56.100 --> 00:01:01.010 And this all went down on New Year’s Day, 1959. 00:01:01.010 --> 00:01:06.530 Bioshock is a wonderful example of how a game’s environment can be an effective method of 00:01:06.530 --> 00:01:07.530 storytelling. 00:01:07.530 --> 00:01:12.340 And how embedding narrative elements into the very spaces and places that we visit throughout 00:01:12.340 --> 00:01:17.189 the game, can speak just as loudly as more traditional forms of storytelling. 00:01:17.189 --> 00:01:21.979 And that is exactly what this episode of Game Maker’s Toolkit is all about. 00:01:21.979 --> 00:01:26.700 In this video I’m going to focus on three ways that the environment can be used for 00:01:26.700 --> 00:01:33.549 storytelling - and talk about how level design can drive our understanding, feeling, and identity. 00:01:33.549 --> 00:01:37.499 Starting, with understanding. 00:01:37.499 --> 00:01:44.700 So the signs, stiffs, and scribbles in Bioshock are examples of “environmental storytelling” 00:01:44.700 --> 00:01:50.200 - the use of set dressing to create small, optional, and self-contained vignettes. 00:01:50.200 --> 00:01:55.159 Like warnings written in blood, or the many, many skeletons in the Fallout games, who have 00:01:55.159 --> 00:02:00.509 been deliberately posed by the game’s designers to suggest humorous or melancholy ways that 00:02:00.509 --> 00:02:01.900 people have died. 00:02:01.900 --> 00:02:07.579 The term was first coined, as far as I can tell, by former Disneyland designer Don Carson, 00:02:07.580 --> 00:02:13.860 who wrote an influential article in 2000 about what game developers can learn from theme parks. 00:02:13.860 --> 00:02:19.340 The term was then made even more popular in a GDC talk by Harvey Smith and Matthias Worch, 00:02:19.340 --> 00:02:24.220 where they described the technique as “staging player-space with environmental properties 00:02:24.220 --> 00:02:30.240 that can be interpreted as a meaningful whole, furthering the narrative of the game”. 00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:35.660 The cool thing about environmental storytelling is that it requires a certain level of deductive 00:02:35.660 --> 00:02:39.990 reasoning, as we connect up details to create an overall story. 00:02:39.990 --> 00:02:45.530 We use investigative and archaeological skills to determine relationships, cause and effect, 00:02:45.530 --> 00:02:46.580 and history. 00:02:46.580 --> 00:02:52.420 This makes us an active participant in the storytelling process, and not just a passive viewer. 00:02:52.420 --> 00:02:56.340 Plus, if you just want to focus on the shooty stuff, you can do that 00:02:56.340 --> 00:02:58.760 without the story getting in your way. 00:02:58.760 --> 00:03:03.260 For the most part, environmental storytelling is about static objects - but it can also 00:03:03.260 --> 00:03:08.200 stretch to things like overheard conversations, animations happening in the level, and of 00:03:08.200 --> 00:03:14.730 course… text, in things like books, item descriptions, scans, notes, and emails. 00:03:14.730 --> 00:03:19.330 And while it is generally used to describe what happened before you even got to a space, 00:03:19.330 --> 00:03:24.400 it can also be used as a way of highlighting how your actions have impacted the environment 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:26.610 in the time since you visited. 00:03:26.610 --> 00:03:32.490 So if you kill a shop keeper in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, later in the game the shop will be 00:03:32.490 --> 00:03:36.620 a police crime scene, and then permanently closed to the public. 00:03:36.620 --> 00:03:41.231 It’s also worth noting that environmental storytelling isn’t just for narrative, but 00:03:41.231 --> 00:03:42.960 can have gameplay uses too. 00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:48.630 A saw blade stuck in a sliced-up zombie suggests using these saws with your Gravity Gun to 00:03:48.630 --> 00:03:49.830 defeat enemies. 