The making of a story
Hello, I’m Radomir Mirchev, Senior Narrative Designer of JA3, and it’s story time once again.
This time I’ll tell you about how stories are created in Jagged Alliance 3 and how more threads are woven into them.
For that purpose I’ll guide you around one of my favorite places in Grand Chien. This is spoiler territory, but don’t worry – I’ll leave enough for you to explore and discover when you get to play the game and reach
Port Cacao Docks. While I introduce you to the neighborhood, I may drop a hint or two about what’s going on there. It’s mostly stuff that anyone at the Docks could tell you.
Design goals
But before we start, let me bring you back to Jagged Alliance 2 for a while.
In JA2, there were just about a dozen of quests and most of them were adoringly simple. They managed to do so much with so little – mostly because they were well-integrated into the framework of the game, made use of existing mechanics and provided different, sometimes quite specific quest outcomes. That helped bring the game world to life.
For example, you could convince
Doreen to shut down her factory where she exploited child labor, or simply kill her – or both. You could obtain the
Chalice of Chance by killing the poor old guard, or take great effort to sneak into the museum and steal it. The game reacted to these choices, for example by modifying Loyalty at the sector.
Screenshot courtesy of Lilura1, cRPG blog
We wanted to keep this kind of integrated content and build upon it.
We had to make sure that we give you freedom of choice, including implicit choices. But as I said in a previous
Dev Diary, freedom only means something if there are suitable outcomes that react to your actions – so you should be able to kill (almost) anyone, and the game should be attuned to your dark psychotic side.
In addition to that, we tried not to insult your intelligence by expecting you to follow series of fetch steps. As with
other game aspects, we wanted to encourage you to try things and see what happens. However, we shouldn’t allow you to feel lost and end up scratching your head what you are supposed to do next. We decided to provide subtle hints here and there that were presented as notes in your
PDA.
Now let’s fast forward to Jagged Alliance 3 and see how we built the
Port Cacao Docks sector with these goals in mind.
Narrative concept
While building the sector, we needed to establish the scene first.
We wanted to show how tough life is in Grand Chien, and how people adapted to the realities of a post-war country that is on the brink of chaos once again.
A document is written that describes the general feel, features and specific points of interest of the place. It is important to supply it with real world visual references which will be used by the art team to produce the necessary assets.
The
level designers pick up from there and work their magic to bring it to life.
Can you see the context already taking shape? The people living at this place are struggling to rebuild their life on the remains of the fishing industry (much like in Steinbeck’s “
Tortilla Flat”). They live in a country devastated by years of war and corruption, but they still need to have a bit of fun sometimes.
Then the narrative designer takes some time to write another document that nails the initial idea into a workable concept. We need memorable characters that have their own agenda and problems. Your mercs will appear in their story as a solution – or as just another complication.
Meet the bartender
Lurch and his best friend
Headshot Hue – formerly a team of headhunters who both retired after, ironically, getting injured in the head.
Lurch’s current vocabulary is limited to the word “Aye” and his mental capabilities don’t go much beyond that.
On the contrary, Headshot Hue is rather talkative – despite the fact that he was shot through the head and the bullet left a hole in his brain. This is actually based on a
real case, but you may as well take it as a throwback to the story of
Elliot from JA2.
Hue has a plan to steal his friend mom’s valuable shotgun, and he will tell you at length why this is a good thing.
...But of course, there should be a more straightforward approach to acquiring the shotgun. Lurch can’t stop you from taking it if he’s dead, right? On the other hand, perhaps the Docks’ inhabitants will miss their adoringly stupid bartender.
In any case, that option must be taken into account.
Art Concept
When we have the general idea in place and before we get back to the story details, we need to sit down with our
artists, and define how our NPCs look.
Each character is described shortly, with quotes and visual references.
NPCs like
Headshot Hue participate in conversations and require full portraits, and those like
Lurch only need a distinctive character appearance.
The map is also tweaked and polished at this point.
Content writing & Scripting
When everything else is set in motion, the designer can finally sit down and write about 12 pages of voiced text content – including the lines and conversations of quest characters, interaction lines, and
“banter” responses for NPCs in the area, so that the world would feel more alive.
