Games Stories

Greatest Video Game Stories - Unilad

Why are stories important in games?

The game industry is increasing rapidly and stories play an important role in game development. As games evolve, people want more depth therefore developing stories will make the game more engaging and pleasing.

Common misperceptions 

• Story is dialog.
• Story doesn't matter.

This article states that Story is partly dialog, but most importantly, story is CONFLICT.

As you may know, movies have been masters at storytelling for many years now so if we want to develop stories in games then we must learn everything movies had to learn. Robert McKee, the author of the book, Story, points out that story is conflict. Conflict plays an important role in working out the story’s structure, this means that developers need to plan it at the beginning of the development process.

Characters are also important to games and stories. To define a character we must look at the decisions or choices the character makes rather than what he/she wears, eat or drives, etc. What the character chooses to do will truly define what type of person he/she is.

The rest of your cast of characters should be designed around the protagonist, this, in turn, will create conflict and will further define the character.

Some games claim to say that they have an interactive narrative and it adapts to the choices you make, but this is somewhat untrue. Games like “The Walking dead” remember the choices you make, and also the characters will respond to the way you treat them. However, in reality, your choices do not matter as the overall plot of the story will remain the same no matter what choices you make. 

Telltale (creator of The Walking Dead video game) is able to convince users that their choices matter by using the same scenes but placing different characters in different roles. This gives off the illusion that the plot changes, but in reality, it didn’t. 

The Walking Dead - Steam

There are two reasons for this style of storytelling:

1. It testes the user's morals.
2. Games are expensive to make.

A game like “80 Days” offers way more content (11,00 choices and 500 unique journeys) due to its simplistic aesthetic appearance. Tons of money wasn't needed to create this game.

80 Days - Amazon

Games like “Civilization” don’t claim themselves to be games that have a story or promote themselves as interactive movies. These games don’t really have a plot but the journey you take and the choices you make create a way better and unique story than a game like “The Walking Dead”.

Civilization VI - Nerd Reactor

Games like “Westerado” don’t include barriers or specific rules that stop you from breaking the game’s story instead, it allows you to find a story that suits you by using its systems and random content to let you change the story in any direction you want.

Westerado - Adult Swim

Mark Brown states that he wants to see more games using systems that are designed to generate stories. This, in turn, will create stories that are more personal to users and would be more surprising and fun! He also states that he loves games that have a linear story, but he thinks that games that allow you to create your own narrative will stand out more in the game industry!

References:

Sutherland, John (2005). What Every Game Developer Needs to Know about Story. [online] Available at: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130770/what_every_game_developer_needs_to_.php [Accessed 30 November 2020].

Game Maker’s Toolkit (2015, May 12). Telling Stories with Systems | Video Game Story Design. Youtube. [online video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyMndWpihTM&feature=emb_logo [Accessed 30 November 2020].