 Hello, ladies and gentlemen, how are you today? My name is Dr. Christopher Alexander and I'm known as the Professor of Video Games at Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario. Let me stop this Twitch stream right here so that I can not hear myself coming back to myself. All right, so for those of you who are in the Twitch chat right now, I can see the Twitch chat, so feel free to send me some love and I'll be able to get some feedback from the other ones, the other YouTube and the Facebook momentarily. If you're in the Twitch chat, show me some love, give me some PogChamps. What's up? Is anybody in the Twitch right now? All right, we'll wait for it. Okay, so it is my utmost honour to be here. Thank you all for having me and taking the time to engage in this medium with me. I want to get this party started right off the bat because I don't want to run out of time and you all probably have quite a few questions. So let's get this party started. So what are we going to talk about today? Well, brilliant storytelling in video games. What would that mean? What does it mean? Why are video games so captivating? What is it about these games that keep drawing people toward the medium? We're going to unpack that a little bit and I know many of you are budding video game developers, story artists, story writers, and so we're going to try and unpack the storytelling aspect of it and some of the properties of what it takes to engage humans via the video game media and storytelling. All right, so as mentioned, this is the title of today's topic. Now, some of you may not know, but that character down there, his name is Sean Matsuda and he is a character from one of my favourite video games. It's called Street Fighter III Third Strike and it just so happens that at one point in time, I was ranked 17th in the world on the PlayStation Network with that very character right there, Sean Matsuda. So yeah, there will be some videos. If you check out my YouTube page, you'll see me playing that game with lots of love. It's one of my favourite games. What are your favourite games? We'll get into that momentarily, but let's see from the beginning. All we're doing today is we're looking at two core components. Okay, that's how I'm just going to distill everything down and then after that we'll pause to see if you have any questions. All right, feel free to send comments in the chat. Monica will interrupt if they're not on Twitch and I'll address them as they come in. Everybody ready to rock? Anybody in the chat? Okay, let's get it moving. So when we talk about two core components in storytelling, I break them down into two main areas. The first is capture. The second one is in rapture. All right. Now, when we were coming up with this, my wife and I were talking about these two words capture and in rapture and I said, I wanted it to rhyme some way. And then I was like, well, how can we turn it into some kind of thing that they remember? We ended up with capture and in rapture, but we started off with hook them and then cook them because like we used to own a restaurant. So we were thinking about having you simmer there for a while. That was the whole analogy there, but we didn't fixate on that one. We kept with capture and in rapture. So let's break those two up right now. When we're talking about capturing somebody, generally speaking, we're talking about storytelling. That is how we deliver a particular message and have us connect to our players. So how do we do that? First, we can do that via fantastical themes. Now, what do I mean? Okay. Who can mention in the chat a fantastical theme from one of their favorite games? Anybody, even if there was one that you remember growing up or right now, if you're still growing them, what do I see? Okay. All right. Don't be shy, folks. Anybody, anybody out there, Monica? Do you see any Super Mario Brothers? Okay. All right. So what's the fantastical theme of Super Mario Brothers? Do you think? Well, we already know how that one goes in terms of who we're trying to save, but generally speaking, when we're working with fantastical themes, we're bringing our players into some kind of space, some kind of place. It could be mystical. It could be historical. It could be a final fantasy, for example. These are the kinds of settings that we present via our stories. Next, we look at believable characters. Now, it's one thing to have your story set in some place, but usually we connect to the characters in the game and the story themselves because the characters themselves are believable. So usually, I don't know. I like to talk about one of my favorite games is Final Fantasy Tactics, and I really enjoy the character Ramza. Oh, somebody said Gallica up in the Galaga. Okay. Ramza is the main, one of the main protagonists inside of Final Fantasy Tactics, and he is so believable in terms of what he goes through that that story in general is why I connect well with it. All right. So that's believable characters. And lastly, for capturing the storytelling, we usually have complex relationships. Now, I know what you might be thinking. There are certain games like, I don't know, Tetris, which don't necessarily have complex relationships. Are you sure? If you look at the properties of all the shapes, now there may not be any storyline, but actually online, a lot of people are the detail, the complex story of the Tetris game. So we're looking at complex relationships, and that is how people inside of the world relate to each other and the world itself. So