Everything is Possible - Storytelling in Games

Gamespot has a thoughtful and interesting piece up entitled Everything is Possible, where they interview several game designers with a strong storytelling background. The interviewees include Chris Avellone (Planescape: Torment), Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear), Ken Levine (System Shock 2), Tim Schafer (Grim Fandango), and Ragnar Tørnquist (The Longest Journey). These gaming luminaries discuss the finer points of creating a plot in an interactive universe, and it makes for a fantastic read. From the article: "Ken Levine: I'll never forget the first story I wrote in gaming. It was for a (eventually canceled) Star Trek: Voyager game. I wrote the opening cutscene, which included this gem: THE CAMERA ZOOMS IN ON JANEWAY...WE SEE A LOOK OF TERROR IN HER EYES AS IT REFLECTS THE INCOMING MISSILE The lead programmer pretty much laughed in my face. First of all, our characters were low-resolution bitmaps, with one fixed expression on their face. Their eyes were maybe 4x4 pixels each. The camera zooming in on that wouldn't have shown a performance; they would have shown a scattered mess of random pixels."

Comments

Plot sells games.

[Red Moose]

I suppose I'll just mention that Final Fantasy VII had an amazing story and is probably why it was so well loved, made all the more unique with the big heads. I miss that game.

Knights of the Old Republic was the probably the most recent game with an excellent story.

My personal opinion is that the story and plot makes a bigger difference on whether I buy a game or not - and it's part of the reason why I don't find FPS games that great as the depth is lacking (yes, *even* *in* *Halflife* ). Likewise, Deus Ex was hailed as revolutionary as a modern FPS style game but with lots of depth and for once a story that wasn't original but was well told. The sequel was dumbed down bullshit as usual.

The demise of the adventure game has also paralleled the rise of stupidity-sells games like the EA games and so on. Perhaps the "creativity" and "originality" we all moan about from yesteryear is not that we are just old fogey's bitching - maybe it's the the story and effort to create plot (think back to Loom, Monkey Island) is forgotten these days.

Games are a young art form

[Master_T]

Games are a particularly young art form. The beginning of cinema was similar. There wasn't much meat to what they did. It was based in the amusement of seeing a moving picture.

It is the same with games. Only now are we starting to truly see games that seek to work as artistic and storytelling devices. Even now, much of them are weak and not strong in an artistic sense or in a sense of narrative. We have begun to see narrative gems like Xenosaga, FFVII, KOTOR, HL2 and others. Soon perhaps we'll see games develop a sense of aesthetic too(the way a sense of beauty is evoked. there are many different ones, they stem from a philosphy of creation) .

I personally believe that at some point games will become an artistic genre like unto cinema or even opera. With art-direction, carefully written plots, and quality music. Perhaps the way a game plays will eventually reinforce the message or story it puts forth. Won' that be interesting.

Re:Video Games are the evolution of storytelling

[patternjuggler]

I see Video Games as potentially being the ultimate storytelling platform.

I was just watching an episode of the IFC's 'A Decade Under The Influence', and a famous director from the '70s said something like "I'm not interested in stories. There are only 6 or 7 stories. I'm interested in behaviour." I think that's not saying that stories are unnecessary or can be sidelined, but that the interesting thing is behaviour- how characters act within a story. Games make that much more interesting than more rigid media because of the interactive element. (cue debate on story centric vs. sandbox style games, compromise on answer that that is synthesis of both...)

Re:Time to fire the "lead" programmer

[ZephyrXero]

Actually many many people believe using the same in game model graphics helps the game feel like one solid piece instead of a two completely different experiences. Sure a couple seconds of prerendered eye candy can be nice, but it reminds you subconciously that this is a movie and you are no longer playing the game...