Thread by @mossdogmusic

Livetweeting Engineering Empathy: Getting the player to care, by Dave Gilbert of @WadjetEyeGames. #NarraScope

Example from TechnoBabylon: there was a (later cut) scene that should have been very emotional (stopping a suicide) but no one cared. Not the devs, not the playtesters. Why? #NarraScope

It was because we didn't know the person. We didn't care about them , we didn't have empathy. The scene fell flat. #NarraScope

"Having your dinner" - refers to a scene from Breaking Bad. Funny, awkward, dramatic. It's brilliant - but if you're watching it out of context, it makes no sense and has no impact. It requires your audience to already be invested. #NarraScope

Every line in the scene relies on audience emotional investment. So, Having Your Dinner. It has to be on time. Too early, no payoff; too late, feels padded. #NarraScope

That was the Technobabylon scene problem. The (new) writer wasn't connected to the world and the audience wasn't connected to the scene. But when the writer went back, years later, and replaced the scene - it was so much better. #NarraScope

"The Dark Tower series! It's great! The first one is awful. Keep going!" #NarraScope

The creators and writers are developing a connection to their world as they go along. If they care, they have the best foundation to make the audience care. If you don't have a connection, the audience won't care. #NarraScope

Blackwell: a lot of the room has played this game series! Started with doodling a ghost. Then became Blackwell Legacy. #NarraScope

Creating the Blackwell series took a decade. Coming back to the first game is very weird. The characters are very different. I grew very emotionally attached to these two people. In the last episode, I took for granted that I could have my dinner. #narrascope

All those years of emotional investment - my own as well as the audience's - could pay off. Since I had such a good thing going, I ended the series. No matter how good each game was, it was still tethered to the first game. There was a huge drop off between 1 and 2. #NarraScope

Any potential players who discovered this game would go to the first game - and bounce off it. The cold reality was, it was time to end it. That was very hard. #NarraScope

Now I was in this position where, having built up all this emotional investment, I had to do it all again. For my audience and myself. I knew I needed to like and care about my characters. But I didn't want to get better later! I wanted to hit the ground running. #NarraScope

Unavowed: like a mid-era party based Bioware game, but without the combat. Your companions change how you solve puzzles, etc. Urban fantasy in New York. #NarraScope

How could I get into my new characters' heads faster? First, I commissioned some sketches. They aren't as good as the ghost but they're good. I practiced writing conversations between the characters. #NarraScope

These two characters are trapped on a roof and waiting for rescue. What do they talk about? It filled in the details. #NarraScope

I realized the first place I always went was snark. I wanted to like these people, but they weren't likeable. I was disengaged. I tried to make their conversations mean something. Here, she's concerned - it comes from friendship, respect. Meaning under snark. #NarraScope

It was tempting to veer into snark! But I tried to show the characters coming together instead, bit by bit. By the end, they're all connected as a team. You feel that and participate in that. #NarraScope

Each of the Unavowed characters has a different lens on the world. They talk about the world as they see it. They bring different angles and experiences. That's all high level - the overall feeling. #NarraScope

Low level design is the moment to moment. How do they help you and interact from moment to moment? How does that reinforce the main high level design? #NarraScope

Okay, I definitely have to play Unavowed. The details we're getting about this game are awfully appealing.

So you can only take two people on any given mission. But you can see how maybe it would have been better/different to take someone else along. Encourages replayability. #NarraScope

Unhappily, this annoyed people when they saw ghosts and didn't have the medium along. People really want to talk to ghosts! So Logan the spirit medium got to go along on all the missions. Oops. #NarraScope

Q: Can you recover from a weak game by writing a prequel?
A: The second Blackwell game kind of is a prequel! But people don't play it on that order. You would have to remarket it, play it in this order. I think that would be hard. #NarraScope

I'm hard on the first Blackwell game but I do stand by it. It's the best I could have done under those circumstances. #NarraScope

The Unavowed "scratching the staff" dialogue led to understanding the game world better. And once I can hear their voice - once there are voice actors - that makes a huge difference. #NarraScope

"I always think about, where is the audience engagement?" If someone plays a game and doesn't know why the character wants to help someone, or even why the character does what they do - that's frustrating. It's not a good experience. Empathize with the player. #NarraScope

It helps when I am not the writer of the game. If I'm not connecting with the character, I can try to figure out why. #NarraScope

"There's no right or wrong way to do an episodic game. If it works, yay! If it doesn't, boo!" #NarraScope

Getting an audience is harder now than it was 13 years ago. Every year, there's a fresh crop of thousands of new game dev students looking to go indie. There's just so much out there. #NarraScope

About puzzles: "If you have to leave my game and go to a walkthrough, I've failed as a developer." You don't have to get stuck. Google is right there. More modern developers focus on the immersion factor. #NarraScope

Your emotional investment is in the player characters. When a main character is talking to an NPC, I bring it back to the main character in some way. #NarraScope