Writing

As a writer, you can be a writer in many departments for games design. A writer for marketing, writing razers for game sleeves, a writer for character development, environment outlining, object description, or a writer for screenplay, such as dialogue, actions and gestures from characters. But within the department, there would, normally, be one or two writers. Due to the intense focus on game developing, writers are responsible to ensure that story and written elements work within the design choices.

It is also important that writers are also responsible for scripting within the planned tone and world of the game, as they would be writing a lot of the small finishing touches that could create or break the experience.

Writer - Writers are responsible for ensuring there is unity between story, characters, dialogue and world lore. They must also ensure that the story structure, characters’ stories and narrative are delivered on time to allow other departments successfully start the production. Furthermore, writers must also work closely with level designers and artists, ensuring that what they wrote is viable and easy to work within the given time, as well as ensuring that what they wrote are aligned with the other departments.

In the marketing department, writers are required to provide material such as scripts for trailers and animations. As well as expected to produce a range of additional content to demonstrate their skill and extend their creativity. For this, they could include writing side quests, scripts, poetry, location and character descriptions, journal entries, genre and theme exploration.

Required Skills and Experience

Impeccable writing and proofreading skills
A strong portfolio of written work, either professional or personal
A proven ability to write in different voices across different brands
Excellent verbal communication and track record of working collaboratively

Desired Skills and Experience:

A good understanding of pop culture in general and video games in particular
Success in more than one environment
A determination to do your best work all of the time

Indeed | Feral (date unknown)

Roles & Responsibilities:

Reference:

Indeed | Feral (Date Unknown) Computer Games Writer [Online]. Available from: https://www.indeed.co.uk/jobs?q=feral&l=london&vjk=e026b906cfe79478 [Accessed 13 November 2019].

Get In Media (date unknown) Game Writer [Online]. Available from: http://getinmedia.com/careers/game-writer [Accessed 20 November 2019].

IMGyear2 (2019) The Writing Department [Online]. Available from: https://www.imgyear2.com/writing [Accessed 13 November 2019].

The history of writing for games is difficult to find and research. However, many writers from the past, as well as today, have taken inspiration from the four main writers. The three-act structure by Yves Lavandier, The Hero’s Journey by Joseph Campbell, Syd Field’s Paradigm, and the sequence approach by Frank Daniel.

Writing for games has perhaps become a recent job role within the games industry, since video games during the 90s consisted of very simple scripting because of their inspiration from a movie, or merely a simple story. For example, Sonic versus Eggman. Sonic is always on the run to find Eggman and defeat him, and vice versa. However, video games developed into more immersive games with story. Stories with countless meanings for the audience to feel deepened with a range of emotions.

With the continued development and increased complexity of video games, many opportunities are available to employ screenwriters in the field of video game design. To execute an immersive, perfect story, character and environment descriptions, they work closely with other game designers.

History:

In terms of writing for the media, screenwriting, or scriptwriting, is an art of writing scripts for mass media such as feature films, television productions or video games, and it is often a freelance profession.

Screenwriters are responsible for researching the story, developing the narrative, writing the script, screenplay, dialogues and delivering it in the required format to development executives. Screenwriters therefore have great influence over the creative direction and emotional impact of the screenplay and of the finished film.

Screenwriters either pitch original ideas to producers, or are commissioned by a producer to create a screenplay from a concept, true story, existing screen work or literary work, such as a novel, poem, play, comic book, or short story.

Screenwriting began in the Greeks, the first to bring theatre as a form of entertainment, and developed across the years, including the famous William Shakespeare, to many more and today, with screenwriters across any relevant industry.

Scripting had long been used for the stage and later writers most certainly borrowed techniques and ideology from those who wrote for the theatre. As film became a more viable form of entertainment, we see ‘scenarios’ come into existence. As early as the 1890’s, when films were about a minute or two long, scenarios not only provided a brief summary, but they also assisted with marketing and became helpful explanations for an audience not used to viewing pictures on film.

As time passed and films became longer and more complex, the need for a screenplay became more prominent in the industry.

Once the first non-silent movie was released in 1927, screenwriting became a hugely important position within Hollywood.

Around 1970, the “spec script” (feature film or television show scripts) was first created, and changed the industry for writers forever.

Now, screenwriting for television is considered as difficult and competitive as writing is for feature films.

But writing has spread, in terms of creativity and the media today, it begins from an inspiration and a creative idea to build something, and so youngsters enjoy their creative writing that develop into deeper and further developing worlds and relationships with their characters and scenes - if they continue to write. But if so, they carry the courage to becoming writers in any industry they grew to write for themselves.