when we're looking at captivating people via storytelling, generally these are the three things that we're swimming around. All right. Now, how do we enrapture people? When I say enrapture, I'm talking about keeping them there for an extended period of time. What do I mean? Well, we met many of us, they know that video gameplay has gone up 75% since this pandemic. What is it that people are doing in these games that are keeping them to play for such long periods of time? Well, that's what we get to our core mechanics here. When we're enrapturing our players, we've got them doing pretty much very similar tasks repetitively, but there's something about it that keeps us coming back for more. You usually see spatial navigation. That comes in the form of walking around or even in some puzzle games, moving certain things around a particular space. We saw a lot of popularity with Candy Crush, for example, and other puzzle type games, but a lot of that is just organization and navigating space correctly via algorithm in order to get that feeling of, yes, I matched three, I matched four or five, right? That's what we're talking about when we look at spatial navigation. When we look at resource management, which is next, a lot of the games that we like and gravitate towards have some kind of resource management. There's some kind of limit, whether it's how many times you could try, whether it's how long you have until an experience ends. There's usually some kind of resource management that happens there. Are there any games that feel free to toss it out in the chat where you are constantly dealing with resources? Anybody? Okay, so what you- It looks like we have Minecraft. Minecraft? Oh, that's great. Oh, wait, hold on. Did you say that on purpose, Monica? You know that Steve and Alex were just announced as the next characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate? Anyway, that's incredible that you say that. It's all about resource management inside of Minecraft. And one of the top games right now is Minecraft. And even if you look at other games like Fortnite, if you look at other games like Fall Guys, if you look at other games like, well, I don't know, Street Fighter, it's a lot about resource management, whether it's in the Power Meter, whether it's in your own inventory, but we're looking at how we navigate those resources. And then sometimes that stress and pressure there that keeps us coming back for more repetitively, as mentioned earlier. And then finally, we have social and roleplay. There's a lot of social aspect to games. That is, we talk to people in-game, but sometimes we talk to people outside of the game about who and why we talk about, talk to in-games. And the roleplay that we take on in-games helps us immerse, helps us become one with the narrative, the story, the world and all those other parts of storytelling. But you'll see that most games, they waver back and forth between captivating humans and enrapturing them via their core mechanics, so storytelling and core mechanics. Are you with me so far? Yes, no, maybe so. Okay, all right. All right, let's keep it moving. We have a little game that I'm going to play with you. But first, I guess some people, I'm asking once again, what types of games are you playing right now? I'm asking about Animal Crossing. Somebody said Animal Crossing? Ah, okay, okay. How many hours are you in Animal Crossing? What did they say? They didn't say how many hours yet. Okay, okay, all right. So if you look at, what are the games? Not just Animal Crossing? Folks, I need that, I need that chat energy, Yoda. Here, Zelda. Zelda, okay. World of Warcraft. Okay. World of Warcraft? This, I am not familiar with Overwatch. All right, okay, okay, we've got some players up in here. Yo, which chat is this, YouTube? We're getting some on YouTube. Mario, Sonic, Animal Crossing, 300 plus. All right, okay, fantastic. So a lot of these games that you mentioned, I do play. So even though you're joining this particular session to learn about complex and storytelling and capturing and enrapturing, I will tell you right now that you know most of this stuff already. And I would also argue that even if you have never played a game before, I could show it to you and you'd be able to tease out exactly how it works. How are we going to do that? Ladies and gentlemen, let's play a game. Okay, I'm really going to need your help on this one, otherwise it's not going to work. Ladies and gentlemen, who can tell me what this is? What's the chat saying? Of course, we're all saying Pokemon. No, I didn't say what game it is. I asked, what is that? Okay, waiting for answers. All right. All right, ladies and gentlemen, that is a Pokeball. Absolutely right. So you've already answered the second question, which is what game is this from? And the answer is Pokemon. So my question for you is how does Pokemon capture you via the story? And then how does it enrapture you via its mechanics? For those of you who may not know, all right, let's watch some footage while we answer this question. So who is the main character in the Pokemon series? What's the chat saying? What's that again? Here. No one has said anything about the main character just yet. Amazing. So the answer that I often get, people say Ash, and I said, well, I don't know if that's true, because the main character in Pokemon is you. Now, how does it take place? You get some, you get a Pokédeck, you get your first Pokeball, and you have to go out and complete some kind of mission. The