Yakoob on 16/8/2016 at 18:44
That's what I was guessing but frankly disagree. Maybe not for all examples, but a good chunk of them I can think of games that would serve to illustrate the points well.
Nameless Voice on 16/8/2016 at 20:49
System Shock (1) comes to mind. It has a clearly defined protagonist and antagonist, both with personalities and flaws (though the Hacker doesn't have as much of one, to allow player projection), the series of increasingly tough struggles, where the antagonist always seems to come out slightly ahead by having another backup plan ready, and then having one final showdown.
It has a lot of the other elements as well, such as the carefully constrained setting, the prologue that implies what is to come, and so on.
frobber on 17/8/2016 at 19:14
I cite movies and TV because 1. They are widely distributed, 2. Have generational longevity. and 3. Offer examples without dredging up opinions about a particular game. In essence, I was looking for examples to illustrate universal storytelling principles -- and movies and TV seemed to be the least distracting way to do this.
Once game-builders learn the basics, storytelling in games applied at a finer level of specific detail is a potential follow-on topic. Yet, based on my own experience, I am fairly well convinced that once a builder understands how stories are built in general, the details of working this into a game won't be a problem.
That said, I'm happy to hear any thoughts on games that offer examples in equal clarity to the movies and the TV episode I cite.
Yakoob on 18/8/2016 at 01:42
Doesn't that only teach linear narrative, though? Nothing wrong if that was your goal, but games do have interactivity and active viewer/reader that is not present in books or movies that give them a lot of room for storytelling outside of traditional mediums.
demagogue on 18/8/2016 at 02:20
I wrote a tutorial specifically for making FMs that tried to combine traditional and interactive/branching methods, focusing on the game side of the coin.
I think it's a good complement with this book since it's heavy on interactivity in story telling, but weak on actual story-telling devices that frobber covers. So the two can work together. (I need to clean up a few parts though!)
(
http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Story_and_Plot_Design)
I have a lot of respect for frobber doing a lot of what I wanted to do & also the way he did it, really get to the core of storytelling's elements, like as a design issue. So thanks for this!
Yakoob on 18/8/2016 at 07:09
Oh yea I didn't mean to sound dismissive or critical frobber! I'm learning A LOT reading this, especially since I've never formally studied story writing :) and there's a lot of points I heard about via various scattered writing blogs and Save the Cat, so it's nice to have everything so eloquently organized in one place.
Truly, thank you!
frobber on 18/8/2016 at 19:32
Quote Posted by demagogue
I wrote a tutorial specifically for making FMs that tried to combine traditional and interactive/branching methods, focusing on the game side of the coin.
Cool. That sounds like is a solid bookend to the topic.
frobber on 26/8/2016 at 23:47
All day tomorrow (Saturday, August 27, 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)