Reference:

Michelle Donnelly (2015) The History of the Screenplay [Online]. Available from: https://thescriptlab.com/features/screenwriting-101/3147-the-history-of-the-screenplay/ [Accessed 24 November 2019].

Gregory V. Eckler (2011) Storyboarding and Scriptwriting [AD210] [Online]. Available from: http://www.theviciouscircus.com/images/pdf/AD210/AD210-ScreenwritingHandout.pdf [Accessed 24 November 2019].

Extra Credits (2016) ‘The History of Writing - Where the Story Begins - Extra History’ YouTube. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyjLt_RGEww [Accessed 20 November 2019].

Extra Credits (2017) ‘The Alphabet - Origins of Writing - Extra History’ YouTube. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPrcfawo9UM [Accessed 20 November 2019].

Tim Schafer also comes under the topic of writing, since that is what he is highly recognised and famous for. And because of that, Schafer has his own rules of character development, which is how the audience can recognise his characters. His rules are:

Wish Fulfilment - “When creating great characters, understand that games are wish fulfilments, and the main character has to be a conduit for that”

In context, this rules means that the character must meet within the players expectations. For example, the player wants to play this game because they want to explore and escape, therefore the character’s traits would be an explorer, sense of curiosity, independence, and discovery. Personally, I’m on the fence with this rule. It’s common for players to buy a game that will present their expectations, but then equally, players would buy a game because it’s new, and they want to explore the different characteristics the game will present. But since the majority of Schafer’s games are for children, his characters are designed uniquely and cartoon-like, because children like the escapism.

An example for this rule can include Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (LucasArts & Feral Interactive, 2008). Some of the audience may have watched the original film of Indiana Jones and became interested to play the gameplay version. With this, this would definitely meet the players’ expectations. However, Indiana Jones is known for his traits of exploration and discoveries, bravery and courageous, and committed to his quests and adventures. So even though a child never watched the series of the original Indiana Jones, the player would immediately deduct that Indiana Jones is the hero of the game just by glancing at the game sleeve.

Ego Invest - “The player will best identify with a character that seems real and doesn’t block the player’s actions; a character helps the games ‘mean’ something.”

This rule confused just as much as the first rule we were introduced. The meaning of this rule defines the personality of the character that matches with the game’s objective as well as the players’. For example, the character cannot have the trait of laziness in a dangerous situation of an urge to return home. I agree with this rule, otherwise players would be disappointed with what the game has presented - a game with no execution.

The game New Super Mario Bros (Nintendo, 2006), is a simple game in terms of story. Mario on an adventure to save Princess Peach from Bowser. However, Mario cannot be lazy, sitting in his mushroom throughout his life whilst the princess is getting eaten. Mario’s purpose of the game is to save the Princess.

Uniqueness - “Players will remember a character that is unusual and not bland”

This rule is self-explanatory. However, this is a very important role, as this is why Schafer is famous for his work - because his characters are unique and authentic, which is why players can recognise his characters and their world. Otherwise, players may enjoy the game, but along with a sense of boredom because the characters are a cliche. Critically speaking, I also highly agree with this rule, as it is important for players to explore and present them what they originally expected as they bought the game.

This rule can relate with the Walking Dead season two and four (Telltale Games & Skybound Games, 2013-2018) game series. The main character in these season is Clementine, and in accordance to the Silhouette theory, Clementine would be recognised by the audience, as she is the most favourite character across countries. Even though her personality is defined by the players’ choices, Clementine is still created by the writers. Because the choices they gave, from Clementine, to the players for them to decide, makes Clementine what she is under the writers’ development, which is what makes Clementine iconic and unique.

Coolness - “The main character should be the ‘coolest’ and get the best dialogue and best equipment, just as the main character in a movie would”

This is also self-explanatory, however, I dislike this rule. But yet, this rule would be suitable for games for a younger audience, as it matches the children’s desire to play with a sense of escapism. But for other games, this rule within a game, would make it appear as a cliche. What I think, is that the players should play along with the character’s journey to get stronger to then receive the ‘coolest’ dialogue and equipment. But it’s also a journey for the players to grow with the character’s skills and traits. Which is why this is how some people have personalities are influenced by the great characters they played as, watched or read.

OXENFREE (Night School Studio, 2016) is a decent example of the character’s, Alex, ‘coolness’ in the game. Even though it’s a simple game of paranormal activity affecting a group of teenagers that have mere equipment of brains and logic - nothing else. Whereas Alex has a tool of a radio. Simple object, but it’s an implication of ‘coolness’. Players don’t venture through a journey for Alex to receive this radio, since Alex has already came with it.

