Designing a Game to Tell a Story:
"Most important feature of all - games are about players making meaningful choices that affect the outcome of the game"
If there is only one narrative trail, there is no story or options for the player, and basically no game.
Writer, designer or both?
"The game writer is also a game designer, but the two jobs are distinctly different and require different skill sets"
Best results are when a game writer is part of the project from start to finish.
Story Arcs:
"If you have any idea of where your story is going results in a better execution than slapping a story together on the fly. To do this game writers create story arcs."
Story arc us the path of the story from start to finish.
Two kinds of arcs normally used:
Classic three-part story arc (Aristotle)
Five part arc (Campbell)
Three act story arc:
The story follows this path:
Act 1: Start with "inciting movement", maybe hours of gameplay before inciting moment (prelude or and opening sequence). Common in games is a rubbish inciting moment that doesn't motivate the player. After inciting moment, player progresses for some time towards his final goal.
Act 2: A dramatic reversal occurs. The reversal should be realistic and believable not what Aristotle calls a "Deus ex machina " an impossible or improbable "machine of the gods" created to help the writer achieve his needs.
Act 3: The goal from the inciting moment is resolved. "An irreversible resolution is achieved. Sometimes a second reversal may occur."
The five-part hero's journey:
"As Campbell saw it, there is but one hero and one path told in a thousand different ways. He called this "Monomyth "(The hero with a Thousand faces)"
Campbell's five part story arc:
Part 1:"Hero receives a "call to adventure" and begins a journey"
Part 2:"The hero passes through a series of challenges (a trail of trials)"
Part 3:"The hero confronts the final evil and achieves his goal"
Part 4:"The hero returns to the everyday world"
Part 5:"The hero applies the lesson or objective learned in the adventure to that everyday world."
Narratology and Ludology:
""Ludology" is the study of games as rules (or mechanics)"
"Ludologists believe that a game is first and foremost a collection of rules that give rise to the dynamics of play when a player sets the game in motion through an interface of some sort"
Looking from this perspective, "modern-day games are an extension of ancient games like GO and Chess. Story is not a part of a game, but rather something layered on top of the mechanics of third person shooters."
Cheapest method
Linear Stories:
"Progress from point A to B to C. Have periodic and frequent side quests."
"Shares most common with other storytelling media so it is familiar"
Can be emotional
"does not require players to play through the game several times just to see all possible outcomes"
Mid Rang in Price
Branching Stories:
Multiple ways to get through a story, possible multiple endings.
Play path changes by player input/choices.
Take advantage of game interactivity
Can be expensive as writer has to make several related stories not just one e.g. each branch will have different story, art assets and code etc.
Variant of branching story = parallel path, makes story fold back on itself at key pre-determined points, but can reach them in many ways due to branching. This keeps price down as it is still linear arc (Parallel path).
Most Expensive
Open ended stories:
"Open ended (or multi-linear or threaded) stories start players in a particular place or a variety of places and allow them to progress in many different directions, each of which affects the outcome of their play."
Key example is Elder Scrolls Skyrim as the player can take 100's of paths so has a lot more paths than a branching story.
"Designers are careful to prevent situations where the story makes no sense because it is told out of order, either by limiting the player's choices through fact trees (if they don't know about x, don't tell them about y), or writing different stories for different paths that the player takes"
Normally have teams of writers who's job it is to make and test these vast stories.
Instances:
Special case of open-ended stories. commonly used in MMO's present player with "instance" of a particular story thread.
"Self contained mini-stories. Make them easier to write, and it also allows new instances to be added as a later time"
Emergent stories:
"Arise purely from the lay mechanics of the game"
"Stories created by player experience or player-created content... not placed by game's designers."
Thematic set-ups;
"Opening cut scenes" give an intro to the story but give no more info on the rest of the story.
