Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
way gamers like to see it. This isn't to say the official sites do a poor job. Rather,
fans get so caught up in the lore that they rewrite it to make it clearer and then
add screengrabs or videos to help illustrate more clearly what that lore is. Unless
they have inside information (which occasionally happens), they don't know any
more lore than what the game companies provide; they just tend to present it in
a different way that appeals to a lot of gamers.
Designers can create lore for any game, regardless of how deep or light the
project may be. They can then use the lore to create new storylines based on the
backstory they have written. If your world is immersive with warring factions,
then the reasons there are conflicts need to be written in detail. As you develop
your game further, adding more quests and more areas to explore, draw on the
existing lore, and then expand it where needed.
Adventure or action-adventure games tend to rely a great deal on lore. In
Lara
Croft, Tomb Raider,
the main character's lineage and personal tragedies create
much of the lore for her adventures. In other words, the events in her life helped
to shape her character and the forces driving her to do what she does.
Lara (her title is Lady Lara Croft) is actually, according to her creators, an
11th-generation countess, daughter of Lady Amelia Croft and the dashing but
scandalous archeologist Lord Richard Croft. Both her parents died before she
came of age, and it was while she was a young student at the Abbingdon Girls
School that her brilliance and athletic prowess were discovered.
The death of her mother was particularly stirring. Lara and her mother were
on a plane that crashed while flying over the Himalayan Mountains. Lara sur-
vived the crash, but her mother was killed. Lara, just a young girl, survived 10
days in the mountains and made her way to Katmandu, where she walked into a
bar, telephoned her father (of course, he was still alive at the time), and politely
asked if he could come pick her up.
The lore for this game is learned during the opening cinematics, on the offi-
cial site, and on a myriad of fansites. Players can learn more about Lara through
a series of comic topics; and as players tackle the game's quests, more parts of
the lore are revealed at the conclusion of each quest.
Now that is fun lore! Who wouldn't want to jump into Lara's boots and race
around with Olympic athletic abilities, leaping from broken edifice to massive
statue in some remote undiscovered tomb, while evading evil henchmen so you
can save a priceless relic?
Here's another example. Blizzard's
Diablo 3
uses a map (see Figure 3.1), which
is an integral part of the lore for that game.
Often, games with
extensive writ-
ing about the lore
develop conflicts
in the storyline.
to resolve these
conflicts, the lore is
updated, producing
what is known as
retroactive continuity
or
retcon
.