Active Roles - “The last blow or significant act should be made by the main character and the biggest award given to them”

This is also a cliche scene of the main character - one last epic, awesome and motivational blow of attack and the boss is super knocked out. This is mostly common across the media, anime, epic films, and epic books. But supposedly, I agree with this rule, because with this, it allows players to become fired up with motivation, relief of defeating the incredible boss, as well as relief of completing the vast journey. But this rule also shows the players how the character grew and shows the result of their growth, along with the players growth.

This is consisted in many games, but it can include an example such as Riders of Icarus (WeMade, 2016), an MMORPG where your main character is customisable with appearance and ability before starting. In any area of the world, there is a last boss in each. But an example of the last boss in Hakanas kingdom, the character is rewarded with high level equipment from the king. However, this is an example of a game that does not consist of much emotion from the player towards the character that has its own unique iconic traits for the players to recognise the character’s authentic creation by the writer’s work - because the players created their own character, yet without the ability to develop their character’s personality.

Motivations - “Main character motivations should be simple and universal. The audience wants to relate to the character, so you have to find the simplest, most universal motivations for them, like love or greed. If the character has those broad strokes, an audience can identify with him or her.”

This rule would consist examples of the character wanting nothing else but love/family/revenge/defeat their rival/return something or to something/etc. These motivations would relate with the objection of the game, or story. Lizzy had an idea of this rule pop up from a theory she found but couldn’t recall the name of it, but it was a theory of how stories end with the character’s motivations. For example, the character ended up getting what they wanted but lost what they needed, or vice versa. Or they got what they got what they wanted and needed, or they lost both. But as the rule informs, the character must relate with the audience, because the audience wants to relate - they want to identify with them. I personally agree with this rule as it’s important for the audience to understand the character’s goals, as well as the additional traits that the character expresses: wants and needs.

The game RiME (Grey Box & Six Foot, 2017), includes a boy that is shown as the main character throughout the gameplay until the players reach the end and the plot twists. However, players can recognise that the boy is on an adventure to find answers about his family and how he can find them by travelling through these different worlds held in a tall, large tower. Therefore, the boy has the motivation of finding his father - a want to find his father.

Deeply Felt Emotions - “The character cannot just go through the motions. You have to remind the player that this character wants their objective more than anything else in the world. If the character doesn’t care, then the players will not care.”

This appears to be similar to the other rules by Schafer, except perhaps this rule would consist of a much deeper emotion of the audience towards the game character. Like following footpaths, as said in the rule: “If the character doesn’t care, then the players will not care.” Or if the character needs help, the players will help the character achieve what they need/want to achieve. I also agree with this rule as well, as this also makes the audience feel and relate with the characters they play as. Another sense of escapism by being another person in a game.

A game that can relate with this rule can consist of the new Resident Evil 2 (Capcom, 2019). Players can play as either Leon Kennedy or Claire Redfield. but play as Claire Redfield and players felt the deep emotions for Claire, as she found an abandoned young girl also in the middle of the zombie apocalypse and develops a mother-like/a carer towards the girl. And by the way Claire expresses these emotions, the players felt a similar way too - in an emotion to help Claire.

Back Story - “Know more than you show. You need to know your main character. Where was your character born? What were her parents like? You should know because you will pull from these details in subtle ways.”

Compared to the entire media - this is the most common rules in all platforms of the media - however that does not mean that it’s overly used and makes the audience become bored. This is also the most important rule when creating characters, for example, giving the audience an insight and understanding of the character’s purpose behind their objectives and why they are the way they are or what makes them them. And this is how this explanation clearly expresses my agreement.

Another game, Blair Witch (Lionsgate Games, 2019), a horror game where Ellis experiences cases of flashbacks of his past troubled life with his wife Jess, whom both did not get along well over time being together as Ellis ventures through the first on the search for a missing boy. But with these flashbacks, they give an insight to the audience the background of Ellis and why he is the way he is.

Supporting Characters - “Would you go on a road trip with these characters? Would you want to hang out with them? If yes, then so might your player.”

Maybe this idea of character creating is a little bit far-fetched - too much love for a character. Perhaps, indeed, a player, such as I, may have a passion or love for a character, but I wouldn’t think of going on a roadtrip with them. I mean… Clementine from Walking Dead (Telltale Games & Skybound Games, 2018) is a very cool character. But nevertheless, I mostly disagree with this rule. But then supposedly, this rule defines the process of character development; as you create a character, you start to grow with them and begin to love them because they become people living with you emotionally. For example, I have an original character named Red, a feisty teenage girl yet she’s been with me for many years, ready to be fully written and developed.

The Walking Dead: The Final Season (Telltale Games & Skybound Games, 2018), because the majority of players really enjoyed this game and practically loved the character Clementine. Mostly with the passion “my girl!” because of her caring, loving and rebellious personality.

