A Reusable Scripting Engine for Automating Cinematics and Cut-Scenes in Video Games M. McLaughlin and M. Katchabaw Department of Computer Science The University of Western Ontario

Outline 1.Introduction 2.Story Scripting and Scripting Languages 3.Reusable Scripting Engine Design 4.Prototype Implementation 5.Results to Date 6.Concluding Remarks

Introduction Storytelling is widely recognized as an important element of modern video games For games that are dependent on their story elements, the level of quality required for their story at least equals the need for quality in graphics, audio, and other aspects of the games Consequently, it is important to ensure there are sufficient supports for storytellers to be able to effectively and efficiently tell their stories with games

Introduction The current state-of-the-art typically requires programming background or expertise to provide story elements to games – This is usually outside the realm of most storytellers As a result, implementing stories in games tends to require storytellers to rely on programmers – Can be costly, prohibitively so in some cases – Possibility of communication and programming errors – Potential loss of direct and total control of the story, affecting the creative process and overall story quality

Introduction To assist storytellers, tools and supports are necessary to allow them to tell their stories with minimal, if any, programming required – The storytellers are given a simple and natural way of expressing their story – Automation prepares this content for presentation within the game with little or no human intervention This is the intent of our current work, a Reusable Scripting Engine – Our current focus is on story content for cinematics or cut-scenes, as opposed to in-game story elements

Introduction Screen shot from Trauma Center: Under the Knife

Story Scripting and Scripting Languages To automate the presentation of story elements from a story, the original story needs to be scripted in such a way that it can be easily acted out on-screen – This scripting must identify characters, dialogue, stage directions, setting, and other elements common to traditional dramatic pieces – This scripting will also need to be precise and formal enough for it to be easily processed and understood by the software automating the presentation

Story Scripting and Scripting Languages Fortunately, the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) has developed an XML-based specification for marking up all different kinds of texts, including dramatic pieces Since XML is not necessarily the most natural platform for storytellers writing stories, several tools have been developed according to TEI guidelines for importing existing works or writing them from scratch

Story Scripting and Scripting Languages In the end, we could not completely follow TEI guidelines, and had to derive something with some modifications and extensions – TEI guidelines are incredibly detailed and require information that does not quite make sense in our target application – Several elements in the TEI guidelines are not formal or precise enough yet for our purposes – We needed additional elements to link content and assets into story scripts For example, consider the following …

Story Scripting and Scripting Languages Vizzini … …

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Reusable Scripting Engine Design Director Stage Manager Script Reader Authoring Tools Script User Display Storyteller Reusable Scripting Engine

Reusable Scripting Engine Design Director – Manages script reader and stage manager to oversee the entire production – Provides playback control to the user, which could be the application the engine is embedded in Script Reader – Reads in the script and processes it – Verifies correctness and completeness of script – Generates a collection of stage actions from the script, creating a performance, and gives this performance to the director

Reusable Scripting Engine Design Stage Manager – Responsible for generating the actual on-screen performance of the script – It receives its direction on what to do and how to do this from the director – It also reports back to the director on the status of the production

Prototype Implementation Based on this design, a prototype has been implemented for Microsoft Windows XP, written in C++ in Microsoft Visual Studio.Net XML processing was implemented using Microsoft’s XML libraries For visual rendering of the cinematic or cut-scene, Ogre3D was used – Allows both 2D and 3D support – Chosen to support easy integration with other on-going research projects at Western in this area

Results to Date So far, we have been able to stage some simple productions using our prototype – There is still the odd glitch here and there, but things generally work pretty well – Development is continuing … Integration into some of the other game projects under way at Western is currently in progress

Homer: Well, time to go to work. An Example from the Simpsons

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Marge: Are you going to the Duff Brewery?

Homer: Ahhhh!

Concluding Remarks Storytelling is a very important aspect to modern video games Tools and supports are necessary to enable storytellers to directly produce story content for games, without requiring programming background and expertise Our Reusable Scripting Engine provides a step in this direction for cinematics and cut-scenes – Results to date have been quite promising

Concluding Remarks Directions for future work include the following: – Support for audio, including spoken dialogue, background music that changes, and sound effects – Support for animated characters and background elements and effects – 3D cinematics and cut-scenes (which would require the addition of new stage directions) – Support for dynamically generated story elements – Support for in-game storytelling sequences