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This article comes from the official account of Wechat: ID:chuappgame, author: etc.

"words are always valuable and will be treated gently."

Developing a game that contains a lot of text is a very challenging task.

Whether it's role-playing, visual fiction or text adventure, there is a constant effort to convince players that what they are reading is valuable. You know, even if a game has a wonderful storyline, it is often not enough to attract the reader's attention. In order to save time, many people often ignore carefully written plots, find explanations from the Internet, or skip long conversations.

In a sense, reading can easily make players lose interest in the game, which is why good editing, clever narrative design, and intuitive UI are so important. Developers can use many ways to make the text in the game easier to read, such as reducing the number of words on the screen, trying different types of presentation, and so on.

The costs and benefits of Reading Inkle Studios is an independent studio based in Cambridge, England, which has launched several popular adventure games, including IP adaptation "Witchcraft" and "80 days around the World", as well as the original "Overboard" and "Dome of Heaven". Inkle's work has won praise from players and commentators in recent years, but Jon Ingold, creative director of the studio, says this is not always the case.

"when the company was first founded, we heard a lot of people say that people wouldn't read in the game and didn't like to do it." Ingold recalls, "but I don't think that's true. The presentation and arrangement of the text is very important. In addition, people actually read all the time, and as long as the game provides the right way to suit the player's mood, they will read happily."

In the game "overboard", the player plays an actress who throws her husband overboard on a cruise ship bound for New York, and she has to do everything she can to hide it from others. Ingold stressed that social media has had a huge impact on people's reading habits. Some people find it hard to settle down and read, but spend hours on social media every day. He points out that readers subconsciously analyze the costs and benefits of reading-taking the time to read a 300-page book is often high and the benefits are difficult to assess; by contrast, the cost of browsing social media is extremely low. because it can be refreshed over and over again in order to find interesting content.

Based on this theory, Ingold tries to explain why many players are reluctant to read stories in 3A games. For example, in games such as Wizard 3, you can read extra about the game's worldview, but it does little to improve the overall experience, so most players are likely to skip these texts and move the story forward as soon as possible.

"our thinking is quite pessimistic, feeling that players will not read as long as they have half a reason not to read words. After all, players play a game, which is complicated enough. They just want to know what they have to do in order to make progress in the game." Ingold said.

As the winner of the 2017 Game of the year (TGA2017) Best Game narrative Award, every design in Edie Finch's memory serves the narrative, like a textbook example, in fact, this is not unique to the 3A masterpiece, and you will see a similar situation in interactive fiction games. When readers are faced with a lot of text and a set of options, they often ignore the text and make choices directly. To solve this problem, developers need to make sure that the text in the game is short and expressive, while allowing players to better understand the options offered.

"80 days around the World" is a good example. The screenplay by screenwriter Meg Jayant explores complex ideas about culture and empire. Each paragraph is presented in no more than 100 words and is easy to understand. In this way, players can almost read the text as they plan, reflect, or think about what to do next.

The importance of good UI another British studio, Failbetter Games, also insists on presenting the text in a short space to persuade players to pay closer attention to the content.

In the space adventure game No Light, every time players enter a new port, they will see the options to be made next in a huge reading panel. But the text of each location and story is divided into smaller parts, making it easier for players to read and understand. This means that people only need to read two or three paragraphs at a time and can find the information they want without scrolling the page.

"since the advent of the fall of London, we have always wanted players to feel that the words themselves are a reward." Hannah Flynn, director of public relations at Failbetter, said, "so we cut the text into very small pieces so that people can concentrate on reading and enjoy the fun that comes with it, which is what we always do in all our works. Words are always valuable and will be treated gently."

Compared with the UI interface before and after the official release of "No Light", this change makes the reading experience as immersive, atmospheric and intuitive as possible. The success of "No Light" is due not only to the excellent screenwriting of the development team, but also to the way the game presents words to players. In a blog post titled "Reading under Coal Lights: how to redesign UI", Failbetter Senior Art Tobias Cook describes the team's process of creating UI and how to come up with a UI design that combines the game's reading panel, task log and item list.

Cook abandoned the original design. " One of the important problems is that the reading panel is located too far from the center of the screen. This old idea has spawned a panel-based system that allows players to open different interfaces on the left and right sides so that they can view listings or compare different props while interacting with the content of the story. Unfortunately, this means that the reading panel has to be pushed away from the center of the screen, sometimes causing confusion in the visual layout and seriously squeezing the space for displaying content. "

Aware of the problem, Failbetter is determined to change completely in order to provide players with a better reading experience. As a result, the development team moved the reading area to the center of the screen and placed the item list in a separate panel that could be opened or closed. Cook admits that the "No Light" UI is not perfect, and that if the panel is fully opened, it may still cover most of the screen. But in any case, the new UI is much better than the old version, at least ensuring that players will not miss interesting tasks or stories because it is difficult to understand what is displayed on the screen.

Rose Mask has a good exploration of how to tell a good story and resonate with players with life details. When making a game with a lot of text, developers should also think about how to deliver the text. And what kind of writing is best for the story you want to tell.

Chera Ramanan is the narrative designer of Before I Forget, a first-person exploration game, and was involved in the development of 3-Fold Games's Windrush Tales, which tells the story of a group of Caribbean immigrants who went to Britain in search of work and a new life after World War II. In these two games, reading is an important part of the player experience, you can view letters, postcards, newspaper clippings and other paper products.

In "memories full House", players can check the personal belongings of Sunita, the protagonist with dementia, and as they explore, they will find more letters and documents to learn more about her relationships, life and the whereabouts of her family. This kind of play is easily reminiscent of "home at home"-by reading short handwritten notes, you can think about some rather serious topics.

According to Ramanan, she was inspired by a wide range of resources, including previous experiences in news and copywriting, as well as games such as "Strange Life" and "mysterious Sea". " We did study the Mystery Sea series, which has a diary mechanism that allows players to view details of items such as ancient scrolls. Of course, we have also studied the memory of Edie Finch, which sets a very high standard in terms of the way the text is presented. It has a lot of content, but it can still display the text in such a wonderful way. To be honest, we can't do it yet. "

Full of memories: faded postcards, scribbled notes and old photos. Players use these items to recall the protagonist's past, piece together her life story and learn about her present. In the Legend of Wendrash, La Manan hopes to further explore more personalized methods. Judging from the original concept that 3-Fold Games has made public, the text and illustrations of the game seem to be displayed in the scrapbook, inviting players into the character's personal world in this way.

"I like to present stories in different ways of writing, such as posters, passports, postcards and so on. this is really interesting. in our game, the way players choose their characters is to open their passports."

In a sense, 3-Fold Games's approach is simple but effective, telling stories in an approachable way, resonating with players with bits and pieces of life, and thinking about more complex themes. In fact, Ingold also revealed that this is the ultimate goal of Inkle: to find something simple and easy to understand and use them to build emotional connections with players.

"We hope that the content created will remain mainstream and close to the people, so that everyone can enjoy it." "in this way, players will not feel that the game is too nagging, complex or brain-burning, and have to be smart enough to play it," Ingold said. "but at the same time, we also want the words in the game to remain interesting, rich and complex, and not to tie their own hands and go to the other extreme."

This article is compiled from: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/ design / how-to-remove-the-frustration-of-reading-in-games

Original title: "How to remove the frustration of reading in games"

Original author: Jack Yarwood

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