story attempts to immerse you by putting you directly in. That's how the story actually creates you. That's how it captures you, Pokemon pun intended. All right. Now, the second question is how does Pokemon enrapture you via its core mechanic? There are pretty much three or four main things in Pokemon that you're doing repeatedly over and over and over again. What are those four things, ladies and gentlemen? It's like we're catching them all. Okay. You're catching them all. I'll put that down as number four. What else? What are we doing repeatedly? Catching them all? What are the properties of catching them all though? Still waiting to see if we get anything on the three streams. All right. Battle, capture, explore. There it is. Battle, capture, explore, and repeat over and over and over again. Ladies and gentlemen, but what's critical about it is that our players, us, we don't usually get tired of that, but what is it about it that keeps us going? I would argue it's the story. So we're constantly weaving in and out of capturing via story and then enrapturing afterward. All right. So that's just Pokemon. Are you with me? Oh yeah. Okay. I see you, Hawk. Exploring. That's great. All right. Now you're in here. I can see you. I can see you up in here, Hawk. Let's keep it moving. So let's move on to the next part of our game, folks. Who can tell me what this is? Any ideas? What game, what's going on here? All right. It's lightsabers. Say that again. Lightsabers are battling. All right. Beat Saber. I see you in the chat. That's correct. So here's my question. How does Beat Saber capture you via its storytelling and then enrapture you via its core mechanics? You got anything for me? What's the story of Beat Saber? This one's tricky, but those of you who don't know, before you answer, why don't we watch and listen to some gameplay? Here we go. The next time somebody tells you that gamers are lazy, you take a look at something like this and show them and say it's not on games, folks. Now give me a moment. I tell folks at this point in time is when I say storytelling, I never actually said whether or not these stories needed to be complex. What's the story of Beat Saber? Oh, somebody says it's Dance Dance Revolution with Beat Sabers. So what's the story, though? It's fairly simple. Were you at Hawk? Yeah, no word yet on what the story is on Beat Saber. It's pretty simple. Hawk's pretty engaged. Also Nelson, Shadows Cooley. All right. So you're defending, you're slashing, and you're dancing, whether you like to believe it or not. Right? So how does this game outside of the movement and the story, you're just on a platform there. You can see it. How does this game captivate you through its mechanics? Now if you take a look in the top left, there's a combo meter, which means you get rewarded for strings of hitting it correctly. There's a multiplier, which also multiplies your score, which you can see down at the bottom there. All right? Yep, we do have some feedback. We have music, the music. That's correct. So the music also plays into the story because we don't actually know why we're here or what we're doing here, but we're here. All right. Excellent work, folks. Thank you kindly. Let's keep it moving. See how I said all those things on beat? All right. Now here comes a tricky one. Who can tell me what this is? Ooh, let me get out of the way. Slide over here. Who can tell me what game this is as I slide across the screen? Anybody? Now this is a complex one. This is a complicated one. Looks like a puzzle. I will tell you that this game, I do use it to teach you in the classroom complex storytelling. This game contains absolutely no dialogue, lots of sound effects and incredible music, but it's a puzzle game that only involves a mouse and clicking. Also, it was built by only one individual and it took this individual roughly six years. Anybody before I reveal the answer? I guess it's tricky because you can't take a screen capture of this, but I guess you could and then toss it up into a search engine and be like, hey, yo, what is this? I'll wait a couple of seconds. Missed. Ooh, that's a good guess. Ooh, missed. What? How are you guessing missed? Amazing. No, it is not missed. I love that question, though. It looks like a bird trying to eat an apple. It looks like a bird trying to eat an apple. Somebody says tiles. I see you, Nick. Thank you. So do you know the name of this game? This is one of my favorite games of all time, folks. And it is a game called Gorogoa. So my question to you was going to be, as with the rest of them, how does Gorogoa capture you via its story and rapture you via its mechanics? Now, this particular title is unique because the way that it both captures you and enraptures you is so fantastically intertwined is that you waiver, you waiver in between these things so frequently and fluidly. It's tough to tell which side you're on. Are you inside of the story or you're inside of the mechanics? And this game, although incredibly engaging, unfortunately only lasts for about an hour and 30 minutes, but you'll see in a minute the way that it's created, concocted, and incredibly well thought out, this is the type of masterful thinking I want the world to see in terms of what types of stories video games can convey. I won't tell you about what it's about until after we watch some gameplay, but there's going to be a moment when I show you this that your brain just snaps to be like what just happened. And I know you might say, well, there's nothing that's going