This edited collection of chapters concerns the evolving discipline of procedural storytelling in video games. Games are an interactive medium, and this interplay between author, player and machine provides new and exciting ways to create and tell stories. In each essay, practitioners of this artform demonstrate how traditional storytelling tools such as characterization, world-building, theme, momentum and atmosphere can be adapted to full effect, using specific examples from their games. The reader will learn to construct narrative systems, write procedural dialog, and generate compelling characters with unique personalities and backstories.
Key Features
Introduces the differences between static/traditional game design and procedural game designDemonstrates how to solve or avoid common problems with procedural game design in a variety of concrete waysWorlds finest guide for how to begin thinking about procedural design| Foreword |
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| About the Editors |
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xiii | |
| Contributors |
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xv | |
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Chapter 1 Getting Started with Generators |
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3 | (14) |
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Chapter 2 Keeping Procedural Generation Simple |
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17 | (6) |
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Chapter 3 Generated Right in the Feels |
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23 | (14) |
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Chapter 4 Adapting Content to Player Choices |
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37 | (12) |
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Chapter 5 Ethical Procedural Generation |
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49 | (16) |
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Section 2 Structure and Systems |
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Chapter 6 Retrospective: Murder on the Zinderneuf (1983) |
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65 | (10) |
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Chapter 7 Designing for Narrative Momentum |
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75 | (16) |
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Chapter 8 Curated Narrative in Duskers |
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91 | (12) |
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Chapter 9 Uncanny Text: Blending Static and Procedural Fiction |
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103 | (10) |
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Chapter 10 Dramatic Play in The Sims |
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113 | (14) |
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Chapter 11 Memorable Stories from Simple Rules in Curious Expedition |
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127 | (8) |
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Chapter 12 Amplifying Themes and Emotions in Systems |
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135 | (14) |
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Chapter 13 Emergent Narrative in Dwarf Fortress |
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149 | (10) |
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Chapter 14 Heavily Authored Dynamic Storytelling in Church in the Darkness |
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159 | (20) |
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Section 3 Worlds and Context |
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Chapter 15 Generating Histories |
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179 | (14) |
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Chapter 16 Procedural Descriptions in Voyageur |
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193 | (16) |
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Chapter 17 Generating in the Real World |
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209 | (18) |
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Chapter 18 Dirty Procedural Narrative in We Happy Few |
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227 | (14) |
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Chapter 19 Beyond Fun in Frostpunk |
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241 | (16) |
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Chapter 20 Procedural Storytelling in Dungeons & Dragons |
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257 | (14) |
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Chapter 21 Maximizing the Impact of Generated Personalities |
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271 | (12) |
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Chapter 22 Procedural Characters in State of Decay 2 |
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283 | (12) |
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Chapter 23 Plot Generators |
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295 | (8) |
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Chapter 24 Generating Personalities in The Shrouded Isle |
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303 | (14) |
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317 | (22) |
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Chapter 26 Tarot as Procedural Storytelling |
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339 | (12) |
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Chapter 27 Things You Can Do with Twitterbots |
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351 | (10) |
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Chapter 28 Creating Tools for Procedural Storytelling |
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361 | (16) |
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| Index |
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377 | |
Tanya X. Short is the director of Kitfox Games, the 4-person studio behind Moon Hunters and Shattered Planet. Previously, she worked as a designer at Funcom Games on The Secret World and Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. In her spare time, she acts as the co-director of Pixelles, a non-profit helping more women make games.
Tarn Adams is best known as the developer of Dwarf Fortress since 2002 with his older brother Zach. He learned programming in his childhood, and has been designing computer games as a hobby. He quit his first year of a mathematics post doctorate at Texas A&M to focus on game development in 2006.
