Alpha Protocol Blog Update

Obsidian Entertainment audio producer Mikey Dowling has paid a visit to the Alpha Protocol blog on IGN for a quick discussion about the steps required to produce time-critical choices and “reactive callbacks” in the game from a written script.

Mike Thorton walks into a dry cleaner’s shop; he hears muffled yelling to which he calls out, “Hello?”

“In the back.” He follows the voice to the source to see a man tied in a chair, tape over his mouth, along with another man – an informant for Thorton in the Taipei hub, Steven Heck – walking toward him with a huge bottle of bleach. Clearly the man tied to the chair is about to be tortured for incredibly important information; yet Thorton needs information of his own from Heck -but he’s (obviously) preoccupied. Alas,Thorton needs to say something and what he says could affect how Heck looks at him from then on. Does Thorton hesitate, offering to come back later? Does he instead offer to help, possibly gaining some reputation points with Heck? Or does Thorton go the professional route and get right to business, thus possibly angering his would be informant?

The three choices – or Stances as they are referred to in AP – will come up in every major cinematic in the game. Matched with a timer, the player will have to make their choice quickly to keep the conversation going toward what they think would be best. Yet how do we, as the developer, incorporate what can be a spiderweb of choices and reactive callbacks into the game with relative ease?