Writing Modular Characters for System-Driven Games

In this 2018 GDC session, Kitfox Games' Tanya X. Short explores ways that modular thinking can help your storytelling by using examples from Moon Hunters, The Shrouded Isle, and beyond.
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[@fappylp2574]

Kudos to whoever asked the question at the end! Almost exactly what I had been thinking.

[@SparenofIria]

I saw the title, was like, 'this seems interesting,' and then suddenly all of the Kitfox stuff appeared. Pleasant surprise!

[@sanchy9082]

This woman is really good at giving talks. I have 0 idea of game development and watched the entire thing, and a previous video as well

[@CraftBasti]

She has more talks? Thanks for that!

[@Raggaliamous]

This talk by Tanya Short was really fascinating. I'd love a longer video, a few hours perhaps, with "How to" or "lets build together" feel. I'm new to programing (not gaming however) and I'm currently messing around on twine. I find modular narrative, emergent characters and stories really fascinating and thought provoking. I love to combine the two together, and have a go at mashing myself one together, a simple game but with a dynamic system beneath.

[@Mittzys]

Best GDC talk I've seen yet! I'll definitely be rewatching this

[@danw91]

Oh god I loved Moon Hunters. Such a beautifully crafted game, and so much fun to enjoy with friends.

[@RaaynML]

honestly love this pace, I don't have to speed up the video and it's a good talk

[@SantiagoElizalde-Santa]

Very interesting! Love the "perceptible uniqueness" approach. Useful stuff.

[@nullvoid3545]

This is super cool and exactly what I as looking for! Systems driven experiences are A defining feature particularly of games when compared to other mediums for media like TV shows and movies. Also I feel like you can just slightly resize all the furniture in A room and you will get A very similar difficult to place uncomfortable feeling to the uncanny valley. I'm excited to check out all the other sources this talk references too! This is so neat!

[@treyalsup]

Totally agree about the lack of importance of names (24 min). The information that we present about a character should be what is most meaningful (bodyguard). Names can even be noise.

[@LimeyLassen]

Wow, this is some rich stuff.

[@mischake]

I invision a game where the world iis build from the ground up, simulated for a few hundred years, people and oother species have time to spread and settle, and the player gets to experience a real place, where you don't matter, but where unique elements are thrown into the world from time to time to never have a place be too stale, and the player may choose to except a challenge in the new developments in the world. Sure, we would lose main quest style gameplay that is handcrafted, but we would get organic development of events and our choices would really affect the world(or really fail to do so) instead of triggering the next part of a quest. After 100 hours of gameplay there would still be as much to do as in the beginning, because there is no fixed amount of content to churn through. Open worlds tend to turn into vast wastelands of nothingness once the quests are done, but not if there are emergent developments in the world. Think of it like this: say we want vampires in our game. We can either spend a really long time crafting a questline and the player will finish it like all the rest, or we can program in vampires into the game and see the peoples of the world struggle to outlive this plaque, and maybe the player turns into a vampire like everybody else, and suddenly the game is set in a world where everyone is a vampire. Soome of these new elements might completely change the world and others might stick to small plots of land and give variety to the world.

[@Tan444]

you just described dwarf fortress. the game itself has a very bad(subjectively) UI. but it is an interesting case study

[@revimfadli4666]

@@Tan444 Would Rimworld be another example with a much-friendlier UI?

[@tahunuva4254]

​@@revimfadli4666I dont think rimworld generates the insane backlog of history that DF does. Also it is five years later, and DF niw has a better UI on the Steam version! Adventure mode coming soon.

[@CraftBasti]

I normally have the playspeed on videos at arount 1.75 but she really didn't lie when she claimed to talk fast, I'm down to 1.1 ° °

[@CraftBasti]

Edit: back to 1.0

[@CraftBasti]

Edit: I wanted to clarify I *like* that she talkes this fast! A sped up 30min talk is actually a 15min talk, but in my math she does deliver a 30min talk (or a 60min talk in 'normal' time) which means more information (and really good one at that). Huge thumps up!

[@asgoritolinasgoritolino7708]

What does she mean when she says "boyfriends need authoring"? I'm an ESL (english second language) and I don't quite get the expression.

[@ifcoltransg2]

I interpreted it as saying, we have high standards about boyfriends, so we won't accept procedurally generated content, we want something authored by a human. Boyfriends are about quality, not quantity. The same thing is true in real life.

[@5ld734]

It is a light hearted joke that male romantic partners need to be told what to do, as authoring means to write something, so if someone was to write or author a boyfriend they would be deciding what the boyfriend does

[@garthor]

Ben Samuel! I know that guy! XD

[@zublits]

I'm not ashamed to say that this was pretty impenetrable for a non math-minded person.

[@SaveManWoman]

Slow down, no feel to it...it’s the problem and nightmare of learning to learn.

[@RichardVaught]

"Meaning" is a "fluffy, hippy word" or "perceptual uniqueness". No....just no. No it is not.