Audio - Video Game: Storytelling - page 204

time-consuming aspects of a video game's Narrative and Audio efforts. It's
also often a major challenge for audio programmers and tools developers.
In terms of sheer line count and technological infrastructure, nothing else
in the shared realm of Narrative and Audio generally comes close.
The most obvious games with a need for systemic VO are big, open-
world console games along the lines of the Grand Theft Auto series, and
massive open-world MMOs such as Star Wars: The Old Republic (currently
the world record holder for the most amount of VO in any entertainment
product, featuring a staggering two hundred thousand-plus lines). And
while it's true that these types of games may feature the largest amount of
systemic VO—and thus the most VO, since systemic line counts usually
dwarf every other type within a game—other genres also call for “barks,”
“quips,” or whatever each studio's own culture has decided to refer to sys-
temically triggered VO lines.
Nearly every VO-inclusive game featuring any type of combat, for ex-
ample—whether it's a shooter, a fighting game, or a multiplayer online
battle arena—will be improved by players hearing barks that offer clues to
character status and intentions while simultaneously providing entertain-
ment and character development. They also just make the AI feel more
alive and real—as long as the system is working well.
Even games in which you might not expect to hear systemic VO are
starting to include it. For example, Blizzard's Hearthstone digital collectible
card game features in-game enemy characters quipping and commenting
in reaction to attacks, being hit, things going well, things going poorly, and
many other trigger conditions —in a card game .
In the future, as cellular bandwidth continues to increase and mobile
and social game platforms allow for more and more robust gaming exper-
iences, we will almost surely hear more VO in the city-building, bird-fling-
ing, and color-matching distractions occupying us on our phones and
tablets.
So, understanding the importance of close, early collaboration when
designing a systemic dialogue system is becoming an increasingly com-
mon requirement within the industry. The actual design will vary wildly de-
pending on the type of game you're making as well as many other factors,
but regardless of these details there are a number of constants I believe
apply to all these situations.