Press Y to Cry: Generating Emotions in Videogame Narrative

20:33 - How to communicate emotions in games

This is probably one of my favorite GDC talks. Really useful ideas in this one

Press 'F' to pay respects.

Such an insightful and great talk, thank you!

He worked on LEGO City Underground, so he's a top lister on my book

This was such an incredible talk, it's really a shame about the audio.

That dragon cancer, What remains of Edith Finch, To the moon, The Last of Us 2, Red Dead Redemption, Gris, Brothers a tale of two sons, Nier Automata, This War of mine. All games I couldn’t play because I knew they would make me cry bitter tears. Heavy Rain, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy XIV, Metal Gear Solid 3, The Walking Dead (Tales), The Witcher 3. All games that I did play, which made me cry. Every game I’ve ever played has made me feel, in some way, emotions in all ranges and states. For myself, I will actively avoid games which focus on negative emotions as I find it harder to abstract myself from them. A game is a form of entertainment and for myself, I prefer mine to be joy and fun with the occasional (small) pinch of dark and pain. Today, more then ever, games will appeal to players emotions and will be more emotional themselves, be it by abstraction or realism. Very good video about a very current and interesting subject. Thank you.

I dropped the Companion Cube in the hole immediately. I’ll figure out what that means later.

Great stuff there. Thanks for the tips.

What a wonderful lecture. So interesting

Amazing talk!

Wow. I’m bookmarking this one

You pulled at my strings by NOT mentioning you worked on Halo 3 despite it being there....

This was very good. As another has mentioned though, I think the potential complexity and nuance of simulation are being a bit underappreciated. A great example is your emotional connection to firelink shrine in Dark Souls 1 (there will be spoilers in what follows). Early on in the game, while you're working on the church bell, firelink shrine operates like a home base. It's emotionally a place of comfort, familiarity, and safety. This emotion is almost entirely simulated. Sure, the player sits there and presumably feels safe but you're emotional reaction to the representation of the character is very very minor in comparison to the simulated aspect and what makes firelink shrine distinct from the rest of the bonfires. This emotion is induced in the following ways *) The mechanical design of health regeneration, enemy resetting, the opportunity to reap the rewards of gathering souls. At firelink specifically, there are also npcs with mechanical value, but this is pretty limited an this point in the game. (safety, relief, empowerment, accomplishment). *) The environmental design of a safe grassy place where others sometimes gather for safety (their feeling of safety is being represented and that helps simulate your feeling of safety). (Safety, peacefulness) *) The level design which frequently brings you back to this location. (familiarity, relief, accomplishment, understanding (of how places are interconnected)) These all come together to create a nuanced simulated emotion in the player. Now you go for the second bell in the swamp. This is now the longest and most harrowing journey up to this point away from firelink shrine. The game takes the returning point of familiarity away from you and you embark on an adventure. You just keep going deeper through the depths and into blightown with no end in sight. You get deep enough where you can no longer casually return to level up your pyromancer flame or to buy faith stuff from the faith guy. Our emotional relationship changes now to longing, fear, tension, etc and this is accomplished with the same 3 techniques. *) Mechanics: We cannot return to firelink shrine without loosing all our progress (since progress here is obtained by pushing through to the next checkpoint). We are also mechanically incentivized to do so if we're using faith or pyromancy. (Tension, longing) *) Environment: The places we're going through are gross and spooky. (Grossness, spookiness). *) Level design: Rather than looping through firelink, we're now on a much longer singe loop away from firelink and down into the unknown. The verticality and obstruction of sightlines makes it difficult to gauge how much further there is to go (fear, longing, isolation). You finally overcome this challenge, exit through the valley of the drakes go up some stairs and suddenly you've returned. The music plays and the sense of relief and anticipation sets in. But then you get to the top only to find the flame is gone. This is a powerful and nuanced emotional moment. There's loss, confusion, and the feeling that nowhere is truly safe. It's also entirety simulated. Nothing in the game has indicated you should feel this way. You are directly experiencing emotion as a consequence of your relationship with the location, and it's fostered exclusively through the mechanics, environment, and level design.

this is wonderful. I took so many notes haha

This is really nice!

I found Japanese games are better at getting me to cry due to the slower more real pacing you point out

Good video, but I don't like the way it characterizes simulation games as being "simple" or "reaction based" and discounts their ability to tell complex stories through emergence. When I think of simulation games I think of Rimworld, Space Station 13 and Dwarf fortress, all of which have the ability to create unique and interesting situations and stories purely through the simulation of the game world rather than pre-authored story beats.

Noice

That sconce in the background that looks like a mask is so fucking distracting