| Often NPCs provide the function of supplying information. This dialogue can be quite dry and wooden. Of course, making the dialogue interesting is key. One way is to "split up" the information so that, to understand what's needed to be known, the player must talk to more than one NPC. This could be made even more natural if the player isn't just wandering around in a room or other environment, talking to one NPC after another. Instead, pieces of the needed information can be seeded into the game beginning earlier on, with the final NPC supplying the last piece. Of course, this kind of detective work has several additional advantages: It might allow the player to hear different points of view on the same subject. These multiple points of view make the game's world richer and is a World Induction Technique (see Chapter 2.18). It means that the dialogue from the NPCs doesn't have to simply convey all the information, thus leaving more room for color. This adds to the atmospheric emotions in the game. It can be used to create plot twists and missions. For example, the player might learn that he or she needs to go to a different location where the rest of the required information can be found. Or the player might need to go on a mission to retrieve an item he or she must trade with a particular NPC to get critical information. Or the player might realize that another, more urgent task must be handled immediately, interrupting the task he or she thought needed attention. A Cautionary Note There's a danger to splitting information. Executing this technique poorly can drastically increase player frustration, if the players can't perform the detective work necessary to intuit what they are supposed to do next. This could happen because they can't find all the information, or they're just not clever enough to solve your "puzzles." Remember, a puzzle that might seem clear to the designer might not seem easy enough at all to the players. Sometimes only game testing reveals if you've gotten it right. |
And of course, ideally, information will also be given out in all sorts of nonverbal ways as well. If the hospital is regularly being robbed of its medicines, you don't need to discover this from an NPC. You could turn the corner at night to see two men coming out a back door with boxes in their hands, and tail them.
Combining these kinds of approaches with interesting NPC dialogue can contribute to a rich game experience and a feeling that the player is both discovering the plot and moving it forward amidst a world of life-like characters. |
