WEBVTT 00:00:01.200 --> 00:00:06.560 Okay, so video game stories are unique  because you get to make decisions. 00:00:06.560 --> 00:00:09.440 Like, whether or not you  should mock this preacher. 00:00:09.440 --> 00:00:13.360 GERALT: “How many people’s lives have  you saved? From bruxae? From leshens?” 00:00:13.360 --> 00:00:17.920 PREACHER: “That has no bearing—“ GERALT: “Asked you a question. How many?” 00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:21.360 Those choices might cause an immediate reaction… 00:00:21.360 --> 00:00:24.800 GERALT: “There’s something to think about, folks”. 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:26.800 Or, in some cases, the game might 00:00:26.800 --> 00:00:30.880 remember your decision and issue some  kind of consequence later down the line. 00:00:30.880 --> 00:00:35.760 GUARD 1: “Geralt of Rivia. Witcher”. GUARD 2: “You stand accused of offending 00:00:35.760 --> 00:00:40.160 religious sentiment. We’ve orders  to take you in for interrogation” 00:00:40.160 --> 00:00:44.800 Now, these sorts of choices have  historically been associated with RPGs, 00:00:44.800 --> 00:00:49.360 interactive fiction, and… whatever we’re  calling these Telltale-style games. 00:00:49.360 --> 00:00:52.880 And I think that’s partly because  of their lineage that stretches 00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:57.200 back to improvisational tabletop games, and  branching Choose Your Own Adventure books. 00:00:57.200 --> 00:01:01.760 But I think it’s also just an interface thing.  These are games where your primary mode of 00:01:01.760 --> 00:01:07.200 interaction is to pick options from a menu -  like a dialogue tree or a list of next moves. 00:01:07.760 --> 00:01:12.080 So making choices about the  narrative is a perfectly natural fit. 00:01:12.080 --> 00:01:17.680 But what if your game doesn’t have that?  What if it’s a shooter, or survival horror, 00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:22.320 or an action game? How do you let players  make choices in those sorts of games? 00:01:22.960 --> 00:01:28.000 Well, one way to do it can be seen in  Bioshock. This is a first-person shooter, 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:32.320 but it features an infamous moral choice:  each time you meet a Little Sister, 00:01:32.320 --> 00:01:37.280 you need to decide whether to save her - or  harvest her lifeblood for magic super-juice. 00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:42.880 And, in these moments, the game slows  down, takes away your normal controls, 00:01:42.880 --> 00:01:48.960 and just slaps a big ol’ pair of button prompts  on screen. Press X to harvest. Press Y to rescue. 00:01:48.960 --> 00:01:52.640 LITTLE SISTER: “No, no! No no!” 00:01:52.640 --> 00:01:56.800 So that’s one way to do it. Just kinda  borrow the interaction systems of these 00:01:56.800 --> 00:02:01.440 more suitable genres - whether that’s  button prompts. A list of options. 00:02:01.440 --> 00:02:05.840 Or a dialogue wheel. I’m going  to call these “explicit choices”. 00:02:06.880 --> 00:02:09.280 But there’s actually another way to do it. 00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:13.280 Let’s look at another shooter -  this time, Spec Ops: The Line. 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:16.720 Here, we come across two men,  strung up by their hands - with 00:02:16.720 --> 00:02:20.640 snipers aiming at their bodies.  And you have to make a decision. 00:02:20.640 --> 00:02:23.280 WALKER: “I get it, we’re meant to choose” 00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:27.280 But this time, there are  no button prompts and there's no menu. 00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:32.560 Instead, you decide which person Walker will  shoot… by literally, just shooting them. 00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:33.280 *Gunfire* 00:02:33.280 --> 00:02:38.480 So that’s a very different way to do it. Instead  of leaning on the systems of a different genre, 00:02:38.480 --> 00:02:43.280 Spec Ops lets players express their intent by  using the basic tools they use elsewhere in 00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:48.000 the game. This is a game about shooting  - and so you make choices by shooting. 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:51.360 I call this, you guessed  it, an, “invisible choice”. 00:02:52.080 --> 00:02:57.920 And I think these, rare beasts have some  incredibly exciting advantages. And so, in this 00:02:57.920 --> 00:03:03.840 video I’m going to share four key reasons why you  should think about making your choices… disappear. 