Be Responsive - “Make supportive characters respond to the main character. The character of Farah in Ubisoft Montreal’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time [2003] gasps when the player nearly falls off a ledge. This will communicate a deeper sense of realism.”

Also common across platforms of the media, there are always sidekicks always by the main character’s side. But there are also independent protagonists - but in this case, this helps writers pop their bubble of their idealistic character, and maintain within the character they must make to satisfy the audience and meet their expectations by being realistic by creating supportive characters that respond in certain ways from the main character’s actions. As explained in Schafer’s rule. I can agree that this important because it would be rather odd to play independently without a loyal character alongside the protagonist. But also, however, to ensure that the audience does not become confused or surprised by the main character’s overpowering, heroic actions.

Examples can include some of the Sonic games (SEGA, 1991-present), as Sonic tends to have Tails by his side, who also responds realistically towards Sonic’s arrogant courage to complete a mission.

Tim Schafer:

Overall, by how Tim Schafer designs his characters through his writing, the characters appear complex and iconic with their uniqueness.

For my character development, I would include the rules Be Responsive, Back Story as that is the most important. Motivations, Active Roles since I do enjoy the inspiration buzz when the character gives its high level of attack that violently knocks down the evil boss. Uniqueness to maintain the character’s originality and authenticity of character development, Ego Invest to ensure that the character is the real hero of their world. And finally Wish Fulfilment, as irritable as it may be to miss our idealistic characters of our imaginations, but writers must maintain within their target audience to satisfy them and meet their expectations to ensure the game will be distinctly executed and be sure it’s the best game for players.

Reference:

WeMade (2016) Riders of Icarus [Computer game]. Available from: https://icarus-na.valofe.com/ [Downloaded other date uknown | 2019].

Grey Box & Six Foot (2017) RiME [Computer game]. Available from: https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/rime/home [Downloaded May 2019].

Night School Studio (2016) OXENFREE, version 1.0 [Mobile app]. Available from: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cytus-ii/id1290687550 [Downloaded 31 March 2017].

Nintendo (2006) New Super Mario Bros. [Computer game]. Nintendo UK.

Traveller's Tales & TT Fusion (2008) Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures [Computer game].
LucasArts &Feral Interactive.

Joseph John Campbell was an American Professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work has become influence in many aspects of the human experience. Campbell is famous for his work The Hero with a Thousand Faces in which he discusses his theory of the journey of the archetypal hero shared by world mythologies. As a result, since the publication of the book, Campbell’s theory has been applied and spread across a wide variety of modern writers and artists. His philosophy has been summarised by his common phrase: “Follow your bliss.” Which means follow your dreams, or do whatever you want to do.

Joseph Campbell:

While Joseph Campbell was a graduate student in Paris, the works of Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche has a profound effect on Campbell’s thinking - to which he quoted their writing frequently.

The “follow your bliss” philosophy attributed to Campbell following the original broadcast of The Power of Myth derives from the Hindu Upanishads. However, Campbell was influenced by the 1922 Sinclair Lewis novel Babbit. In The Power of Myth, Campbell quotes from the novel:

Campbell: Remember the last line? “I have never done a thing that I wanted to do in life.” That is a man who never followed his bliss.

However, most importantly from Joseph Cambell is the work of his archetypes. The work of his typical characters in stories - which as a result, this work became an influence across the media - even today. Campbell has twelve common archetypes that he explored.

We have already studied his twelve sets of personality archetypes, but he also created character archetypes.

In the The Hero of a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell explores the eight types of characters in the hero’s journey. Of which include from the Innovative Literacy website:

Hero character archetypes - the hero is almost always the protagonist, the central character in the story. The audience wants the hero to succeed. The hero usually grows throughout the story to meet the challenges in the story.

Examples: Luke Skywalker, Shrek, Mulan, Batman and Harry Potter.

Mentor character archetypes - The mentor is usually an old bearded man who assists the hero by offering advice, teachings or a gift. This character is older and wiser, but for some reason needs the hero to complete the adventure.

Examples: Dumbledore, Gandalf and Morpheus

Ally character archetypes - The ally is the character who assists the hero on the adventure. The adventure might be too difficult for one person to overcome and the ally helped the hero succeed by providing something the hero lacks, such as knowledge, a distraction, or just an extra pair of hands.

Examples: Hermione, Watson (Sherlock), and Robin (Batman).

Herald character archetypes - The herald is the character, or something else such as an item or event, that signifies that something is about to change for the hero. This archetype appears at the beginning of the adventure, often delivering a message.