to surprise me with video games, but let's take a look and see. Here we go. Simple dragging and clicking, folks. This game only requires a mouse. I'll stop talking. That was the moment right there, folks. What's critical about this game is that it's about hard times. It does touch on poverty. It touches on loneliness. It touches on depression without text and without words and without spoiling too much. Absolute masterpiece. Ladies and gentlemen, these are the types of experiences I know you're capable of. Watch a little bit more. It does indeed teach social emotional issues inside of a video game. So ladies and gentlemen, without spoiling, I see that. We're going to stop it right there. But in summary, when we're looking at video games and storytelling and capturing and enrapturing, it's kind of, if you take on game design and storytelling as a mission, there are some things that you should consider. Develop your games and share your games with other people, because much like most foods, we don't make games just for ourselves. This is if you're cooking for somebody else. We make them for other people. So develop your games. Keep just at least one other person other than yourself in mind, and you should be fine. Share those ideas. Share those stories. Share those unshared stories, most importantly, because that's what we need right now. There's a lot of talk in the media about, oh, which games make the most money? And how do I get return on investment? And microtransaction. All this stuff, in some ways, changes the narrative pun intended of the medium itself. And I'm hoping that the games that you previously saw had you say, like, wait a second, I didn't know video games could do this kind of thing. Well, it's true. It's absolutely true. You saw it. And all of you usually have games of your own that aren't mainstream that you look to, that you're like, whoa, hold on. This game makes me feel good. No, I'm not addicted. It's taught me something. And it can't teach somebody else something. There are tons of games like that. I can list them right now. Neocab. The Cat Lady. Virginia. Blacksad. I can be careful because I play some of these games in my classes. I can't spoil all of them. So yeah, when you're thinking about stories, thinking about telling your story. And as I mentioned, well, actually, this is a joke. When you get to putting your games together, you're probably going to have to talk to a coder. Most video games can be boiled down to two main concepts. And my good friend, Scott Fielder, Dr. Scott Fielder will be very happy to see me put this on a slide. It's just updating and rendering what's on screen, what's being printed to the screen. Now it may sound crazy. I spent the last five years working with coders, but that point right there is incredibly crucial for you to remember, even if you're trying to tell, particularly if you're trying to tell stories via the video game media. It's all update and render. You've got to believe me. All right? Publish your game and hope. Now, a lot of people have grand ideas about putting out a game and raking in millions, thousands, billions of dollars. It's all timing. Nobody can say with certainty that we're going to release this game and it's going to make a lot of money. Test it out. Go look historically. If there's a game that said we're going to make a lot of money and do it outside of doom. All right. You publish your game and you hope. What do you write? Oh, I like these chats. We're not even at the question. Should I wait? Okay. Hold on. I'm almost there. I'm almost there. I'm almost there. Okay. Stories. Absolutely. They begin with you. And then I'm going to get to that fantastic question from Nelson on YouTube. All right. So ladies and gentlemen, this is the point at which I stop and get pummeled with questions. And the first question that we have right here, I'll read it from Nelson on YouTube. What do you recommend is a good way to remain engaged? Oui, madame. C'est quoi? We are trying to fail these shows. Merci. Thank you. What do you recommend is a good way to remain engaged with the story you are telling while listening to others input without compromising what you aim to tell? Nelson, I feel like you should be inside of my game design class because we're literally talking about that as a concept. The concept that we spoke about last week, and you can actually see the stream on Twitch, we did it last week, was persuasion in video games. And there are seven main components of how we curtail or move users towards engaging with our stories without them feeling pushed or forced to do that. So one way to get back to your question is to simulate what the player would do. You listened to Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Super Mario, talk about how he created the first 30 seconds of Super Mario Brothers. He will tell you that he wanted to teach the players what to do without an instruction manual, but by design itself. So many people know this, but the original Super Mario Brothers, the first three blocks, second of which has a mushroom in it, or is it four blocks? Anyway, they put those blocks in a particular order so that it's very difficult to jump over the initial mushroom so that when you collide with it, you get that feeling of, whoa, whoa, I'm bigger now. I should be able to do something bigger and larger than myself. So that's one of the ways we keep people engaged with our stories and listening. Because a lot of these myths of a game where you can do everything, they're false. There's