00:03:06.160 --> 00:03:11.120 Okay. Advantage number one - invisible  choices can make the options ambiguous. 00:03:11.680 --> 00:03:16.800 So in Bioshock Infinite, you’re told to  throw a ball at an interracial couple. But 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:20.720 did you know you can actually throw it at the  racist announcer inste… oh, right, it says it 00:03:20.720 --> 00:03:24.560 right there on the screen. That kinda spoiled  it, didn’t it? That’s what happens when your 00:03:24.560 --> 00:03:28.640 input system demands you list every  possible action the player can take. 00:03:28.640 --> 00:03:33.360 Back to that choice in Spec Ops, though, and  while the guy on the radio asks you to shoot 00:03:33.360 --> 00:03:37.920 one of the two men… you can also decide to  shoot the ropes that they’re being hung with. 00:03:37.920 --> 00:03:42.400 Or refuse to make a choice at all.  Or fire at the snipers instead. 00:03:42.400 --> 00:03:48.160 Because the choice is invisible, the game can  hide additional options that are only found if 00:03:48.160 --> 00:03:52.880 enterprising players really think about the  situation and the tools at their disposal. 00:03:52.880 --> 00:03:57.040 Spec Ops is actually full of these things.  Later, an angry mob of civilians descends 00:03:57.040 --> 00:04:01.360 on Walker and you’re encouraged to shoot  them - but you can also fire into the air, 00:04:01.360 --> 00:04:04.960 or just do a non-lethal melee  attack to diffuse the situation. 00:04:04.960 --> 00:04:10.080 There’s also a memorable one in Far Cry 4 -  Pagan Min asks you to wait for his return, 00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:12.480 giving you a chance to escape from his fortress. 00:04:12.480 --> 00:04:16.880 But if you actually just wait for his  return, you’ll unlock a secret ending. 00:04:16.880 --> 00:04:21.200 These hidden options can make players  feel smart. And it makes the game feel 00:04:21.200 --> 00:04:25.680 less like a rigid sequence of choices - and  more like an organic and believable world. 00:04:27.120 --> 00:04:31.360 Advantage two. The choices don’t have to be equal. 00:04:31.360 --> 00:04:37.040 So back to Bioshock for a second - when it  comes to rescuing or harvesting a Little Sister, 00:04:37.040 --> 00:04:40.960 the choice is equal. I mean, sure,  the consequences are different. 00:04:40.960 --> 00:04:46.240 And one might make you feel bad. But the  physical act of making the choice is identical: 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:49.040 press one button on your controller, or the other. 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:54.800 But then consider a game like Undertale.  Here, you can choose whether to kill all the 00:04:54.800 --> 00:04:59.360 monsters and bosses in the game - or  spare them. But it’s far from equal, 00:04:59.360 --> 00:05:04.720 and it’s - usually - a lot harder to save the  creatures than it is to simply wipe them out. 00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:08.400 So that means you need to put in  effort if you want the better outcome. 00:05:08.400 --> 00:05:12.560 And you might decide to make a certain choice…  simply because it would be too difficult, 00:05:12.560 --> 00:05:15.680 or cost too many resources, to do the other thing. 00:05:16.320 --> 00:05:21.840 Like, there’s a bit in Deus Ex: Human Revolution  where your pilot Faridah is pinned down by enemies 00:05:21.840 --> 00:05:27.280 and it’s possible to save her - as long as you are  able to defeat a bunch of baddies in record time. 00:05:27.280 --> 00:05:31.920 It’s not a moral choice whether she lives  or dies - it’s a test of your skill. 00:05:31.920 --> 00:05:36.400 Also, picking immoral and selfish choices  from a menu can make you feel pretty 00:05:36.400 --> 00:05:41.120 icky - but it’s even worse when you have to  physically carry out those actions yourself. 00:05:41.120 --> 00:05:47.280 When you slowly, manually, personally steal  from this elderly couple in This War of Mine… 00:05:47.280 --> 00:05:52.160 it makes you, the player, feel even  more complicit in these awful actions. 00:05:53.280 --> 00:05:58.320 Okay! That was a bummer. Uh,  advantage three! Fine-grain choices. 00:05:59.040 --> 00:06:04.560 So, when we think about more explicit choices,  we usually think about quite significant decision 00:06:04.560 --> 00:06:10.000 points. Picking between the lives of two  characters. Or the fate of an entire town. 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:11.840 Or, uh, what to have for breakfast. 