Examples: Messenger owl (from Hogwarts with a letter), and the letter to the ball in Cinderella.

Trickster character archetypes - The trickster is the character that adds humor to the story. This character might also challenge the status quo or make the character reconsider their preconceptions or thoughts.

Examples: Donkey (Shrek), Dobby (Harry Potter), and Mushu (Mulan)

Shapeshifter character archetypes - The shapeshifter is the character that changes. This might not be a physical change, but instead is one between ally and enemy. For example, the character might start off seemingly helping the character only to betray the hero. The shapeshifter might be thought an enemy at first only to be revealed to be an ally.

Examples: Serverus Snape, and Catwoman (Batman).

Guardian (threshold guardian) character archetypes - The Guardian is often the character who stops the progress of the hero on his or her adventure. The guardian might not be an actual character, but might be an obstacle instead. The guardian might not be an enemy, but is there to warn the hero that he or she should not go ahead because it is dangerous. The hero usually has to either trick, defeat, or find some other way around the guardian to continue on the adventure.

Examples: Wall guard (Stardust), hall monitors, and Whomping Willow (Harry Potter).

Shadow character archetypes - The shadow is usually the villain in the story, although this might not necessarily be true. For example, if something exists to cause conflict or create a threat the hero has to overcome, it would be considered the shadow.

Examples: Darth Vader, Voldemort, Sauron, and Dottie (the asteroid from Armageddon).

With these additional archetypes, they can help extend the assistance of writing scripts and other writing formats - especially for character development. And again, many people became inspired and used Joseph Campbell’s work as reference. And because his work is about mythology, heroic moments and worlds out of the norm, it clearly gives an answer to why many people were influenced by Campbell’s work, is because the majority of the human population enjoy and are passionate about fantasy, mythical worlds, even of their own - like mine. Therefore, writers who used Campbell’s work as reference, and presented their work to the audience, the audience then becomes inspired and scripts, and then uses their work for the media, presenting the audience - and so on - and so it spreads with motivational knowledge and inspiration.

Reference:

Johnny Richardson (2018) CHARACTER ARCHETYPES [Online]. Available from: https://innovativeliteracy.com/character-archetypes-joseph-campbell/ [Accessed 20 November 2019].

Joseph Campbell Foundation (1990) ABOUT JOSEPH CAMPBELL [Online]. Available from: https://www.jcf.org/about-joseph-campbell/ [Accessed 20 November 2019].

Vic Volpe (2019) ‘Joseph Campbell -- Follow Your Bliss’ YouTube. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v_TB3Ii8Qc [Accessed 20 November 2019].

Michelle Barajas-Espinoza (2015) ‘13. Are some myths / religions more true than others?’ YouTube. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1KbDP--34M [Accessed 20 November 2019].

As I’m interested to contribute the next project as a writer/artist, I have also added another case study for writing by analysing the game RiME, a single player, third-person puzzle game about a hound boy who was washed ashore into a beautiful land with a large, tall tower in the middle that contains four different small worlds, including the one the boy is washed into. Which makes it five stages. However, each stage of the game represents one of the five stages of grief, a theory inspired by the Kübler-Ross model. These are the five stages of grief:

Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
And acceptance

Even though this case study is more appeared as a level designer’s case study, but since writers work closely with artists and level designers, this game inspired me by how the writers use the Kübler-Ross model and described their environment design to suit each stage of grief for the level designers to assemble.

Interestingly, each stage of the game are designed visually the same as their stages. For example one of the writers (Rob Yescombe/Raúl Rubio Munárriz) described the environment of stage one, for the level designers, as a beautiful, nourished, bright colours and gorgeous land. Semiotically, this would make the players feel safe, positive and confident. Which fully represents the hidden secret of the stage Denial. Because, firstly, the plot of the game goes by a boy venturing through the stages of the tower, along with a fox he found at the first stage. Occasionally, the boy encounters a mysterious man in a red cape, but never reaches him. During the progress of the game, the boy has recollections about how he came to the island: he and his father were at sea when a storm struck and he fell overboard. The boy had tried to save him but could only grab hold of part of the red cloak before the sea took him. The mysterious figure represents the father leading the boy to the central tower.

As the boy climbs the tower, he comes to additional areas where each represent the five stages of grief. Eventually reaching the top of the tower and exploring the areas representing depression, the boy is forced to let the fox go as it disperses before him. He returns to the central tower and at this point, another flashback (the fifth stage without climbing the tower) shows that the story has been actually from the father’s perspective; it was his child that had been lost at sea, and the island and tower have been all part of his own mind, coming to grips with his loss. He goes to his son’s room, examining his various toys and turns to leave until a vision of his child with his red cloth appears on the bed. He hugs his son, the vision vanishing and leaving the red cloth in his hands. He turns to the window, finally letting go of the cloth and accepting the loss of his son.

