Randomblog: June 2022

The way I see it there are only two ways to tell story's in videos games. The first which I'll just briefly mention here is the visual novels which functions pretty much like comic books/manga. Maybe I'll talk about that on a latter date. But for now we'll focus on the second form of story telling in video games which is in nearly every genre of video games from platformers to shooters and so on. This second form of storytelling in video games can only be described as virtual theme parks. Yes, the majority of video games are theme parks. They use the same principals like physical theme parks. From Doom to Myst and everywhere in between. Video game storytelling thrives on themeing and immersion for its these principals that keeps the players interest in the game as they explore the many environments of game. Now lets examine how this is accomplish with the opening level of There Is No Game. So right off the bat. The main menu is design with slapdash signs. Which you can click with an arrow. When you start the game the curtain rises literally in an empty room. With a subtle hint of where the first level will lead to. With a few clicks an announcer comes to tell you there is no game and to leave. While dropping a sign that tells you plainly there's no game. But with a few clicks you can drop the letters from the sign to make a game of brick breakers. Notice how the design makes it seem like the players have made an impromptu game. When in actuality that's how the game was program. Its in this way of discovering the games in There Is No Game all while finding puzzle pieces that convey the story of There Is No Game through its announcer that the story is discover to the players. Now I don't have all day to break down how every game tells it story but if you remember what I've said and look at how this works in you're favorite stories in video games. I hope it gives you a general idea of how the game developers creative process works. And with that said lets talk about cut scenes. Cut scenes can easily make or break video games and why is that. Because if these cut scenes are not done right they break the pace of the story. Or worse it contradicts it. So how do you use cut scenes effectively well the simplest way is to use the Buster Keaton method. (A quick aside, Buster Keaton's a comedy film director who work on silent films. Those films convey dialogue through title cards which have similar problems just like cut scenes and for Buster to use title cards more effectively he use as few as possible. Thus the Buster Keaton method is to use as few and shorten cut scenes as possible.) But what if you have to use long cut scenes. How do you do that? Well lets look at one of the best opening cut scenes in video games. The Legend Of Zelda's Ocarina of time and see how it directly conveys the games themes. So right at the opening we set up the Deku tree which is the character Link must meet latter on in the first level. It then sets up how Link is an outcast in his own town. And hammers this point with the fact that every one in town has a fairy except Link. All while showing him sleeping restlessly. Then we see Link's nightmare which foreshadows the evil Ganondorf kidnapping Zelda. Than we cut to the Deku tree talking to Navi. Telling the fairy to go to Link and bring him to me for hes the only one that can save us from the coming evil. All this is said while hinting at his death. Than we get the p.o.v. of Navi giving a us great overview of the first level that we'll explore. And then Navi wakes Link up and the game begins. So there's a lot here but all it conveys the themes and story of the game. Not a moment is wasted everything is direct and to the point. Link being an outcast, the goal of the first level, the coming evil. All perfect setups not just for the first level but for the whole game. That's how you make a cut scene. Now with all that said, I'm going to make up a scenario for a fictional video game with an opening cutscene and the 1st level of this video game, I hope this works. OK here we go, the cut scene: We start with a black screen. Only hearing the sound effects of claws scratching walls banging. People screaming bones breaking and blood gushing and than a monstrous roar. Cut to first visual scene of a mountain lion roaring. Then there's the sound of gunfire and a bullet shoots through the mountain lions head. Who drops dead. We then get a panshot to a hunter who turns to his dog (which is a beagle by the way) patting the dogs head he says. “We got em.” They hop in their jeep driving to pick up their catch. As their putting their catch in the trunk. Black suvs drive towards them. The beagle barks at the coming vehicles. The hunter sighs. “I hear em.” he says. But he still keeps his back to suvs. The suvs brake right in front of him. And a man in black steps out the dog growls “That's far enough.” The man in black keeps still. “Its been along time Ace.” Ace closes the trunk whistling to his dog. Who hops back in the jeep. “We need you to come in.” The man in black says. Ace walks away. “I'm retired.” “We'll pay you!” The man in black shouts. Ace stops in his tracks. “How much?” “Forty million.” He looks back chuckling. “You need me that bad.” “Unfortunately.” The man in black says stepping back to the suv. “So are you coming?” We get a close up of aces conflicted facial expressions before he nods. We see a montage of them driving through the country. But Ace stops this driving caravan to drop off his mountain lion at a local taxidermist. When he leaves the taxidermist store. The man in black rolls his window down looking at him in contempt.