But the denouement is most neglected in video games where it is often relegated to a short congratulatory cut scene, or at most–a slide show of consequences. This month’s topic challenges you to explore how the denouement can be expressed as gameplay.

(*Spoilers for God of War, Resident Evil 4, and Prince of Persia*)

The denouement, the oft forgotten portion of the story is the subject of this month’s topic. To even begin to understand how to use a denouement in a game one has to understand the climax and falling action. Most people miscategorize those two. Denouement is not just the quite moment after everything important had been resolved. It is the final moment. The moment after everything else has been resolved. It is the moment of reflection, the moment of the hero riding off into the sunset or the feeling that the world will continue on now that the story is over.

There is a problem in regarding the the denouement of a video game. Video games, those with stories anyway, tend to end at the climax. That is the moment that the whole game has been building to, where all the challenge and mechanics come to a head. It is the point in the game that the whole thing has been training you for. But then once the final boss is defeated we have a cutscene, roll credits. Were not only missing the denouement in such a structure, but the falling action, the cool down events. If they are there at all, they are portrayed in a quick cutscene meant to wrap up everything and leave nothing playable. I’m going to run through a few examples.

The original God of War is the only game I can think of that has anything resembling a denouement. Once you defeat Aries and save Athens, then what. You are treated to a cutscene about you’re crimes being forgiven, but not forgotten and you hurl yourself off a cliff. Then we are treated to one final section of gameplay of you climbing the stairs of Mt. Olympus to become the new God of War. That section of the game has no combat, no puzzles, save the hidden one, and nothing ties it to the rising action of the rest of the game. It is the game’s equivalent cool down period often found in Greek plays. It is not, however, the denouement. That section is still part of the game’s resolution and can be coupled with the falling action. The denouement would be the cutscene after you sit upon the throne.

Another example of gameplay after the final boss fight would be Resident Evil 4. The section after you fire the final rocket launcher and kill the whatever the hell it is you have to escape on a jet ski. That portion has a huge amount of action and tension associated with it, but it is simplistic compared to the complexity of choices made in the game’s combat. In this sequence the game is slowing down, but it is not a resolution. It is not a denouement, hell, it’s not even the falling action. What it is, is a prolonged climax. The falling action and denouement is then regaled to a quick cutscene with Leon and the president’s daughter riding off into the sunset.

Finally we have the new Prince of Persia. I’ve written enough about the content of the ending, but the actual structure of it does give a minor sense of a denouement. It’s just hard to pinpoint where exactly it is. If we accept the ending as is, retarded as it may be, the resealing of Ahriman is the climax, then carrying Eleka back to the alter is the falling action. The slow methodical walk  of realization for what happened is the resolution of everything that the game has been working towards. The denouement is then the action afterwords, unfortunately it’s also a second section of rising action that leads to a cliffhanger. Had the game ended with the Prince just leaving the canyon and have that be the end of the game it would have been a denouement that nicely closed the cover on the story.

These are just three examples, but they were the only examples of games I could think of that played beyond the final boss battle and climax of their respective stories. Most other games end their interactivity with the climax and let everything else run out with cinematics. We were asked to consider denouement is games and yet at this point in their lifespan I think it is difficult endeavor given that we don’t even bother with the falling action. Everything has to be taken in steps and first we have to cover that before we can really wrap it up.

So, Blogs of the Round Table is back from its summer hiatus and we’re dealing with special relationships in video games. But at the present time it seems that spatial relationships are the only type that designers can get right at the moment. (Subtle social commentary.) In fact in almost any game you play, your relationship with the world your avatar inhabits is the most important you will have with the game.

Games are about interaction and video games are about interaction with the digital environment. Avatars have to exist in a world, whether it is just the simple one directional side-scrollers of Mario and Sonic or to the vast open worlds of Grand Theft Auto’s cityscapes. The highest interaction in a spatial environment we have right now is that of the open world sandbox games, the games advertised as go anywhere, do anything.

