Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
The answer to both questions, of course, is no.
Once in a while you will see a dev team demonstrate more effort in cre-
ating a legitimate Act I for their game, investing time and effort to establish
a status quo before shattering it with the introduction of an Inciting Incid-
ent and Plot Point 1. Here are a few examples of different ways this has
been—and can be—successfully applied.
A Day in the
Half-Life
The opening sequence of Valve's
Half-Life
is an excellent example of
handling Act I in an interactive way, but with little to no conflict driving the
initial experience. If you have never played this game, a quick Internet
search for “Half-Life Walkthrough Part 1” should allow you to view a video
playthrough on your computer or other connected device. (I recommend
you do so before reading further.)
As
Half-Life
opens, we as the player are scientist Gordon Freeman, riding
the train into work at the Black Mesa Research Facility, like we do every
day. While this opening sequence is interactive, to use the word “game-
play” for it is probably being overly generous. There is very limited ability to
interact with other characters or the environment, no combat, and no way
to die or otherwise fail. It is, however, immersive and engaging.
Through this sequence, the beginning of which also serves as a credits
roll, we get a sense of who “we” are, where we work, and what people
generally think of us. We get of the train, and we see and hear from our
workmates as they discuss the upcoming experiment and make small talk.
It's the beginning of another humdrum workday, the calm before the
storm. This is classic Act I setup material.
Once the experiment fails and all hell breaks loose, the chaos we see
from that point on is
amplified
by our firsthand knowledge of how calm
and orderly the facility used to be. Hallways that were pristine just minutes
ago are now splattered with blood and strewn with dead bodies.
The length of
Half-Life
is Act I is partially controlled by the player and
how much time he chooses to spend exploring the environment vs. taking
the specific actions that advance the plot. But even on a rushed play-
through, the player will spend at least fifteen minutes firmly entrenched in
Act I—with no main conflict yet established.
Half-Life 2
follows this structure as well; however, the aim of its Act I se-
quence is not to evoke a calm day at the office, but rather to establish the
existence of a repressive and malevolent dictatorship. In the original
Half-
