Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
the game reflects the player's achievements through point-scoring; and so on.
Because of this ambiguity, this topic uses the term only with respect to interactive
storytelling.
In presentational media, the plot of a story advances at the rate at which the reader
reads or the display mechanism displays. In a video game, the storytelling engine
causes the plot to advance but not at a fixed rate and not always triggered by the
same mechanisms each time it advances. Different games use different triggers to
tell the storytelling engine to move forward. In some games, succeeding or failing
at a challenge triggers plot advancement. In others, the avatar's journey through the
game world makes the story advance; in such games, entering a room or area may
act as the trigger. In a very few games, the passage of time alone makes the plot
advance, rather than anything the player does. The next three sections look at these
mechanisms more closely. Each approach brings with it strengths and weaknesses,
and you have to choose the one that works best for the story that you want to
present.
The Story as a Series of Challenges or Choices
In a good many games, the plot advances only when the player meets challenges or
makes decisions. In a war game or a vehicle simulator, completing a mission or level
might advance the plot.
StarCraft
advances the plot only when the player success-
fully completes a level, whereas
Wing Commander
advances its plot at the end of
every mission, but the story proceeds in different directions depending on whether
the player succeeded or failed. In both of these coarse-grained stories, neither time
nor progress through space affect the plot, only the fact that the level has come to
an end.
This system works well for games that involve no travel at all or those in which
travel itself doesn't affect the plot. In a combat flight simulator, the player can fly
all over the sky, but none of that travel influences the story. What affects the story
is shooting down enemy planes or being shot down by them.
Suspended
, a text-based puzzle game from Infocom, also uses this mechanism.
All game and story events take place in a restricted area, a small group of rooms.
Solving puzzles in the different rooms causes the plot to advance.
Sometimes the trigger for advancing the story isn't surmounting a challenge but
making a choice or decision. Role-playing games often give the player important
decisions to make, such as whether or not to join a particular guild, the conse-
quences of which significantly affect the story. Once the player makes a decision—
and decisions are often irreversible—the plot advances.
