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Adapting the Tools of Drama to Interactive Storytelling The Three Act StructureIn a dramatic presentation the pattern of human conduct is developed within the framework of a particular structure or dramatic form, which, despite passing innovations, has persisted over thousands of years. The study of this structure is the next step in understanding the principles of drama. Dramatic structure is the destruction and restoration of the balance of forces. Simply, it is the process of getting into, and then back out of, trouble. Examine any compelling story and you will find that at the outset an equilibrium exists; the potentials of struggle may be present and even boiling under the surface, but the trigger has not been pulled. During the presentation or interaction the balance is destroyed. At the conclusion of the drama balance has been regained. It may be a balance of forces completely different from that found in the beginning, but a balance is present. This balance-imbalance-balance structure is divided into five parts. The parts are:
These five parts fall into three acts in the following way: Act One The exposition leads to the inciting action. The inciting action is the moment of destruction of the balance of forces — the trigger being pulled. Sometimes it is called the inciting moment or the overt act, meaning that it is the clear, visible action which incites the struggle. Act Two The climax is the high tide of the drama. From the spectator's or participant's standpoint, it is the high point of excitement. From the standpoint of conflict, it is the point at which the protagonist and antagonistic forces arrive at an impasse that allows no other solution but to finally resolve the difficulty. This moment is often a seemingly unsolvable problem. Act Three
Finally, at the conclusion, the questions of the audience are logically and finally answered. In contrast, a conclusion can also simply be an emotional pay-off, as in the final scene of Star Wars, which explains nothing, but communicates the victorious return of our heroes. Whether or not the conclusion is satisfying comes back to how we relate to the characters. How do we feel about the protagonist and her goal? If the protagonist has a clear and compelling goal that we can all relate to, if we care about the protagonist and feel that she has fought an admirable and tough fight against a worthy adversary, then we will experience a purge of emotions when the protagonist finally succeeds, or fails. The idea of an interactive computer story probably at first knee-jerk implies that many of the tools used to enhance a story with dramatic elements are now in the hands of the player instead of the writer or designer. In other words, the point of view, order of settings, and order of the story events, are now all at the whim of the "audience". Potentially lost are the balance-imbalance-balance over-structure, and the five-part (exposition, complication, climax, resolution, and conclusion) sub-structure of drama. Decreased control of these tools equals a dramatic problem. A way that we can achieve both a non-linear, free-choice environment and keep our five-part dramatic structure is by assigning the non-linearity to the micro-level, while maintaining a scripted structure at the macro-level. That's a mouthful, I know. For simplicity sake, let's say that areas in an action/adventure game in which the participant is allowed to freely explore are made up of two elements: the environment and NPC's. This means that the dramatist has two ways to communicate information to the participant: through environmental design and events, and through the actions and dialogue of NPC's. One approach to achieving dramatic structure while maintaining free exploration is to create environments and NPC's that are informed by the five-part dramatic structure. A way to achieve both is to group possible environmental events and possible NPC actions and dialogues into five libraries: exposition, complication, climax, resolution, and conclusion. In other words, the participant can explore the various environments at will and encounter the NPC's at will, but as long as we are working from the exposition library, for example, no matter what happens, the events and NPC actions will be about the time, place, the social and psychological aspects of the situation, the introduction of characters, their reasons for being, the introduction of theme, and foreshadowing conflict. When the inciting incident has been enacted, and it is time to begin on the conflict library, no matter where the player goes, no matter who the player encounters, the environmental events and the actions of NPC's will be about conflict, and so forth. In this way we maintain a large degree of non-linearity, while maintaining enough control to guarantee our dramatic structure. Suspense The basic task of the dramatist consists of capturing the attention of the audience and holding it for as long as required. If the audience fails to concentrate on what is happening from moment to moment, on what is being said and done, all is lost. The creation of suspense underlies all dramatic construction. Expectations must be aroused, but never, until the last, wholly fulfilled; the action must seem to be getting nearer to the objective yet never reach it entirely before the end. Above all, in order to maintain interest, there must be constant variation of pace and rhythm. There are many kinds of suspense: suspense may lie in a question like, 'What is going to happen next?', or in 'I know what is going to happen, but how is it going to happen?' or, indeed, 'I know what id going to happen and I know how it is going to happen, but how is X going to react to it?' Suspense can also be aroused by a quite different type of question, such as, 'What is it that I see happening?' or by the question 'these events seem to have a pattern; what kind of pattern will it turn out to be?' One thing, however, is certain: some sort of basic question must emerge fairly early in any dramatic form so that the audience can settle down to the main element of suspense. At its most basic suspense depends on the existence of at least two possible solutions to the problem. The human attention span is relatively short. One major suspense element is not enough to hold an audience's attention throughout the course of a story. Beyond the main question or theme or story arc, the rise and fall of subsidiary arcs, arising from subsidiary suspense elements, must be superimposed. For instance, while our main interest is held by the question of why Planet Alderon was targeted, at the same time, but in a much shorter time span, we are eagerly asking ourselves how the princess now being questioned was involved and whether she had anything to do with the final action. The main suspense element inspires subsidiary suspense elements. There is an element of suspense needed for each scene or section of the action, superimposed on the main suspense element of the work. Secondary questions, goals, or problems could be a part of the set design. For instance, a body is found; how was the character killed? The answer seems to be inside a cave, but is the cave safe to enter? What about the giant footprints leading into the cave? The machine at the entrance of the cave seems to be part of the answer, but what does it do? Or even more simply, 'The path doesn't look too safe. What is beyond that next corner?' A study of theme rides in amusement parks would offer many examples of the creation of suspense in set design. In order to insure moment-by-moment interest, there must be a third, purely local, micro-level element of suspense at any given moment in a well-devised story — the line of dialogue or single detail of business the characters are engaged in at that moment. Good dialogue and good moment-by-moment action is unpredictable. Predictability is the death of suspense and therefore of drama. In addition, a character who never says a line which is arresting, witty, amusing or interesting, will have great difficulty in catching the audience's sympathy or, conversely, loathing. If we are
careful to design our "stages" in an evocative way, and if we
populate our stages with unpredictable and interesting NPC's, we can get
the player to wonder 'What is going to happen next?', or 'I suspect I
know what is going to happen, but how is it going to happen?' or even
'What is it that I see happening?'. ______________________________________________________ |
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