QTE Design and Embodied Meaning Making

(A 20 minutes reading, approx)

The Academic framework for this Analysis is taken from:

TACTYC conference 2019, Embodied meaning making: children’s use of physical actions to respond to wordless picture books, by Samantha Jayne Hulston 

QTEs (Quick Time Events) have been a highly debated topic in the videogame industry and often seen as a signature of bad game design. I would like to challenge that notion and show that not only are they a useful resource for game designers and narrative designers alike; but are often utilized without the player even perceiving them as QTEs.

Press X not to die is one of the best ways to summarize the lazy use of quick time events in games. There is even a FMV game with that name, and yes is full of QTEs but I think they managed to follow some good practices and alongside the short and ridiculous nature of the game makes them fun instead of punishing and frustrating.

That brings me to my fist point and the main quarrel that players have with QTEs, the frustrating and arbitrary nature in which they are often used.

QTEs that cause instantaneous player death feel cheap, frustrating and often fail to generate a rewarding sensation on the player when performed successfully.

Dragon's Lair (1983) was already criticized by players at the time for the unforgiven nature of quick time events, but that was not the only reason that QTEs in that and other games feel so frustrating to perform. That often has to do with a concept from modern neuroscience and humanities: Embodied meaning making. 

The theory of multimodality proposes that communication encompasses myriad modes, not only the written or spoken language. These modes include embodied content, such as posture or gestures.  The term embodied is used here to mean communication practices that, at their point of dissemination, exist through bodily movements.

Why is this important in the design of QTEs?

Let's go back to the Dragon's Lair example. 

Players were not only frustrated by the insta-kill nature of the game but because the controler`s inputs required often contradicted the movements of the player`s character on screen.

The animation is undoubtedly beautiful but it was clearly not designed with the player input the mind; something the developers admit in countless interviews, and is evident when playing the game.

A lot of situations are very confusing to assess like the one shown below. 

What was the player supposed to do here? If not running from the fire?

Jump on the table? Ok, how would that be? Up? Left? The game has no clear visual connection between the meaning that the player is experiencing and the movements he is ment to perform. 

A much better example can be found in the same game, where the player fights the black knight. Spikes block the road at its right, so the only logical doge option is left.

Kung Fu Master from the same year, make a much better use of QTE`s following the Embodied meaning making principle. When an enemy grabs you the thing you need to do is move the stick back and forth, like wiggling your way out. Feels natural and instinctive. 

Furthermore the game applies this concept to all of the player´s character movements. Using down to duck under attacks and up to jump above them.

Of course these two examples predate what most people think when they think of QTE´s, a big flashing sign telling you to press X. So let's move forward in time to more modern examples.

The God of War series has pretty amazing and memorable QTEs. They are mostly used to finish opponents and failing just results in the player having to re-try the QTE.

The duration of the QTEs also varies between regular enemies and the big bosses of the game, so the creators recognise the role that the QTE has in the narrative pacing of the game.

One of the most memorable QTEs sequences in the history of GOW happens in the third game, when Kratos kills Poseidon. 

The whole sequence is framed masterfully changing between a POV of Poseidon and the regular third person camera, all in favor of making the action feel more visceral. The player managed to feel both in the shoes of Kraton and in Poseidon`s.

The spectacle culminates with a spectacular button press “L3 + R3” ; which if you are paying attention you will realize that makes the player perform the same eye gouging movement that Kratos is doing in the scene, before the POV goes dark.

Embodied meaning making at its finest, in service of the narrative and game feel. 

An important thing to notice is that the kill sequence starts only after the player presses “O”, amplifying the sense of control, and that is something we are deciding to do. A lot of times QTEs snatch control from the player, going against the embodied meaning making principle, rarely resulting in a satisfying and immersive experience.

The exception to that is for instance the famous Resident Evil 4 boulder scaping sequence, since you want the player to feel panic, same as Leon, so the QTE comes unexpectedly, but not without warning since there is a short cinematic intro of the enemies throwing the boulder before you are prompted to “press X not to die”.

