NPC Research
One of the tasks that I hope to carry out during this project, if I have the time, is NPC dialogue writing.
My idea for this task is to write out sections of possible dialogue for the less important NPCs (general NPCs) found on Litore Island, Glacies Island, and Ignis Island, and then also give the more important characters dialogue (for times they're spoken to that's not shown in the script).
However, before carrying out this task, I decided it would first be best to carry out a section of research to help me with this task. This research will be shown below.
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What is an NPC?
To begin with, I thought that it would be a fitting start and a good idea to look into what an NPC actually is.
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"A non-player character (NPC) is a video game character that is controlled by the game's artificial intelligence (AI) rather than by a gamer." (Techopedia.com, n.d.)
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This gives a pretty good explanation of NPCs, saying that it is a character within a game that is controlled by AI as opposed to a player. These characters are common in a large range of games (a majority of games).
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Why are they used?
There are a number of different reasons that games make use of NPCs. Some of the main reasons are stated below.
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"As plot device: NPCs can be used to advance the storyline." (Techopedia.com, n.d.).
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This is one way that I have used/planned to use NPCs. During my story, the player character manages to form a crew while carrying out his journey. This takes the form of a new character being introduced during (almost) every level, with most of the characters asking something, or requiring some sort of task to be carried out before they join. Upon joining/having their task/quest completed they then give a hint about the locations of the ruins (which has the level/island objective inside) and allow the story to progress.
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In addition to this, I also used NPC characters to progress the story in terms of cutscenes, as I could give NPC characters dialogue talking about a specific event/topic, whether it's explaining a game objective, a story plot point, or just general dialogue.
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"​For assistance: NPCs may act as partners to the gamer."​ (Techopedia.com, n.d.).
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This is another way that I have also planned to use an NPC within our game, although it's for only one character. The idea I had was that the sidekick character (the octopus, Octavia), would follow the player around during gameplay and assist during combat by knocking enemies back, allowing the player to not get swarmed by enemies. This character would also have dialogue and be apparent in the course of the story, but they'd also be important in terms of gameplay (in terms of combat, but also talking to the player/protagonist and helping find/talk about objectives).
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"Game functions: NPCs often serve as save points, item stores, health regeneration points and so on." (Techopedia.com, n.d.)
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This is a feature that's seen in a lot of games, especially RPG and MMO games (although. In games such as Blade and Soul (NCSOFT, Team Bloodlust, 2012) there are a large portion of the character that you can talk to that act as some kind of shopkeeper, seller, or trader, with these characters being apparent in pretty much every town/village in the game. These characters play a vital role, as often they are how the player obtains items which assist during the gameplay, such as health potions, or weapon upgrades, or even just better weapons/armour than what the player might currently have.
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NPCs within a current game
Now I had looked at the roles that NPCs often have within games, I wanted to try and look for some of these within an actual game myself. For this, I decided to play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo, 2017), as I knew for sure that there was a wide range of NPCs (and hundreds of them), and I knew I would be able to use one of the Nintendo Switch's functions to record small snippets of gameplay (allowing me to record NPC dialogue and show it for this research).
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Below shows an NPC within the game that acts as a plot device. There a number of times that the player is required to talk to this character, Impa, however, you can still talk to her at random times of playing the game.
In the example below, I had completed all of the shrine quests of the game, which left me with the only main objective of defeating the final boss. When talking to Impa, she tells the player that the final task is defeat Ganon (the antagonist). In addition to this, the player's map is also opened, and an objective marker is set, which helps the player, as well as encourages them, to go and fight the final boss.
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Another type of NPC I found in the research above was a type of NPC character that assists and follows the player. This is something that is apparent in Breath of the Wild as well, but the main example of this is that I was able to find is more of a bonus material for the game (obtained by buying a particular Amiibo and using it in-game). However, either way, when using the item, an NPC wolf spawns and will follow the player and assist with combat.
However, as this example of the NPC is an animal, there isn't really much interaction (no dialogue), but the idea/role of assisting the player is still made use of.
This type of NPC can also take a different/human form, and play multiple roles. Sometimes characters assist the player with areas such as combat, but then also play as plot devices).
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(YouTube, 2016)
The final type of NPC stated in the above research are 'Game Function' NPCs. As I previously stated, these types of characters are often apparent in a wide range of games, and a number of them are apparent in Breath of the Wild.
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Many of these types of characters that are found within this Zelda game are shopkeepers (some selling general wares such as cooking items, others selling and trading armour, and some trading for weapons), that have items that the player can acquire to help with the quests/playthrough of the game.
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NPC Personalities
While playing a game, whether it's set in a fictional world/location or more of a real setting, there will always be NPC characters with a range of personalities.
Now there are probably a number of reasons for this, but if I had to say the reason as to why I thought this was apparent, it would be becuase it reflects the personality real life, making the game and it's world/locations somewhat more relatable to the player. As just like in real life, the world isn't full of people who have the same personality. Everyone has a different way of acting, many have different ways of talking (such as how children/teens currently use slang terms quite often), and everyone has a somewhat different personality. And game make use of this with NPCs.
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Using Breath of the Wild as my example once again, when you go around the world and talk to the NPCs, you'll find that many of the NPCs have different personalities. Some may be kind, others may be comedic, and some may be angry or even rude.
One of my favourite examples of this is the 'angry flower lady', who goes on a rampage if you walk over her flowers repeatedly until she eventually progresses to the point of physically attacking the player character.
(YouTube, 2017)
Reflection
If I manage to get start/carry out the task of NPC planning/writing, and then NPC dialogue writing, I would likely try to create concepts for the three different types of NPCs (although thinking about it, the sidekick NPC in our game fits the outlines of the 'assistance' NPC anyway).
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In addition to this, I would hope to write a range of NPC dialogue that could be fitting for a range of characters that have different personalities. E.g. maybe the dialogue for on NPC is witty and humorous, whereas another is a bit more rude and straightforward.
The initial plan was for the exhibition game to have NPCs in, but this plan has however changed as we didn't think that the artists would be able to create any additional models. Becasue of this, I don;'t think there will be any NPCs/NPC dialogue within the game, although I still hope to plan out and write some NPC dialogue if I have some spare time,