Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
ity are always being changed (within reasonable limits) if it would help to describe
or display some things better. Such practice is known as
artistic license
(also
known as
poetic license
,
dramatic license
, and so forth). Moreover, the audience
is already familiar with and prepared for such tricks, as if they are watching the per-
formance of a magician. Everybody knows that all his actions are tricks and he is
not a real mage; they simply want to see a show. Ignoring some simplification and
distortion of realistic rules in favor of more attractive quality of a piece of art is known
as
willing suspension of disbelief
or in short,
suspension of disbelief
. Because
of it, players overlook a lot of roughness on screen menu, such as avatars who are
capable of carrying tons of weapons in their pockets, cars with infinite fuel supply,
indestructible walls, and so on. The only point to note is that the suspension of dis-
belief is a matter of a delicate concern; any simplification must be compensated with
something vivid, or a disappointed audience will be very critical. The following is an
example of the plot squares chart.
There is an interesting way to explore the plot and to invent some original situations.
I call it
plot squares chart
. It is based on illustration (or text description) of the basic
plot element. For example, it includes the character and its weapon. Then a list of
different circumstances should be composed—the more unusual and abstract they
are, the better—rotation, showing half of the square, absence of gravity, strong wind,
legs instead of arms, entropy, and so forth. There can be dozens of them in the list.
After that, you need to put the plot square in each circumstance, fixing what could
happen with the character.
There are only a few circumstances shown in the following figure but their list can be
longer:
How would he adapt to a new condition? It will let you invent some new details for
the story.
More complex plots must be explained in a proper way. Normally, players don't like
to read a lot of text in the video games, they don't like long introductions and cut-
screens, so it is better to use contextual narration—telling the story while the player
is playing the game. The storyline should be cut into small pieces scattered on the
game levels. It should not be textual; all the game elements must tell their stories:
