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Person 1 Can Read Person 2 s Hidden Feelings

Person #1 Can Read Person #2's Hidden Feelings

Here's another game scenario:

You play the captain of a starship. You've just learned that your spaceship has received orders from Admiral Jensen to cross the neutrality line for a secret mission into enemy space.


CREWMAN #1: To hell with Jenson, and to hell


with his orders.


He storms out. Crewman #2 turns to you.


CREWMAN #2: He just found out his wife's


pregnant. Think he's a bit reluctant to die.

Crewman #2 can read what's beneath Crewman #1's feelings. Thus, we know he and #1 have Chemistry.

Now, to know for sure whether this Chemistry Technique is present, we'd need to know a little bit more about Crewman #2. That is, if he can read everyone's feelings, then this wouldn't have as much to do with Chemistry as it would the fact that he's very intuitive or insightful, which is an NPC Deepening Technique.

If he's insightful in this way only with Crewman #1, however, then it's definitely a Chemistry Technique.

(Even if Crewman #2 is insightful only into Crewman #1, as I'm setting it up in this example, that's also an NPC Deepening Technique for Crewman #2. Genuine insight always gives a character depth, even if it's just into one other person.)

They Have Shared Bits

This is one I mentioned earlier, as part of the Chemistry between the two sisters. A Shared Bit , as I define it, is a recurring routine. It can be something physical, like a special handshake. Or, it could be verbal, like two friends who always try to show they have a bigger problem than the other one. A bit can be comedic, but doesn't have to be.

Here's an example of a verbal Shared Bit: There are two friends, and one is always announcing the subtext (the buried feelings) of the other. This would be their Shared Bit.

Take a look at another case study: In this game, you play a paramedic. You walk into the employee lounge at the hospital. There you see Jim and Steven, who are frequently seen together.


PLAYER (to Jim): You're eating my sandwich.


STEVEN: He's upset, he brought in a stiff.


Baloney calms him down.

And then later in the game, you find Jim and Steven in your ambulance, about to pull out of the parking lot. Jim's at the wheel; Steven's riding shotgun. You walk up to them.


PLAYER: (to Jim): Get out of my ambulance.


STEVEN: Your ambulance is newer. It helps


his self-esteem.

This Shared Bit between Jim and Steven shows Chemistry between them. ^[2]

^[2] As a side benefit, if Jim never said a word in the entire game but Steven was his "spokesman," it could be quite funny .

Shared Bits don't prompt player action and they don't advance the plot.

Their purpose is, like all the techniques in this chapter, to make us believe that two NPCs belong together.

Final Thoughts

If the goal is to create emotional immersion in a game, then we need to make the NPCs life-like. Drawing upon NPC Chemistry Techniques helps create that sense of realistic relationships between the NPCs, in cases where they're supposed to be friends , lovers, and so on.

Conversely, setting up a situation where two NPCs are supposedly friends or lovers, and not using such techniques, pulls us out of the game because it will feel unnatural and the poor writing (or lack of Emotioneering) will stand out and call attention to itself.

Chapter 2.8. Emotioneering Techniques Category #8: NPC Toward NPC Relationship Deepening Techniques

Giving NPCs layers of feelings toward their fellow digital creations.

This chapter

illustrates ways, with very little reliance on dialogue, to make it feel like two NPCs have a rich and complex relationship.

Revisiting a thought from Chapter 2.4, if I were to ask you how you felt about your mother, father, brother, or sister, you might respond, "Well, that's kind of complicated…."

Which is exactly the point of this chapter. We often feel several emotions simultaneously toward a person. If we can capture this in the relationships between NPCs, we add to their life-likeness. If we don't, we've missed a great opportunity to create a more emotionally immersive environment.

Two NPCs can have layers of feelings toward each other.

Here's a hypothetical game example: You lead a SWAT team. On your team is a seasoned Veteran, as well as a Rookie. The truth is, the Rookie is braver and a better shot than the Veteran. The Veteran, however, is a smarter tactician and less likely to get the group killed .

In this kind of situation, I like to diagram the layers of feelings of each character toward the other. To simply this example, we'll focus on only the feelings of the Veteran toward the Rookie. The diagram could have one, two, three, or more layers.

For example:

graphics/16nf01.gif

In this relationship, the Veteran feels a variety of things toward the Rookie: (1) Protective, (2) Admiring, and (3) Jealous, and the Rookie makes him (4) Feel Nostalgic for His Youth.

I call this technique of a character feeling several layers of feelings toward another Layer Cakes . I use this expression because the image of a layer cake easily conjures the image of layers.

If you're designing a relationship like the one between the Veteran and the Rookie, you might decide that one or two of the layers the Veteran feels toward the Rookie are present more often than the others, or you may opt to give them all equal weight.