Storytelling in Theory - The Game Maker's Companion: Game Development - page 187

Andy's house. They are too late. If they don't catch it, they will never be home again, as they don't
even know where the new home is.
The Road Back
Depending on the story, this stage can take very different forms. If we didn't add an extra twist in
the reward, then this is a slow wind-down where there is room to show how the hero has been
changed by his journey. If we added a twist, there will be more challenges on this road. For Flynn,
he has barely reached half-way; he has to complete a quest for the evil guy to get his mother back.
The journey still seems long.
In Toy Story , the twist means that Woody is still fighting to get home. The goal post has
moved and he now has to reach the truck and not the house next door. Using their newfound
friendship, Buzz and Woody help each other overcome the chasing dog and catch the truck.
Resurrection
This stage is named resurrection because traditionally this is where the hero is “reborn” and
restored to everything he might have lost when he first got the call to adventure. He is reborn as a
new, better person.
Time to resolve all the plot threads. There might be a final challenge here. We can also add
yet another twist here, like the villain not being dead at all. Incredibly, he rises again to continue
the fight. There might be a revelation here the audience will not have foreseen (“I am not really
your father”). This twist might also have been foreshadowed earlier.
In Toy Story , this stage is actually merged with The Road Back. Buzz and Woody fight to catch
up with the truck. The other toys work against him thinking that Woody has killed Buzz and is
now coming back to do more evil deeds. But they now all see with their own eyes that he has been
rescuing Buzz all along and his hero status is “resurrected.”
Return with the Elixir
The name of this stage also harks back to fairy tales. The hero returns with the potion that will
make his sick father better, or make the princess wake from her enchanted sleep. It signifies the
end of the story.
In this final stage, we get to see the hero return to glory. We get a chance to compare the hero
as he was at the start of the story with this new greater hero. He has his ordinary world restored,
or the new world becomes his ordinary world. If you plan to send him on new adventures in the
future, this is the perfect place to foreshadow these new events and leave the audience wanting
more.
The end in Toy Story sees Woody and Buzz both being Andy's favorites and the new wiser
Woody gladly accepts this, where the old one would be jealous and hateful. There is a sense that
whatever Christmas and birthday parties may throw at them, they can overcome the problems
together.
So there we have it; the journey returns to its starting point, ready to start again.
Of course, all of this is not meant to be taken too literally, not even the journey itself. Not all
stories are about journeys, but metaphorically we could say they are. It could be an inner journey.
The story could be about a girl who gets a new step-dad and has to learn to live with this new
person in her family whether she wants to or not. She won't go traveling, but her ordinary world
is still turned upside-down. Or it could be about a man who finds out that his boss is actually
working for the mafia and counterfeiting money. The police ask him to be a spy in his own
company. Again, the hero is not going anywhere, but still the journey begins.