CHAPTER 11: STORYTELLING BCO Mücahit Saruhan

Storytelling Stories in Games Designer’s Story Versus Player’s Story Places for Storytelling Linear Writing Pitfalls Game Stories The Dream

Stories in Games Is story needed? A legendary game with no story: Tetris. Games with powerful stories: Halo, Command& Conquer, Thief… Games that couldn’t have been imagined without their stories: Myst, Ico… When employed properly, stories can make games much stronger but not actually necessary.

Designer’s Story Versus Player’s Story Designer’s Story Player’s Story Combining Player’s and Designer’s Stories

Designer’s Story Considering Command & Conquer video game: Player’s actions uninvolved. Story is told through cut-scenes between missions. Can only offer good or bad ending according to success or failure. Some other games may be allow branching but still limited in scope.

Player’s Story Considering the same game: Each player has his/her individual story. Each level means a different mini-story for player. Player’s actions more important than main story of the game. Especially if player earned it hard way, game story will be much less interested.

Combining Player’s and Designer’s Stories Merging both stories is ideal way for interactive storytelling. Because it allows designer’s story to sustain it’s dramatic quality while players can have a real impact on story. So: Instead of limiting players adding details and introducing new characters and situations adapts players to games better. And rather than dynamically generating story line, anticipating players wishes and expectations about game will be more successfull way to produce an interactive storytelling experience.

Places for Storytelling Out of game In Game External Materials

Out of Game Mostly used storytelling way. Much easier to tell a story through these methods than it is through gameplay. Player interactivity is disabled but game’s running.

Out of Game Cut-Scenes: Commonly used out of game technique. Better if made with game animation system. Resulting a seamless visual experience. Good to use but could be boring considering an interactive system. Designer’s must be aware of keeping cut-scenes too long. Not advised giving player the chace to skip entire cut-scenes but instead giving them flexibility of controlling the process makes it better. Eg. The Last Express’ save system.

Out of Game Text: May fill the entire screen and flip to other scene or just flow with a trackable speed. Shouldn’t be kept longer than needed. Images: Could be used to communicate parts of story. Doesn’t need to fill entire screen, can just be a part of a map or a single image shown through camera flow. Audio: May be used such as directive dialogues. This is usually used when budget is not enaugh to make full motion videos or while player searches for information, dossiers or list of objectives etc.

Cut-scene - Mass Effect 3Text- Violence Fight Images – Max PayneAudio – Fallout 2 Narrator: Ron Perlman

In Game In-game storytelling is the equivalent of showing, while out-of-game cut- scenes and other methods are telling. In games, you want to keep players actively involved in the story, “doing” actions instead of being “shown” them. In-game storytelling is a key part of that. Makes the players active participants in the game’s story instead of just flashing it in front of their eyes.

In Game Text: Signs, pinned-up notes, graffiti on the wall, or books left lying around for players to read. Level Settings: Almost all games use this technique. Setting is a perfect example of showing a story instead of telling it. Dialog: Maybe bunch of selection or just non-interactively during gameplay with NPCs, computer terminals, tapes or some pausable devices. NPC Behaviors: Actions, responses according to situations, scripted talking or behaviors etc.

Text – Bioshock Infinite Dialogues – Dragon Age:Origins NPC Behavior- Elder Scrolls:Oblivion

External Materials This was particularly true in the 1980s when disk space was severely limited. Sometimes manuals were used for copy protection. For eg. player can’t go any further without a referance code in manual. These days materials are not even written by designers own. Therefore these stories can hardly be considered a part of the game itself, but rather the marketing department’s attempt.

Linear Writing Pitfalls Compared to either novels or films, games need to be significantly more active, with the character the player is controlling having plenty to do in the story. If games’ cinematic cut-scenes become longer, story line can dominate the gameplay completely. Linear writer fails to realize that games are about letting players find their own path through the game-world cause it’s player’s story not designer’s. Writers can create strong and well defined characters but players want to feel the power in game, whether character is detailly described or not.

Game Stories None-linearity can enhance gameing experience. This could be done by through a branching story, giving player ability to choose. Another technique that can be used is to allow players to determine the order in which different story components occur. Match the story with the gameplay as much as possible. Could be done considering gameplay, enviroment and constraints of content. Story may not fit into gameplay directly.

The Dream If you want to tell a more predetermined story through your game, it is important to do everything possible to make players feel that it is their own unique story. Players should feel ownership over the actions in their game, and thereby ownership in the story that is being told. The marketing people truly will not care if your story is non-linear or allows for the players to make the story their own. But as a game designer your ambitions must be higher than creating entertaining box copy or simplifying the job of game reviewers. A truly interactive story, where the narrative can change radically depending on the players’ choices, while retaining the emotional resonance and power of a story told in a novel, is a very compelling idea.

Thanks For Listening…