“Really?” “I aint wasting a good catch.” Ace replies hopping back in his jeep, they drive on. We see another montage of them driving past huge levels of security with electric fences cameras etc. They pass security driving to the top secret facility which is a huge building by the way, parking in the back of said facility. They enter through the back doors. Ace is put in a waiting room. Which leads us to the first level: But before I continue I should give you a rundown of what this supposed game would be. It'll be a stealth horror hunting game. The idea is what if we do a hunting game but with horror aesthetics. The story would be that some monstrous experiment Ala lovecraftion creature has escape and will wreak havoc on the world if its not caught. The game would follow three units of top secret organizations that are hellbent on catching this monster. Throughout the levels each organization nearly catches the monster before one of the other organizations lets the monster loose again. But that will be their downfall as toward the end of the game the monster will be nearly invincible. And it'll pick off all the units one by one till its just the players left fending for themselves, the hunter becoming the hunted. Each unit will have their own set of characters that'll be playable with their own strengths and weakness while using their own personal spy tech weapons. But the units will have their defacto leader to be the main surrogate of the game like Ace who has all the cut scenes and is the first character you play etc. You play the other characters by switching between them with a press a button and the players will use each character for their differing skills. The opening levels and cut scene of each unit will be vastly different from one another. Setting up how each secret organization is after the creature and will show the constant feuding between these secret organizations for dominance. But after that the following levels will be similar except they'll have a Rashoman effect, for each unit will see things differently from the other units. And if you play from all three units you'll piece together how the creature becomes so deadly at the end of game. And each unit will have their own distinct cool symbols to represent them, along with different names for their secret organizations, characters etc. OK now lets get back to the game. the first level: So Ace and his dog will be locked up in a waiting room with two muscle men in black. If you ask these npcs any questions like what is this place whats the job etc. They will not answer you and continue to say you're to wait to see Dr. crimson. So theirs only one door in and out and theirs no windows. If you try to leave through this one and only door which is locked. The npcs will threaten you to stay here. So how does the first level work well there's only two rooms. The aforementioned waiting room and its adjacent bathroom. And of coarse the end goal of this part of the game is to escape the waiting room and stealthy explore the facility. So the players goal would be to explore these rooms and find objects to use for their escape. For example the players could find a coin which you can use as a screwdriver to unscrew the screws holding up a vent to escape. But note this wouldn't be the only way to escape, it would be just be one of many options that's left to the players disposal. P.S. This would be a good place to put the tutorial. Once you escape the waiting room. The players would explore the facility. The rooms would start out looking normal. Like a hospital well lit but the further you explore the darker it gets literally cause the lighting will die out. Its here we'd find clues to the games narrative such as the secret organizations symbols painted on the halls, busted overhead lights. Unnatural claw marks strew all about. Whole rooms in rubble. Pools of blood etc. The player will run across medics collecting the last pile of human corpses. Being taken away, the player could sneak close up to hear clues from the talking npcs all while trying not to get caught. But if the players do get caught they can fight the npcs and then hide their bodies if their quick enough. And eventually you'd end up in the labs where you can look through scatter piles of paper work and see tons documents on experiment x. That will hint to the monster but just as the player seems to have collected all of the documents to piece this puzzle together. The players get caught and the 1st level ends. OK I think that does it for my fictional game. I hope this has helped you understand how to convey stories in video games. Oh and by the way, if any game developers happening to be reading this which is unlikely you can use these ideas for your games its fine by me.

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