‘Detroit: Become Human’ is a narrative driven adventure game, developed by Quantic Dream (Heavy Rain, Beyond Two Souls), with an emphasis on non-linear methods of experiencing a story.
Description of game from their website: “Enter the near-future metropolis of Detroit in 2038 – a city rejuvenated by the introduction of highly advanced androids that exist only to serve mankind. But that’s all about to change… Step into the shoes of three distinct android characters as this brave new world teeters on the brink of chaos. Your decisions dramatically alter how the game’s intense, branching narrative plays out. With thousands of choices and dozens of endings, how will you affect the future of Detroit?” Oops, did I accidentally watch all of this 9 hour walkthrough for 'research'...?
Analysis
This game is extremely cinematic, with music, ambiences, sound effects and dialogue deliberately falling into the hyper-real style of a Hollywood blockbuster. Its sound world fits its near future setting by blending familiar sounds of present day Detroit with ever-present digital elements to give the world a sci-fi flavour. Each playable character is an android and so there are also appropriately electrical interface sounds and blockbuster sci-fi style ‘wooshes’ when ‘abilities’ are enabled, including a complete sonic shift when Connor uses his heightened senses to investigate a crime scene. Gameplay revolves around the idea of freewill, complimenting the narrative themes, which is explored by providing the player with a continuous series of choices. These decisions might appear while in conversation with other story characters or during action sequences, where the option is usually between taking either a violent or non-violent approach. Music and sound both respond to a player’s choice by matching the tone of the resulting consequences, for example, if a decision results in violent action, as opposed to a non-violent option, the music and sound will change to appropriately underscore this. This is possible because most of the action plays like a series of cutscenes. While gameplay is relatively linear, in that you are ushered from one choice to the next with next to no element of exploration, it is the numerous choices and multiple story paths which provide the incentive to play. It is even possible for a narrative to prematurely end at any time, reinforcing in the player the importance of their decisions.
Once a particular scene of a character’s story has played out, players are shown a ‘narrative tree’ which displays any decisions made, how they impacted the story and where significant deviation from their narrative could have occurred. It does not show the contents of the alternative narrative path but does provide an option to load the game from a checkpoint to remake a decision. However, changing a decision at any point will have a knock-on effect for the entire story so these story-trees also remind the player that each decision matters, encouraging multiple playthroughs.
Using a story tree is a very clear method of mapping out a non-linear narrative: providing an increasing level of detail the closer it is inspected but also showing story structure at a glance. If this project were to move in a similar direction, I would make use of a similar visual story mapping method. Perhaps assigning a sound cue to each junction which alters some part of the story.
Relevance to Project
Constructing a ‘non-linear’ narrative in this way requires choices to appear one after the other related to what came before and changing what might happen after. In a game world setting players can be physically limited in their options. In a real-world space, however, the audience have no restrictions on what they might interact with. Unless they were led down a corridor or path which contained only the available options, one after another, then it becomes impossible to predict // restrict a participant engagement with a space. This causes particular issues with the sound of a production, which cannot behave in the same linear ‘they chose this story path, now play this cue until they reach the next choice’. It must behave in a way that reacts dynamically and evolves depending on a participant’s interaction with a space. This poses different challenges in terms of underscoring a narrative, which remains a key component of this project. I have found that open world // sandbox games still have issues with linearity in their storytelling - i.e the player has reached this quest so will linearly complete it (with perhaps a few deviations based on given choices) or abandon it entirely. However, the most recent Zelda game (Zelda: Breath of the Wind (2017)) moves away from this type of open-world quest storytelling. It also gives the player an unrivalled level of interaction with its game-world while at the same time containing a story which players are encouraged to experience on their own terms. A future case study will explore the role of sound in this game and how elements might be implemented into my own project. For the record, I would class productions developed by Punchdrunk as ‘open world’ exploration of a linear narrative. In this post on his site Seb Chan describes his experience of Then She Fell by Third Rail, another company focused on immersive theatre. This particular production seems to function in a similar way to the narrative structure displayed in 'Detroit: Become Human' (as is noted by Seb with his own example of 'Dragon Age: Origins'). While he makes no mention of sound's role in the production, it seems feasible to me that alternate cues could be triggered dependent on the choices made by participants. Their direction through the space by a cast member would allow them to be forced into a series of choices, the cast member could then lead them down their chosen path and, subsequently, the sound could be triggered to follow them on the chosen path. The overall problem I can see with implementing this form of game sound in a real space lies precisely in this idea of the individual experience. Without the use of headphones (something I'd would like to avoid in this project) how can an participant be assured a unique sonic experience? Since my project will not take place is an empty space large enough, or be a show that complex, this shouldn't be an issue for the moment. It will, however, be an area worth discussing in the final report. Games and Companies Similar to Quantic Dream
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Punchdrunk in their own words:
“Since 2000, Punchdrunk has pioneered a game changing form of theatre in which roaming audiences experience epic storytelling inside sensory theatrical worlds. Blending classic texts, physical performance, award-winning design installation and unexpected sites, the company's infectious format rejects the passive obedience usually expected of audiences. Punchdrunk has developed a phenomenal reputation for transformative productions that focus as much on the audience and the performance space as on the performers and narrative. Inspired designers occupy deserted buildings and apply a cinematic level of detail to immerse the audience in the world of the show. This is a unique theatrical experience where the lines between space, performer and spectator are constantly shifting. Audiences are invited to rediscover the childlike excitement and anticipation of exploring the unknown and experience a real sense of adventure. Free to encounter the installed environment in an individual imaginative journey, the choice of what to watch and where to go is theirs alone.”
