Developing narrative-oriented systems for Unreal Engine 4

Developing narrative oriented systems for point-and-click adventures in Unreal Engine 4

by Jorge Montolio and Wendy Despain

AgendaProject overviewGame SystemsInteraction systemState systemDialog systemRewind OverviewUI systems

HUDInventoryNotebookTimelineNote Menu ConclusionLessonsMoving forwardntera

Project overviewCreating 1st person narrative-oriented systems, inspired by point-and-click classics, for the Unreal Engine 4

Goal: Implement narrative systems that designers could use in order to develop narrative games in Unreal Engine 4.Artifacts:SystemsShort demo to show that the systems work.

Game Systems developed for the projectSystemsInteraction and comment systemState systemDialog system

Interaction/Comment systemPlayers can interact with certain objects in the environment.Objects get highlighted if they are interactive.Left-click = Observe/UsePlayers usually makes a comment about the interactable object.How it works: Action TriggersNarrative goal: communicate the main characters thoughts and personality.Overview

Interaction/Comment systemAction triggers - Basics

Interaction/Comment systemAction triggers Basics 2Action triggers control object highlight.Players can interact with an object when they enter the Collision Area of an Action Trigger.Players need to be looking at the Look-at area to interact with an object.

Interaction/Comment systemAction triggers Linking behaviorsAction triggers link objects to their behavior.Action triggers can link several objects to the same behavior.Example: 20 mugs on different tables.Player makes same comment, regardless of the mug he observes.

Interaction/Comment systemAction triggers Other usesAction triggers have many uses:Hide objects.Make objects more visible.Highlight non-interactive objectsStatic meshesSkeletal meshes

Action triggers can highlight skeletal meshes

State systemOverviewIn graphic adventures players can visit many environments at the same time.In Rewind, for instance, players need to travel between levels constantly.The state system allows for those environments to be in different levels.

Purpose of the state system: restoring the state of all objects after level loading.

State systemStates - BasicsEvery interactive object has a current stateInteractive Objects change states in many circumstances, mainly due to player interaction.The states themselves never change.Saving a level = saving the states id of all objects in the level.

Example of object with different states

State systemStates What they storeComments that the player has made about the object.Is the object still in the world? (pickups)Is the object usable?Is the objects broken? (glass)Others

States store all information needed to restore an object, including:Properties of a state

State systemStates Ease of useStates are visible in editor.Facilitates design and clarity.

Dialog system

Properties:Players have several answers available.Players answers affect dialog flow.Voice-overThe dialog system uses states, like the interactive objects.Inspired by Skyrims dialog system.An integer controls the state of the dialog.The Status number

Example of dialog flow, based on Status valueDialog Status number

Dialog system

Advanced dialog flow

Dialog system

Dialog in gameThe dialog UI in game

Dialog system

Dialogs in editor

Like the object states, the dialog states are visible in editor.Facilitates dialog organization, which can get messy with branching dialog.

RewindA 1st person 3D point-and-click sci-fi adventure, where players have to enter other characters memories, in order to solve a mystery inside a futuristic laboratory.Story Highlights:Players take the role of the detective Dale Cooper.Players receive an emergency call from a laboratoryOnce they arrive at the laboratory, there is no one there.Players have the Rewinder.With the Rewinder, players can analyze DNA and enter the memories of the DNAs owner.Through characters memories, Cooper witnesses the story events out of chronological order.

UI systems developed for the projectSystemsHUDInventoryNotebook MenuTimeline menuNote menuLog system/menu

UI - The HUDTwo HUDs

Real world HUD

Quick access to inventoryReminds players about Rewinder/NotebookMemory HUD

Narrative purposeReminds players about which character they are controlling

UI - The Inventory

Shortcut to first four items through the HUD.Players can click on any items and see their description.Players can double-click on items to use them.The inventory contains direct access to the Rewinder and the Notebook.

UI - The Notebook

Gameplay purpose: having a single point of access to all narrative-relevant information. Store gameplay-relevant information.It contains 3 submenusNote menu: contains notes made by the main character.Log menu: contains text logs picked up by the players.Timeline menu: shows the events of the level in chronological order.

Players can access the Notebook from the Inventory.

Players can also access the Notebook by pressing N at any time.Narrative purpose: clarify story details and help players remember story events.

UI - The Notebook

The Notebook contains three sub-menus

UI - Note menu

Purpose of the Note Menu: helps players remember gameplay-relevant and story-relevant information (names, events, passwords, etc).

The Note MenuThe main character makes a comment every time he writes a new note.I should write this down in my notebook

UI - Timeline

Purpose of the Timeline: contains the story events in chronological order. Very important, since players witness the story events out of chronological order.The Timeline

UI - Log Menu

Narrative purpose of the logs: convey secondary characters personality, story, and thoughts.The text logsLogs can be written by any secondary character.They can be part of a diary, a lab report, an email management tool, etc.Sometimes they contain gameplay-relevant information.

This log reveals the animosity between Dr. Anderson and Dr. Cook

UI - Log Menu

Purpose of the Log Menu: allows players to review text logs that they have previously picked up.The TimelineThe menu

Log Menu

Lessons

UE4Problems:Inheritance was buggy.Loss of information on both inherited classes and structs, after changing values or compiling.Deleting blueprints can break references.Behavior in Standalone != Behavior in Editor.Static lighting affects all streams.

Dialog states would frequently lose information after the parent state class was compiled.

Lessons

UI and narrativeLessons learned:Simple UIs work better than complex, crowded ones.Object highlights are important to avoid players frustration.Simple controls, if possible, make the experience better.Players have expectations for certain UI interactionsPlayers dont usually enter menus unless the menu has a gameplay-relevant purpose.

Final HUDFirst HUD

Going forward

Additional workAdded ValueCostAdapting the systems to 3rd personVery highVery highImprove flexibilityVery highVery highCreating RewindVery highVery highImproving level streamingMediumHighImprove ease-of-useMediumMedium-High

With more time, some additional work could improve the systems and the artifact:

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