Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Working with phrases
Each node of the conversation tree is a phrase, either answer or question. Your main
objective as a game designer is to interest a player to read the text. It is an open
secret that some players simply skip dialogues, tapping phrases fast, losing all the
narrative and not taking part in textual puzzles. They may even get stuck in the game
if they do not note important information. Besides such naughty persons, diligent
players can begin to act in the same way if the dialogue is boring, hard to follow, is
neither intriguing, nor humorous. Thereby each phrase should be developed very in-
dustriously.
First of all, a thing about the width of a text block displayed on the screen. It should
not be too narrow or wide. Look at the SMS application for an iPhone; all the blocks
of text do not cover the entire width of the screen. If the length of the text is optimal,
it's easy for the human eye to focus when it moves on lines. There are no uncomfort-
able sensations. Choose somewhere about 30 to 35 characters in a line.
Only typefaces (no matter serif or non-serif) with a look close to classical should
be used. Every letter with excess ornamentation or whimsical design is harder to
recognize. In an ideal case, the players would not notice the letters at all, moving
through them smoothly without trying to grasp the meaning. The entire text in up-
percase is bad for dialogues, for example, SINCE PEOPLE RECOGNIZE WORDS
BY FAMILIAR PATTERNS, A RELIEF OF LETTERS, BUT ALL-CAPS BROKE THIS
RULE; THE READING PROCESS BECOMES TIRESOME AND SLOWER. There-
fore more traditional typography methods must be used to keep the optimal level of
readability; use uppercase letters only for standard positions.
Any sentence should be short and easy to read and perceive; ideally they should fit
in a single line of text. A phrase made of more than three lines may be ignored or
read only partially (for instance, only the beginning and final parts).
Alfred Hitchcock
said, "Drama is life with the dull bits left out". So, try to cut out excessive details by
concentrating only on important things. It is better to avoid complex and compound-
complex sentence structures, as they are harder to follow and are less natural. Note
