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Façade (video game)

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Façade
Splash screen
Developer(s)Procedural Arts[a]
Publisher(s)Procedural Arts
Designer(s)
  • Michael Mateas
  • Andrew Stern
Composer(s)
  • Billy Gomberg
  • Matt Ganucheau
  • Jim Doran
  • Aaron Acosta
  • Leo Caruso
Platform(s)Windows, Mac OS X
Release
  • Windows
  • July 5, 2005
  • Mac OS X
  • August 15, 2006
Genre(s)Interactive drama, interactive fiction, social simulation
Mode(s)Single-player

Façade is an artificial intelligence-based interactive story created in 2005 by Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern. Upon release, the game received attention from mainstream news publications for its innovative design, and prompted speculation about the potential use of artificial intelligence in video games. Following release, Façade has received a generally positive reception, with praise directed at its technical innovation and wide cultural appeal, particularly in online streaming, and mixed views directed to the verisimilitude of its representation of interpersonal interaction.

Gameplay and story

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Screenshot of Façade's first-person gameplay

Façade is an interactive drama video game,[2] structured as a one-act story about a married couple, Trip and Grace.[3] The player assumes the role of a mutual friend, invited to the couple's apartment for drinks, who discovers that Trip and Grace's marriage is deteriorating when the two begin arguing with each other. They can move using the keyboard's arrow keys, choose their name and gender, and behave in any way they wish.[4]

The game uses text input to facilitate discussions with Trip and Grace, utilizing various artificial intelligence (AI) technologies that determine how the two respond to the player and each other. One is what the designers called "A Behavioral Language" engine that dictates how the characters move, and another is a "drama manager", which determines the course of the plot by creating story beats and finding ways to create tension. Façade also incorporates natural language processing, identifying certain key words in player input and deducing the context behind what they are trying to say.[5] The AI has limitations; for example, the couple might interpret the player announcing their pregnancy with Trip's child as an attempt at flirting with them.[6]

The player can discuss various topics with Grace and Trip during their stay, such as the couple's recent trip to Italy, the drinks Trip prepares at the bar, and Grace's attempts at redecorating the apartment.[7] Other forms of interaction involve flirting[6] and being physically intimate, with options to comfort, hug, or kiss the characters.[8] The setting also includes various objects that can lead to new conversations when the player interacts with them,[8] such as a Magic 8 Ball that gives advice.[9] If the player behaves inappropriately, Trip and Grace react strongly with shock. Persistent rudeness can lead to the player's removal,[3] and so does excessive physical intimacy.[8]

As Façade progresses, the couple gets into a fight, and the player is allowed to take any side of the argument, which culminates in either Grace or Trip asking the player a question about their relationship.[6] Near the end of the game, the two can confess a secret to the other person. For example, Grace had a sexual encounter with another person the night before Trip proposed to her.[10] Façade can end in several ways: the player is removed from the apartment, either Trip or Grace end their relationship, or the two reconcile.[11]

Development

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Façade was developed by Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern. Prior to development, Mateas was a doctoral student at the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science, and Stern was a programmer and designer on the virtual pet video game series Petz.[6] Mateas and Stern met presenting at a series of conferences on the intersection of artificial intelligence and interactive entertainment, and began initial work in 1998 on a long-term "interactive drama piece" and "commercial product prototype".[10] In 2000, Mateas and Stern formally commenced a full-time collaborative project to "build an interactive story world integrating believable agents and interactive plot", with a plan to create a game around a "domestic drama in which a married couple has invited a player over for dinner."[12] To develop organic and believable character behaviors, Mateas and Stern developed a complex programming framework described as 'a behavior language' to program and organize the expressions of multiple characters as 'believable agents'.[13] Façade was released for Windows in July 2005 as a free download from the developer's web site.

Following the release of Façade, Mateas and Stern planned to create a follow-up project titled The Party. Building on the design of Façade, The Party was planned to feature around the plot of being invited a dinner party, in which gameplay would be expanded to accommodate ten characters, greater environmental interaction, and more mature complex narrative beats, including sex and violence.[6] Intended as a commercial product, Stern noted that The Party required investment to fund a small team of designers and programmers necessary to create the game's artificial intelligence.[14] In 2013, Mateas confirmed that development on The Party had ceased to pursue other projects.[15]

Reception

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Façade received contemporary praise from mainstream publications as an example of the burgeoning potential of artificial intelligence in the design of video games.[16] Describing the title as "the future of videogames...where games are driven as strongly by characters as combat", the New York Times praised the game's use of "advanced artificial intelligence techniques...to change (the characters') emotional state in fairly complicated ways".[7] Newsweek praised the game's potential to "take character to a new depth" and design games "about people's lives" that would appeal to broader audiences, including women.[17] NBC News suggested Façade "could represent a new step in gaming" to "evoke complex emotions" in interactive entertainment,[2] and noted that "how (the game) attempts to meet the challenges of artificial intelligence has relevance for gaming in the future".[8] Describing the game as "one of the most important games ever created, possibly the most important game of the last ten years", Game Developer praised the "revolutionary" and "technically ambitious" design of the game, noting its innovative experimentation with natural language processing and generation, emotional modelling, facial expressions and body language, stating "Façade is important for what it tries to do and what it shows that we can do with this amazing medium".[18]

Accolades

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Façade won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2006 Slamdance Independent Games Festival; an early, incomplete version was a finalist at the 2004 Independent Games Festival. It has been exhibited at several international art shows including ISEA 2004 and Game/Play 2006.

