Saturday, April 25, 2015

Untitled Game - DevDiary #3 - A Different Kind of Writing

Writing presents many unique challenges.  Making sure that there's an internal logic, keeping and maintaining a voice, being certain that characters speak and act in a way that makes sense for that particular character, etc...  Most of the issues that can come up in writing appear in different formats of writing.  You will always need to check for inconsistencies, you will always need to be sure that your characters sound right, and you will always need to read lines out loud to hear what they actually sound like.  All formats, however, do contain unique challenges.  Writing a short story requires less verbose prose to get points across quickly, comic book writing requires detailed descriptions to convey information to the artist, audio drama scripting forces the writer to convey visual information by different methods than normal.
 
With all of these little differences that affect a narrative in a large way, it's understandable why most writers stick to only a select few formats that they're used to.  As is so often the case, when an otherwise good writer makes the jump from one format to another, the work is just not up to standards.  Libraries have been written on the nuances of writing novels, short stories, comic books, and screenplays.  But still the challenges persist and we see movies from otherwise good novelists that tank, screen writers that write comic books that are largely forgettable, and so on.

It would seem that writing for video games is no exception to this rule; especially given that video games are a comparatively new style of writing (with full stories emerging in games only within the last two and a half decades as compared to other formats that are more than a century old).  You would think that after twenty-five years, and countless different games, we would have this particular format locked down and understood.  But a little bit of research would show that there are more differing opinions out there on writing stories for games than there are different games.  Should they be approached as a comic book or movie script?  How does an act fit into a video game's narrative?  What should the player's part be in a narrative?  Is a narrative even really all that important?  What method do I follow in writing for my game?

Currently, there's a lot of upheaval in opinion on the relationship between the game play and the narrative of a video game.  Some think that game play should come first, others believe its story should be first.  Some think a more episodic method should be taken to compensate for the nature of levels, others say that more of a screen play format should be taken to make the player feel as though they're doing something grand or heroic.  Others still are much more experimental, taking a story and placing it in the environment rather than more of a traditionally directed story.

Once upon a time, games had very little space to devote to story.  Some would even list pages numbers in a reference book that the player could flip to in order to read the story.  The cut scene - even one limited to only thirty seconds - was a very cool, and very impressive way to convey story.  Things have changed, though.  Games have a significant amount of space that can be shared between story and game play.  Now we have in game cut scenes, pre-rendered cut scenes, and even quick time events.

However, you may find that there is still a division between game play and story.  This is the moment devoted to game play, and this is the moment devoted to story.  On occasion, you'll find the illusion of having story during game play or vice versa.  More often than not, though, one is secondary to the other.  A growing thought movement in the development arena aims to correct this, making the two elements equally important.  The idea is simple: don't lock the story away in cut scenes.  This is to say, allow the story to develop freely through information provided in the environment or the actions the character might be taking (i.e. game play).

I think this is very important to taken into consideration is I write this project (no, I still haven't named it).  I was originally grappling with the idea of cut scenes, but in hearing this idea, I've come down on the side of removing the cut scenes.  One, because they currently weren't blending with the rest of the story in a way that made sense, and, two, because I want the art and the environment to convey so much of the story.  On top of that, I find that, more often than not, 2D games' usage of sprites is much more interesting and charming that their usage of cut scenes.  This will also provide some relief to me down the road as now I don't have to figure out how to integrate cut scenes and get them to animate properly.  I have enough challenges with this project as it is.

Through some clever area layout and background art, players will be given the opportunity to see the background story of this world's history.  Several large holes in the ground signifying trench warfare.  Broken concrete scattered across the land.  A sapper's tunnel filled with lingering gas.  While not everyone may spot these details, those that do will begin to understand the forces and events that created the present day event though they may not know the details.

Early on, I knew that I wanted to create a Metroidvania style game.  I really like the feel of them, I think that they can convey very interesting and personal stories about the characters, and there's also a very enjoyable interaction between the player character and the environment. 

But I also knew that I didn't want to create a story where the central character was just blasting their way through the land.  I felt that my central character, Auryon (pronounced as Orion), was much more clever than this.  I decided to take a couple pages from another genre of games that I've really enjoyed: point-and-click adventure games.  Having Auryon pick up several objects through out her adventure and use them in ways to advance the game would not only provide some interesting mechanics, but also help build some degree of character for Auryon.  She is not the type of person who would knock a door down, however, she is the type of person who might use a trenching tool to jimmy it open.

This even extends into the boss fights.  While certainly good with a bow and arrow, Auryon is by no means the best hunter in her village.  Not to mention, she's dealing with some profound forces.  She may not be able to surmount some of the enemies that she faces in a stand up fight.  She may, however, be able to use her wits, tools, and abilities that she's collected over the course of the game to out smart the enemies.

While I love this idea, now I have to write in a way that tries to predict all of the things that a player might use these tools or abilities.  A new writing challenge that becomes as much a puzzle as the ones that I'm trying to design.  Having game mastered pad-and-pencil role playing games in the past, I'm use to the idea of players coming up with solutions that I wouldn't have thought of.  If a player comes up with a creative solution to a problem, I don't necessarily want to punish them for that.  However, this is my first video game, and I can't program in every eventuality.  This means that I'll have to design the scenarios in such a way that (first and foremost) it's clear how to solve them, and that will, in a way that is internally logical, prevent alternate solutions.  As such, I would like to include scenarios that can be solved a couple of different ways.  This will make the player feel smart for finding another way that wasn't meant to be, and also encourage them to explore other options in the future.

When I pick new projects, I often pick things that are going to challenge me.  Choosing a video game as my next project was not done lightly.  I knew that it would force me out of my comfort zone, require me to improve my art (illustration and writing), and also require me to learn something new.  The bad news, is that the project is probably going to be a bear to finish and will result in a lot of roadblocks and frustration.  The good news is that it seems I'm not the only one facing these problems as much of the games industry is in a process developing and experimenting with these same ideas.  The beauty of the medium is that there's no one way to accomplish the same goal. 

I look forward to see what more challenges this project can provide me, and also to seeing the final product as compared to the original in my mind.  It's a game that I know I would love to play, and I hope that many others will enjoy it as well.

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