00:03:49.830 --> 00:03:54.450 An enemy fried on a fence warns us about the dangers of touching it. 00:03:54.450 --> 00:03:58.220 Maps and signage can help us navigate complex spaces. 00:03:58.220 --> 00:04:01.980 And props can suggest puzzle hints in a non-intrusive way. 00:04:08.580 --> 00:04:09.860 But here’s the thing. 00:04:09.860 --> 00:04:13.900 “Environmental storytelling” - if we’re using the term specifically to mean those 00:04:13.900 --> 00:04:20.590 micro-narrative vignettes - is just one part of a larger structure of using the environment 00:04:20.590 --> 00:04:21.819 to suggest narrative. 00:04:21.819 --> 00:04:24.879 It’s the high level stuff. 00:04:24.879 --> 00:04:28.270 Below that, then, is the individual places in a game. 00:04:28.270 --> 00:04:33.449 You know, a farmer’s market, a bar, a medical pavilion, and a theatre district. 00:04:33.449 --> 00:04:36.650 And beyond that, the individual rooms in those zones. 00:04:36.650 --> 00:04:42.889 That’s the medium level, which might be most accurately called, well, level design. 00:04:42.889 --> 00:04:48.660 And this can also be used for narrative because things like architecture, layout, materials, 00:04:48.660 --> 00:04:52.960 and scale can tell us a lot about the people who use those spaces. 00:04:52.960 --> 00:04:59.219 For example, in Dishonored 2’s Dust District, the level designers at Arkane use verticality 00:04:59.219 --> 00:05:03.909 to show how the working class are literally underneath the people in power. 00:05:03.909 --> 00:05:09.729 And the sheer opulence of Talos I in Prey tells a very different story about its use, 00:05:09.729 --> 00:05:14.159 compared to the more utilitarian Sevastopol in Alien Isolation. 00:05:14.159 --> 00:05:19.800 And this also provides gameplay hints, too: like in Lord Bafford’s Mansion in Thief, 00:05:19.800 --> 00:05:23.909 where all the gold is naturally found in the lord's chambers - but there’s little of 00:05:23.909 --> 00:05:26.569 value in the servant’s quarters. 00:05:26.569 --> 00:05:31.210 By making the place a believable location, the player can use real-world knowledge to 00:05:31.210 --> 00:05:33.550 help orient themselves in the space. 00:05:33.550 --> 00:05:38.020 Of course, one big challenge of making spaces where people can actually live or work, is 00:05:38.020 --> 00:05:42.490 crafting locations that can actually logically exist with all the bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, 00:05:42.490 --> 00:05:45.240 and so on to support hundreds of people. 00:05:45.240 --> 00:05:50.510 I asked the IO Interactive designers about this when I did my Hitman 2 video and 00:05:50.510 --> 00:05:56.020 they said they focus on levels that are “credible”, which means the level meets your basic expectations 00:05:56.020 --> 00:06:00.300 for how a space works - but it doesn’t have to make perfect sense. 00:06:00.300 --> 00:06:06.330 To finish off our pyramid, we need the low level - which is the overall setting of the world. 00:06:06.330 --> 00:06:11.240 This is world building, and is where the developers and narrative designers set things like the 00:06:11.240 --> 00:06:15.620 factions, the major plot points for the world’s history, and the main players in the story. 00:06:15.620 --> 00:06:20.819 All three parts of this structure should work in concert, and - ideally - ideas should echo 00:06:20.819 --> 00:06:22.470 up and down the stack. 00:06:22.470 --> 00:06:26.169 Here’s an example of that working in practice. 00:06:26.169 --> 00:06:31.860 In Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, the low level setting is a futuristic Prague where augmented 00:06:31.860 --> 00:06:35.790 humans face oppression from those without modifications. 