Retrospective reception

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Retrospective assessments of Façade have recognized the game's technical achievement in its application of artificial intelligence and popular appeal. Describing the game as an "important research and cultural milestone", Games Developer identified Façade as project that made an "indelible mark on video games" due to the uniqueness and complexity of its design of artificial intelligence.[19] Similarly, The Guardian cited Façade as an "interesting" milestone and "fascinating experiment" in the advancement of emotional artificial intelligence.[5] The game was also recognized to have attracted mainstream attention, unusual for an independent video game at the time. Rock Paper Shotgun noted the game "was cutting edge enough to warrant scientific papers being written about it, but playable and interesting enough to be spread around the games world".[20] PC Gamer noted that the game's enduring influence arose from a "strange second coming as an internet meme", with its widespread use in let's play and streaming videos.[9] Similarly, Game Developer noted "arguably its biggest impact is that people know what it is outside of the academic conference circuit".[19]

However, several retrospective reviews have expressed mixed views on Façade's execution as a simulation of interpersonal interaction, with Rock Paper Shotgun observing that the subsequent influence of the game on the broader industry had been largely overstated.[20] PC Gamer noted that "if you play Façade as it was intended...their AI system holds up remarkably well", praising the character reactions to player inputs, although noting the game's "reliance on genuine interaction...makes it ripe for abuse".[9] Describing the game as "an experiment rather than a finished game", Chris Dahlen, writing for 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die, noted "the graphics are basic, and the parser's not perfect; Grace and Trip often react to a suggestion they don't recognize with an awkward stare or look of horror."[3]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Ported to Mac OS X by Ryan C. Gordon of icculus.org.[1]

References

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  1. ^ Park, Eddie (August 15, 2006). "Façade 'interactive story' released for Mac OS X". Macworld. Archived from the original on October 18, 2006. Retrieved April 28, 2024.
  2. ^ a b Loftus, Tom (January 31, 2004). "Bringing emotions to video games". NBC News. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c Dahlen, Chris (2010). "Façade". In Mott, Tony (ed.). 1001 Games You Must Play Before You Die (2 ed.). Quintessence. ISBN 978-1-84403-681-3.
  4. ^ "Type What You Feel". Games for Windows: The Official Magazine. No. 6. May 2007. pp. 32–34.
  5. ^ a b Stuart, Keith (October 12, 2016). "Video games where people matter? The strange future of emotional AI". The Guardian. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
  6. ^ a b c d e Rauch, Jonathan (November 2006). "Sex, Lies and Videogames". The Atlantic. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
  7. ^ a b Schiesel, Seth (June 7, 2005). "Redefining the Power of the Gamer". New York Times. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
  8. ^ a b c d Loftus, Tom (October 12, 2005). "Going beyond the gaming ghetto". NBC News. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
  9. ^ a b c Winkie, Luke (April 16, 2020). "Years later, Façade's groundbreaking AI lives on through bad YouTube jokes". PC Gamer. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
  10. ^ a b Harger, Brenda Bakker (2006). "Behind Façade: An Interview with Andrew Stern and Michael Mateas" (PDF). ELMCIP. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
  11. ^ Johnston, Ian (July 19, 2016). "Reading Books and Playing Video Games Can Help You Make a Better Person, Psychologist Says". The Independent. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
  12. ^ Mateas, Michael; Stern, Andrew (2000). Towards Integrating Plot and Character for Interactive Drama (PDF). American Association for Artificial Intelligence. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
  13. ^ Mateas, Michael; Stern, Andrew (2002). "A Behavior Language for Story-based Believable Agents" (PDF). In Forbus, Ken; Seif, Magy El-Nasr (eds.). Working Notes of Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Entertainment. AAAI Spring Symposium. AAAI Press.
  14. ^ "Type What You Feel". Games for Windows. No. 6. May 2007. pp. 32–34. Archived from the original on May 17, 2007. Retrieved August 11, 2023.
  15. ^ Mateas, Michael [@mmateas] (December 3, 2013). "Yes, Andrew Stern and I made facade. Not working on the party, but other research projects in the works" (Tweet). Archived from the original on June 5, 2019. Retrieved December 7, 2013 – via Twitter.
  16. ^ "When looks are no longer enough". The Economist. June 10, 2006. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
  17. ^ Dicket, Christopher (October 16, 2005). "A Female Sensibility". Newsweek. Retrieved August 8, 2023.
  18. ^ Adams, Ernest (July 28, 2005). "The Designer's Notebook: You Must Play Façade, Now!". Game Developer. Retrieved August 11, 2023.
  19. ^ a b Thompson, Tommy (April 23, 2020). "The Story of Facade: The AI-Powered Interactive Drama". Game Developer. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
  20. ^ a b Cook, Michael (February 13, 2015). "Electric Dreams, Part 1: The Lost Future Of AI". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
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