Therefore, because the stage of Denial is perfectly described by the design of the environment, fully represents the father’s remained positivity and faith for his son - denying that he has died.

Case study: RiME (Grey Box & Six Foot, 2017)

The next stage, Anger, anger is normally associated with the colour red - or warm colours to connote the internal and physical feeling of a boiling emotion with rage. Which was exactly how the writers outlined for the level designers. The base colours of this stage were browns, sandy yellow, oranges, and some reds or a warm brown mainly from the large bird monster. In addition to this, the environment of the land in this stage, personally, made me feel as if I was in a dry land with an intense surge of heat that can easily burn my skin because of the lighting saturation and temperature the developers set to were to warm, to connote to the players, from the writers’ expression, the surging emotions of boiling rage and distress from the father.

The plot of this stage consists of the boy strolling into the land until the large monstrous bird swoops over and viciously lands in front of the boy, roaring, and the chase begins whilst finding the keys to proceed to the next stage. During the chase, there are small ruins as shelters for the boy to hide under. But as he runs away to the next shelter, the screen becomes rippled and increases the hue of red by the sense of the bird swooping closer. Players became scared by the tension of having to rush to the next shelter without getting snatched, because of the sense of danger from the rippled, red screen. From this, even though the boy is in fact the father’s perspective, the bird can also be the father, as a perspective of uncontrolled rage. Or, the writers planned that the boy is the father, and the bird is the father’s rage with a burning desire to eat him, and, as the plot goes, the father is trying to escape from it, away from the result of becoming possessed by anger.

Rob Yescombe and Raúl Rubio Munárriz perfectly executed the semiotics and connotations of this stage from the boy and the bird to the players, for them to understand independently the emotions of the angry stage by expressing from the writers’ description without dialogue.

As the boy succeeds to the next stage, Bargaining, yet again the writers planned the design of the environment distinctly with semiotics and connotations. The stage’s environment appears to be inside a vast temple tangled in a large variety of plants - but mostly in green. This stage brings a relief to players, because by how the writers selected the base colours and assets: green, some greys from the temple, and rays of light leaking through the cracks, represents peace and tranquility. However, the core personality of this stage is represented through the greens. Green represents freshness, renewal and growth, which is why the writers brilliantly described and planned the environment in this way, in accordance to Bargaining from the Kübler-Foss model:

Bargaining - hope that the individual can avoid a cause of grief. Usually, the negotiation for an extended life is made in exchange for a reformed life. People facing less serious trauma can bargain or seek compromise.

Or in this case, turning over a new leaf.

The main plot goes by the boy entering a large temple with many entries that leads to the same entrance the boy strolled into, or to a new entrance within the same temple. This is clearly shown as maze - which allows the players to explore and getting lost. And by lost, this is how the writers are expressing the start of bargaining: getting lost into an emotion of calmness and new things to bargain with.

When the players find the exit from the maze, they explore further into temple - still being clutched and overgrown with plants. Until the boy finds a deep puddle that happens to be a watery cave system. Swimming and swimming to find another part of the temple when reaching the surface. Even though there were shadowy, eerie figures in the Anger stage, as a foreshadowing of the boy’s upcoming fate, but more of them appear in Bargaining, in a darker areas of the temple from where the boy resurfaces from swimming. With the dark eerie figures in the dark parts of the temple, not only does it foreshadow the boy’s fate in the fourth stage, but also express the father’s growing depression as he experiences his stages of grief.

As the players pursue through the stage, the boy finds old parts of tall, two-legged robots. The boy appears feared, because of how they suddenly twitch when being touched, as well as how this happens in a dim tall room. However, the writers plotted this scene in this way to connote an alternative to the father’s fear of replacing something to cover up his anger and sadness.

Until the boy progresses further into the stage, where the environment becomes lighter and warmer with colour and light (base colours of gold, sandy yellow, white, and green - a sense of the father becoming increasingly refreshed).

The next plot of this stage consists of the boy finding newer robotic parts to be taken to a certain room and rebuilt. The pieces build together a tall two-legged robot with a large, round, golden head with a singular eye of blue light. The boy becomes excited by how it comes to life and amiably stumbles to the boy. The boy teaches it how to walk, and they venture together through the temple in an area with no ceiling, so light floods with warmth. This scene goes by the robot taking its time walking over obstacles as the boy watches and follows it. This grows a sense of growth and developing a relationship with the robot. This is the complete stage of the father’s bargaining.

