Case Study: Developing the Point Targeting System (PTS) at Deck Nine Games.
Tomas Aguilar’s in-progress Target timers
Overview
As a member of a multi-disciplinary strike team, my role centered on bridging animation support with core systemic design. The objective was to develop the Point Targeting System (PTS)—a new mechanic designed to enhance cinematic narrative immersion by introducing player agency.
Situation
At the onset of production, our goal was to inject player agency into cinematic narrative sequences. The typical model asks the player to be a passive observer, which can undermine the narrative immersion of a moment. We wanted a system that allowed the player's input to dictate variations in a cinematic outcome without breaking the storytelling flow.
Design Constraint: To explore solutions, we examined interactive cinematic mechanics (often called Quick Time Events, or QTEs) from moments like Tales from the Borderland - “Finger gun Fight”. Our initial technical inspiration was the focused player input and camera work of Time Crisis, which helped set the benchmark for pacing and visual intensity.
Task
The core task was to conceptualize, prototype, and validate the Point Targeting System (PTS) using a "shoot-out" scenario. The objective was to merge clear player agency with high-stakes cinematic storytelling while avoiding an "overly gamified" feel.
Key Taskforce Deliverables Included:
Pacing Model: Defining the timing and flow of the interactive moments.
Visual Feedback: Designing the on-screen visual representation of targets and reticles.
Input Mechanics: Defining the input mechanics for target selection and interaction.
Designer Tooling: Ensuring the system was built to work in conjunction with Deck Nine's established cinematic pipeline while allowing rapid design iteration on timing and target placement.
A previsualization of how a moment using the PTS feature might look and feel. This previz was missing how the targets would be displayed to the player.
Action
Working closely with the design team, my primary focus was translating the high-level concept into a testable, iterative environment.
My Key Contributions:
Prototyping & Environment: I handled the level blocking and environmental setup for both the previs and the first working prototype. With limited resources, I ensured that the previs and prototype effectively conveyed our PTS vision.
Pacing & Animation Theater: I implemented and iterated on the foundational cinematic timing and A-pose theater within our in-house tool, Storyteller, which allowed the team to begin testing critical aspects of pacing and narrative flow immediately.
System Implementation (PTS Hookup): I executed the first integration of the Point Targeting System (PTS). This involved hooking up the UI component and player input to the system's core logic, culminating in the first prototype ready for team testing.
Advocacy & Goal Clarification: I advocated using this initial "shoot-out" prototype as a pure system proof-of-concept. This was an initial move to leverage the intensity of a shoot-out to effectively demonstrate the system's technical feasibility and potential for cinematic gameplay, aligning the team on its utility for subtler, non-combat interactions later in the game. Crucially, I sought to decouple player interaction from the cinematic camera's control, enabling the right joystick to handle subtle target acquisition, thereby solving the potential 'overly gamified' problem while keeping the cinematic framing dominant.
Results
We successfully delivered a functional prototype of the Point Targeting System (PTS) that validated key design assumptions and informed the direction of future gameplay moments in The Expanse: A Telltale Series.
Tangible Outcomes:
Validated System Framework: The prototype proved that a spatially animated target system could be successfully coupled with player input and UI overlays within our in-house tools, maintaining a high level of cinematic fidelity.
Iterative Power: The iterative power of the setup significantly reduced the feedback loop time for designers, allowing rapid, on-the-fly testing of timing and target placement.
Systemic Foundation: The workflow and core components established for the PTS framework were designated as the technical foundation for future high-stakes interactive moments. This foundation was directly adapted to create the pivotal, high-tension, non-combat sequence at the end of Episode 1, "The Ladder."
Key Lessons Learned:
Clarity in Inspiration: We had selected Time Crisis because it technically resembled what we wanted to demonstrate in a PTS system. However, the genre feel didn't align with the full narrative-appropriate scenarios of our game. This caused the reception of the prototype to be mixed, requiring more justification and explanation for its benefit in creating gameplay moments.
Proactive Communication: The ability to rapidly prototype and advocate for the system's utility—even through an initially genre-mismatched scenario—proved essential for cutting through design ambiguity and securing alignment on the systemic approach.
Process Limitation Discovered: While the system enabled rapid iteration on timing, we realized that the underlying cinematic sequence was still constrained by pre-staged animation. This key finding informed later pipeline development, stressing the need for PTS moments to be integrated during the script-writing phase—a critical lesson for future systemic feature development.
Short recording of the PTS prototype in action.
Conclusion
This prototype phase was instrumental in demonstrating that a point-targeting system could be seamlessly integrated into our cinematic pipeline. The true extent of its benefit—using the system for narrative tension rather than just combat—was fully realized during the development of "The Ladder," which ultimately informed our approach to interactive storytelling going forward.
Art Director Antony Jones provided this draw over as an example use of the PTS system used in a shoot out fight.
Tomas Aguilar provided this mockup as an example use of the PTS system use in a melee combat fight.