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Procedural Characters
previous chapter could be thought of as a simulation, providing it was represented through a dynamic process. Combining narrative and simulation is a powerful way of thinking about games as a representational medium, because it forces a truly experiential approach to participating with a story. As Reiner Knizia wrote in his earlier essay for this book, his hope for the Lord of the Rings Board Game was that it would "not just re-tell Tolkien's plot, but more importantly it would make the players feel the emotional circumstances of the story." Following are four examples of just one part of the storytelling equation, the element of character. The four examples each examine a very different strategy for procedurally creating narrative experience via character (here we are using a general concept of "character" that refers to a fictional persona contained within a game representation). Some of the examples are characters under the direct control of a player, whereas others remain outside of player control. In all cases, rules and interaction are used to procedurally construct a character, while also weaving the character into the larger fabric of the game representation. Zelda: Link's Awakening
In this adventure game for the Game Boy, players control a character named Link, moving him about the fictional world of the game, exploring new spaces, acquiring objects, and defeating enemies. The game is rich with characters—in addition to Link, many personalities populate the world of the game, including a witch character that players encounter early in the game. The character of the witch signifies the idea of "witch" in many different ways. The character looks like a witch (she wears a tall pointed hat), sits next to a cauldron, cackles as she talks, and possesses other stereotypical trappings of a cartoon witch. In addition to these non-procedural representations, depiction of the witch occurs procedurally as well: the witch character has a number of systemic qualities that allow her to signify in ways that a non-procedural character could not. For example, like many characters encountered in Zelda: Link's Awakening, the witch's character lives in her own house. Most houses are found in villages, where many of them are clumped together. As a result, they are easy to locate. But the witch's house lies deep in the heart of a dangerous wood. In order to reach it, the player must overcome obstacles as he or she searches through the maze-like forest. Not only is the witch represented in the space of the game as living a life isolated from the villagers, but her very separation from society makes her character more difficult to find. Both of these attributes (isolated and dangerous to visit) are very "witchy" characteristics. In the game, these characteristics are a function of the position of the witch's house relative to other elements on the game-grid of the imaginary world: they are procedural, growing from the formal characteristics of the game and the player's own game interactions.
When a player reaches the witch, she informs Link (via onscreen text) to bring her a mushroom. If the player goes back out into the forest, collects a mushroom, and then brings it back to the witch, she will take the mushroom, stir her cauldron, and produce a magical powder for the player. The witch enacts a procedure that transforms the mushroom, changing its properties within the game. As a liminal character living outside the bounds of society, the witch has the ability to convert natural objects to useful technologies. This kind of procedural characteristic is common in adventure games (take object A to character X and receive object B). Yet in the case of the witch, it works very well to depict her character.The procedural elements constituting her representation (her location in the world, her ability to convert objects) are truly witch-like and serve to create an effective and memorable character. One last note of clarification: imagine a witch character in a book similar to the witch in Zelda: Link's Awakening. The book's story would describe how the witch lives in the woods, makes magical potions, and so on. What would be the difference between the two witches? Aren't they basically the same character? Perhaps, but the form of their representation is radically different. Although both witches might have the same "literary" characteristics, the witch in the book would not possess these traits as procedural qualities, which are triggered as part of an activity of meaningful play. In fact, the witch in the story is exactly the kind of witch that the game witch references. Actively exploiting the witch's witch-like qualities, not just by reading about them but also by playing with them, is what makes her representation so powerful to experience in the context of the game. Virtua Fighter 4