no game that allows you to go everywhere and do everything. And if you ever worry about this as a concept, ask a coder, can your game go everywhere? And they will tell you before you finish your sentence, no, there are limits immediately. All right, but that's one way. You will make a story that you hope somebody else engages with and you will guide them through an experience in a way that keeps satisfying them, captivating them through the story, and then rapturing them with crucial and critical mechanics. That's my answer to the first question. Does that answer your question, Nelson, before I move on to the next one? I usually ask that. All right, so another question we have. What's a popular, reoccurring story in today's top games? Wow, are you all from my class or what, man? We just finished talking about narratives and video games, and one story, we were talking about like eight different story arcs. Ones that people return to often is what's known as the hero's journey, Aristotelian. So you've got this call to action where it's like, ah, hey, wake up to get back to the Zelda reference. We need your help. And the hero's like, nah, I don't have time for that. No, no, seriously, we need your help. I'm just, I'm just a regular human being. I can't do anything. And then this mentor shows up and says, oh, don't worry. You could be like me. You could be amazing. And like, I still, I don't think I'm going to do it. And then tragedy happens. A whole bunch of baddies come in. What do I do? Then the mentor shows up, I'll use the sword and hey, listen, anyways, they slash me like you see, you're the only one that can do this and you need to cross this threshold in order to make it. And then what happens from there is the hero, which is usually you decides, you know what, I think I'm the only one that can do it. And then they cross the threshold and they can't come back to the threshold until they complete a bunch of trials, slay the demon. And then they return, pass back over the threshold and everybody gets excited and celebrates. So that's one popular reoccurring theme in most games, I'm sorry, in many games, not most games that people return to because it's something that people have seen over and over again. But even in my class, when we went through like Sierra narratives, and I shouldn't tell too much about it, but the idea that there are small loops of stories that have you keep revisiting kind of like Majora's Mask actually. So there's smaller stories that move you forward a little bit, but then you come back to the beginning and then when you come back to the beginning, you have new knowledge. So you experience the same path in a very different way. So that is my answer to the second question. So my next question is, do you have a program so that I can make 3D games? Do I have a program? Well, I have a list of programs that might be able to help. One, since I'm also streaming on Twitch, I will say Amazon's Lumberyard, which is built on the CryTech engine, the CryEngine rather. That's available and can create 3D environments. There's also the popular Unity engine, which functions C-sharp. And there's the overarchingly one right now that has a huge presence, the Unreal Engine, which is C++. So all three, well, many of these have robust online tutorials to get you started. And with the Unreal Engine, there's even an online school where you can take and get certification from Epic Games themselves with regard to how to use their engine. And they even have dedicated courses, lanes for the type of game that you're interested in making. Tons of tutorials online, if you ask me again, who would you recommend? I can get into that as well. What is my next question? How do you decide who your audience is? Adults, young kids, teens? Great question. Well, the average age of the video game player and eSports enthusiast ranges between 18 and 35 years of age. So most people currently are trying to tap into that demographic, but that's not necessarily the question you could ask yourself in addition to what story do I want to tell? So for example, let's say you wanted to make a game for teens, what would you like to tackle? If you're making a story that talks about the struggles that you went through as a team, like a game like Life is Strange, that might be something for you. That might be something for that demographic. That might be something that you want to tell a story to leave breadcrumbs for the past you or the humans that are on their way up right now. My answer to that question. Another question I have is who makes up the best stories, adults or kids and teenagers? That is a great question. Now I'm going to get in trouble for saying this, but I think that kids and teenagers make the best stories. And why do I think this? Because you have this imagination that just goes beyond the limits of what you've learned about the rest of society. So you may be able to dream things up. The only issue might be these incredible ideas versus the time to technically sit down and figure out how to execute these ideas. So I think the best pairing is when all of these groups get together and work on magic together. Does that answer your question? I'm going to assume yes, Nick. All right. Where do you think gaming is going next? Whoa. Well, we can see that video games are already going towards training and simulation. Well, they have for years, really. If you look at your favorite pilot or driver, many of the training and simulations that they go through are game like in nature, and