More then Just Talk
Dialogue in Games
By Roy Shapira
-
Most games today have B-Movie quality dialogue,
Happily today there is a shift toward better quality Story, Characters and Dialogue, seen in titles like “Bioshock” by 2K and “Mass Effect” by BioWare.
-
to understand captivating dialogue, there is a need to mention what bad dialogue is.
Bad Dialogue is predictable, it has a Ping-Pong feel to it, and it is direct and cliché.
Person 1 Tells Person 2 something
Person 2 Responds directly
-
Person 1: Hello, are those tools yours?
Person 2: oh, yes they are.
Person 1: Are they useful? did you build anything interesting?…
-
Cliché and Predictability are the enemy.
-
What is Realistic Dialogue for?
1. Realistic Dialogue Gives Background on the Characters
2. Realistic Dialogue Surprises the audience, and keeps them intrigued.
3. Realistic Dialogue Shows different personality Sides of the characters
4. Realistic Dialogue Gives Subtext to show the characters feelings and thoughts
5. Realistic Dialogue mimics regular speech patterns, that are completely not intuitive while writing.
-
Dialogue Techniques:
to simplify the examples I’ll call person 1 – “Jack” and Person 2 – “Mia”.
-
1. Interruptions – While a character speaks, the listener or a 3rd Party interrupts the conversation, usually during a peak, could be a person or a thing.
-
Example 1:
Jack: such a lovely day, almost as beautiful as you.
Mia: are you always this flirty?
Jack: do you like it?
Background: They get closer to each other, Jack puts his arms around her.
(Interuption) A bus is speeding out of control and a woman screams from the window.
Woman: (Screams) HEEELP!!
Jack and Mia jump into their car, to follow the bus, Mia picks her cell phone to call for PD / FD help.
-
Example 2:
Jack: how you doing Mia?
Mia: and you Jack?
Jack: I have a busy day tomorrow I’m getting ready for a presentation on Dialogue
Mia: oh, that’s grea–
Jack: (interrupts) Its going to be sooo exciting.
Mia: hope I coul–
Jack: (interrupts) please come, it would mean the world for me.
-
2. Parallel Monologue - Each character talks on his own topic, completely ignoring the other one.
Background: Jack and Mia are driving to a Ball game, the road is dark.
Jack: Have you seen the last game?
Mia: Where are we?
Jack: It was amazing Jordan jumped — was like superman flying.
Mia: its soo dark, i hope we are not lost, are we lost Jack?
-
3. Angled Theme - A character talks about a certain theme, but the other talks about an unrelated subject with the same general theme.
Jack: Mia you would never believe the Movie I saw last night, “The Fountain”, it was so wonderful.
Mia: oh my, I have to meet my friend in the yard near the fountain.
-
4. Subtext – A character tells something, that has an underline meaning, representing his thoughts and emotions.
Background: Jack and his father got into a phone fight, he slams the phone.
Mia: is everything ok, honey?
Jack: EVERYTHING is FINE!
-
5. Symbols – The Character uses a symbol, ether in spoken words or an item, to show his feeling or thoughts.
Background: Jack lights a cigarette.
Mia: eew, these are poison.
Jack: ooo, I Like this poison.
Mia: It smells terrible.
Jack: I just love the smell of it.
Mia: only Bad people smoke.
Jack: well maybe I like bad people!
-
6. Late Response – a Character asks a question, the other completely ignores him, and talk about something else, after a while, the second character answers the previous question, or returns to the first subject.
Jack: so do you like him?
Mia: who are you taking to the party?
Jack: oh, I have options, still considering.
Mia: I can’t wait, its going to be beautiful.
Jack: I think heaven and Hell is their theme this year.
Mia: I don’t really like him, I’m waiting on my prince charming to come calling.
-
7. Answer Questions with Questions – Character asks a question, and the other character answers with a Question.
Mia: these pants look manly, do you like them?
Jack: do you like me in these new pants?
-
8. Subject Jumping – Character jumps to a different subject in the middle of a sentence, and may or may not return to the first subject.
Jack: This Car is amazing, it is so sleek, and smooth, and shinny.
Mia: It’s nice.
Jack: But the power — did you remember to lock the house door?
-
9. Fragmented Talk – Dropping parts of the sentence, while talking.
Jack: hey, what’s up?
Mia: Sweet, there’s a party on Saturday, coming?
Jack: not sure, have to check my schedule.
-
10. Answer Implied by Response – To answer a character’s question, the other character say or show something unrelated that implies the answer.
Jack and Mia see two oriental people argue, and one of them hits the other one,
Jack: Wait here.
Mia: what can you do? You cant speak Japanese
Jack closes his hands, palm to palm and places them in front of his chest and bows to Mia.
Jack: Hay.
-
_______________________________
-
These techniques are best implemented while combined with one another artfully.
If you read the first conversations between Jack and Mia you will notice more
techniques after you are familiar with the whole 10 then when you read it for
the first time. they coincide with Character Depth and Character Building
techniques. I will expend on these techniques in later posts.
-
I would like to thank Veteran Game Designers, and Film Writers:
Lee Sheldon, and David Freeman
for inspiring, and teaching me.
-