frobber on 7/8/2016 at 06:33
The free file download period is over.
Matthew on 7/8/2016 at 15:36
Are you sure, frobber? I do occasionally get notes from Amazon that a Kindle book of mine has been updated so that I can redownload it.
frobber on 8/8/2016 at 05:18
Quote Posted by Matthew
Are you sure, frobber? I do occasionally get notes from Amazon that a Kindle book of mine has been updated so that I can redownload it.
By all means, give this a try -- though not until later this morning (after ~ 7 am EDT). I just sent off the latest edition (and the last update for a while). It takes Amazon about 6 hours to process.
frobber on 8/8/2016 at 15:02
The free file download period is over.
Yakoob on 8/8/2016 at 18:32
Well I missed the first, I was out at a friend's wedding the whole day. I'll keep an eye out for the next one but last time I tried to buy the freebie it wouldn't let me without a kindle registered :/
EDIT: just grabbed the HTML version, is that the whole thing then? Seems short, which is a good thing - succinct and to the point hopefully :)
frobber on 8/8/2016 at 18:50
Yeah, the goal has always been to get straight to the point. Your time is valuable. Fluff is not.
frobber on 13/8/2016 at 13:37
All day today (Saturday, August 13, 2016) the Amazon Kindle edition of
Inducing Reality: The Holy Grail of Storytelling in Video Games is free $0.00.
Search Amazon books for the book title, or click on (
https://amazon.com/author/kenramsley)
Nameless Voice on 16/8/2016 at 01:00
So, anyone else a bit disappointed that the book doesn't actually talk about games that much?
It talks a lot about storytelling method (which is interesting in its own right, since not being an actual writer I did not know it), but the section on actually applying these concepts to video games is very brief and doesn't really say that much.
Perhaps the two just have too much of a problems meshing?
The storytelling section speaks of rules that should tend towards formulaic stories that don't really align well with the goals of a game.
A story is supposed to have a main antagonist constantly pitted against the main character, but games often don't work like that.
Who is the antagonist in the majority of Thief, for example? The antagonist of the story only really actively opposes Garrett in the last three levels. Before that, there is no real antagonist, other than perhaps Garrett's landlord, or his own greed, selfishness and recklessness?
Also, games don't really work with this "many small struggles, mostly lost, until the final one is won" structure, because games are usually designed around you being able to win scenarios.
In a story, the protagonist might come across a tougher opponent who soundly thrashes him. In a game, the player can simply be better and win anyway, or keep retrying until they do succeed. It makes constantly failing much harder to pull off in a convincing manner, without contrivances like cutscene incompetence or the bad things happening to foil your plan always being outside of your reach - always being too late to save your friends - which can feel fake if done often.
Games tend to instead be about having some large goal, and slowly chipping away at that goal to progress.
Instead of being involved in smaller struggles and never quite managing to succeed, the player in a game tends to have a series of smaller struggles that they overcome, to prepare them for the final struggle at the end - the "temperature" talked about in the book is more of a slowly rising curve rather than a series of waves.
Yakoob on 16/8/2016 at 16:13
I've only finished the first chapter, but so far I don't mind it as much. It's actually nice to have a grand overview of storytelling, especially for someone who never formally studied it (aside from one or two creative writing classes in college and books like Save the Cat). I'm tempted to take notes since there are so many good points made already about protagonists/antagonists, premises, conflict etc.
However, I would agree it could be connected to game medium more. Right now all the examples are from movies or books. While I understand that's where good stortyelling has already established, I think it would be more relatable if the examples referred to specific games instead of specific movies (so, for example, when talking about a limited setting, using "Papers, Please" booth would have been more relevant than Appolo 13's ship cabin).
For what's it worth, frobber actually addresses NV's concerns in very prologue:
Quote:
The only complaints I've ever read about my earlier online editions arrive from those who ask why I ‘write so much' about storytelling theory before turning my attention to the specifics of storytelling in video games. My response is simple: It is pointless to focus on stories in video games until we are on the same page regarding the nature of stories in general. We can't ice a cake before you bake it. And we can't mix our cake batter until we have a recipe - or bake the mixed ingredients until we own an oven. Okay, not a perfect analogy. But it's something like that.
So again, agreed about overviewing storytelling first, but wish examples were specific to games rather than other media.
Nameless Voice on 16/8/2016 at 18:26
It somewhat implies that there are no games with good enough stories to be used as examples.
