We have no Design MasterClasses scheduled at the moment please contact ali@tandemevents.co.uk if you’re interested in future Design Classes.
Here are details of our most recent Class:
How to write a successful RPG franchise (…and create a game that’s fit for Hollywood)
Class Leader: Hope Caton, Screenwriter and Lecturer
Story is increasingly important to the success of all games, especially RPG’s. It’s no longer good enough just to provide challenging game play, today’s gamer demands a compelling hero, surprising plot twists and interesting villains – all the essential ingredients of your typical Hollywood film.
From plot structure and story arc to character creation and development, this masterclass will guide you through the essentials of screenwriting using film references and show how to apply these techniques to designing games and game levels.
Delegate Take Away
Delegates will learn how to create a compelling plot and storyline, together with an understanding of the importance of timing so key dramatic points occur at the proper moments to drive the plot. They will also gain an in-depth knowledge of successful character creation.
Audience
Game designers
Level designers who work on story-based games
Game producers
IP creators
Class Programme
9.30 – 11.00 The Plot
The plot is the bullet train that propels the gamer through the game, also called the story arc. In Hollywood it’s called structure and it’s the first step of good storytelling. We discuss the trap of too much backstory and learn how to drive the plot forwards using essential beats. We then link plot to character via the Hero’s Journey and the use of archetypes. The gamer must want to be the hero, must empathise with his/her struggles, and feel his/her pain. Participants will break into teams and conceive a plot for a game.
11.00 – 11.30 Coffee Break
11.30 – 13.00 Linear versus non-linear
Characters are paramount: your hero is only as good as your best villain. Films often use dialogue to reveal character, but games should use action to reveal it. In games, unlike films, characters are free to explore the slip roads and side alleys branching off the main plotline, where they may encounter puzzles, tests, and conundrums that use gameplay to develop character.
We will discuss where to split off narrative strands and when to bring them back into the main plot. We’ll learn about The Board: a story-planning tool used by most Hollywood screenwriters.
13.00 – 14.00 Lunch
14.00 – 15.30 The Trap of Cut Scenes
Are cut scenes the connective tissue, eye-candy reward, or immense distraction? Whaever your opinion, cut scenes have been the primary storytelling vehicles in games. However, they are segregated from the gameplay, which increases the separation of story from game. Sophisticated game engines mean stories can be told within gameplay, using fewer and shorter cut scenes and increasing the demand for game developers to become storytellers. We will learn how to build a level using Hollywood scene structure techniques and how to move a character through a scene.
Teams will write a level for their plot.
15.30 – 16.00 Tea Break
16.00 – 17.00 Team presentations to the group.
17.00 – 17.15 Wrap-up Discussions
17.30 Drinks
Your Class Leader is Hope Caton:
After 10 years a set designer on Hollywood films Hope moved to London and turned to screenwriting. She was quickly talent spotted by Thames TV where she wrote storylines and television scripts until the team at Core design contacted her to help them fix Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation. It may have been a global brand but the game was late, over budget and massively behind schedule. Hope scrubbed up and performed some radical surgery. The game went on to be the biggest selling game of the year, and to garner rave reviews for its ironic story twists. Hope continued her script-doctor career and has contributed to games developed with Sony, Electronic Arts, Sci, and Disney. Hope Caton served on the Board of Women and Film and Television responsible for screenwriting and writer’s workshops. She lectures in Games Prodution at Kingston University.