The fighting game Virtua Fighter 4 integrates procedural representation into the narrative play of the game by tying the formal characteristics of the fighting characters to their appearance, personality, and embedded backstory. Every character is designed with explicit strengths and weaknesses, which are procedurally represented through character attributes. For example, Pai Chan has incredible speed but lacks power and hard-hitting moves. Kage-Maru has complex combinations and special moves, but they take time to execute, leaving him vulnerable to attacks from his opponent. Jeffry McWild has great power, but is large and heavy, and therefore less agile. Each character's strengths are countered by logical weaknesses, adding up to a fighting "personality" that plays itself out during each match. In a well-designed fighting game these procedural representations have strong ties to the fictive world and narrative of the game. How a character fights is usually an external representation of internal qualities, and fighting styles are mirrored in the narrative histories provided for each character, as well as more mundane information such as height and weight, profession, gender, and country of birth. All of these non-procedural narrative descriptors may seem superficial to the game play, but they help create an integrated character in which procedural and non-procedural elements are brought together in a character representation that players experience on many levels. For example, Virtua Fighter 4's Pai Chan is an action film star whose hobby is dancing. She is small and light and favors a fighting style that uses combos and quick reverses. Her father, Lau, bested her in a previous tournament, and in VF4 Pai is determined to defeat him and prove herself a worthy successor to her father's legacy. Each component of this narrative offers players insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the character. Pai Chan's background as an action hero and dancer make her quick and agile. Her preferred style of fighting favors rapid combinations that often leave her defenseless if her attacks are blocked. Because of her intense desire to defeat her father, Pai Chan is driven by emotion, not logic. As a result, her fighting style is visceral and immediate. She reacts quickly, but rarely plans for the long fight.
This character sketch not only describes Pai Chan herself, but also the playing style that her procedural characteristics engender. By "playing" Pai Chan in a match, the player participates in her representation, bringing her procedural characteristics to life. The play becomes a meaningful representation because of the well-designed synergy between her formal characteristics, appearance, backstory, and emergent personality. This kind of richly layered simulation is a fantastic example of the unique ways that games signify through an integrated suite of representational mechanisms. Deus Ex
Deus Ex is a role-playing game designed for both computer and console platforms. A strong feature of the game is the computer-generated characters, which respond to game events in surprisingly subtle and expressive ways. These characters follow a series of AI algorithms that determine how they behave in any given situation. In Swords and Circuitry, Hallford and Hallford reprint a section of the Deus Ex design document that outlines how different character types act in certain circumstances. This fascinating document reveals the designed mechanisms by which the game's characters are procedurally represented. Here is a brief excerpt from the document : Civilian:
Does not harm civilians
Ignores unidentified sounds
Aware of alarms
Issues warning before attacking
Flees when wounded below X% (where X is high)
Tends to protect self
Ground-based movement, normal
Thug:
No concern for safety of civilians · Investigates unidentified sounds · Aware of alarms · Attacks without warning · Flees when wounded below X% (where X is low) · Ground-based movement, normal
Military:
Does not harm civilians
Investigates unidentified sounds (if possible without abandoning post)
Aware of alarms
Issues warning before attacking
Never flees when wounded
Ground-based movement, fast [4]
These character descriptions are quite high level—they do not formally specify exactly how each character will behave. For example, the speed of each character is only defined as "normal" and "fast" rather than numerically. However, as an abstract character sketch, these descriptions offer a snapshot of the sort of design decisions the game's designers made as they developed the characters' behaviors. Compare the thug character and the military character. Whereas the more cowardly thug will flee when his health is low, the brave military character will never abandon his post and will fight it out to the bitter end. The unscrupulous thug will attack without warning, but the honorable military character will issue a warning before attacking. In this way, the programmed characteristics of the characters take on a simulated personality, becoming expressive by virtue of their procedural differences. By adding different types of characters defined along a number of parameters, an entire cast of procedurally generated actors could be developed. To appreciate the sophistication of these strategies for representation, compare the Deus Ex characters to the witch in Zelda. The witch behavior is fairly simple and wholly predictable (if: receive mushroom, then: create powder). In contrast, several Deus Ex characters encountering each other in the game create a scene rife with emergent drama.
