id Software On Rage, Storytelling In Games

Tom Willits of id Software took some time recently to speak about storytelling as it relates to id's previous games, and how it will be a part of their upcoming shooter, Rage. He also dispelled rumors that Rage would suffer content cuts due to Xbox hardware limitations. Unfortunately, he called into question whether mods will be a possibility for the game, saying that the issue is still under consideration.

Comments

hmm

[nomadic]

As if reading the audience's minds, Willits began, "So id Software is actually giving a talk on storytelling -- that doesn't make much sense!" But Willits feels id's public perception is "sometimes a bit skewed."

No, our perception is spot on I think.

Re:hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey! Some of the best stories ever made are just about a lone marine killing tons of aliens, Nazis, and hellspawn. It is just like Shakespeare. Only without the words and with more firearms.

Re:hmm

[NuclearError]

More people die in Shakespeare though.

Re:hmm

[Dutch Gun]

To help clarify, I'll translate some key excerpts:

FPS pioneer id Software doesn't exactly have a reputation rooted in strong game stories.

Here at id, we feel that any "story" beyond "here's a gun, shoot anything that moves" is for pansies.

Yes, in the past, we have developed games that have very limited narratives. But to say that a game with limited narrative has bad storytelling is really a narrow-minded approach to what storytelling is.

But it turns out that there are a lot of pansies out there, and it turns out they have money. So now I'm going to actually redefine what "storytelling" is in order to make it fit more nicely with what we've done in the past, and more importantly, what we'll be doing in the future.

Information, he maintains, is learned through experiences, and the experience of playing a game is what forms a narrative, by its nature.

See, here we go. "gameplay" ------>>> "storytelling"... Done!

The first and most important thing is start with a solid, straightforward plot.

*Really* straightforward. As in, get a gun, kill anything that moves. That counts, right?

Matt Castello, who penned the story for Doom 3...

I'll bet that napkin could be sold on eBay for a bundle!

If you've played Doom 3 you know that our pacing was pretty intense. It started up easy enough, but then we kicked up the intensity and kept it there for the whole game.

Non-stop hellspawn popping out of closets behind the player! It was insane, I tell you!

Broad stroke visuals really portray to the user about the wasteland, and what the authorities are trying to do to the wasteland. A character is not trying to tell you, 'Hey these guys are bad, look what they did to the wasteland.' You can see it for yourself."

You can tell this is going to be an innovative game, because we're going to be subtle. And also, we have a *wasteland*! How original is that? Seriously, it's not just dark dungeons and corridors - er, well, it's mostly that inside - but outside, it's a wasteland!

Willits says that Doom 3 players "zoomed right through" the game's highly handcrafted levels, so for Rage, "we have focused on reusability."

It takes an assload of time to hand-craft these levels. Appreciate them, damn you!

His bottom line for Rage? Delivering more choices and more variety for more people, while still delivering "classic id-style mayhem."

Don't worry, it will all come down to shooting everything that moves anyhow.

New record?

[CaseyB]

The very first word in this post is wrong.

Nice work, Soulskill.

Games seem to focus too much on graphics

[modzer0]

It seems to me that as the quality of graphics have gone up the gameplay and story behind the scenes has suffered as many companies focus on graphics rather than gameplay. There are exceptions but a lot of games are just disappointing. They may look great but controls and bad plots take their toll on a lot of titles.

Re:Games seem to focus too much on graphics

[BPPG]

I agree, and it's also a bit frustrating when fancy graphics actually kind of get in the way of playing the game. Hi-res console games tend to look very poor on older and/or smaller televisions. I guess the assumption is that if you can afford a modern console, you could also afford a big-screen.

The Prettiness factor tends to wear off quickly, anyways. And just because it's very Pretty doesn't mean it's easy to look at, or understand what's happening.

FPS Storytelling?

[Enderandrew]

There are a few FPS games that do a decent job of storytelling. Half Life comes to mind, but even that doesn't have much of a storyline. id did some nice things with datapads in Doom 3 and such to try and tell a story, but id games, and the FPS genre in general is certainly not famous for story.

Re:FPS Storytelling?

[rhyder128k]

John Carmack: "Woah guys!"

Employee: "JC, what's up man?"

JC: "Oh baby, I just had a dream and it's INSPIRED me to take Id in a totally new direction story wise!"

E: "Story? You mean a new way of utilising pixel shaders for better lighting?"

JC: "No, an actual story, IN the game."

[silence]

E: "To be honest, we've already got a guy to write the bit on the back of the box."

JC: "Come on guys, the game could have a story to it this time rather than the best looking renderer in a shooting game. We could finally put all that red key/blue key shit behind us."

[silence]

JC: "Erm... I've though of a new way of drawing shadows. It means that everyone's going to have to upgrade their rig or play on minimal settings."

E: "Whoohoo, top notch man! The Carmackster does it again. Working here rocks!"

Re:FPS Storytelling?

[lgw]

If you have to read text in a game to find the storyline, the game is doing it wrong. You should participate actively in creating the storyline, not read about it! Or is someone confusing storyline with backstory?

Re:FPS Storytelling?

[lgw]

Sadly, the interesting story in Bioshock was almost all backstory. Even the Clever Twist midgame was all done in backstory. While playing I kept thinking "why is the game set after all the interesting stuff is done happening?" Good storytelling would have been playing through the fall of the civilization, and influencing how or whther it fell apart, not coming along *after* all the action and learning about it through sound clips.

Bioshosk stands about because it had any storytelling *at all*, not because it was good at it.

Re:Are There Still "id Fanboys"?

[BiggerBoat]

"Let's see... just our recent mobile games have sold over a million copies, and our last in-house PC title was our best-selling ever, but Anonymous Coward here says we should close up shop! Hmmm... what to do, what to do..."

Re:Are There Still "id Fanboys"?

[delysid-x]

Just like how Apple is a relic from the 80's.

http://marathon.bungie.org/story/

[MrMista_B]

Well, if you're supposed to 'participate actively in creating the storyline', as you inside, then there's absolutely no problem with today's FPS's. If it's all in your head, why spend the time creating a story for the game?

Personally, I prefer a well-wrought story, that allows the ability to affect the story, around the edges. Branching level progression, for example, that depends on player decisions during the game.

http://marathon.bungie.org/story/ , for example, Bungie's previous FPS trilogy before Halo, is still regarded by many as one of the pinnacles of story design in an FPS, and this came out in the mid-90's.

Re:PC/PS3 Version and 360/Wii Version

[lowlymarine]

Also the 360 is closer to the Wii graphically than the PS3 and desktop PCs. The 360 graphics hardware is designed for 480p with 4XAA.

I know you're just a troll, but this "360 graphics suxx" thing is an absolute fabrication. The 360's GPU is more powerful than the PS3's. Xenos is a prototype R600 (eg, HD 2900), while the RSX is based on the G70 (eg, GeForce 7800). So please, stop posting this nonsense.

Re:Gimped 360 Version Confirmed

[renegadesx]

Didn't you get the memo from Sony? The Wii doesn't really exist