00:06:35.790 --> 00:06:40.740 This is represented in the mid level by places like train stations with different cars for 00:06:40.740 --> 00:06:46.669 naturals and augs, and a slum-like city where augs are kept in dire conditions. 00:06:46.669 --> 00:06:52.129 And then the smaller narrative moments on the high level also talk about oppression and 00:06:52.129 --> 00:06:57.690 racism, though anti-aug graffiti, and emails about being kicked out of the capital. 00:06:57.690 --> 00:07:03.800 Every level is talking about the same theme - from a grand, systemic level on the high level, to 00:07:03.800 --> 00:07:07.490 to more intimate and specific stories on the low level. 00:07:07.490 --> 00:07:12.490 Of course, easter eggs and moments of humour are fine too - but storytelling like this 00:07:12.490 --> 00:07:18.620 is at its best when all aspects are marching towards the same thematic goal. 00:07:18.620 --> 00:07:22.849 This can be quite challenging in practice because, on many large games, each level is 00:07:22.849 --> 00:07:25.319 looked after by a completely different person. 00:07:25.319 --> 00:07:29.370 So it’s vitally important for teams to come together to make sure the vision is being 00:07:29.370 --> 00:07:31.980 shared across the game as a whole. 00:07:34.490 --> 00:07:39.420 So designers can use world building, level design, and environmental storytelling to 00:07:39.439 --> 00:07:43.650 convey literal and specific information about the world and its inhabitants. 00:07:43.650 --> 00:07:49.279 But, the design of a world can also be used in a more evocative and emotional sense. 00:07:49.279 --> 00:07:54.139 Game designers can use things like scale, shape, and colour to evoke certain feelings 00:07:54.139 --> 00:07:55.139 in the player. 00:07:55.139 --> 00:08:02.169 Here’s Naughty Dog level designer Emilia Schatz talking about how she did this in Uncharted 4 00:08:02.169 --> 00:08:06.779 EMILIA: “If i want to have the player feel triumphant at the end and scared towards the 00:08:06.779 --> 00:08:11.080 beginning, I might make the environment create a lot of pressure on the player. 00:08:11.080 --> 00:08:17.060 I might make the ceiling very low, might make the walls come in, so you feel tight and constrained. 00:08:17.060 --> 00:08:23.430 And eventually as we get to the end of the level, bring you out way into the open and 00:08:23.430 --> 00:08:25.389 give you this giant vista”. 00:08:25.389 --> 00:08:31.129 The shape of the cave doesn’t give us any further understanding of the backstory in Uncharted. 00:08:31.129 --> 00:08:33.479 It’s just a cave, after all. 00:08:33.479 --> 00:08:38.310 Instead, it creates emotion - which helps the player better understand how the character 00:08:38.310 --> 00:08:39.310 is feeling. 00:08:39.310 --> 00:08:43.139 Here’s a good example of just that in the most recent God of War. 00:08:43.139 --> 00:08:48.620 The story beat is that Kratos starts to panic because Atreus has run off and may be in danger. 00:08:48.620 --> 00:08:53.269 Here’s how the designers manipulate the environment to ensure that you, as the player, 00:08:53.269 --> 00:08:54.930 also feel this sense of tension. 00:08:54.930 --> 00:08:58.639 So, the space constricts to narrow pathways. 00:08:58.639 --> 00:09:01.899 There are dead ends, forcing you to turn around and backtrack. 00:09:01.899 --> 00:09:05.310 Your visibility is reduced thanks to a thick grey fog. 00:09:05.310 --> 00:09:09.130 And the final squeeze between rocks completely slows Kratos down. 00:09:09.130 --> 00:09:14.250 It’s only when you get through that the world opens up, the fog lifts, and colour 00:09:14.250 --> 00:09:18.920 returns, letting you know that Atreus is safe and that this mysterious person is probably 00:09:18.920 --> 00:09:22.630 not there to hurt you or your boy. 00:09:22.630 --> 00:09:24.470 Or take the original Portal. 