Every interaction between two actors has an impact on the intimacy of the relationship. This intimacy is objective (i.e. shared by both actors), the attitude towards it is objective as well (whether they want to make it more or less intimate). Only the enthusiasm of the actor is subjective: some actors are very enthusiastic, others are not.
But enthusiasm only impacts the chance of a break-up (also objective). After an interaction with a higher level of intimacy, the relationship will improve, even if one of the actors is more eager than the other.
It may be nice to see actors express happiness after an interaction that increased the intimacy and sadness or anger after one that didn’t. Would facial expressions be sufficient for this? Or would a certain pose or short animation be required as well? I’m not fond of the all-too-clear way in which The Sims have plus or minus graphics above their heads after an interaction.
I also don’t like the idea of actors doing a “i liked it” or “i disliked it” after every interaction. And in fact, this is not necessary. The impact of the interaction is known when the interaction is chosen. So perhaps the facial expression can be used during the interaction. This would mean that a couple that is falling out of love, would shake hands with a sad face (because it is below their intimacy level). While actors who just met, would shake hands with a happy face. Could be good.
Alternatively, or next to this, simple emotion expressions could also be played in between other interactions. When the past few interactions have improved the relationship, actors may play a little animation expressing contentment.
A break-up should probably be met with an emotional response, the strength of which possibly related to the severity of the break-up, i.e. the level of intimacy that the relationship had before the break-up. Actors may cry passionately or just bow their head, depending on how good their relationship was, before they start interacting again.
A break-up resets the intimacy to neutral. When the intimacy is neutral, attitude is being defined randomly. Attitude impacts whether the relationship will get better or worse. The more neutral a relationship is, the more chance attitude can go either way. Once the intimacy of a relationship evolves (towards less or towards more), attitude will tend to remain the same.
Emotions should probably be expressed when attitude seems to have been decided upon: towards more or less intimacy (happy or mean).
Posted on July 4, 2006 at 4:17 am
I am enjoying reading about your design ideas but I am wondering if you are seeing problems with your approach?
I dont think the design states it explicitly but what I understand is that the Drama Princess system will *facilitate* the types of interaction you are describing but will not, itself, *generate* those interactions?
If that is the case I am left wondering how it will be possible (realistically) for a content developer to create content of any reasonable length or complexity? You have described in detail a great deal of (very interesting and dramatic) complexity so far. However what this would seem to mean for a content developer would be quite astronomical requirements in terms of creating characters and more importantly how they interact.
How do you plan to make this both manageble and deeply interactive?
Posted on July 4, 2006 at 8:35 am
Drama Princess is being developed to suit our own ideas about interactive narrative and may not be suitable for people with ideas that are very different. The basis of our approach is that plot should be replaced by situation. “Length” and “complexity” sound like words which belong to plot-driven approaches. We are not necessarily interested in lengthy projects and prefer to let the user decide how long they want to play (non-linear sandbox concept). And complexity is something we want to happen in the imagination of the player. Ideally, Drama Princess will limit itself to suggestion and will never be aware of its own story.
Drama Princess, as a module, will come with a bunch of standard animations. These will get you a long way, but authors will probably want to add many custom animations. Especially since these animations will define the kind (and number) of possible interactions.
Authoring the personalities will be very simple (a few variables). For the visual appearance, custom artwork will be required. We think the visual aspects of actors and environment are equally important as their behaviour. And this is something we think every author needs to make personal decisions about.
While Drama Princess is being released as open source, we don’t intend this to become an easy-to-use package for authors. We see it more as a bunch of ideas than a tool.
Technically, it will always have to be part of a bigger project. And that project needs to be built with Quest3D. So the use of the actual software will be somewhat limited for these reasons alone.