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HypothesesH1: The perception of continuous choice options will make game dialog more natural
H2: Emotions are an intuitive way to drive dialog in games
Proposed Solution
Core features of our new mechanic:
● Control emotions with analog stick
● Hide the discrete choice points
● Removes prompting, improving flow
Initial Results
● LA Noire dialog was not a good fit for our control scheme.
● Positive: Users overestimated the complexity of the system
○ Some assumed an AI system
● Main Finding: Players felt they had no agency
○ Users did not know what choices they had, and did not
know when to make a choice.
A Refined Hypothesis
● There is ambiguity in our first Hypothesis:
H1: “The perception of continuous choice options will make
game dialog feel more natural.”
● Game conversations are discrete in two ways.
● We have two options to make dialog continuous
● Hide what your options are while allowing users to be told
when to choose.
[Insert graphic of V2 slider here]
● Hide when your choices are made while showing what
options are available.
[Insert graphic of V2 toggle here]
Hiding “What” vs. Hiding “When”
● We hoped to give feelings of agency back to the player by
removing only the “what” or the “when”. Not both.
● Both types allow for our goal of uninterrupted dialog, but
which type gives greater feelings of agency in the player?
In short, which one is better?
Hiding “What” vs. Hiding “When”
20 subjects, 3 experimental conditions.
● Control Group: implements standard prompting dialog.
● Slider Group: Removes what options are available to player.
*****Insert Slider graphic here*****
● Toggle Group: Removes when player’s choices are resolved.
*****Insert Toggle graphic here*****
Experimental Design
2nd Iteration: A Bespoke Solution
● Emotionally driven story
● Minimal characters (3)
● Tutorial and feedback built-in to story
● 30 branches, 4 possible outcomes (endings)
● Designed specifically for continuous dialog mechanics
Limitations & Further Directions
● Test audience/sample size not ideal; scale up testing.
● Modulate tone and facial expression with slider.
● See if higher fidelity environments deliver consistent results.
● Edit and revise article for Gamasutra publishing.
● Liaise with Fungus developers for tool integration.
● Quantitative Measurements
○ Record subjects’ decision path
○ Record subjects’ performance during tutorial
○ Record the outcome of subjects’ playthrough
Experimental Design
● Qualitative Measurementso Ask about overall experienceo Ask about story comprehensiono Ask questions to determine sense of agencyo Ask if the dialog felt fluido Ask if subjects’ choices matched emotional outcomes
o Query subjects on familiarity with games
Conclusions
● Control mechanic did not influence story comprehension.
● Agency in Toggle mechanic as good as Traditional mechanic.
● Perception of fluidity is influenced by many factors.
● Slider mechanic the most difficult to learn.
● Experience with dialog-heavy games not a factor.
Conclusions
The Toggle mechanic appears to provide the best experience for player agency and control comprehension, while maintaining a
continuous, natural, conversational pace.