Who doesn’t love magic? Some have called this art of illusion simply a method of tricking an audience into believing something that isn’t real, which sounds similar to the goal of immersing a player base into the world of an interactive game. So when I saw this video from Wired of magician David Kwong going over what he calls the 7 Principals of illusion I found myself immediately connecting them to narrative design.
Let’s break them down into some ways that each principal can be applied to narrative design.
Mind The Gap
…your brain is a liar. There’s so much information in the world you brain cannot hand it all. So in order to function it takes shortcuts, it makes assumptions…
In game development I think the most obvious example of this is with art. Often rather than designing and building hundreds of Gothic buildings sprawling across a medieval city, only the buildings players will interact with directly are modeled and textured to the highest resolution. While others will be of lower resolution and possibly not even have textures and will be placed within a game in a way that prevents a player from seeing them up close. But when they look at these low resolution buildings in the distance it create the illusion of that sprawling Gothic city.
In narrative design I saw this principal used in a similar way, but with storytelling and perhaps with exposition. We tell the player that a vast and adventure filled world is out there filled with a rich history of events that have already taken place. The best and most efficient way to do this is to give the player enough description to ignite their imagination, but leave plenty ambiguity to not write the story into a corner preventing the need for further exploration (the gap).
Write The Script
…because I wanted you to [believe] I used specific language to convey that…
There is probably not a more apt analogy from these principals that could be applied to narrative design. In fact this technique is used quite often but often in much more basic way. Narrative design is frequently employed to create stakes for the player in the form of a story. To do this we tell the player information either in a cutscene, dialog, or text that something is important and action needs to be taken, filling their heads with imagery that will hopefully prompt them to take action.
In our medieval city example we might tell the player who is standing at the entrance of the city that they must hurry to the castle in the center because their brother is being hunted by bandits and if they do not go to him soon then he may be in grave danger. By telling the player this we establish many things that may or may not actually exist in the game; the brother, the bandits, maybe even the castle. But with some clever word play we hope to immerse and compel the player in wanting these things do exist.
Load Up
Load up is a magicians term for doing all the prep work ahead of time.
This is the where much of the work exists for narrative design. I interpreted ‘load up’ more specifically as narrative design for the payoff of the player’s hard work. In our example we load up what will happen when of if the player reaches their goal of finding their brother in the castle. What happens next? Did the bandits already find the brother? Does the player find the brother safe and unharmed? By designing the story we want the game to tell and figuring out what could happen (and what makes the best story) we have effectively prepared the for the player’s story to have a resolution.
Design Free Choice
…even though you think you picked [your choice] freely, it was your only choice. If you as the audience member believe that you are in control, that you are dictating how the trick goes, you will buy into the illusion more.
Here is where the wordsmith acrobatics really shine. While some games have multiple endings and several variations within, we will always want to create the illusion that a player has a effective choice to make, even if the result will be where we direct it. The most obvious place I saw this principal in regards to narrative design was dialog trees. An exchange like this might occur when our player finds their brother in the example:
This is a very limited example in comparison to a plethora of RPG titles out there but it does show that while the player will get choices of what their characters says, ultimately the only result will be that the brother will agree to follow them. This also is an example of how allowing the player to choose can begin to sculpt what their character is like in their head, but that leads into the next principal.
Employ The Familiar
…I play into your brains need to respond to patterns. We employ the familiar. I showed you the first few [choices] and from their you extrapolated that [your choice made a difference].
Narrative design is often working with the player’s imagination and desires to create the portrayal of something that doesn’t actually exist. In our example dialog tree we gave the player options that make their character seem angry, direct, or kind. We allowed the player to generate a personality for their character that might only exist in their head. This allows the player to create more of the game than is actually in the code. In their head their character might be a kind hearted hero type, but in the game, with the exception of a few lines of dialog this actually has no affect on the outcome.
Conjure An Out
…magicians always have a backup plan.
If there is one thing you can count on in a game it is that some players will find a way to not play the game as you might have planned. In narrative design I found a parallel when it comes to reinforcing the stakes. This could come in the form of the player’s character reminding himself of what they have to do, or say in our example the player can encounter a lone bandit who mentions that the player character is not who they are looking for, but the brother is. Ultimately unless a significant amount of development has been focused on pushing the player a certain direction (such as a time limit of sorts) this would be the backup plan.
Control The Frame
And there is one more principal of illusion, a magician’s best friend, misdirection. We call it control the frame. It’s like a film director’s frame [pointing you to where they want your attention].
Players only receive the narrative information we want them to know. If we want something to feel mysterious we might hold back information. If we want something to feel empowering, we reinforce the idea. By controlling the frame in a game we can focus a player’s attention on the things that we want them to focus on.
Ultimately when you use these principals or something like them, much like a good magic trick, players will not mind or might not even notice that you have fooled them. And in the best cases they have helped you create a great story with their own imaginations.
-Sunny