We humans, when we enter this world, immediately begin to learn about spatial relationships. We look around and being assessing our environment. We learn distances in such a way that we cannot explain how our minds know it. A physicist can calculate where a ball will be given the force and direction, but any competent person can catch the ball if they see it thrown. We learn how to do such things in the real world. We learn after traversing the same streets, walking the same blocks over and over again, where everything is. When starting at one place we can make our way to another easily.

It is the same in video games. In the open world sandbox games we understand how to get from one point to another and where things are in relation to one another. Also we learn how to fight in action/adventure games. We know how far we can be away from an enemy to be able to hit them. I know it’s possible to understand even the minutest visual distances between the pixels if Ikaruga players are any indication.

What does this mean in the whole scheme of things? Nothing much beyond a simple reminder of a human’s abilities. Video games continually present situations that are fantastical and that we cannot be apart of in our normal everyday lives, but they, for the most part, exist in a world that we can understand. An invisible wall may occasionally defy logic, but I’m making a point. The need to ground the player is not in story subjectivity or gameplay mechanics, but space and distances. The empty spaces between objects could be more important that the objects themselves. That non-rendered air is potential, the potential of play. We know that, because that’s what we’ve learned.

For this month’s entry I decided to go with Hokusai Katsushika’s woodprint block “The Great Wave off Kanagawa.”

Knowing little about inner layers to static visual art, the term used so as to encompass not only paintings, but also woodprint blocks, sculpture, photography, etc. I instead decided to look at its visual implications, more its form than its ideas. To see how a game could encompass the same visual aesthetic and even incorporate it into gameplay.

In the background we see Mt Fuji and in the foreground we have a wave with three fishing boats being tossed about. This wave is not a tsunami as commonly thought; it is just a normal wave, whose size is so immense because the perspective of the picture puts the onlooker right into the ocean.

The viewer being in the ocean I imagine a game placing an avatar in the middle of the waves to ride up and down as it comes form one side to the other. The avatar will be a more abstract shape or basic form instead of a realistic or traditional Japanese stylization of a person. It will be all black against the blue and white waves.

In the distance you see Mt Fuji as a small pyramid. Riding the waves from side to side you can eventually by creatively maneuvering your avatar into the distance get closer. The foreground scenery will remain static for the most part. Boats will ride into and out of the scene and waters will change their patterns, but in the background Mt. Fuji will get larger as you move further away. The avatar will stay the same size with the world moving around it.

By riding the waves in a certain manner you can move onto different 2D planes further and further bringing Mt Fuji closer. The game will end with the waves shrinking in size and Mt. Fuji looming over you as you have reached the shore.

IMPORTANT: Because I expect many of these posts will be difficult and/or disturbing for portions of the audience to read, I ask that you consider using a high level of language to describe the contents of your design. I also ask that you both rate your posts and include rating descriptors as laid out by the ESRB (http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp).

As per request I rate this post M for Mature. The text may be T for Teen, but I never joke around with torture.

I will admit I’ve had difficulty with this topic. Not just because it is difficult to come up with a game concept, but the subject matter. This topic came along at a point when I was reading fiction that dealt with subject matter that I found disturbing and totally within the realm of the human condition. Betrayal, greed, objectivism, sin, violation, and the manner of corruption of truth and justice, I’ve been immersed in these themes for the past few months and the real trouble is these things make me physically ill to contemplate. Lately I’ve been trying to find something happy.

Instead of exploring any of these on an emotional level I’ve instead decided to look at one of these at an educational level. Given its prominence in the news lately, I’ve decided to look at the subject of torture. Tekno looked at it from the victim’s point of view here, I’m going to look at it from the point of view of the interrogator.

The game quickly sets up the situation, a situation that never occurs in real life, the ticking time bomb scenario. You are told there is a man in the next room that has information on a terrorist attack and you are charged with getting it by any means necessary. You are given little information and few details to work off of. In fact the only concrete detail you are given is that there will be an attack.

