i'm surprised the article doesn't talk about The Stanley Parable at all.
Designing game narrative
11–20 of 27 posts
Re: Designing game narrative
#12An interesting article, gave me much to think about as I'm planning out a game to make. My thought on it tho, I think the article misses a GOOD use of cutscenes: A good story is all about tension and release, and a cutscene can provide a necessary release from intense gameplay (not that it's the only way). Am I wrong on this? I'm sure there are differing opinions on this depending on what game genres you enjoy (I'm q…
Yeah, when well-timed a cutscene can be part of a syncopated rhythm, or be a satisfying moment when you can throw down your controller in exhaustion after an intense piece of action, or they can be used to frame a shift in gameplay.
That's not to say they're not overused in general, but they can have their use.
On the subject of overuse, one reason is that a linear story and movie-like cutscenes are easier and cheaper to write and make, at least compared to the alternative. The processes are well-known and so they're easier to budget for.
Re: Designing game narrative
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree, except that even on modern machines HL stops the game every 2 minutes to load the next area (this is especially painful when the train is moving through the intro cutscene.)
Sure, you have to take the limits of their engine into account. The load time is under a second on modern machine and with SSD it is almost instant. Hopefully HL3( ... ) comes with seamless levels.
I couldn't afford an SSD big enough for my entire steam collection... ;)
and I too hope to play HL3 at some point before I die!
Re: Designing game narrative
#14Books have more senses than movies and games, because in books, you can describe touch feelings, smells, temperatures, etc., thus giving readers a multisensorial experience. In movies you can only rely on sound and image. Zero other senses. Smell in books is superior to smell in movies.
Re: Designing game narrative
#15Books have more senses than movies and games, because in books, you can describe touch feelings, smells, temperatures, etc., thus giving readers a multisensorial experience. In movies you can only rely on sound and image. Zero other senses. Smell in books is superior to smell in movies.
I wouldn't say zero sense. When I watched sin city, I could smell the yellow guy. It all depends on how the story is presented. The color scheme of sin city definitely has sensory effect beyond what you can see.
Re: Designing game narrative
#16An interesting article, gave me much to think about as I'm planning out a game to make. My thought on it tho, I think the article misses a GOOD use of cutscenes: A good story is all about tension and release, and a cutscene can provide a necessary release from intense gameplay (not that it's the only way). Am I wrong on this? I'm sure there are differing opinions on this depending on what game genres you enjoy (I'm q…
I think a good example of this is Saints Row 2, like the death of carlos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of6IIRjUhO8
Re: Designing game narrative
#17I find it rather strange that the author asks for open mindedness but seemingly dismisses the whole idea of the cut scene narrative. On the other hand he praises the generated, "natural" narrative of Dwarf Fortress, Brogue and Journey. One of his remarks about Journey is rather interesting:
> When you find another player, there are visual cues that underscore their presence and introduction. When you communicate with them through singing and body language, all sorts of imagery forms in your mind about the other player’s personality (that’s character development!)
The character development part is a very important part of a narrative, and is in its way, only possible because of other, real players. His other two examples, Brogue and Dwarf Fortress, have huge short comings in this regard. A true, emotionally deep and complex character development and interactions between those characters is only possible if the other characters are played by humans, the characters are predefined or if there would be a sophisticated AI. The first variant is used in Journey, the second is used in "cut scene" type games and the latter is currently not technically possible. So when the author claims:
> At least silent films are excused by their technical limitations – no comparable excuse exists for games.
I take that with a grain of salt. Dwarf Fortress, Brogue and Journey are great examples of how to expand the narrative experience and where games could be heading to in the future. But in my opinion, they are an addition to, rather than a replacement for cut scene narrative games.
Re: Designing game narrative
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, you have to take the limits of their engine into account. The load time is under a second on modern machine and with SSD it is almost instant. Hopefully HL3( ... ) comes with seamless levels.
I couldn't afford an SSD big enough for my entire steam collection... ;) and I too hope to play HL3 at some point before I die!
Steam supports splitting libraries. Even before that, symlinks were common.
Re: Designing game narrative
#19The thread linking the games Mr Lee praises is that they are, to a large extent, sandboxes. Yes, some of them have endings, but they get the player there by dumping them in a world and letting them do what they like. Portal is the least sandboxy of the games mentioned (maybe apart from Tetris!), in that it has highly structured, intentionally designed levels with well-defined goals, but it still manages to give the p…
Thank you, I was going to say that one of the main reasons I play Civilization is for the often strange stories that can develop from the procedural content and simple sets of rules. "The rebel sons of nearby Valetta who embark on a hundred year campaign of foreign shores, sometimes dashed on fortunes rocks, but always rebuilding, and becoming the first people ever to experience firearms."
Re: Designing game narrative
#20I find it rather strange that the author asks for open mindedness but seemingly dismisses the whole idea of the cut scene narrative. On the other hand he praises the generated, "natural" narrative of Dwarf Fortress, Brogue and Journey. One of his remarks about Journey is rather interesting: > When you find another player, there are visual cues that underscore their presence and introduction. When you communicate with…
I think it's not really about dismissing the idea of the cutscene narrative - cutscenes can certainly be very well done, but a challenge for game developers to develop the medium's own mechanisms for storytelling instead of continually borrowing from film.
The best storytelling we've managed so far is temporarily suspending the "game" part of video games and putting on a Hollywood production. We're not really blazing our own trails, we're just getting better and better at emulating filmmakers.
There are few games that seem to be able to tell a story without completely stopping gameplay or removing agency - the very thing that makes video games video games. Developers realize this limitation, but our only response to it so far is to let the player move the camera a bit and throw in quick-time events (mash X to escape! oh too late, let's try that again!). That's not really agency.
One game that's interesting is an indie game called Kentucky Route Zero - it's a point and click adventure but with level design borrowing heavily from stage theater. It's a nice breath of fresh air, even if it isn't a complete reinvention of in-game storytelling.
I think Bioshock Infinite needs a quick nod for some advances in storytelling. While it's not free from player-control-robbing cutscenes, a huge portion of the game's story is communicated in its environment - something that film is less capable of doing, and games are uniquely positioned to exploit. It's a good example of something playing to the medium's strengths (if only the gameplay was as good as the storyline...)