00:06:11.840 --> 00:06:16.880 But when a game is tracking invisible choices,  it can build up a massive, and highly detailed 00:06:16.880 --> 00:06:22.560 databank of everything the player is doing - and  use all of that to shape the rest of the game. 00:06:23.200 --> 00:06:26.960 This can lead to a game feeling  very personalised - like how the 00:06:26.960 --> 00:06:31.520 Orks in Shadow of War can recall the  precise nature of your previous run-in. 00:06:31.520 --> 00:06:36.240 Or how the characters in Hades discuss  the exact details of your most recent run. 00:06:36.240 --> 00:06:39.360 HYPNOS: “Daw, one of those Wretched Louts  just killed you dead that last time, 00:06:39.360 --> 00:06:43.920 those mean old slappy guys? Maybe try  killing them beforehand, I don’t know!” 00:06:43.920 --> 00:06:48.400 It means the game can comment on tiny  things like where you’ve been - which 00:06:48.400 --> 00:06:53.040 is why JC Denton gets chewed out for  entering the women’s bathroom in Deus Ex. 00:06:53.040 --> 00:06:58.080 Or how long you take to do something - waste  too much time before rescuing your pals in 00:06:58.080 --> 00:07:03.360 Mass Effect 2, and you’ll find the Normandy  crew has been reduced to a gooey grey paste. 00:07:03.360 --> 00:07:08.640 This makes you think about the effects of every  action you perform - and not just the big, 00:07:08.640 --> 00:07:14.400 obvious choices. So, in Dishonored, for example,  every time you kill an enemy you’re adding to the 00:07:14.400 --> 00:07:19.200 chaos meter - which can change the outcome of  the narrative, shift how characters see you, 00:07:19.200 --> 00:07:24.160 and add more rats to the world. And so because  every combat encounter has the opportunity 00:07:24.160 --> 00:07:28.720 to change the future, you end up playing  in a more deliberate and thoughtful way. 00:07:28.720 --> 00:07:32.720 Same goes for Metal Gear Solid V, and  how the enemies adapt to your play style 00:07:32.720 --> 00:07:36.000 by popping on helmets or  installing more floodlights. 00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:41.680 And finally, advantage four. Surprising outcomes. 00:07:41.680 --> 00:07:46.320 One of the biggest problems with explicit choices  is that they make it really obvious that you’re 00:07:46.320 --> 00:07:50.497 making a decision. And just in case it wasn’t completely obvious, 00:07:50.497 --> 00:07:53.440 let’s put a notification on screen to back that up. 00:07:53.440 --> 00:07:58.240 So, it’s pretty hard to surprise players  with the consequences of their decisions. 00:07:58.240 --> 00:08:03.440 But with invisible choices, the game  can secretly and silently track your 00:08:03.440 --> 00:08:08.720 actions without you ever realising it - and then  surprise you with an outcome later down the line. 00:08:09.280 --> 00:08:14.080 Like, in Metal Gear Solid, when you encounter  the mind-reading weirdo, Psycho Mantis. 00:08:14.080 --> 00:08:20.800 PSYCHO-MANTIS: “You are a very methodical man. The  type who always kicks his tyres before he leaves. 00:08:21.520 --> 00:08:25.520 And yet you’re rather ineffective in battle.” 00:08:25.520 --> 00:08:30.640 What’s actually happening here is that all along,  the game has been secretly tracking things like 00:08:30.640 --> 00:08:36.320 how often you save, how many traps you’ve sprung,  and even the contents of your PS1 memory card. 00:08:36.320 --> 00:08:41.440 And then Psycho-Mantis can give the appropriate  voice line. It’s a typical Kojima party trick, 00:08:41.440 --> 00:08:46.080 but a neat example of how invisible  choices can surprise the player. 00:08:46.080 --> 00:08:48.800 Other examples might include  saving Biorr from this cell, 00:08:48.800 --> 00:08:52.720 only for him to come to your aid in  the fight against Penetrator. Or your 00:08:52.720 --> 00:08:56.400 actions at the start of Chrono Trigger  getting brought up in the game’s trial. 00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:01.840 The other thing is - because explicit  choices are given such prominence, 00:09:01.840 --> 00:09:06.880 I think players quite rightly expect for them  to have equally significant consequences for the 00:09:06.880 --> 00:09:14.080 storyline. And to be disappointed when, typically,  they don’t. But when choices are invisible, 00:09:14.080 --> 00:09:18.640 even tiny consequences are impressive  and memorable by comparison. 00:09:19.680 --> 00:09:23.840 Now, if I’m going to be listing advantages…  I should probably also touch on the 00:09:23.840 --> 00:09:26.240 challenges of implementing invisible choices. 00:09:26.800 --> 00:09:31.840 For one, it can be hard to honour every choice the  player might make. There’s a scene in Firewatch 00:09:31.840 --> 00:09:36.240 where you have to deal with some skinny-dipping  teenagers and the game will react to loads of 00:09:36.240 --> 00:09:40.720 different actions - including tossing their  boombox into the water. But the programmers 00:09:40.720 --> 00:09:46.160 had to create a very complex and robust system  to account for all of these different actions. 