Games That Clicked: History, Harkonnens, Heartbreak

I've been shaped by so many games. I wanted to make something like a "Top 5 Games that meant something to me" post, but I quickly realized that it was hard to boil things down that much. Instead, I wanted to do something more casual, something brisker, and just chat about some of the games that stuck with me over the years. Every game I've played has left me with something, no matter how small, but these are the games that captured me, games that connected with me, even for just a fleeting moment.

Creating Emotion in Games: Wrapping It Up

I didn't really expect my retrospective of Creating Emotion in Games to wind up like this. It's been a while since I've been motivated to recap the next part, and there's a few reasons for that. With at least five, six more blog posts that need to be surmounted in order to finish the project, it was beginning to look intimidating, especially because they just weren't getting creatively fulfilling to me. I'm going to unpack some of that here, along with some of the other things that were beginning to make this a frustrating project.

So I think it's time to call it. Officially, this is going to be the last post in the retrospective, but I'll be talking about the things I want to write about going forward, because I have plenty of ideas ready to go!

Game Moments: an Outburst in Girl by Moonlight

There's a moment in an RPG session that's going to stick with me for some time, I think. Not necessarily for how dramatic or important it was, but for how miraculously effortless it was. I was playing a session of Girl by Moonlight, a game about magical girls in the midst of turmoil. My character, Aster, was doing physical training at the gym with her teammate Solania-Vetis when she pushed too far and collapsed. When she was advised to be mindful of her limits, Aster lashed out and said "I don't want to have limits!"

It surprised me, because it just popped out, and yet it also perfectly fit the situation, because of the way that the game set things up--it was the sort of spontaneous outburst that I hadn't really experienced in games for some time. Let's have a look at what came together for that moment...

Creating Emotion in Games, Part 5: Digging into NPCs

 In Part 4 of the Creating Emotion in Games retrospective, we had a bit of a double feature, covering the core concepts of Groups and the fundamental ideas behind NPC dynamics. This time around, we're going full-on into the meat of NPC techniques, exploring plot arcs, chemistry with the player character, and more!

Creating Emotion in Games, Part 4 -- Groups and NPC Relationships

If you're new to my retrospective on Creating Emotion in Games, start at the first post and work your way forward; it'll make more sense! If you're just catching up--in part 3, we got introduced to the book's basic ideas--how to define non-player characters (NPCs), give them interesting traits, and then add deeper texture to them. This time around, it's a bit more of a mix of content--there's still more about NPCs, but we're also going to move into some more unique (and game-specific) territory: groups and factions.

Creating Emotion in Games, Part 3 -- NPCs and Dialogue

If you're new to this series, start on the first post and go from there!

We wrapped up our introduction to this book in the last post, looking at a few miscellaneous things that the author has to say about building narratives in games, and also exploring his idea of the "deep" and "interesting" axes. While these are largely focused around presentation within the game (not surprising, given the author's background in screenwriting), I do plan on drawing this back to actual mechanical design and game structure as much as possible, in a way that builds on the book. So with that said, let's dive into the first Emotioneering™ techniques! These ones focus on non-playable characters, "NPCs".

Creating Emotion in Games, Part 2 -- Finishing the Intro

Last time in Part 1, I covered the first part of the introduction to Creating Emotion in Games, which sets up a sales pitch for "why invest in games storytelling?", introduces the author's concept of Emotioneering™, and explains some of the difficulties that professional writers from other media have when transitioning to games writing. Today, we're going to wrap up that introduction with a few miscellaneous sections that make their way in, completing the pitch and setting the stage for the actual techniques to come.

Creating Emotion in Games, Part 1 -- The Intro

Let's turn the clock back about 15 years. I was in college, I was pursuing a Communication Arts -- Multimedia degree, and I was taking a course (in my woefully underprepped department) on writing for games. It was pretty barebones, and I don't even know where my class project wound up, but I did keep the textbook from that class, David Freeman's Creating Emotion in Games. I had some misgivings about it, I had some opinions about it, but I still kept it around. I just decided to crack it back open, and do a cover-to-cover reread. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to find, but let's have a look together.