Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
What about Act I?
You'll note that in the chart above that the Act II area is full of increasingly
challenging levels, and Act III concerns itself with the final boss (or other
climactic gameplay experience), while the Act I zone is a bit, well, blank.
That's not an accident. But it is a problem for many game-story deve-
lopers.
The audiences of other story-based media—novels, movies, comic
topics, and plays—come into the experience with a certain degree of pa-
tience. They're willing to spend some time up front getting familiar with
the world and characters before the main conflict is introduced and the
story really gets going. Readers, moviegoers, and TV viewers are there, first
and foremost, to experience a story, and they generally understand and
accept that setup is part of the structure. Players, on the other hand, have
come to play a game.
Of course, in many cases these are the same people . But their expecta-
tions change radically when they sit on their couch and insert a game disc
into their PlayStation versus inserting a Blu-ray movie.
While traditional story audiences regularly tolerate 25 percent or more
of the total story time being devoted to initial setup, video game players
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