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Games Entertainment

Everything is Possible - Storytelling in Games 46

Posted by Zonk from the story-is-the-engine-of-the-game dept.
Gamespot has a thoughtful and interesting piece up entitled Everything is Possible, where they interview several game designers with a strong storytelling background. The interviewees include Chris Avellone (Planescape: Torment), Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear), Ken Levine (System Shock 2), Tim Schafer (Grim Fandango), and Ragnar Tørnquist (The Longest Journey). These gaming luminaries discuss the finer points of creating a plot in an interactive universe, and it makes for a fantastic read. From the article: "Ken Levine: I'll never forget the first story I wrote in gaming. It was for a (eventually canceled) Star Trek: Voyager game. I wrote the opening cutscene, which included this gem: THE CAMERA ZOOMS IN ON JANEWAY...WE SEE A LOOK OF TERROR IN HER EYES AS IT REFLECTS THE INCOMING MISSILE The lead programmer pretty much laughed in my face. First of all, our characters were low-resolution bitmaps, with one fixed expression on their face. Their eyes were maybe 4x4 pixels each. The camera zooming in on that wouldn't have shown a performance; they would have shown a scattered mess of random pixels."
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Everything is Possible - Storytelling in Games More

Everything is Possible - Storytelling in Games

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  • Max Payne 2 - The Fall Of Max Payne (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Proud like a god ( 656928 ) on Sunday March 20, 2005 @07:44PM (#11993723) Homepage
    I must say I've never played the original Max Payne, but the sequel was "A film noir love story" told via a brilliant combination of comic style screens and realtime sequences which added an extra depth to what is otherwise a shoot-em-up. Coupled with a great graphics and bullet-time engine it's one of my most rewarding games purchases to date.
  • I see Video Games as potentially being the ultimate storytelling platform. It takes all previous forms of storytelling and rolls them into one, then lets you participate. This is the number one reason I am interested in creating video games. It really does have a little bit of everything, cinematic (movie) elements, music, reading, and speech. Not only do you get to see the universe, it's characters, and events... You get to be part of it! I could probably ramble on for hours like this, but I guess I'll cut myself off here.

    • Re:Video Games are the evolution of storytelling (Score:5, Interesting)

      by patternjuggler ( 738978 ) on Sunday March 20, 2005 @11:12PM (#11995090) Homepage
      I see Video Games as potentially being the ultimate storytelling platform.

      I was just watching an episode of the IFC's 'A Decade Under The Influence', and a famous director from the '70s said something like "I'm not interested in stories. There are only 6 or 7 stories. I'm interested in behaviour." I think that's not saying that stories are unnecessary or can be sidelined, but that the interesting thing is behaviour- how characters act within a story. Games make that much more interesting than more rigid media because of the interactive element. (cue debate on story centric vs. sandbox style games, compromise on answer that that is synthesis of both...)
    • A few years ago I would have agreed with you. Video game stories evolved from the early software toys (no set "win" condition, just shoot for a high score) to "save the girl" (get through all the levels and see a "Congratulation! You're the Hero!" screen) all the way to the engrossing, coherent(Usually. *AHEM* SquareEnix, I'm talking to you!) "worldbuilding" projects that really show what the medium is capable of. Nosgoth, Hyrule, Lunar, &c... Worlds with their own histories and stories.

      Now, it looks l
    • "This is the number one reason I am interested in creating video games."

      Then please save everyone a lot of trouble and go and make films instead.

  • Plot sells games. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Red Moose ( 31712 ) on Sunday March 20, 2005 @08:12PM (#11993899)
    I suppose I'll just mention that Final Fantasy VII had an amazing story and is probably why it was so well loved, made all the more unique with the big heads. I miss that game.

    Knights of the Old Republic was the probably the most recent game with an excellent story.

    My personal opinion is that the story and plot makes a bigger difference on whether I buy a game or not - and it's part of the reason why I don't find FPS games that great as the depth is lacking (yes, *even* *in* *Halflife* ). Likewise, Deus Ex was hailed as revolutionary as a modern FPS style game but with lots of depth and for once a story that wasn't original but was well told. The sequel was dumbed down bullshit as usual.

    The demise of the adventure game has also paralleled the rise of stupidity-sells games like the EA games and so on. Perhaps the "creativity" and "originality" we all moan about from yesteryear is not that we are just old fogey's bitching - maybe it's the the story and effort to create plot (think back to Loom, Monkey Island) is forgotten these days.

    • Re:Plot sells games. (Score:2, Insightful)

      by xgamer04 ( 248962 )
      I suppose I'll just mention that Final Fantasy VII had an amazing story and is probably why it was so well loved,

      Stop, just STOP. The reason FF VII was/is "so well loved" is because it was one of those games where a new influx of console-owning sheep finds a halfway decent representation of a genre and proceeds to put it on a throne. Just look at Halo. I know people who love this game. When I complained about not being able to use a mouse/keyboard (in the Xbox version), they were like "WTF keyboards s
      • Listen, you're welcome to your opinion, but the FF7 fanboys are entitled to ours (yes, I include me) as well.