In our lingo,
“banters” are short texts displayed in-view over characters' heads without interrupting the gameplay. They are fully voiced when spoken as character lines, but apart from that, they are easily moddable.
Banters support multiple lines, actors and separate conditions, and they are organized in groups that allow them to be distributed per unit in a very flexible way. As a result, the villagers you meet in
Port Cacao Docks may comment on your actions so far, give you hints to undiscovered stories and locations, or talk about what’s going on in this particular area.
You are encouraged to speak to the locals and learn what is important to them, and sometimes your mercs will chime in.
You may overhear a conversation between villagers or even enemies while you sneak past them, and you could get a quest note with useful information.
For example, if you stop and chat with a strange well-armed lady, you will probably learn about the famous
Coffee Beans gang that once ruled the Docks.
However complex and flexible it may be, the banter system is surpassed by the
conversation system which is used for interactions with key NPCs. It allows for more intricate exchanges where you can respond to the NPC, ask about specific things, haggle, appease to them or even threaten them. Your mercs will sometimes comment and take a stand, or recommend an action.
The simplest feature of conversations is the
Greeting. The designer makes sure to provide alternative initial phrases for different situations. They work with conditions in a similar way to the
banters.
For example, if you bring Hue whatever he needed to obtain the shotgun, he will recognize your actions with a unique Greeting and offer you reward – and actually a choice.
Conversations also include
Phrase responses that have their own conditions and effects. They can enable and disable each other, so that you wouldn’t be overwhelmed with too many options, and the conversation would feel natural.
...Unless it doesn’t. But you just can’t get along with some people.
Meet
Granny Cohani, the gun dealer at the Docks and former member of the
Coffee Beans gang.
At this point the designer has 16 pages of good intentions that need to somehow go on the road to... um, release, right? It’s time to sit down and transfer the written content to the respective game editors, set up the conditions, trim the text here and there – and ultimately discover there is so much that can be improved.
Changes are being made, and there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (and possibly just a bit of swearing).
Then the designer pauses and looks at the bigger picture. Okay, we’ve got a quest about two friends and a shotgun, one foul-mouthed old lady that would gladly buy it from you, and a bunch of NPCs walking around and waiting for you to nudge them with your mouse cursor. Is that enough content to fill a town sector? Perhaps not.
This is how the aforementioned
Coffee Beans came into play.
They are the last remnants of a glorious age of freedom, adventure, and honest bank robbery. After their leader
Ma Baxter died, the gang was disbanded. Even though all of them miss the good old days, the stubborn old ladies need to be convinced to drop their quarrels with
Granny. Eventually, the old gang may be reunited against those “little boys” from the Legion.
It’s up to you to try dealing with them – or leave them be and see what happens, or choose another approach. Did I mention that they are well-armed?
Task production & Polish
When the content scripting is done, all that remains is task it to the respective contributors – combat designer, artists, and scripters.
At this point the narrative designer secretly hopes that everything will come together without his further intervention.
Let us all take a moment to laugh at him.
Once all tasks are completed, comes the time when the designer can start the game and play the quests. It is a moment of peace and appreciation of a job well d-ohgawdwhathappenednow...
The designer discovers that he didn’t think of this, and didn’t properly explain that.
Changes will be required and improvements will be done.
Editing & Merc interjections
Ultimately, we have a few nice stories that are pretty much working well.
Now it’s the time to take another good look at the content, see if it feels good, polish the text and pepper it with what is the soul of
Jagged Alliance: merc interjections and remarks.
Some conversation
phrases will be unlocked by a merc with high Wisdom, another stat, or a certain perk. Sometimes specific mercs will have something to say... or do.
I won’t promise that your merc will say exactly what you would like, but it’s up to you to let them speak.
Abuse by evil people
In the end, when we feel that the story is all grown up and strong enough, we throw it to the lions.
Our
testers are the most kind and lovely people one could ever hope to meet, but while playing, they are nothing short of a bunch of raging psychopaths. A designer may feel pretty smart for script-handling the death of one NPC or another – but who could have guessed that the first thing a player may do when they save the kidnapped President of Grand Chien, is to just shoot him in the face and see what happens?!
...Though let us all be thankful to the testing team. After all they did to the game, it’s pretty safe to lay it in your hands!
I know it will be in good hands.
