Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Now think of a real-world example: Mirror's Edge . At its core, it's a game
about running across rooftops and making near-impossible jumps across
dizzying gaps. What kind of person does this on a regular basis? A parkour
expert, for one, and so that's who our playable character is in the fiction.
Her name is Faith, an independent risk-taker who fights against a repress-
ive totalitarian regime. She's even named in relation to the core game
mechanic (as in “leap of,” which is what the core mechanics often feel
like). This is a good example of Design and Narrative working together to
create a unified vision for the player character.
Similarly, Kratos in God of War is a player character featuring admirable
ludonarrative harmony—a Spartan warrior out for revenge on the gods
who are responsible for him inadvertently killing his own family. That's a
character concept and motivation well matched to the bloody, ultraviolent
nature of the player character's gameplay abilities.
One of the few criticisms leveled at the hugely popular Uncharted series
is that the main character of Nathan Drake constitutes a less-than-ideal
match between the kind of person the narrative portrays and the things
you (as Nathan) actually do in the game. There is a noticeable disconnect
between the likeable, happy-go-lucky, joke-cracking adventurer we know
from the cutscenes, and the guy we actually control during gameplay: a
heavily armed, relentless killer of hundreds if not thousands of people who
stand between him and the artifacts he seeks.
Uncharted easily survives this ludonarrative dissonance, evidenced by
three very successful and critically lauded titles at the time of this writing.
Because it does so many other things incredibly well, Uncharted can af-
ford this kind of contradiction—whereas the game on which you're work-
ing may not be in such an enviable position. And to a small degree, even
Uncharted has been taken to task for this contradiction by some reviewers,
columnists, and academics.
As Mike Bithell, developer of story-based indie hit Thomas Was Alone
puts it:
If you've got a character who's a pacifist, don't give them a gun.
Or if you do give them a gun, talk about that relationship.
But … don't make them enjoy killing people and don't make the
act of killing people enjoyable to the player. Basically it's about
avoiding contradictions. A lot of storytelling is about avoiding that
break. 5
 
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