Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
ment of a game featuring a significant narrative element. Although various
other considerations can impact your narrative plans, design tends to be
the consideration that most often comes into conflict with story develop-
ment.
In a story-based game, changes in design or narrative plans can wreak
havoc on each other.
As a creative lead, you have the power to balance these various factors
and decide, on a case-by-case basis, which is most important. Every time
Design and Narrative come into a conflict that is escalated to your level,
you need to do your best Solomon impression as you weigh the various
benefits and costs—not only to the project, but to the enthusiasm and
morale of your team members on both sides of the divide.
This should be nothing new to you. Indeed, saying yes to some ideas
while saying no to others is a primary function of being a creative lead. But
when Narrative is in the mix, it tends to be regarded as the ugly stepchild
and can often be trumped by other considerations, almost by default.
This is not a problem if you've decided at the outset that your game's
narrative quality isn't terribly important to its success (and if you're correct
in that assumption!). But if you believe the story content of your game is
central, and is vital to its success, then in the heat of game development,
it's important at these junctures to step back for a minute and remind
yourself of your priorities. The damage being done to a narrative structure
in its formative stages is often only perceptible to the most experienced of
writers and editors. So don't assume that the “small” change you're re-
questing your narrative experts make to their story design to be minor, es-
pecially if they indicate otherwise. As we covered in chapter 6 , a “cool”
idea may inadvertently introduce a risk to the story's believability, charac-
terization, pacing, or even to its structural integrity.
Understanding these risks is the first step in mitigating or even eliminat-
ing them.
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