00:09:24.470 --> 00:09:29.430 The first half of the game takes place in a test lab, and the second half has you escaping 00:09:29.430 --> 00:09:33.860 from an evil AI and darting through a maintenance area. 00:09:33.860 --> 00:09:37.647 This dramatic shift in the game’s story is emphasised through 00:09:37.647 --> 00:09:39.820 all sorts of environmental choices. 00:09:39.820 --> 00:09:43.350 The lab is white, sterile, and lacking in detail. 00:09:43.350 --> 00:09:49.380 The maintenance area is bathed in warmer orange tones, and looks lived in and used. 00:09:49.380 --> 00:09:55.070 In a talk in 2017, former Crystal Dynamics art designer Brian Horton talks about this 00:09:55.070 --> 00:09:57.020 part in the Tomb Raider reboot. 00:09:57.020 --> 00:10:02.730 At the start, Lara is low down, with the environment bearing down from above her. 00:10:02.730 --> 00:10:06.199 Everything is plunged in an ominous dark green colour. 00:10:06.199 --> 00:10:10.209 As you become level with the environment, the colours begin to lighten up. 00:10:10.209 --> 00:10:15.270 And then as you climb, you’re actually high above the level, and Lara is bathed in a warm, 00:10:15.270 --> 00:10:16.810 orange sunlight. 00:10:16.810 --> 00:10:22.240 Her journey of survival - from a point of despair to a point of hope - is emphasised 00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:24.540 through the level design. 00:10:24.540 --> 00:10:29.970 As a practical method of achieving this, I want to point to a GDC talk by former BioWare 00:10:29.970 --> 00:10:35.130 level designer Dave Feltham who talks about two tools they used when making the levels 00:10:35.130 --> 00:10:40.440 for Mass Effect 3: Emotion Charts and Intensity Charts. 00:10:40.440 --> 00:10:45.670 So the level in question is set on the planet Tuchanka, and involves providing a cure for 00:10:45.670 --> 00:10:50.220 the Genophage - a biological weapon deployed against the Krogan. 00:10:50.220 --> 00:10:55.319 The level sees you landing at the hollows, driving towards the shroud tower, having your 00:10:55.319 --> 00:11:01.080 convoy get blown up, sneak through some catacombs, pop up in the city, take down your first reaper, 00:11:01.080 --> 00:11:04.940 and - well - I won’t spoil the mission anymore than that. 00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:08.340 So the designers broke the level down into a bunch of sections. 00:11:08.340 --> 00:11:12.620 They then decided what theme needed to be represented in each part. 00:11:12.620 --> 00:11:16.410 And then decided what emotion the player should feel at that time. 00:11:16.410 --> 00:11:20.769 Finally, they used environment design to evoke those emotions. 00:11:20.769 --> 00:11:26.329 For example, in the pre-crash you should feel a sense of hope and confidence about defeating 00:11:26.329 --> 00:11:27.329 the reaper. 00:11:27.329 --> 00:11:31.529 So there’s a huge convoy of vehicles at your back to make you feel strong, and the 00:11:31.529 --> 00:11:34.639 Krogan are happily lazing about to suggest nonchalance. 00:11:34.639 --> 00:11:37.759 After the crash, you should feel a sense of chaos. 00:11:37.759 --> 00:11:41.899 So there’s flames, explosions, and your convoy is destroyed. 00:11:41.899 --> 00:11:46.279 In the catacombs, you should feel a sense of mystery - which is driven by the statues 00:11:46.279 --> 00:11:51.690 and murals of ancient Krogan life, And then the triumphant reveal of the city is supposed 00:11:51.690 --> 00:11:57.129 to make you feel awe at what the Krogan empire grew to become before the Genophage. 00:11:57.129 --> 00:12:00.410 And make you feel guilty if you were planning to betray them. 00:12:00.410 --> 00:12:06.740 The contrast from the dark catacombs to the open city emphasises the reveal. 00:12:06.740 --> 00:12:11.250 Finding the right environmental tricks to convey the necessary emotion can be tough, 00:12:11.250 --> 00:12:14.100 but here’s how a few other games have done it. 00:12:14.100 --> 00:12:19.860 Half Life 2 creates a feeling of oppression through claustrophobic corridors, tall buildings, 00:12:19.860 --> 00:12:22.040 cages, and security cameras. 