#18 Scenes - Dialogscript & The Witcher 3

Today I want to talk about scenes. I will introduce some aspects to consider while designing them and a specific instance of where they are used in video games: In modding with the raddish modding tools for The Witcher 3 (TW3).

Following this I'll write down a part of a scene for my Witcher quest.

Scenes

What is a scene? The term itself is well-known from film:

It is the connection of time, place and characters that gives rise to something like a scenic unity [..] Change of scene is the clearest indicator of scene boundaries. In a scene of action, the time represented and the time of presentation ideally coincide; between scenes, on the other hand, there is almost always a time jump.

~ Lexikon der Filmbegriffe Link

In games like TW3 we know of roughly two categories of scenes (Source), which are both mainly about interaction with other NPCs:

• "dialogue scenes with some player interactions that (may) influence the progress of quests

• "cinematic scenes / cutscenes that are used to present some questspecific progress and most of the time don't allow interaction from the player"
  

Example for a dialogscene. Source

 We will focus on dialogue scenes as they may be found in TW3 here and refer to them whenever "scene" is said from now on. In the raddish modding tools there are four components to a scene (see tutorial in radish scene documentation):

• dialogscript defines sections containing
  
• dialog between actors
• player choices
• hints to activate certain storyboard units
  
• storyboard defines per dialogscript section (several) units of
  
• camera shots/cuts
• actor animations/mimics
  
  
• production
• settings for the scene
• list of all needed assets (cameras, actors, animations, mimics with adjusted settings)
  

• repository
• assets from the game needed in multiple scenes
  

Since production and repository can be deduced from dialogscript and storyboard, we will only concern ourselves with the latter two.

Dialogscript

A dialogscript is quite similar to a traditional screenplay as we may find it in film. We write down who speaks what, what happens besides speech, and we give hints as to how the actors behave and what the corresponding image might look like. It is here where the plot is developed most explicitely.

Storyboard

The term storyboard is borrowed directly from film. There it denotes "a series of comic strip-like sketches of shots in each scene, including notations about costume, lighting and camera work" (Bordwell & Thompson, Film Art, p. 19). If we look at storyboards as used here, we see that storyboards unit are very similar to such "sketches". Both concentrate on the visuals over time in opposition to the dialogscript or screenplay, who are concentrated on what is spoken with only small extra annotations.

But today we want to focus on writing a dialog. I'll try to write down, what my intuition on this subject is.

Dialogscripts

To write a dialogscript, we first need to know what its purpose and context is. What is the point of the scene in the whole story? Who is in it? What will happen (roughly)? Where does it take place? What is the mood? What happens before and after?

If such questions are answered, we can start with some sectioning. What parts does this scene have? Where are turning points or special happenings? If a player choice is offered, we might want to turn this into a section too.

We can then proceed to write down for every section the answers to the questions above (except that its related to the overachring scene, not story). We might identify here things like an intro-section, a build-up section, a changed-topic section, a central-moment section and things like these. By answering these questions for every section we can determine, whether the sections as a whole fulfill what we wanted to achieve with a single scene.

At last I'd write the script itself, section by section, with the section and scenes meaning in mind. I would try to think like the actors or track their reasoning, mood and intuitions while taking care that those things are expressed in a style that suits their character. One might want to play with opinions, impressions, assumptions, little/big secrets, revelations, reservations they have and letting different traits shine.
From that, quite naturally an authentic dynamic should emerge already. Going further, one might try to intentionally let characters clash, agree, wonder, etc. about each other: consciously placing (dis)harmonies in those dynamics, which as a whole create an interesting flow.

Moments of change in that conversational flow should be marked: Here a different shot might take place, which supports the change in atmosphere.

Here some further tips I gathered here and there:

• Don't overuse made-up words
• Try to be short / Stick with short words when possible
• Use bad grammar (people don't speak perfectly)
• Include details about the speaker itself
• The scene should begin with a framing of what the whole scene is about...
• ... and funnel down to a single point, with the most important word or line of dialogue last
• Good dialogue is usually more concise than in real life

One might also ponder the following scene construction tips: 

Taken from John Trubys "The Anatomy of Storytelling"

Well, now I've written quite some theoretical rumblings. Let's go to practice.

