Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
2. Being creative people, the designers and artists would sometimes
take liberties with specifics of the storytelling, some (but not all) of
which worked very well. For example, the level artist added an area
where the slabs of meat were run through an X-ray, so the workers
could confirm the presence of internal contraband before proceed-
ing. A bit far-fetched, perhaps—a hidden mark on the meat would
be a lot simpler and cheaper—but the visual was powerful and was
able to speak volumes about the operation with just a single glance
from the player as he ran past it. Ideally, these new ideas would be
discussed as a group before the artist proceeded to take the time to
actually build and place the assets. However, to be honest, that
wasn't always the case; sometimes I didn't know anything about
these modifications until I saw them in the build.
3. At times, some team members seemed to be more concerned
about the gunrunning subplot than about the main conceit of the
factory chase. While it was heartening to see how seriously some
folks were taking this instance of environmental storytelling, I occa-
sionally had to remind team members that ultimately, the gunrun-
ning story was not on the critical path and should not take preced-
ence over—or distract from—anything else we were trying to do
with that location in terms of gameplay or the main story.
By the time we were done, the background elements definitely helped
tell a small but interesting side story about the secret goings-on in the
meat-packing plant. Each step of the process made visual and logical
sense and, had the title shipped, would have provided players who paid at-
tention with a little more of a sense of a larger world full of people going
about their (sometimes questionable) business.
Final Thoughts on Environments
Developers who design, construct, and decorate a game's environments
have the power to take on a huge part of the storytelling effort. Close col-
laboration with other team members, especially with those driving the
narrative effort, can yield results that help make players feel they are not
just observing the story world, but are in it.