00:12:22.040 --> 00:12:27.250 PT creates fear by asking you to repeatedly turn the same corner, but you’re never sure 00:12:27.250 --> 00:12:29.030 what will be on the other side. 00:12:29.030 --> 00:12:34.449 It’s important to note that these environmental choices have to gel with the game’s mechanics, 00:12:34.449 --> 00:12:35.449 though. 00:12:35.449 --> 00:12:40.170 For example, in a horror game, darkness is obviously intended to evoke feelings of fear. 00:12:40.170 --> 00:12:45.560 But in a stealth game, darkness might actually provide feelings of power and safety. 00:12:45.560 --> 00:12:50.379 After picking the environmental details, BioWare uses intensity charts. 00:12:50.379 --> 00:12:56.720 Basically, the designers have a desired intensity level - hoping for low moments for story beats, 00:12:56.720 --> 00:12:58.470 and high moments for combat. 00:12:58.470 --> 00:13:04.100 But this has to be checked against play-testers who describe how intense each area feels. 00:13:04.100 --> 00:13:07.339 If the chart is off, changes must be made. 00:13:07.339 --> 00:13:12.770 For example, the catacombs initially had enemies - but fighting monsters by torchlight was 00:13:12.770 --> 00:13:18.079 found to be extremely intense, and pulled away from the intended feeling, so the monsters 00:13:18.079 --> 00:13:20.610 were scrapped to bring the level in line. 00:13:20.610 --> 00:13:25.949 Also, a cutscene of friendly bombers was added on the road towards the reaper, just to give 00:13:25.949 --> 00:13:28.910 the player slightly more hope that they might win. 00:13:28.910 --> 00:13:33.560 The ultimate goal for BioWare was to create a mission that matches a sort of typical three 00:13:33.560 --> 00:13:34.860 act structure. 00:13:34.860 --> 00:13:40.930 With rising action, a low moment of despair, and a final climb to victory. 00:13:40.930 --> 00:13:46.230 This three act structure is used wonderfully by 2D platformer Celeste, where the actual 00:13:46.230 --> 00:13:49.879 topology of your climb mirrors that graph. 00:13:49.879 --> 00:13:54.810 Level after level you climb higher up the mountain, hitting small set-backs and climb-downs 00:13:54.810 --> 00:13:57.389 but ultimately heading forever upwards. 00:13:57.389 --> 00:14:02.589 That is until the stage Reflections which sends you plummeting back down to the base. 00:14:02.589 --> 00:14:09.189 The story’s lowest point is also the environment’s lowest point. 00:14:09.189 --> 00:14:14.100 If there’s one game that truly uses the environment to tell a story, though, it’s Journey. 00:14:14.100 --> 00:14:18.500 It uses moments when you’re climbing to evoke feelings of strength and progression, 00:14:18.500 --> 00:14:23.120 and moments where you’re plummeting down to create a sense of loss and hopelessness. 00:14:23.120 --> 00:14:28.279 And notice how the team at thatgamecompany uses colour to express different sensations 00:14:28.279 --> 00:14:34.440 - orange for the calm mystery of the desert, dark green for the spooky underground graveyard, 00:14:34.440 --> 00:14:39.079 white for the biting cold, and bright blue for the moment of rebirth. 00:14:39.079 --> 00:14:43.930 This game doesn’t need any words to tell you what to feel, because the environment 00:14:43.930 --> 00:14:45.180 says it all. 00:14:47.080 --> 00:14:52.800 The final thing I want to touch on, is the way environments influence our identity. 00:14:52.800 --> 00:14:58.340 Video games typically put us into the shoes of a character, and ask us to perform as they would. 00:14:58.340 --> 00:15:03.580 As players, we’re constantly looking for clues as to what sort of person we are inhabiting, 00:15:03.589 --> 00:15:07.889 and what sort of actions will be expected, permitted, and punished. 