A 4 Hour Story in 400
Simple Steps: Fallout DLC
Speaker: Chris Avellone (Creative Director - Obsidian
Entertainment)
--
Approach DLC:
1)
Examine the reality of the situation; what will
get the game done?
2)
Due diligence – do research and read reviews
a.
They (Obsidian) knew they could do 4 DLCs for Fallout: New Vegas
b.
They knew they were only ~4 hours long
c.
Only 10,000 lines of dialogue between 4 DLCs!!!
d.
DLCs were self-contained adventures
e.
Through research: there would be 4 areas
f.
They didn’t know much about the character :(
3)
Team must have a hierarchy
a.
System Designer to -> Level Designer to ->
Narrative Designer
b.
Break down individual sections
(Systems/Levels/Narrative) into who had what strengths
c.
(notes missing)
4)
Have a Dialogue Standards document (answering questions
such as:)
a.
Double space or single?
b.
Tone direction? Ex: “{sarcastic} I love you,
{Dah-la} Dala.”
c.
Pronunciation; capitalization
5)
For plot: As a player, why do you care?
a.
What do factions do for a character?
6)
Pitch!
a.
Ensure that no lore conflicts exist
b.
Research is done for each DLC
c.
Has everyone in the team pitched in ideas to the
hierarchy?
d.
1 hour presentation on theme/mechanics
i.
Good for new QA/personnel
ii.
Have inspiration from movies/games
iii.
Declare the overall theme (difficulty, horror,
greed, etc)
iv.
Plot/level summary
1.
Level toolbox (what can be used; ex: hacking)
2.
Setup ‘Acts’ of the game
v.
Bullet point characters/give an image;
visualization
vi.
State environments and what goes in them/props
7)
Create emotional vistas
a.
Impact moments for player (short, quite moments)
8)
Breakdown Narrative text
a.
Major NPCs, minor NPCs, terminal text, mission
slides, loading screens, item descriptions
b.
Visual storytelling (environment foretells a
character’s arrival)
c.
Diagram and map character/NPC movement
9)
Get a good editor to go over written lines
a.
Reference the Dialogue Standards document
10)
Do table reads
a.
Have a person who hasn’t written a line needs to
read it aloud
b.
Edit on the fly!
11)
Stop writing dialogue for 2 weeks to find if
anything is missing
12)
Voice acting
a.
Include concept art, age, attitude, sample lines
b.
Include game screen shots (have who they are,
who they like, hate, etc)
c.
Listen to audio to ensure subs are correct
(Questions)
Why keep a line count?
To tell a good story, you don’t
need that many lines.
What elements from research apply?
Players
like cooler, better stuff (weapons/costumes).
Include a super special weapon and gear for each skill category (sneak,
speech, combat). Use narrative ‘twists’
and ‘dilemmas’.
How to approach DLC expectations?
Take 10
reviews of prior DLC’s and breakdown DLCs based on reviews.
How do you allow for character development with a compelling
narrative?
Provide
strong NPCs that are straight-up entertaining.
What is done for lore
conflicts between the pitch and publisher?
Find a
work-around.
What percent of budget is given to the 400 steps?
Initial:
2 weeks; text lock: 2 weeks; rest is studio time. Otherwise, ask the producer!
What is the future of DLC?
Look at
community mods.
How to execute ‘work-arounds’?
Simple
animations with subs allow to make-up the rest.
How do you use the 400 steps across departments?
Pick
battles. Refer to the 1 hour
presentation for most of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment