Interactive Cinematic Design, Pt 1: The Point Targeting System
Note: This is Part 1 of the Interactive Cinematic Design series: How we prototyped the Point Targeting System to inject player agency into cutscenes for The Expanse: A Telltale Series
TL;DR:
Challenge: Create player agency in cutscenes without breaking immersion. Solution: Built a spatial targeting system that decouples player input from camera control.
Impact: Prototype validated the approach and became the systemic foundation for The Expanse's narrative gameplay moments.
Early visual tests for the PTS feature UI.
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” or the Unreal 5 demo - The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience. 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.
Input Language Consistency: Another key constraint was ensuring consistent input language. A common frustration with QTEs is the arbitrary button prompts—players might be asked to smash A in one moment and B in the next, with no connection to the game's standard controls (where A might be jump and B might be reload during free roam). This disconnect breaks immersion and creates a learning curve for each interaction. We wanted the PTS to use inputs that felt consistent and logical, mirroring the game's core mechanics even within cinematic moments.
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.
Art Director - Antony Jones provided this draw over as an early example of a PTS system used in a shoot out fight, video is from the show “The Expanse.”
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, ensuring consistency with the game's core control scheme.
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.
Input Design & Consistency: In the prototype, we used the right joystick to toggle between targets and the right trigger to "fire"—mirroring the focused input of our Time Crisis inspiration while establishing a consistent control language.
During later development and polish, we refined this to align more closely with the game's core mechanics. The left joystick handled dodging or moving out of cover. The left trigger functioned as "aim"—not a traditional down-sights aim, but often corresponded with a camera push-in as the character took aim. The right trigger fired.
This evolution ensured that PTS moments felt like natural extensions of gameplay rather than isolated button-mashing sequences. Players who understood the core controls could intuitively navigate high-stakes cinematic interactions.
Advocacy & Goal Clarification: I pushed for the shoot-out prototype because it would stress-test the core mechanics in a clear, high-intensity scenario. My focus was proving we could decouple player input from camera control—letting designers maintain cinematic framing while players used the joystick for targeting. The shoot-out made these mechanics immediately readable and testable.
The trade-off: the locked camera and arcade pacing felt too much like Time Crisis, which didn't align with our narrative tone. The prototype worked technically but required extra explanation to help the team see past the genre mismatch to the system's real potential for story-driven moments.
Short recording of the PTS prototype in action.
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 while using consistent, intuitive input language that mirrored the game's core controls.
Iterative Power: This setup significantly reduced 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:
Genre Mismatch: Using a shoot-out to demonstrate the system was smart for technical validation but created a communication problem. It proved the mechanics worked but didn't show why they mattered for our narrative-focused game. I learned that early prototypes need to demonstrate both function and context—even if that means building two versions.
What Came Next: The mixed reception pushed us to develop "The Ladder"—a non-combat sequence that used the same PTS framework but matched our game's tone. Where the shoot-out proved we could build it, "The Ladder" proved we should.
Pipeline Insight: The system enabled fast iteration on timing, but we discovered that cinematic sequences were still locked to pre-staged animation. This meant PTS moments needed to be planned during script-writing, not added later—a key finding that shaped our pipeline going forward.
Conclusion
This prototype phase was instrumental in demonstrating that a point-targeting system could be 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.
