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Indigo Prophecy Creator - No More 'Porn Narrative'
simoniker writes "There's a new postmortem for Quantic Dream's console title Indigo Prophecy, as described by creator David Cage, online, and one of the most interesting sections in the 8,000 word postmortem is how the game has tried to reshape storytelling for games away from the basic: "One of the key points in Indigo Prophecy was the idea of getting interactivity and narration to work together. Most games oppose these two concepts or rather, they develop them in turn: a cut scene to advance the narration, then an action scene, then another cut scene for the narration. The structure of this narrative process is very close to that of porn movies.""
If you played Half-Life 2 and Episode 1, you know how Valve gets around this. Episode 1's commentary was, quite frankly, one of the most interesting things I've seen in a game in a long time (I didn't play Lost Coast, when they introduced the commentary feature.)
Many ocmmentary points specifically address what's in this article - how to keep the player moving and interested (combat, exploration, puzzles, rewards) while at the same time directing their attention with specific things placed here and there without removing from them the ability to control the character. It's fantastically done, and when it's pulled off right - well, then you get HL2 and 35 Game of the Year awards.
ACs are modded -6. I don't read you, I don't mod you, I don't see you. Don't like it? Don't be a coward.
"Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important."
- John Carmack
Red. Blue. Blue. Green. Yellow. Yellow. *BZZZZT*
I helped a friend play Indigo Prophecy twice. The idea was cute, but it's actually just as linear as all the other games out there. The only difference is that you get to affect the "mood" of the main characters, and you get to ever-so-slightly modify the subplot. Add to that all the gratuitious "follow the flashing lights" two-handed button mashing sessions, and it rates as one of the worst games I've ever had the misfortune of playing. In short, the basic idea is fairly novel, but the game itself was poorly conceived and implemented.