00:15:07.889 --> 00:15:12.800 Of course, the heavy lifting is done by the available mechanics, the way systems react 00:15:12.800 --> 00:15:17.940 to our choices, and our preconceived notions from the marketing and genre norms. 00:15:17.940 --> 00:15:21.910 But the environment can also play a large part in this. 00:15:21.910 --> 00:15:27.640 For example, in the original Bioshock I found it easy to murder people and steal from cash 00:15:27.640 --> 00:15:29.399 registers and safes. 00:15:29.399 --> 00:15:34.220 Whereas in Bioshock Infinite, i found these actions a lot less comfortable. 00:15:34.220 --> 00:15:39.470 A large part of this comes from the fact that Bioshock’s Rapture is in ruins, and the 00:15:39.470 --> 00:15:43.370 only people around are insane, bloodthirsty splicers. 00:15:43.370 --> 00:15:48.319 Bashing their skulls in and looting everything I can fit in my pockets just makes sense. 00:15:48.319 --> 00:15:52.999 Infinite’s Columbia, on the other hand, is still a semi-functioning society when you 00:15:52.999 --> 00:15:56.580 get there, with working shops and innocent citizens. 00:15:56.580 --> 00:16:01.709 So violence and robbery just makes less sense in that environment. 00:16:01.709 --> 00:16:06.839 Back down on Earth, the Hitman developers use this technique to subtly explain 00:16:06.839 --> 00:16:09.509 how the world will react to your presence. 00:16:09.509 --> 00:16:15.120 It’s often pretty obvious which areas you can casually stroll into, because of our understanding 00:16:15.120 --> 00:16:18.180 of real-world social behaviours and rules. 00:16:18.180 --> 00:16:22.850 This comes from a GDC talk by IO developer Mette Andersen who says “when 00:16:22.850 --> 00:16:27.700 we design these spaces, we’re designing rules of behaviour and we’re designing something 00:16:27.700 --> 00:16:31.850 that’s going to tap into your knowledge of ‘how should I be in this space?’”. 00:16:31.850 --> 00:16:36.529 Mette splits the world into public spaces, which are available from the get go and explorable 00:16:36.529 --> 00:16:37.920 in any costume. 00:16:37.920 --> 00:16:43.499 And private spaces, which require some ingenuity to enter, and a costume to stay hidden. 00:16:43.499 --> 00:16:49.579 She then splits those further into sub categories, where social rules go from vague to strict. 00:16:49.579 --> 00:16:56.370 The best levels in Hitman, says Mette, incorporate a rich mix of these area types. 00:16:56.370 --> 00:17:01.560 So video game environments can be a staggeringly effective medium for storytelling. 00:17:01.560 --> 00:17:05.650 Whether they’re telling stories about events that happened before your arrival, giving 00:17:05.650 --> 00:17:10.630 clues about the people who live there, evoking emotions through architecture, or providing 00:17:10.630 --> 00:17:15.720 context for player identity, these spaces can speak volumes. 00:17:15.720 --> 00:17:20.760 Let me know your favourite examples of storytelling through the environment, in the comments down below. 00:17:24.640 --> 00:17:26.880 Hi, thanks for watching. 00:17:26.880 --> 00:17:32.630 As you might have noticed, this is a re-uploaded version of a previous video. 00:17:32.630 --> 00:17:37.549 Unfortunately, that video was labelled as not age-appropriate, because of some of the 00:17:37.549 --> 00:17:43.570 examples I gave - and so the video had a big scary warning before you could watch. 00:17:43.570 --> 00:17:48.529 Ultimately, I want my channel to be accessible to as many people as possible, and so I’m 00:17:48.529 --> 00:17:53.059 going to work hard in future to make sure my stuff is suitable for a general audience. 00:17:53.059 --> 00:17:57.960 I’m still going to talk about shooting people, because, hey, my channel’s about video games. 00:17:57.960 --> 00:18:05.660 But, still, I’ll take care not to slip into gratuitous depictions of violence and other icky stuff. 00:18:05.660 --> 00:18:10.000 If the original video made you feel uncomfortable, then I do apologise.