Notes Taken
The Drowned Man
Summary Based on the points raised in this lecture about the use of sound in Punchdrunk's productions, there does not appear to be any way the audience can influence the show, let alone the sound of it. This company focuses on their audience experiencing a story in a non-linear fashion in the sense that they have agency over the order in which they view scenes and scenarios. The sound runs the length of the performance and, while the performers do react to sonic cues, each scene and the show as a whole still appears to move from point A to point B. However, it was interesting to hear about the intuitive ways in which the creative team worked around budget limitations, as is often the case when working in theatre, and sound that bleeds in from other rooms or 'stages'. This will not be an issue for this project as it will be confined to one space, but something to keep in mind should this project expand.
Punchdrunk & MIT
See MIT Media Projects site for information about this project and here for a first-hand account of the experience. Key points: This project was primarily focused on ways in which virtual participants could experience a Punchdrunk show. This was achieved by pairing an audience member through an internet connection to a ‘player’. Very interesting work with the masks, which were “equipped with a microphone, a temperature sensor, a heart rate monitor, an EDA sensor, a Bluetooth location sensor, and a RFID tag to capture an onsite participant’s activities, expressions, and state of mind. Masks were retrofitted with bone conduction headsets to allow operators to send audio messages to onsite participants which kept their ears free to listen to the immersive audio experience”. A number of ‘portals’ were set up around the space where the virtually-connected user had influence the real-world environment. For example a ‘ghost’ typewriter which would tap out messages written by the companion. Other portals were automatically triggered when someone wearing an augmented mask is near, such as ghostly writing on a mirror or books flying off shelves. Each cue controlled by the offsite participant was processed by a “master logic system” called ‘cauldron’. These cues not only controlled actions in the physical space but also controlled all the audio elements experienced by the virtual audience member. “The audio systems for Sleep No More were based around a virtual streaming and mixing environment running inside Reaper. The audio experience was organized into cues, coded in XML, which were executed by the script engine. Each cue could smoothly alter parameters of effects, inputs and outputs, or play back pre-recorded material. Outputs were streamed in real-time to online participants, and android devices in the space using a combination of Icecast and Wowza streaming servers. Live inputs originated from performer microphones and could also be connected to telephones on the set and at participants’ homes. All content for the experience was encoded binaurally.” There is no mention of whether any main sound elements were directly affected, Punchdrunk are notoriously cagey about releasing details, but based on the interview with Stephen Dobbie (which took place three years after the project) it can be assumed that there was no effect on main elements of the sound cues. The audience also had no direct effect on the narrative of the performance.
Inspirations for Project
Position Tracking System Using my own positioning system to track participants position would be very beneficial to this project, this would be possible by using a Bluetooth system: such as iBeacon. Some examples are listed below: It also appears to be possible to build an iBeacon type system using Arduino or Micro:bit (which already contains Bluetooth capabilities) as seen here: This will be explored in greater detail and followed up in a separate blog post. This could be useful for determining where a participant is in relation to specific triggers, what they are looking at and to control real-time game parameters (RTCP’s) within Wwise. It might be possible to track participants mobile phones using built in Bluetooth capabilities, otherwise a small Bluetooth emitter could be used and either given to participants or worked into the narrative somehow, similar to the masks in ‘Sleep No More’. Categories of Sound From Stephen Dobbie’s lecture it seems that the company work with sound based on three defined categories: songs, music and soundscape. Thinking about my own project in terms of sonic categories will help me to define levels of interaction. During a performance it seems participants only have influence over the sound in a very localised sense, triggering songs from car radios etc, whereas the goal with this project is to have an entire sonic world which evolves based around participants actions within a space. Further References 'The Immersed Audience: How Immersive Theatre is Taking it's Cue from Video Games' by Thomas Mullen for The Guardian 'Welcome to Fallow Cross: Inside the Secret Village Made by Punchdrunk' by Lyn Gardner for The Guardian 'A Guinea Pigs Night at the Theatre' by Dave Itzkoff for the New York Times |
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