Then you are left to your own devices and are shown a screen with all manners of items you could normally find is a kitchen or garage. Knives, tongs, wire, car batteries, saran wrap, paper clips, pencils, etc. These are your tools. You can combine them and use them anyway you see fit. You can come back to this screen at anytime to restock or switch items. Once inside the room you can set the conditions for the session, the lighting, the temperature, the position of the subject. A faucet and bucket are in one corner and a drain in the middle of the room.

You get to work and at anytime can begin asking questions to the subject. Your questions at first are very vague since you don’t have any clues to pick apart. You pump him for as much information as you can get all the while doing what you will or you have the choice of doing nothing at all. You can stick with physical abuses, but psychological and verbal abuse options periodically make themselves available.

During this you will see a timer in the corner. You are given a liberal amount of time to complete your task, 48 hours. The timer, however, will keep running even if you are not in the game, even if it is turned off.

Throughout the game your superior officer will enter at several points to see what progress you are making. Each time you will have to inform him of what has been done and each time it isn’t enough to satisfy and each incident your superior will get increasingly agitated and angry with you as the clock runs down. In the end you will try more aggressive tactics and over time will get more specific responses. Though if closely examined each response is merely an extension or experimentation of the last one. The subject will also begin to look worse and reflect the torture that has been inflicted upon him so far. The damage during will be graphic. The subject is tied down for the entire procedure. This is the only aspect of the room you cannot change.

The game will end in one of two ways. One the clock runs down because you weren’t aggressive enough and you get a game over screen. No explanation or details will be given. You will just be asked if you want to play again. The other way is that subject breaks and will admit that there is an attack and to anything else you ask him. Should you ask for details he will confirm everything. You report what you’ve learned to your superior. Then you are treated to an epilogue screen that explains that there was no attack with the inserted details learned during the sessions.

The end is left ambiguous with the more obvious reading being that the subject lied in the end. Not just about the details, but about everything. The other reading for those who see it is that the torture leads to the prevention of the attack. Either way the game will ask you to play again in the menu screen.

Torture doesn’t work and the ticking time bomb scenario is fiction because its based on the premise that you have enough information to know something will happen, but not enough information to know anything else. Without the details you are deprived of in the beginning how can you proceed to get accurate information or that the information is accurate at all. You as the torturer have no choice but to proceed even in the face of personal doubt. Even if you turn the game off the countdown proceeds, whether it is real or not. I hope this game will expose the fallacy of this type of situation and the only argument anyone can seem to come up with in favor of torture.

Alternately feel free to turn your focus to another game designer, or to game designers in general. In literature we frequently “hear” the author’s voice in their work. Stephen King, Margaret Atwood, Tom Robbins-these are excellent examples of authors whose voices are quite recognizable. Through reading their works, we feel we come to feel we know them, to understand their philosophies. There are a handful of games where the “author” can clearly be heard through the work. How closely tied is this to the thematic content of the games and how exactly did they communicate these themes to their audience? And should they have, or should video game designer try to remain out of their work, allowing the player to establish their own themes through gameplay?

Having very little to say on my own thought process for once I decided to go with the second option. Having decided that I would have done it on Hideo Kojima, but before I could get my act together on this Brian Rubinow at the Select Button beat me to it and frankly did a better job than I probably could have. Instead I will focus on another important Japanese auteur, Fumito Ueda. If you don’t recognize the name, shame on you, but at least you should recognize his work: Ico and Shadow of the Colossus.

Ueda’s work is marked its beautiful and yet sad environments. The ground you walk on is itself a character in the game. The desolation and slightly bleached colors add character to the environments like few other games. Once the stage is set, Ueda then crafts a story of subtlety that has to be almost entirely played extrapolated. There are few elements to the games themselves and the complexity comes out of theme and emotion rather than plot trickery or large casts of characters. In fact, both games could be described and defended as epic despite their few elements and less than expansive reach.