Imagine, for example, the following situation: A thug approaches a civilian. The civilian (who ignores unidentified sounds) pays no heed to the footsteps of the approaching thug, who begins to mercilessly beat the civilian (attacks without warning; no concern for safety of civilians). After the thug strikes a single blow, the civilian starts to flee (flees when wounded below X%, where X is high), pursued by the thug (both characters move at normal speed). The pair of them run by a military character who takes notice of them (investigates unidentified sounds) and takes up the chase herself, quickly catching up to them (moving at fast speed). The military character ignores the civilian but catches up to the thug and begins to issue a warning… How will the scene play out? Does the thug pause when warned, giving the civilian time to flee? Do the military character and the thug battle to the finish? Or does the entire scene disperse as characters each go their separate ways? This sequence of actions is not pre-scripted, but instead emerges from the simulated behaviors of the characters. Each character has a very distinct personality. Of course each character also has a different visual appearance, style of movement, tone of voice, and so on. These nonprocedural traits are certainly important to their overall representation. But it is through the procedural representation of the characters, representation emerging from behavioral characteristics, that they take on active roles in the dramatic events of the game. Blob
Procedurally represented characters are not exclusive to the domain of digital games. Our final example of a procedural character comes from a non-digital game, a New Games tag variant called Blob. If you're addicted to late-night TV monster movies, here's a sure way to kick the habit and break out into the light of day… The Blob begins innocently enough as a mere individual playing a game of tag. As soon as she catches someone, she joins hands with him. Now he's part of the Blob too, and they both set out, hand-in-hand, in search of victims. Everyone the Blob catches (only the outside hand on either end of the Blob can snatch at players) joins hands with it and becomes part of the lengthening protoplasmic chain. And thus the insidious Blob keeps growing. Unlike your run-of-the-mill, mad scientist-created Blobs, this one is not content to merely ooze along, seeking its prey.It gallops around the field, cornering stray runners and forcing them to join up…. Moreover (horrors), the Blob can split itself into parts and, with its superior communal intelligence, organize raiding parties on the lone few who have managed to escape. The thrilling climax occurs when there's only one player left to put up a heroic last-ditch stand on behalf of humanity. But alas, there is no defense against the Blob, and humanity succumbs. (If that seems unfair, well, that's the plot.) The moral of our story could well be,"You become what you fear." If you have the heart to destroy humanity again, you can have the last person caught start the Blob for the next game.[5]
The game of Blob is centrally focused on the procedural representation of a single character: the Blob. The form that the character takes, a mass of moving bodies, is quite different than the characters in Zelda: Link's Awakening, Virtua Fighter 4, and Deus Ex, which are experienced as visual images and audio. Yet, like these characters, the Blob is generated out of a set of representational procedures.
The Blob parodies a B-grade movie monster: a humongous, horrifying, pudding-like creature. The rules of the game cleverly bring this character to life through a set of behavioral procedures for representation. The fact that the rest of the players try to avoid the Blob immediately creates an environment of fear. The slow-moving Blob scatters players before it, lumbering through the playfield. The touch of the Blob is deadly, and when a player is brushed Designing the mechanisms of that system presents many chalby one of the edges of the Blob, that player is ingested lenging decisions for a game designer. In Inventing the and incorporated into the body of the character. As the Blob grows, it tends to move more slowly while covering a wider area; it can also fragment and recombine in Given a phenomena to simulate, the problem is to decide what are a very protoplasmic way. The size of the Blob is an inverse its parts, how these parts can be represented with numerical val-function of the number of players running loose around ues, and what the relationships are that let these parts affect one the playfield. The dwindling non-Blob players become a another…. community of hard-nosed survivors. Oh no! Don't tell me it got Sharyn too! At the game's climax, the Blob symbolically ingests the entire world, becoming synonymous with the group of players as they reach a competitively and coop- eratively achieved endpoint. The game's narrative may only have one ending, but as the rules point out, there is a moral to the storyJust as the witch in Zelda: Link's Awakening was repre[4]Harvey Smith, "The Future of Game Design," <www.gamasutra.com >.[5]Fluegelman and Tembeck, The New Games Book ,p. 107.
