72 - Writing Neverending Nightmares

[matt]

In this video, I talk about the challenges of writing dialogue for Neverending Nightmares.

[gagaplex]

I didn't even think there would be dialogue in NN to be honest. Probably because of the demo. That doesn't mean that writing wouldn't be important for the development of the game (storyboarding the locations, deciding which experiences to include, where to put them, what happens at what point and so on), but still, not what I expected.

Will there be voice-acting or text-only?

Speaking of speech in nightmares... it's actually often the opposite for me. What characters say in my nightmares may be completely absurd/make no sense at all, but while I'm sleeping it just all seems sensible and fitting. Like, when a person will tell me to jump because otherwise the room will flood or something, within the dream-setting what the person said made sense, but the moment I wake up I'm like... what? How would that work? Why would the room flood? How does me jumping prevent it? Dunno, it's bizarre.

[Harry Sunderland]

If it's text, let's hope the text appears one character at a time, and has an annoying NES style "dududududud" as each letter appears.

[RightClickSaveAs]

You already talked about Silent Hill 2 in another video, but I think the dialogue in that really helped create a nightmare feeling. Now I'm of the opinion that a lot of it was due to translation issues, but it all sounds off and the conversations have a sort of weird dream logic. You'll be walking along in this almost deserted world and then just stumble on people who don't seem to find it odd that either of you are there, with no one really asking the obvious questions like "wait, what's going on here? Why are we here?" Like gagaplex talked about, that's been my experience too in dreams, weird things are taken as just matter of fact.

[matt]

Gagaplex - I know what you mean. The dialogue itself doesn't really make sense, but you don't really realize it in the dream. I'm not sure if that's possible to communicate, but that's what I'm shooting for.

While I think it would be cool to make it dialogue free, there are some interesting story elements that I feel like will be necessary to have dialogue to communicate. Are you disappointed by this or just surprised?

Conversations will definitely have weird dream logic and will hopefully feel sort of Lynchian. While VO was going to be a stretch goal, I think presenting people as talking but only have text would destroy immersion, so I'm trying to find some extra money in the budget to make that work.

Harry - Text will not appear on character at a time with an annoying sound effect. I hate that...

[Harry Sunderland]

I was just teasing Matt. We've moved past that game mechanic as a society

[gagaplex]

Are you disappointed by this or just surprised?

Hard to say. Really depends on how it's implemented in the end. As RightClickSaveAs said, games like SH2 managed to create disturbing conversations, so it could definitely work, but I think it's difficult to pull off just right.
I'd also say that not having actual conversations can reinforce the feeling of desertion, fear, insecurity. Being basically alone in a hostile dream world like that.
All that said, I'd strongly agree that VO should be included if conversations take place, yes. I also think that reading - even very well written - dialogue rather than having it spoken will not be very effective in creating atmosphere. It's different when the entire medium is in written form (like a spooky novel) where you are already employing your imagination for how characters look, sound etc., but in an otherwise highly visual and auditory experience like this game, it'd be detracting.

[RightClickSaveAs]

VO work seems tough. If the VO actors don't absolutely nail it, then it can hurt the tone of the game. To bring up Silent Hill 2 again, as much as I love that game, god some of that VO work is just awful. Especially Angela and Eddie, ugh. Again I think some of that is due to translation issues, and it still ended up working within the bizarre tone of the game, but VO on a small scale has always been hit and miss for me. As an example, there's the excellent indie series of Blackwell adventure games, and they all have full VO work, but I always end up turning it off. I feel bad because they really put a lot of effort into it, but the VO just isn't professional, and it takes me out of it whenever I hear a noisy plosive or a line that didn't hit quite right.

I am incredibly picky about VO though, so that may just be me.

[JPrice]

Honestly in terms of voice acting and dialogue in Neverending Nightmares, I'm not really opposed to the idea. It could be implemented really well into the game as there are plenty of past horror games that feature voice acting prominently and still maintain their fear factor. I think it's a case of never allowing the dialogue to sound comfortable as RightClickSaveAs pointed out in Silent Hill 2, like even James himself always seemed to sound very detached from the environment he's in. For example when you first encounter a monster and James says something like "What the hell is this thing", the way he says it makes it seem like he's only slightly bemused rather than truly afraid. Whether that was a translation mistake or whatever it just adds to the underlying feeling that something's just not right in this world and the people within it.

So I think having voice over or dialogue in Neverending Nightmares could be rather effective in adding to the overall atmosphere but honestly it's probably rather difficult to achieve. The downside is that the game's atmosphere might be compromised in some places if the voice acting or dialogue isn't exactly up to par, but I imagine the pay off for achieving the desired effect is something worth aspiring to. Perhaps taking a minimalist approach and only peppering certain VO moments within the game would be a decent idea as then the player wouldn't know when to expect it which could catch people off guard at particularly intense points.

I mean this is only my opinion on the matter of course but dialogue certainly is something to think about anyway!

[matt]

There's not going to be very much dialogue. There will be very few conversations, and they will be brief. I think having a lot of them would take away from the loneliness and isolation that I'm trying to create.

One of the things I'm experimenting with (at least on paper) is to keep them unnaturally brief. I think that will help with the nightmarish feel. Rather than creating a realistic conversation between two people, it'll be almost like fragments of a conversation collapsed into a short exchange.

While I agree it will be difficult to do well, I think it is important to convey the story I want to tell, which I think you'll be quite pleased with.

We'll probably start with temp voices and put it in an alpha build, so we'll be able to make changes if it isn't working.