Further Reading / Inspiration

• Raddish Modding Tools on Scenes: Link1 and Link2, not to mention the tutorials delivered with the toolset itself (Link) and the in-game UI to create scene parts (Link)
• David Bordwell, Kristin Thompson: Film Art
  
• John Truby: The Anatomy Of Story
• Tobias Heussner et al.: The Game Narrative Toolbox
  

A "Witcher" Quest - Part 8: Dialogscript

In the story of Alene and in my Witcher quest in general, the meeting of Geralt and Alene with her father is pivotal. It is one of the major beats in this story and reveals the reasons for Alene's insecurity and strange behaviour. It introduces her father as a patriarch, showcases Alene's trouble at home. It is also the first scene happening in the village and shows thus a lot about the mood here. At last, here Geralt is allowed to make a decision: Will he intervene and help Alene? Or will he decide to not mingle in the family's private matters?

Here are answers to the remaining unanswered contextual questions:

• What will happen (roughly)? - Alene & Geralt approach the family's home, Geralt knocks on door, father comes out and is seems enraged at the sight of Alene, takes her in and bids Geralt (friendly) to go, closes door, from inside father can be heard implying hitting her, Geralt is faced with decision whether to intervene, A: opens door, confronts father, fistfight, father demands him to leave, Geralt leaves, B: decides to not do anything, leaves
  
• Where does it take place? - Near/In front of/In the family's house
  
• What is the mood?  - Tense, Piercing, Intense, Heavy-Hearted or Determined
• What happens before and after?
      Before - Alene tried to flee, didn't make it, Geralt found her, brought her to Alvin,
                    he insisted she needs to go back
      After   - Alene reveals her secret plan / Geralt talks to father in tavern

Answering the first question already gave a good idea for some sections, but let's write them down more exactly:

section_walk_towards_house (increasing tenseness)

•  Alene & Geralt approach the family's home

section_at_door (the big, fast realization of bad things)

• Geralt knocks on door
• father comes out and is seems enraged at the sight of Alene
• takes her in
• bids Geralt (friendly) to go
• closes door
• from inside father can be heard implying hitting her

section_decision (face the dilemma)

• Geralt is faced with decision whether to intervene

section_intervene (determination, Geralt acting)

• opens door
• walks inside
  
• confronts father
• [fistfight, even though technically now a different scene follows, I count the next section as part of this scene]

section_fight_won (Geralt feeling right, father defeated, Alene looking at Geralt with trust)

• father gets up
  
• father demands him to leave
• Geralt leaves house
  

 section_fight_lost (Geralt down, father superior, Alene looking at Geralt with trust)

• Geralt gets up
  
• father demands him to leave
• Geralt leaves house

section_no_intervention (Geralt sighing, melancholy of trying to do the right thing)

• Geralt decides to not do anything
• Geralt leaves place
  

Even if I adviced this to myself above, now that it comes to far, I don't intend to anwer all the questions for every section defined here. The short descriptions must suffice.

Based on this I've written the following dialogscript:

In this scene I played a lot with Alene's silentness and Geralt's need to do some basic conversation. Geralt finds himself in the situation that he is the one who's talking a lot, which is quite unsettling to him. The lines on the "beautiful village" and the "forest flower misplaced" are quite obvious references to Alene. When the father opens the door and starts saying very un-good things, Geralt is not able to fight back, being still unsure whether he wants to get involved in all this. Aisker's first and second line show what he as a character is about: Protecting Alene from the "evil" forest and what lives in it. When he says "no need for explanation" then this is a reflection of his old habit of denying young Alene any reasons for why she shouldn't visit her uncle or go near the woods. In the decision section I intend to show the villagers watching Geralt from the background, adding the feeling of him, his decision and also everything that just happend being exposed to the whole village. These are some of the thoughts that went into this construction.

While writing this I realized that I added a lot of camera/animation clues. Next time I'll define the storyboard and probably have to remove some shots I defined here. When reading it some more times there'll probably also come up some changes in lines. We'll see.

Ideas for Feedback

• What important step/thought might I have missed in my considerations for dialogscript creation?
• At which points do you miss a line or think I've gone overboard with shot cues?

Conclusion

This concludes my first part working on a scene for The Witcher 3, my own quest, and raddish trial 6. The second part will be about finding fitting predefined cameras in the TW3 depot of predefined things. All other cameras need to be made by hand. Another task is to search animations and mimics. Then transitions need to be smoothed and, at last, voice must be added. These are all not necessarily trivial tasks, so I guess I'll have something to do for quite a while. Whether all of this will be documented on the blog, I don't know yet, but certainly the screenplay in its final form will get its own post.

Let's give it a wrap. I hope you had a good read and will have a good time!