1. No Medals for Wookiees Game Tutorial Elective - 4pm Monday GDC Game Design Tutorial Andy Ashcraft Jeremy Gibson Jonathan Hamel Marc Leblanc

2. The Rise & Fall of Dramatic Tension

5. The Player’s Story Has The Same Arc ● Learn How to Play ● Tension Increases ● Difficulty Increases ● Stakes are Raised ● Complications are Added ● Climactic Moment! ● Resolve Remaining Issues

6. When is the Climax of a Game? ● The Point of HIGHEST Tension. ● Afterwards, you KNOW if you’ve won or lost. ● Story Example: Luke chooses to trust the Force over the targeting computer and shoots with his eyes closed.

7. Repeating Rise & Fall of Tension Next 4:11

8. Resolving Tension Inside Game-Play ● Shift from Planning to Execution ● Risk! ● Shrinking Possibility Space ● Chess, Bingo ● Remove Mechanical Constraints ● Journey, Where’s My Water ● Secondary Goals and Games ● Minecraft ● Revealing Hidden Information ● Texas Hold’em, Werewolf Next 4:12

9. Resolving Tension Outside Game-play ● Revealing Hidden Information (outside) ● “Show them what they’ve won!” ● Cut-scenes (outside) ● Post Mortems & Replays (outside) ● Leaderboards, Achievements (outside) ● Smack-talk, Water-cooler talk (outside) Next 4:14

10. Great Denouements in Games ● Back to “Normal” ● Show what the conflict has caused ● Minor dramatic arcs Next 4:16 ● Red Dead Redemption (Jeremy)

11. Great Denouements in Games ● Journey (Jonathan) ● Free flying (removal of constraints)! ● Discovering who your companions had been Next 4:17

12. Great Denouements in Games ● Dungeons & Dragons (Andy) ● The repercussions of battle: ● Healing ● Roll the victims ● Identifying the treasure ● Leveling UP! Next 4:18

13. Denouement Vs. Cliffhanger ● These are NOT the same thing ● Denouement resolves tension created in the CURRENT story. ● “And they loved happily every after.” ● Cliffhanger ratchets up the tension for the NEXT story. ● “OMG! What’s gonna happen next?!?” Next 4:19

14. Example: Questions Answered ● What happened to Darth Vader? ● Is Wedge OK? ● Will R2-D2 be OK? ● Will Han and Chewie stick around? Next 4:20

15. Exercise: Brainstorm! ● Brainstorm: What OTHER stories have great, memorable denouements? ● Others… ● Any movie, book, game, fairy-tale, etc. Next 4:25

16. Exercise Rules: ● Using Dice and Index Cards ● Create a Game-like Activity Based on the Denouement of a Well-known Story ● Write These Down: ● What is the Climax? ● What is the Denouement? ● What is the Tension(s) your activity will resolve? ● Iterate, Iterate, Iterate! Deadline 5:25

17. Exercise: Beta-Test ● Two people from each group ● stay to teach other players how to play your game ● Everyone else ● splits up to play other groups’ games Next 5:40

18. Falling Tension: Observations? ● What was interesting? Next 5:45

19. Falling Tension: Discussion ● Did the activities fit the story? ● Did the activities resolve tension? Next 5:55

20. Denouement ● The player’s story is the “real” story ● A denouement allows the audience to digest their story and make it meaningful ● This process can be play-able and not simply scripted Next 5:57

21. Cliffhanger! ● Come Back Tomorrow! ● 10 AM ● Everyone to THIS Room ● And, THANK YOU!! Don’t cry, Chewie! There’s more game- design tomorrow!