Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
In traditional storytelling media, dialogue conveys three types of exposi-
tion:
plot, character
, and
emotion
. In game stories, it is also employed to
convey
gameplay
exposition.
Plot Exposition
This is what most people think of when they think of exposition: a charac-
ter explaining what's going on in the story. And much of the time that is a
big part of what dialogue does.
There are times in many if not most stories when the plot details are
complicated enough that the concepts would be difficult or impossible to
convey without resorting to some verbal explanation. Other times the de-
cision to employ dialogue to explain plot elements to the audience is
based on efficiency and scope. It can be much faster (not to mention
cheaper!) to verbally refer to something than to depict it. This is especially
true when it comes to background information or prior events.
Consider this exposition-laden speech from
Back to the Future
, in which
Doc Brown first explains his time machine and its workings to Marty (and
the audience):
[Einstein the dog] is fine, and he's completely unaware that any-
thing happened. As far as he's concerned the trip was instantan-
eous. That's why Einstein's watch is exactly one minute behind
mine. He “skipped over” that minute to instantly arrive at this mo-
ment in time. Come here, I'll show you how it works. First, you
turn the time circuits on. This readout tells you where you're go-
ing, this one tells you where you are, and this one tells you where
you were. You input the destination time on this keypad.
This is a lot of information—all of it important for both Marty and the
audience to comprehend, given what follows shortly—and it's complicated
enough to require a detailed verbal explanation.
In the movie's sequel, the time-travel complications become so challen-
ging to convey to the audience that the creators not only have Doc Brown
verbally explain them to Marty (and the audience), but also resort to
branching timeline diagrams sketched on a chalkboard!
The case could be made that Doc Brown's chalkboard diagram is a clev-
er use of “show” to support the “tell,” but to my mind that's a somewhat
shaky argument. When story concepts are so complex that words alone