However, the robot and the boy continues to venture through the temple, but backwards - where the boy was in the room of broken robots. The new robot needs a magical call to the old robots, and they resurrect.

Rob Yescombe and Raúl Rubio Munárriz planned this stage to express to the players the growing sense of refreshing themselves as how the father was refreshing himself - relying on something in order to be happy again. And a relationship with a friend, the robot, to cover and cool off the negative emotions, but of course this is temporary…

Even though the boy’s relationship with the robot was short, the players would have grown a complete affection for the robot because of how they are presented as the ‘friendly giants’ and their golden loyalty. But the relationship suddenly comes to an end in the Depression stage. The boy ventures into the external parts of the tall central tower where it’s raining, and gloomy with dark blue and darkness, and swarmed with the mysterious, eerie figures. The boy remains optimistic and brave for his next adventures, until he notices that the robots are sacrificing themselves to open the gates to proceed through the stage. The players and the boy become puzzlingly sad and shocked as the boy climbs and scrambles across the west rocks to progress through the stage. And lastly, the robot that was rebuilt by the boy, solemnly bids farewell to the boy and sacrifices itself to open the last gate - the boy cries, and reluctantly continues. This is a way of foreshadowing the upcoming worsening sadness, but also a way of revealing to the players the growing reminders to the father of his long lost son.

The magical fox the boy met in the beginning during the Denial stage, guides him to small blue sculptures to light up to complete the central statue of a boy sobbing. After the boy completes lighting them up, the fox disperses before him, and the boy becomes a part of the shadowy figures by the built up sorrow of his robots and fox’s loss. This is a complete sign of depression, but also the complete reminder to the father of his lost son. Depressed with guilt and emptiness, which were definitely shown through the loss of the friendly giants and the fox combined. As well as this, the writers described the environment with very cold and dark colours, along with solid objects - only rocks and enormous bricks, which physically, can be easily heated. Therefore in this case, to the boy they would feel cold and frigid. With the dark figures and the dark rocks scattered in a certain way to create a certain pathway, produces a sense of confinement and lack of freedom, which is the part of the father’s depression, added up with a black sky and heavy rain.

As the boy reaches the top of the inverted central tower, the players are automatically taken to a much more different environment of what appears to be an inside of a small house, but in white. The beginning of Acceptance. The house and the boy are pale white, to communicate the emptiness of the father, but growing away from depression with the sense of purity and cleanliness from the negative emotions he has experienced throughout the game. The players reach a room where the father sits in a kitchen, and the whiteness slowly flourishes with colour and the players suddenly play as the father. And as the plot goes, the father ambles across the hall and into his son’s bedroom, calmly exploring his son’s variety of toys, then hugs his vision of his ghostly son, and let’s go of his son’s scarf out the window - accepting his son’s loss.

A short stage, but it clearly reveals the true story of the boy and the father.

It is a tearful and sad story by how the father lost his family, but this is how Rob Yescombe and Raúl Rubio Munárriz made the players sit in denial and sadness: because they grew with the boy through the fascinating and fun of exploration and discoveries. Even though the game introduced the father in a mysterious way, with flashbacks of the father being lost at sea instead - the players rely on that story, thinking that the boy they were playing as, was alive and was simply venturing through the tower to find answers about his father, when instead, it was through the father’s perspective, emotions, visions and his stages of grief - which are what makes the players shocked and sad at the end, because they lost their developed character. Personally, I experienced my mini five stages of grief after finishing the game…

In conclusion, Rob Yescombe and Raúl Rubio Munárriz worked fantastically with the artists and level designers, because without the writers’ plans, descriptions and inspiration from the Kübler-Ross model, the story and the visuals of the game would not have been enjoyable and beautiful. Each stage descriptively, distinctly and fully represent each stage of grief, as they maintained within the accordance of each stage, and allowed the audience to understand the story throughout - even though the writer surprised them at the end.

Despite how Rob Yescombe and Raúl Rubio Munárriz did not use Tim Schafer’s character development rules, the game’s boy has presented ego invest, uniqueness because of his bold red cape and his headband. The game revealed the back story with flashbacks, and deeply felt emotions of the father through the boy.

Reference:

Grey Box & Six Foot (2017) RiME [Computer game]. Available from: https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/rime/home [Downloaded May 2019].

Billy D (2017) RiME Ending Explained [Online]. Available from: https://www.oneangrygamer.net/2017/05/rime-ending-explained/31832/ [Accessed 24 November 2019].

PMC (2017) Cautioning Health-Care Professionals [Online]. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5375020/ [Accessed 24 November 2019].

Color Wheel Pro (2002) [Online]. Available from: http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html [Accessed 24 November 2019].