they provide the same types of training. And in some cases, stories to get back to brilliant storytelling to engage the learner to keep honing their craft over and over and over again. So I think what we'll see increasingly is games moving towards education. And I'm not saying education in terms of, whoa, that's going to be fun. That's actually the crux of my PhD. I'm talking about how video games can actually engage people, not the fun bits, but I'll give you an example. There is a limit to how much text you should put on a slide. And I know, or I'm pretty confident that I haven't reached that in this presentation, which is what made it a little bit easier to pay attention to me. That character count is roughly 26 characters per slide. Anything more than that, it's going to take the users too long to look and captivate. Well, video games know that. Take a look at most games and how much onscreen texture is depending on the genre at any given time. And we do things like reduce health power down to HP so that you get it. Oh, HP, that's my health. And you see a meter as well. You symbol. So I think what you're going to see increasingly, which is definitely what I'm doing in the classroom, education is going to take on more video game tendencies. And again, not just the fun bits to engage users, because that's where you are right now. You're playing games. I just told you video gameplay has gone up 75%. So what you're going to notice is that games are going to increasingly move their way into how we engage in the future. Pretty much every discipline. There's not a single discipline you can take in school. It doesn't somehow connect to the video games industry. You think about, oh, I already told you about flying. Think about neonatal resuscitation. Think about driving a truck. Think about farming. Farming Simulator 2000 is an esports, he's an esport, an actual thing. You can check that out. Thanks for answering your question. You're welcome. Hopefully that answers that question. The next question I have here is what games am I playing right now? Well, I am currently playing because of my limited amount of time, a lot of Legends of Runeterra. I got put on that game by one of my colleagues, Jeffrey Lichapel. He keeps telling me games because I was globally ranked in another game called Light Seekers, which was a card game in seasons three through 10, number one in Canada, and number one in the world with my class, which was Dread Class at the time. But I stopped playing that game for a while and I started playing Legends of Runeterra. That is a card based game. Outside of that, if I have any time where as you just saw a child is not walking in, I will play some Street Fighter and some Super Smash Brothers as Bowser. Let's see. You're welcome for answering your question. Nelson again, what could we do to keep the experience fresh or exciting on subsequent playthroughs? Excellent question. You've seen a lot in games where people after you get through the game, there's another portion of the story that gets unlocked to allow you to engage again with this new perspective back to see your narratives. You see it with allowing you to start what's often called New Game Plus, where you keep all of the superpowers you have from the beginning and you just are able to be super powerful from the beginning. You see it again by having branching paths and different ways of completing the game, particularly in story based narrative games. Mass Effect, for example, well, not necessarily Mass Effect in terms of multiple endings, a plethora of endings, I mean. That's one way you can keep users coming back and forth, but you can also just make a cool game. One of the games we played last week was Inside, and that game in and of itself is so engaging that I find myself revisiting it regularly, even in the classroom, because what it's trying to say is so special that each time you play through, depending on what you're going through in your life, it hits you differently. And you got to believe me. It's a game called Inside by Play Dead, and it is absolutely incredible. Does that answer that question? And are there any other questions? We'll stop on questions. So we don't have any more questions right now, currently manning the chats to see if any more come in. All right. Oh, are the best stories complex or simple in nature? Well, it's a good question. I think it would depend on the type of story you're trying to tell. What happened to my mouse? Oh, there we are. And I reserve some bandwidth here. Give me a moment, folks. No additional questions? The best stories complex are simple. So I would submit that the best stories are both in that they're able to weave in and out of being complex and simple simultaneously. What do I mean by that? Well, there are games like, I don't know, let's take Tetris, which has a very short story. Or no, we can take Angry Birds, because that has an incredible story that many people don't think about. It's very complex the story itself. But how that those mechanics manifest that story are so repetitive and engaging that people do it over and over and over again, right? And to get back to the question of the complexity of stories, I also feel that that's genre dependent. A puzzle games story complexity may vary vastly versus a walking simulator, for example, like what remains of Edith Finch or like I mentioned before, Virginia or a story like Heavy Rain, Indigo Prophecy, Beyond Two Souls, these types of games have different narrative because it's genre based. But yeah, it absolutely depends on the genre and what kind of audience you're trying to appeal to. Does that answer your question, Nick? Keep them coming, man. Some flame you got coming there. Are you in my class? Oh, you should be. Woo. All right. So ladies and gentlemen, there is one section here. That's one more question. Okay. Just dropped into this from YouTube is from Nelson. He says, this might come down to developer preference. But have you seen a game where it contains branching paths? And yet they are all canon, meaning there is no, there's not a right path. So have I played a game? Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's called. Well, no, not really. Sometimes they curl tail down to the end. You know, nope. Can't say that one either. They're all canon. Woo. I haven't seen all of them be canon. Multiple paths, multiple endings, persona four, a little, but they're not. Yeah, it depends. Danganronpa. No, no. Natural doctrine on the PSP in the PlayStation three does have branching paths and perma death. So in that game, there was no right path. Bio shock infinite. Okay. Wonderful. Hey, I can see the other chance. It's incredible. Yeah. Yeah. Although there was some pushback from community about bio shock infinite. But yeah, I'll accept. I'll accept that. Yeah. So yeah, natural doctrine, persona four, but not not completely canon. There's always Odin sphere. There's a remake on the PS Vita. I'm hoping that you've never heard of any of these games, by the way. Nelson says next game jab. Let's make it happen. Oh yeah. All right. Let's do it now. So let's do it. I got a bunch of quotas I can connect you with for game jams. Are there any other questions, folks? No, that's it. Nelson suggests checking out natural doctrine. Who said that? Me? He said he'll check it out. He was telling me to check it out. Oh, he's going to go check it out. He said he'll check it out. That game is not easy. All right. I went through that game for 48 hours and then got frustrated at the end. I told my students and they booed me and said, Chris, you never give up games. How can you do that? So I started again and put in another 48 hours and then beat it on the hardest difficulty. That's another random thing. I like to play games on the hardest difficulty because they last longer. Folks, that's how you save on money. Play games on the hardest difficulty. Any other questions? No, that is it. If you'd like, you can start to wrap up. Thank you so much for your time and respect and engagement. We cannot do this without you. Thank you to X Prize for having me. There is a brief announcement that is to happen near the end of the stream. I think that's over to you, Monica. Hold on. Hold on. I should leave that up there for a minute. I can definitely come back to it. I can definitely come back. Sorry about that. Yeah, no worries. But what we wanted to tell you guys about in conjunction with this great workshop we had today about brilliant storytelling and games, we want to encourage you if you're 10 to 18 anywhere in the world to compete in our cold games challenge. We have this great opportunity to be able to incentivize youth across the globe ages 10 to 18 to create a video game. You can create a five minute playable game or you can even create a written game design. Turn that in and you get to win $1,000 USD, which is really, really great at X Prize. We want to incentivize our challenges for youth in the same way that we incentivize the larger prizes for our company. So the website is coldgameschallenge.org. Submission deadline is October the 14th. Feel free to reach out to us. You can email us at xpconnect at xprice.org. That's xpconnect at xprice.org. And once again, visit the coldgameschallenge website, look around, see the options we have. Great, great options to be able to win over 30 tracks. So we're really excited to be able to bring this opportunity to youth around the globe to be able to create a video game. You know, ball there, everything in your mind, your imagination, you can put it into a video game and you can make a playable game. It's about five minutes of gameplay or do a written video game design where you literally type out in the proposal type format what your video game is, what you have to achieve, what you'll do. And we're excited to bring an opportunity for youth to be able to learn principles of video game development, design, computational thinking and project based ways of working together to be able to create video games. We also play them, but we want to also make sure they were moving to the arena of becoming creators as well. Video game doesn't have to be, as a creator, a hard thing. It's very easy. We problem solve every day. When you're in a video game, you're pretty much problem solving to get to the end, to get to the goal. So we're really excited. And once again, visit CodeGamesTrails.org to learn more about the challenge, our suggestions for youth 10 to 18 across the world or do October 14th. If you have questions, you can email us at xpconnect at xprize.org. And Dr. Alexander, I know you have the bibliography you wanted to share, so feel free. I have to go back and give me a second. Here are some of the references from the presentation today. As a scholar, I feel that I need to give respect to those that inspired it. Yeah, if any of you want to connect with me, I'm noticed video games prof on all platforms. Thank you all for coming. It's been an honor to have you here. And yeah, reach out to me on social media if you have any questions.