Story in Games
I attended a Roundtable discussion at the Game Developer's Conference in San Jose on "Storytelling in Games".
I left extremely frustrated.
Though there seemed to be a few like-minded individuals in the room, for the most part I felt shut out of a conversation that seemed primarily to be about How We Can Force Narrative into First Person Shooters as opposed to How Can We Tell Stories Through Games.
There were some primary points of the discussion:
1) Lamenting the Loss of Control
A lot of the writers present seemed to want to discuss the issues associated with not having control over what the user sees when, and having less control over the development of character and plot. One attendee mentioned frustration with narrative because it forced him to spend thousands of dollars on his previous titles to add in cut scenes.
2) How to Show Emotion Digitally
There was also concern with the lack of emotional range a digital character can express. A few writers felt the solution lied in more realistic graphics. Others mentioned that the solution did not lie in realistic characters, but noted that should be something writers keep in mind, as graphics continue to improve. One attendee metioned the "Uncanny Valley": audience testing shows that users believe in a character design that looks farther away from reality. As the design approaches a more realistic look, there occurs a slump in the believability in design, so that those animated characters who look very close to real are actually more unbelievable than there low-budget predecessors (Polar Express, anyone?).
3) Telling Stories Through Buttons
There was also concern with the interface. The claim was that it is difficult to engage a user through button pressing.
Tune in later for my assessment on how we can turn these negatives into positive, but here are some articles at gamasutra on writing story for games:
Story and Narrative in Games
Using Symbols to Communicate Story
Massive Multiplayer Story
Comments
This is really frustrating. But to those who are in the industry and always focus on how to make a step forward based on their production, it is common. They can not step back and look farther on the storytelling because they are in the industry. And they haven't go to film school =).
The interactive narrative shown on the Expo is a really good example of storytelling, I and Susana have tried that game.
Posted by: jenova | March 28, 2004 12:13 PM
Are you refering to Facade, Jenova? Because I thought that was a good example of narrative and character development while maintaining interactivity.
Posted by: kellee | March 28, 2004 9:08 PM
I've worked on games that try to be "interactive stories", and they just don't seem to work as well as games and eventually what's engaging in theater isn't necessarily engaging in games. People spend there money on games in order to interact with an environment, not to look at animations or stories.
Games that have good story lines and beleivable plots that are entertaining are usually short on the story and longer on the game play. The ones that have tried to go beyond this have usually failed, and the failure in the market place is what leads to the discussions you hear at GDC or other places. Most people have given up on creating extremely engaging stories and characters because it takes away too much from the game play. The people making games are just reacting to the market and what has and has not worked. It ends up being pretty frustrating if you really want to have a very involved story or characters, you have to spend a lot of money on animation time and costs, once you start adding all this cost up compared to game play (which makes or breaks a game). That means over head skyrockets and deadlines can't be met, etc. Unfortunately, creating an entire 3D game that will be published is not a small undertaking anymore, and maybe publishing is the problem.
I think you can make engaging, fun interactive games, but I don't know that they'll sell well compared to what's in the market. When you're at GDC, you're listening to people that make their money in the video game industry. They want something that's creative and fun on one hand, but that sells like mad on the other. Look at the state of Hollywood. So many stories being retold because the work and they aren't a risk. You occasionally get something interesting that comes out, but you still have to look into experimental and art movies to really see something new and innovative. The game industry is much the same way, but there aren't a lot of low cost, easy to use solutions.
That being said, game engines can be used to create narratives. The ILL clan (www.illclan.com) is one such group that's doing some interesting things. It's mostly a humor approach and not high drama, but it's fun and engaging. Machinima.org may be something you'd want to look into as well. They're promoting using video game engines to create stories, narratives, etc. This isn't quite the same as designing good story and narrative in a game, but hopefully it'll bleed over a little.
I'll stop rambling now.
Posted by: brian | April 9, 2004 7:48 AM