Storyline in games
I was flicking through Edge’s ’get into games’ supplement today, which was a guide to working in the industry and happened upon an interview with Rob Yescombe who is a screenwriter at Free Radical.
As you’d expect with Edge it’s a good article with the right questions asked, but one of the bits at the end really intrigued me.
Yescombe says: ‘…we’ve seen some great ‘Hollywood screenwriters’ have a go at writing a game, but without an understanding of how games and interactivity actually function they’re just trying to crowbar something rigid into something flexible.
“It might get by, but it won’t be the better for it.”
The reason I found this interesting is because, as a writer (of sorts), the whole concept of writing a computer game is something that actively appeals to me. The very interactivity that might well get in the way of a movie scriptwriter coming up with the brilliant gaming storyline is also the most enticing thing about game scripting.
For me, the story within the game can be a massive element of what makes it enjoyable. I’ll pick out immediate contrasting examples. The original Half Life versus Far Cry - both games I played through and enjoyed, but the former is - for me - perhaps the greatest gaming experience of all time (in its era) and the other is a great concept that genuinely disappointed me with its predictable descent into mutants and corridors.
At face value the two games share a lot. Single man helped along by occasional others railing against other humans and powerful non-humans. But whereas Half Life’s use of scripted events and stunning set pieces drew you in, Far Cry’s actually began to push me away. The lack of a storyline stopped me suspending my sense of disbelief.
I’m probably going to write a longer article about this very topic in the next month or so. But for me, plot is as vital as graphics and gameplay in deciding a game’s longevity and status and had been for a long time.