00:09:46.160 --> 00:09:50.480 Interested devs can find some resources to  help with implementing invisible choices 00:09:50.480 --> 00:09:52.080 in the description for this video. 00:09:52.720 --> 00:09:57.760 Also, this system doesn’t really work for  every type of choice. If your only way of 00:09:57.760 --> 00:10:02.160 communicating to the game is down the barrel  of a gun, that’s not going to work for more 00:10:02.160 --> 00:10:07.360 nuanced decisions. But it doesn’t have to  be either / or. Back to Firewatch, again, 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:11.760 that game tracks actions like picking up  objects - but it also has a full dialogue 00:10:11.760 --> 00:10:16.720 system through the walkie-talkie. That gives  you two very different ways to express yourself. 00:10:17.280 --> 00:10:21.520 Another challenge is that when choices are  made ambiguous, players might not know that 00:10:21.520 --> 00:10:25.760 they even had access to certain options  - and feel cheated when they find out. 00:10:25.760 --> 00:10:30.960 I made a video about Fort Frolic in Bioshock,  and mentioned how you can leave the area without 00:10:30.960 --> 00:10:36.400 killing Sander Cohen. But according to my comment  section, plenty of people didn’t know that walking 00:10:36.400 --> 00:10:42.400 away was a valid choice. So, you may need to  teach players that other actions are available. 00:10:42.400 --> 00:10:46.640 And, finally, players may not realise  that they’re seeing the consequences 00:10:46.640 --> 00:10:52.800 of previous actions. The nice thing about explicit  choices is that they are, well, explicit about 00:10:52.800 --> 00:10:59.680 the fact you’re having an impact on the game. But  invisible choices can easily be missed altogether. 00:10:59.680 --> 00:11:04.320 In playtests of Dishonored, Arkane found  that some players thought the game was 00:11:04.320 --> 00:11:09.680 incredibly linear - but only because those player  didn’t even realise they were making choices. 00:11:09.680 --> 00:11:15.600 They were too subtle, too organic. Likewise,  it’s easy to get to the end of Silent Hill 2 00:11:15.600 --> 00:11:20.320 and have no understanding that the cutscene  you receive is actually the result of some 00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:24.320 obscure and obtuse actions  you’ve made throughout the game. 00:11:24.320 --> 00:11:29.600 It’s important, then, when using invisible  choices, to be quite heavy handed with dialogue, 00:11:29.600 --> 00:11:34.240 and make it crystal clear to players that  this is an outcome of their earlier actions. 00:11:34.240 --> 00:11:40.640 GHÛRA THE SINGER: “Like a little chorus he comes  back round. He usually dies is what I’ve found”. 00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:44.400 Too subtle, and all your hard work is wasted. 00:11:45.360 --> 00:11:46.800 So, there we have it. 00:11:46.800 --> 00:11:51.280 Action games don’t need to twist  themselves into an RPG or a text adventure 00:11:51.280 --> 00:11:56.000 in order to react, remember, or  reflect on the player’s choices. 00:11:56.000 --> 00:12:02.240 These games already have ways for the player  to communicate - to express intent, and values, 00:12:02.240 --> 00:12:07.040 and decisions, and moral leanings.  By implementing invisible choices, 00:12:07.040 --> 00:12:12.000 players can speak using the verbs they’ve  already been using as part of normal gameplay. 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:15.920 And in doing so, games can make  the options more ambiguous. 00:12:15.920 --> 00:12:21.120 One choice can be harder to make than another.  The game can track dozens of tiny actions that 00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:25.520 the player is making. And the consequences  of your decisions can be more surprising. 00:12:26.560 --> 00:12:29.920 Ultimately, we say that actions  speak louder than words - and I 00:12:29.920 --> 00:12:34.000 reckon more games should make that  a reality. Thanks for watching. 00:12:35.520 --> 00:12:40.160 Hey! Happy new year! So people who  back GMTK on Patreon get a monthly 00:12:40.160 --> 00:12:47.280 “reading list” of 20 articles and videos that  I recommend. Here’s one from this January's list: 00:12:47.280 --> 00:12:51.200 why the superhero genre is  not comparable to the western. 00:12:51.200 --> 00:12:55.333 You can check out the full list over on  Patreon, a link is in the description. 00:12:55.333 --> 00:12:57.000 Thanks so much for your support.