        I love that game. I go back and play it often, and I still love it. It wasn't my first FF game (my online name is proof) and wasn't my last, but I do think it's the best, and in fact one of the best games I've ever played, right up there with Tales of Symphonia and Zelda 3, thanks.

        I first played it on the PC on my spiffy Voodoo^2, for reference. I since bought the console version solely so I could
      • I disagree with the comments about FF VII, Final Fantasy VII was probably the last game during square's "Golden Age" where it produced some of the best games ever made, IMHO. (FF V/VI/VII, Chrono Trigger, FF Tactics, etc.)
        FF VII did have some problems, particularly I think the story telling suffered a bit from struggling between the newer/more localized dialog, and still retaining a "T" rating.
        On the other hand, it did a lot of things very well. The Materia system I think is one of the best systems of a
    • and it's part of the reason why I don't find FPS games that great as the depth is lacking (yes, *even* *in* *Halflife* )
      Interestingly, if you read some of the inverviews done during the development of HL2 or 'HL2: Raising the bar", you'll run into several situations where they claim to have cut quite significant amounts of story out "to keep the game going". Much of the work was done (or so they say, I'm not sure I trust Valve's word anymore) but some parts, like Kleiner's lab, were "dragging on" so they
  • This will probably be modded redundant or something, but... great article. I had already read it because it was mentioned in the KOTOR2 forums (Avellone is KOTOR2's lead designer).

    The only disappointment is Schaffer, who sounds bored, seems not to like his own games or gaming in general, and seems even surprised that people care about games' stories at all.
  • There were a number of impressive scenes in Half Life 2 along with a reasonable storyline and good atmospherics. I was fairly engrossed. And yeah the cliffhanger sucked. Of course, I finished Doom 3 as well. BY the end I was so freaked out by it at the end that I immediately uninstalled it. Not going back to that place - no way nuh-uh.

  • Games are a young art form (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Master_T ( 836808 ) on Sunday March 20, 2005 @10:16PM (#11994682)
    Games are a particularly young art form. The beginning of cinema was similar. There wasn't much meat to what they did. It was based in the amusement of seeing a moving picture.

    It is the same with games. Only now are we starting to truly see games that seek to work as artistic and storytelling devices. Even now, much of them are weak and not strong in an artistic sense or in a sense of narrative. We have begun to see narrative gems like Xenosaga, FFVII, KOTOR, HL2 and others. Soon perhaps we'll see games develop a sense of aesthetic too(the way a sense of beauty is evoked. there are many different ones, they stem from a philosphy of creation) .

    I personally believe that at some point games will become an artistic genre like unto cinema or even opera. With art-direction, carefully written plots, and quality music. Perhaps the way a game plays will eventually reinforce the message or story it puts forth. Won' that be interesting.

  • If you're making a "cutscene", you don't have to use the same character that appears in the game. Make a high-resolution throwaway just for that scene, or just digitize an actress, and MPEG it. Sheeesh...

    Sounds like someone had a bad hire. Toss the guy out on the street, and get someone who understands the business.

    --Mike--

  • The most undersung game with a story is... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Quarters ( 18322 ) on Sunday March 20, 2005 @11:45PM (#11995265)
    Mafia [mafia-game.com]. It's unfortunate that the game got mis-branded as "GTA in 1930's Chicago". Yes it has a free-roaming mode and cars, but the similarities end there. The story is engaging, the characters are believable, and the backdrop to the entire thing is just drop-dead gorgeous.
    • I couldn't agree more. I've played the various GTA's and while they're nice, GTA and Mafia aim to do completely different things. GTA is more about vast freedom, while Mafia is more about telling a story. That story is what makes it one of my favourite games, along with the gameplay which is of an excellent level. I'd wholly recommend people try and grab a copy of it if they like a good story in their game.
  • Some of the most cinematic gameplay i know of is Call of Duty. It is just like a movie. I cannot describe the experience the first time you come face to face with a German MG42. The Russian campaign is absolutely amazing. I still get goosebumps when playing through that campaign.
  • Why wasn't Greg Kirkpatrick or Alexander Seropian in this interview???? Anyone that has played the Marathon series knows what I mean.
  • I liked this story, if only because it reminds me of drunken dreams I've had....
  • I just have to point this game out again. It's a real master piece (ok, it's a great game). But it never got much attention because the media slammed the first Ion Storm game into the group (this being the second game didn't do it much good).

    It has a classical adventurous epic story that eventually will evolve in a battle of good vs. evil (as usual ofcourse).
  • Does anyone think that most ~ 75% of the games that they refer to have been created before 2000?

    Strange? Coincidence? I think not.

    Mainstream game companies (EA anybody?) suck - apart from the great Harry Potter series that they put out every month of course ;)

  • I'm not so enamored with what constitutes storytelling in today's games, since it all too often means a passive, cinematic experience more or less disconnected from the interactive part of the game. All that monster-bashing, sneaking, points-collecting, etc, etc, usually only has one effect on the storytelling elements - it unlocks them once you progress far enough.

    Games need to grow up and find their own language instead of just copying their parent medium, film. I'm carefully positive about the prospects

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