Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
principles expressed in this topic help them improve every game they test
in at least some small way.
And finally, I hope
game writers
and
narrative designers
will realize that
educating the rest of their teams in the core principles of storytelling is a
crucial step to productively working together over the long haul of a game
project. I hope they'll show initiative in providing ample, vivid descriptions
of characters and environments to give the rest of the team the ingredi-
ents for narrative consistency and success. And I hope narrative experts
will acknowledge and demonstrate that storytelling isn't a responsibility to
be compartmentalized or territorially guarded by a single developer, but an
experience to be collaborated on and shared across an entire team.
There's that word again: “storytelling.” It's right there in this topic's title,
and I've used it liberally throughout. Why? Because it's a term that's famili-
ar to everyone, even if—as we've discussed a number of times by
now—“telling” a story is almost always the weakest way to convey it. As
video game developers, we have the potential to offer so much more to
our audience when it comes to story.
Our players aren't just
told
about a Hero—they
are
the Hero.
And they aren't just
shown
how a conflict was resolved. They're chal-
lenged to
do
it themselves.
This is why more players spend more money every year on games, with
no end in sight. They're out there, by the millions. Ready to take part in a
new story. Eager to see what we'll challenge them to play—to
do
—next.
