Storytelling in Theory - The Game Maker's Companion: Game Development - page 198

Dialog
Speech is our main tool for conveying the story. As the player character talks to NPCs to get
information and help, what they say can greatly help advance the story and give a nice flavor to
everything. How the hero responds can show a lot about his character. Dialog can be put in the
player's way without interrupting the game play. When he talks to NPCs to get information, make
sure he also gets a bit of the story. As mentioned earlier, you can also have the NPCs react
differently according to how the player has made his choices in the game. Remember the traits
you assigned to the characters and let them show through the words they say.
Lengthy dialog can be just as annoying as cut scenes, so again, keep it to the point. A nice
trick used in Dragon Age Origins is to have your companions chatting as you go along your
business. It doesn't force the player to stop and listen, but still provides extra depth to the
characters.
NPCs along the way could also be chatting amongst themselves, providing atmosphere. The
players can stop and listen to the gossiping townsfolk or run past as they prefer.
Clues
The game world should support the story you are trying to tell. If the hero is in a hostile new place
and he is scared, you can make the surroundings reflect that mood; perhaps darker corners,
harsher colors, and ominous music. Put things in the player's way that give hints and clues to the
story. In Flynn's case, for instance, he could find his mother's hat in the pirate town to show that
she has been here. He could read some graffiti in the ship's hold that tells us that the Pirate King
has always been ruthless. At home, Flynn could find a letter from his mother to his father
revealing more about their relationship. We can put hints like these in the game world for the
player to explore. They support the story and the characters and help the story come alive.
Adventure games do this a lot—including extra items to examine that will reveal a bit more
about the characters and their world. Players who would rather not waste time on more story are
free to move on, but the more exploring, more thorough players can get the information if they
look for it.
Conclusion: Where's the Skip Button?
So that's the story and how we build it. Using the guiding form of the Hero's Journey and the
archetypes for our characters, we can structure the story so that it fits within the game.
As we've already said, the Hero's Journey is just one form to use as you build a story.
Experiment and find a way that works for you. The guidelines are here to help, not to dictate how
your story should be told.
Let us remind you once again that even though stories make games more exciting, the most
important thing to remember is that in a game, the player is there to play, not to sit passively and
listen to a story. The game play always comes first. The story is there to enhance the game play,
not the other way round.
If you do have sections where you take away the player's control to tell a bit of the story,
make sure the cut scene is relevant and that it isn't too long. Don't bore the player with long cut
scenes where they can do nothing and, if possible, allow them to skip past your story scenes if
they are not interested.
In the next chapter, we will go through our pirate story and see how all this applies to the
story we want to tell in our game.