Again, embodied meaning making principle in action. You make the player feel the same as the character with physical actions; in this case frantically pressing buttons to escape, and at the last time using quick reflexes to dodge the boulder as if we were Leon running for our lives.

Notice that the button presses are first just mashing X, and after the tension rises then you are asked to perform the much less intuitive “LT + RT”. 

Furthermore there is a checkpoint right before that point in normal difficulty, making it even less frustrating for players with less sharp reflexes.

That QTE scene is replaced in the 2023 remake for a much shorter “press to evade”, that in my opinion loses the rising tension of the original, but RE4 Remake makes a lot of decisions like this one.

The original iconic Krauser vs Leon fight really lacks a lot of embodied meaning making, some examples of that are button combinations being used both to dodge or to block attacks, independently of direction, and are different from previous prompts used to dodge sudden attacks (example the previous boulder chase) which confuses the user and creates a guessing game instead of a meaningful narrative-physiological connection.

To maintain the psychological connection with the characters during QTEs the controls\button prompts should always be intuitive and feel natural and evident to the player. 

Mortal Kombat Armageddon tried to use QTEs to enhance the connection between player and the gruesome action performed in their Fatalities allowing for self expression; however the complicated and confused nature of the controls made the player feel more frustration than connection. I'm talking about seriously confusing controls. I had to use save states in the emulator and read a guide just to reach the 4rth stage. 

In the remake of Resident Evil 4 the QTEs take a backseat and are replaced by a section where you are forced to use the knife and parry mechanics as your only means of survival. 

The embodied meaning making is still present through these mechanics, and there still are QTEs on quick reaction moments to test your reflexes or in the middle of intense knife grappling to create tension and enhance the sensation of physical struggle.

Despite a much better use of embodied meaning making and much more consistent use of QTEs I think the remake lacks the spectacular camera angles and ridiculous skill moments of the original. Is a matter of taste which version of the fight you prefer.

In my case I would have preferred a more cinematic heavy fight with better implemented QTEs, and some pure knife/parry gameplay section sprinkled in the middle, since I think the knife mechanic alone is not enough to maintain the spectacle.

Rapid button mashing is not the only way to use Embodied meaning making to create tension.

Until Dawn from 2015 (and that is getting a remake this year) uses the motion control in its QTEs making the player hold the controller still while trying to not make noise. 

That is also justified in the overall narrative with blind enemies or situations that accompanied the mechanic.

Occasionally the controller vibrates so you have to counter that movement, simulating the sudden movements of the creatures you are hiding from, increasing the immersion but more importantly making it impossible to just place the controller on the ground.

That combined with other forms of QTEs to determine choice or quick reactions , as we already mentioned, make Until Dawn an immersive and enjoyable experience that utilizes embodied meaning making to provide gameplay that is missing from the rest of the game, where you basically only walk from place to place.

There is a game that in my opinion uses the embodied meaning making in it`s QTEs in a masterful way that I have never seen replicated quite good again. 

The Punisher, a game from 2005, the same year as the original God of War and Resident Evil 4.

2005 was the year of good QTEs, it seems. 

In The Punisher, you play as the titular PG-13 character torturing and murdering criminals and very occasionally saving some people, but that is actually optional in this game. 

The torture mechanics make use of an excelent QTE system where after capturing an enemy (you can use it in all of the enemies of the game) you can apply pressure in the right amount to intimidate without killing.

The lifebar of the enemy is displayed above the pressure meter so if you inflict too much damage or if you perform an exaggerated movement you can kill the victim, failing the sequence. 

Failing the sequence just means having a few points discounted of your level`s total, an spectacular death sequence (the reason of which I often times failed the QTEs on purpose) and a short phrase from the Punisher mocking the killed enemy. There is even special dialog if you “fail” the interrogation after breaking the enemy.

“Guys it's ok the Punisher is not here for us” Spoiler: It was not OK.

If you are successful the enemy often gives away precious information about enemy location, the possibility of persuading enemies to act on your behalf and in some occasions triggers comic-book style flashbacks that reveal parts of Frank`s backstory. 

There are 24 flashbacks in total (you can see them all in this video ).

Depending on the choice of torture the movement required to perform the QTE imitates the fiscal movements of Punisher, creating a strong physical conction with the character.

I wish there was an option to kill the enemy after breaking him to have the full experience without losing points but still, it`s an almost perfect implementation of embodied meaning making inside QTEs that remove all of the usually associated frustration.

The system works great on PC, where I originally played the game back in the day, using the mouse movements to imitate the movements of the hand.

Recently I replayed the game for screen captures and tried the PS2 version for the first time.

This version uses the right analog stick for the QTEs and works just as well. So you can't really go wrong with any version.

While you are “persuading” the enemy will throw insults, begs or quick remarks that reveal aspects of his personality, all stylized like comic book dialog.

This game also foreshadows some of its more unique “interrogation” methods with enemy dialogs and environmental clues, blending it with the rest of the narrative elements and techniques; including the aforementioned flashbacks, in a seamless way.

These QTEs were subject to harsh critics at the time, almost banning the game from sale. That got fixed before launch with a stylish black and white filter that can be easily removed in the PC version with an unofficial patch. In fact the whole game is abandonware at the moment, so feel free to download it and play it legally here. 

Another great example of embodied meaning making in a similar torture system is the one found in the Wii port of Manhunt 2, considered by many one of the best console versions of the game precisely because of these QTEs. You fling the motion controller imitating the motions that the main character is doing while killing their victims, as the QTE´s prompts appear on screen. It's amazing to think that Nintendo allowed this in their platform.

Before finishing I would be remiss to not mention an amazing level on The Punisher that actually does what I said I wanted from the Resident Evil 4 Krauser knife fight blending QTEs and normal gameplay in a short but sweet cinematic fight against The Russian. In many aspects it's even better than the movie counterpart of the fight.

You dodge the Russian attacks and lure him to different areas of the apartment building before activating QTEs to damage him. This is well into the latter half of the game so by now you should have mastered the QTE Interrogation mechanic.

Embodied meaning making is not the only important consideration when using QTEs inside your game and I will explore other aspects of QTEs in a different blog-post, however is no doubt an important aspect of providing meaning and a psychological connection between players and the digital avatars they embodied. 

Hidden QTEs and Embodied Console Design

As a bonus I wanted to talk about some games that hide their QTEs in plain sight using Embodied meaning making. Rhythm games are not usually thought of when talking about QTEs but they are precisely that, a series of QTEs following certain rhythmic panthers. Some even have specialized accessories to enhance the physical connection with the game, either being a guitar, a dance pad, or even bongos.

Some consoles have tried to incorporate the concept of Embodied meaning making into the controller or console itself, with various results.

The Xbox’s Kinect had mixed commercial results and a complicated legacy, dragging down the Xbox One with it, but there were interesting experiments, such as Steel Battalion Heavy Armor where you combine the motion of the body with the commands of the controller to generate an immersive experience. You even had to slap sense into your crewmates when the battle got too heated, effectively working as a full body set of quick time events. 

In practice the controls were clunky and the gestures were not recognized by the Kinect half of the time.

The Nintendo Wii in contrast was much more successful in making good use of embodied meaning making as we saw with Manhunt 2.

A more simplistic approach that in my opinion has worked wonders is the one taken by the Playdate handheld console. This little console has a crank on the side that allows you to perform certain actions inside the games in an unique way.  Not only the games, but the whole interface implements embodied meaning making, putting an emphasis on physicality in all of the animations, being able to control most menus with the crank as well as performing certain actions.

Since development for the console is open to anyone there are already hundreds of games with unique spins (sorry for the pun) on using the crank. This console shows that even simple forms of physical interaction can have a great impact on the way we play games, without the need of having complex motion sensors or accelerometers, just good embodied meaning making focused design.

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Now, I'm asking you, dear reader.

1. Any other examples of embodied meaning making you can think of in games?

2. Any other examples of embodied meaning making you can think outside QTEs?

Please let me know in the comments below.