Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
The rest of this chapter explores the techniques that game creators have used to tell stories,
along a broad spectrum ranging from authored stories to emergent stories. You don't need to
think about that range as a single, straight line, however. There are almost as many ways to tell
stories as there are stories to tell, and the intersection of storytelling and games is still relatively
unexplored. Maybe you'll discover an innovative way to tell stories or a way for new stories to
emerge from systems at play.
At the beginning of the authored end of the spectrum, it's easy to understand what we mean
by
story
. In its most straightforward, traditional form, a game's story doesn't need to be too dif-
ferent from the kinds of stories we experience through novels, comics, or films. It has a plot with
a beginning, middle, and end, with characters who develop, experience conflicts, and perhaps
resolve those conflicts.
If you want to tell a story in a way that resembles the forms used in less interactive media,
there's an awful lot of material out there already about how to proceed. You can find numer-
ous topics written for creators of novels, films, and comics that explain how to create a five-act
structure, develop interesting characters, and incorporate concepts like “The Hero's Journey” (a
multistage plot structure that's often found in the telling of grand, mythic adventures). All this
material can be useful for games as well, in the sense that telling a compelling story can draw
on similar techniques regardless of whether that story's intended to be experienced in a movie
theatre, while reading a book, or through the playing of a game. These traditional storytelling
concepts are beyond the scope of this chapter, however, since we're going to focus primarily on
the unique intersection of game systems and story.
As the creator, everything you put into your game informs its story: all the components of
context, for example, as discussed in Chapter 4, “Context.” The way a game looks and sounds
can be the building blocks of the setting of the game, elements that help the player understand
what's going on. Elements of context can be simple enough to give a hint of story without
being explicit, as in
REDDER
(2010), which uses few words and many simple, pixelated images
to create the feeling of exploring an alien planet. The ground looks red and arid, and you have
to wear a spacesuit as you explore the world. Your ship is lacking crystals, which can be found
deep in the tunnels that teem with dangerous machines (see Figure 7.2).
On the other hand, by pouring in a lot of context, it's possible to create an extremely rich world
with a history, nations of different peoples, and political struggles, even if the player doesn't
directly interact with or witness them, as in games like
Skyrim
(2011), which feature hundreds of
topics and artifacts that the player can read and inspect to learn more about the fictional set-
ting of the game. The system of the game, its rules and verbs and objects to interact with, have
a huge influence on the story, as we'll discuss soon. First, let's look at some ways that game
creators have told authored stories in games.