There are similar elements to both games. The player plays as a boy youth. There is an immortal, mystical being at the heart of the tale, a quest to rescue a young maiden that the action centers around, environmental puzzles, and an empty world that either seems to be dying or crumbling. The player also has a companion throughout the game, but is not always there to lend aid, Yorda in Ico and Argo in Shadow of the Colossus. 

His games are not only marked by what elements make up his games, but by what is absent. Language is not a big thing in his games. There are few lines of dialogue that mostly serve to set the premise. A bigger note is that every spoken word is from a fictional language unlike either English or Japanese. Our understanding coming through subtitles. Like in any translation there is always the feeling that something got lost between the two languages and this feeling is universal given the language’s made up nature. Instead the game conveys most of its themes and meaning through the characters. Ico holding Yorda’s hand to progress through the castle, or letting her wander around as she enjoys her new found freedom. Argo will putter around looking to the ground for something to eat, but will always come back to you. The relationships are built through these moments. The characters are derived from these moments.

It is a very detail oriented work, with a combination of muted colors, sounds and light adding breath to the world. Ueda creates a word and then brings life to the dying landscape like few others can.

Several themes run through his work. Nature vs. civilization can be seen everywhere as once proud structures fall into decay. Struggle is another grand theme that Ueda puts in all his work. Where other games of obstacles, none can hold a candle to what Ueda puts his characters through, as the characters visibly struggle and exert effort like their lives depended on it. He puts a lot of emphasis on human struggle as the opposition is immortal with powers beyond what we can conceive as we fight against them. In the end, hope is what drives Ueda and his games. He creates emotion, but in the end there is that quality that can allow for a better tomorrow. After all is said and done there is a single remaining feeling of hope that lingers through the player’s body.

Fumito Ueda is a man who speaks few words and yet says a lot. His work aims right to the human condition and with its alien world is still speaks to us like we were right at home. Ueda strives not to create games, but experiences and one is just the means for the other.

Better late than never. I spend a while thinking this over and had a very difficult time about it. I think of myself as a storyteller, but this challenge isn’t to adapt a story, by just moving the plot to the video game medium, but to create the type of game that could have inspired an already written story. The subtle difference being that the theme and meaning have to be at the forefront of the work rather than an after thought from people like us.

I couldn’t think of anything and haven’t read much in the way of books lately on my own. Then I though over what I read for my various classes and something seemed to click when I thought of Theodore Dreiser’s 1900 Sister Carrie. My mind connected the book to a certain concept used in the games Indigo Prophecy and Evergrace. There you can change characters during the narrative. With Indigo Prophecy it is only at certain section of the game and with Evergrace it is really two narratives that you can switch between. Taking this basic concept and combining it with Theodore Dreiser’s masterwork is the basis for my idea.

The game will be a basic open world game taking place first in a mock Chicago then New York. It would be in the style of a thrid persion action game, but with focus on world interaction rather than violence. The player will perform missions for rewards and to press the story forward, which in told through the linearity of the missions, but through how the rewards of the self contained missions effect the characters’ status in the game world.

Following the basic story we follow the titular Sister Carrie and Mr. Hurstwood. The former is a girl from rural Wisconsin who just moved to the big city of Chicago trying to find her American dream and the later is a man of a respectable status and manager of a resort, but ultimately is dissatisfied with his lot. A major desire for everyone in the book is social standing and climbing of the ladder. Hurstwood’s wife is an avid social climber and is displaying her daughter out in high society to rise even higher. Hurstwood himself has reached a point where he no longer cares to climb as he feels he has made it, but still feels as if he is missing something. Carrie on the other hand is at the bottom of the pile; she pays rent to live with relatives and is having a very difficult time in finding work, mainly because she does not to appear as low as she is.