At the beginning of the lesson, the class were given small cards of different characters with different titles, such as creator, caregiver, jester, explorer, hero, innocent, etc. Our task was to list three positive and three negative traits for our characters. I was given the creator, and she appeared to be quite anti-social. However, I positively listed that she is creative, initiative, and generous. This part of the task was easy, as I do originally have a positive attitude. Until I progressed to the negative listing of the creator’s traits. I first wrote down antisocial, or can also be worded as reclusive. I struggled, as I didn't know what other traits would kindly match with my creator. But Maya, who sat next to me, I asked for some ideas, and we both sat, pondering. I gave suggestions of my character’s ideal response around people and vague explanations of her traits, gratefully, Maya came up with blunt and pessimistic - which I highly agreed with. Then our next task was to pair up with whoever was fairly next to us, and give each other one more positive and negative trait for our characters. Maya gave me perfectionist and assertive. And for Maya’s character, we both worked together for hers to ensure that the trait is suited for hers (caregiver). In the end, we also gave her character perfectionist, and oblivious to the negative trait. We chose oblivious because we had the idea that when the caregiver is saving a patient that is in a life-threatening situation of their health, he is too focused on saving the patient’s life - oblivious to notice anything else around him but the room he is in.

Production Diary:

After Lizzy picked round every student for all of us to hear their picked traits for their characters, we were all then split in half to merge into a group and match personalities with other characters, including the others we already had with our first activity. We mostly worked independently with our characters, without communication of teamwork. Until we edged nearer to the completion of the mini group work. Personally, somehow we struggled with the difference of sage and lover’s personalities. One of the personalities had the positive list of wisdom, intelligence, independence and logical - which was clearly the sage’s personality, whereas for lover it would have been empathy, loyalty and compassion. I informed my point and they seemed to have disagreed and left with the wrong traits.

Even though scripting and writing character development was a hobby of mine before I started college, this exercise made me realise the process of Joseph Campbell’s character development with his archetypes. With my writing hobby, I used to straight away create my characters without a start-up exercise, but influence them from every anime, roleplay, movie, book and game series. But this first exercise we did, helped us understand Joseph Campbell’s processes and stimulated our creativity to create our characters. Especially me, except perhaps I was not as creative as I was two years ago when I was very enthusiastic and inspired about character development. So it was difficult to return to my enjoyment of writing.

After the quiz of which personality matched with who, with the characters we picked during the quiz, we had to create them as a person under the main trait they were under. For example, I chose to create the innocent character. Since I made characters of my own before, the innocent person reminded me of a close friend of mine, except I must develop a different story background and personality - otherwise it wouldn’t be creative of me to copy my friend’s background and personality.
I started off with my usual beginning of a character: name, age, hobbies and brief personality. But since I have not written character development in a while, I forgot my usual processes, but luckily Lizzy uploaded a worksheet on the IMG website of questions to develop a character profile, such as locations, character’s fears and quirks, etc. Even though I used the sheet for ideas and to create a complete character profile, I also added another section: “How she is the way she is.'' I added this section because it gives readers a clear reason and imagination behind Luna’s (name of my innocent character) personality - what influenced her.
However, to explain my character creation, as I’m leaving the reader reading this blog curious, I made a character named Luna, age sixteen, who lives in North Kensington, London. I asked Maya about where Luna could live, as she’s from a higher class and posh family, and I enthusiastically agreed with Maya’s location suggestion, because, according to her, it’s a very expensive place to live and people around the area are wealthy and posh. But even though Luna is from a privileged family, her parents keep Luna nearly confined at home. Through her childhood, Luna was occasionally home-schooled, was not allowed to have friends round her house or vice versa, and her parents sheltered her from the majority of events through her life, until she turned twelve. The family lived very closely to a small forest, which they, as a matter of fact, own, and Luna managed to be out of the house and only explore the small woodland. But sometimes Luna snuck out and into town to explore. As she became reckless, keen and eager to learn the things around her. But as a result of her recklessness, she can slip into trouble.
I thought I’d add romance to this character, a romantic moment with a boy named Raiden who’s friendship with him develops as they hang out more in school and in town that Luna sneaks into. Then I added Luna’s fears for confinement and parents’ anger.
As I developed Luna, I realised that some of the media has this similar story that I created. I felt I was not creative enough and writing without authenticity. But supposedly, as I wrote about Luna, the passion for writing did, once again, flourish because I enjoyed the activity and would like to contribute more of this further, as creating characters is something I enjoy because, as an experience of mine, when you make a character, you begin to feel sympathy, happiness, and an understanding for and with them. And once you confirm their creation, yet develop further more traits and moments in a story of your own, you emotionally live with these people.