In this beginning portion of the game you would control Carrie and only Carrie through an introductory portion of the game where you learn about the world and how to work your way through it. You will follow her as she struggles to try and make a meager living and perform excursion (rather than call them missions) to find work, try and keep a job, deal with the Hanson’s, Carrie’s elder sister and husband, general disapproval and meet with Mr. Drouet, a traveling salesman she met on the train to Chicago. After some time you will be introduced to Mr. Hurstwood by Mr. Drouet and so the real game gets underway.

Once they have met and Mr. Drouet goes on a sales trip, the game will allow you to shift between the two characters. For most of the time the two characters wont be in contact with each other and will go about their normal day. They will go on excursions on his or her own under the player’s control. At this point Mr. Drouet is paying for an apartment for Carrie and Hurstwood is meeting her there. And this is where the mechanic comes in. The goal of the excursions is to raise their image in other character’s estimations or societies estimations. That or keep them high. However, the characters like those in the book are flawed. Time does not stop for one of the characters during the time that the player is with the other. While the player is raising the social standing of one of the characters the other is dropping. The player will not be informed of this and for a while it will not be obvious. Hurstwood’s wife will increasingly get more annoyed with him the less time the player spends with her and Carrie may fall to the stinging power of the neighbor’s gossip should the player not be there is quell such problems.

To even things and move them forward to the final stage of the game there will be less excursions with Hurstwood as his character becomes increasingly apathetic to his station, while Carrie will have more excursions as she works to improve her station in life. Eventually the two will be equals in social standing. When that happens Hurstwood will finally break down as he did in the game and embezzle from the Fitzgerald and Moy resort. Then he will run off with Carrie to New York, be hunted down by a private eye to take back the money he took, minus severance pay.

Once in New York, Carrie and Hurstwood are equals in social standing. The player can flip back and forth between them at will. The player will perform excursions, Carrie in talking with people keeping them in the societal eye, while Hurstwood tries to run a business to keep a steady income. Eventually the business will go bust if Hurstwood’s social ranking is neglected. Carrie will begin to become and old maid if she is neglected.

The changes in social ranking are in stratification. Earning or losing a few points with either character wont matter in the greater scheme of things, but with enough changing the character will enter a different stratification which will affect what excursions they can do. Also, while moving down a social stratification can happen with enough neglecting of a character, rising up will take money or esteem with those that have it.

As much as the player will switch back and forth between the characters, eventually he or she will have to make a choice of who to back. Should they back Carrie and follow her to becoming a successful actress, while maybe looking at the falling decrepit Mr. Hurstwood like in the book they will be treated to this ending. Mr. Hurstwood will die alone and in the cheapest room available off of begging money, he will have fallen to the lowest point. Carrie on the other hand will have rising as high as one can in society. The toast of Broadway, living in a luxury sweet at a fancy hotel only to find her unsatisfied with fame and money. Carrie will meet Bob Ames who will philosophize about life that there is a higher stratification, but that it cannot be reached with money or the other trapping that her American dream has been based upon until this point. The player will feel the same for there is no end screen, but the game will continue. They can go out on the same excursions over and over, play the mini games and talk to the same NPCs only to hear the same dialogue over and over. The game can go on, but there is no longer any point. While Hurstwood has reached the lowest point, death, Carrie has reached the highest only to find only longing.

Should the player choose to follow Hurstwood, they will see him oppress Carrie’s social climbing as he pulls himself together and creates a bigger business for himself. He will continue the cycle of social climbing that he once despised so that he can get back to the way of living he had become accustomed to. Carrie, meanwhile, will be the housewife and eventually be left behind as Hurstwood realizes that she will no longer help him regained what he lost. Carrie will be displaced and have none of the support she had in Chicago of her sister, who did disapprove of her fleeting ways did not want ill fortune to befall her. Nor can she co back to her rural home now much too far away. She will fall even further until she has fallen as far as she can into death or a house of ill repute for the rest of her days. Hurstwood will have learned nothing and end up right back where he started. Dissatisfied with his lot, yet leaching off the system of status to which he despises.