Algorithmic Stories:
"Constructed by computer AI and respond to player inputs to determine story direction"
AI written by humans but the AI is given "pre-determined plot points... like a bunch of self-contained, small,open-ended stories linked together in a larger, open-ended main-story."
Very few disadvantages
"Façade took over five years to construct", but plays through in 20 minutes.
Story telling methods:
Cut scenes and cinematic's
In game events - "Do no remove from player but trigger when player does something"
Dialogue:
Spoken audio/visual; player can interact, opening different paths. In cut scenes the decision is fixed.
Text:
Useful to convey back story, cave writings, notebooks etc.
Can't force player to read text as they would get bored but if they chose not to read, they could lose valuable information. This shows the story in a passive way.
Setting and Character:
"People want to play cool characters" in a world they couldn't normally experience.
Character Design:
More than looks, good characteristics survive due to behaviour and personality.
Environment Design:
More about feel than wowing special effects.
Thursday 1 December 2011
Gamasutra - Into the woods: a practical guide to the hero's journey
The Hero's Journey Into the Woods:
Characters who the player may encounter:
The Mentor
The Threshold Guardian
The Shapeshifter
The Trickster
"What practical use is the Hero's journey to us as story tellers and game writers?"
Why the Hero's Journey is so important:
"It's important because myths and important. Myths convey the values of society. Myths are how we teach each other who we are and how we should behave"
"Myths actively guide our actions. They're not dusty old stories in a book, or crumbling temples in a far-off land. 62% of people in America say they believe in the literal truth of the Bible, and that became a critical factor in the election of George Bush to the White House. Suicide bombers in Iraq believe by blowing themselves up in their holy cause, they will go directly to Paradise and will this day be with Allah. Game developers believe that if we work just a little bit harder, we'll soon see fat royalty checks."
Rollo May Four myths still active in Modern Life:
"Myths give us a sense of personal identity"
"Myths make possible our sense of community"
"Myths are what lie underneath our moral values"
"Mythology is our way of dealing with the inscrutable mystery of creation and death"
In ancient times a cavemen and tribes, the tribes that adapted and grouped together passed their genes on to use and was established by the telling of stories, myths, legends etc. Not just where the prey us but motivational stories i.e. "the good Samaritan" to tell them how to behave and to look out for others, not just themselves, making the stories, main character a role model.
James Frey writes in The Key about "Beowulf's heroic deeds" and how they are conveyed to others in the tribe to show how to act and to admire to be the next Beowulf.
"Hero's are our models: Their stories convey to each succeeding generation the cultural values of the tribe"
"By definition we are the biological descendants of the tribes who told stories to survive"
Carl Jung believes we have "Mythic structure built in to us, waiting for a particular belief system to be imprinted upon us by the culture we grow up in"
Frey - "The force of a myth is irresistible" they are the "foundations on which all good stories are built"
So story telling is hard wired into us to make sense of the world.
Without myths in our lives we would be lost.
When making games we need to, "what in previous ages was done by family, custom, church and state" basically create our myths to tell the story of the world of our game.
May - "Myths carry on the essential task of trying to create meaning out of our lives and actions, in a world that doesn't care"
"If we you take away a man's myth, the result is mental illness, depression and the loss of the will to live"
We need to believe that we matter, because it not what is the point of us being here.
"Literature proves there is order in the universe"
"I believe games are myth-reinforcing activities" - Gerard Jones
To make deeper, better and more complex game play experiences the myths need to be just as deep and complex combined with a deep storyline.
"To write those storied, you need to understand how myths are put together and communicated. And that is why the Hero's journey is important!"
What is the Hero's Journey?:
Joseph Campbell states that after analysing thousands of myths found that a few common elements kept appearing and no single myth contains them all. "But in categorising them, he tells us that the more of them a narrative has, the more likely it is to strike a deep mythological chord with the audience."
"Campbell summarises these elements, which become known as the Hero's journey", these are briefly :
" Establishing the hero's world
The call to adventure
Entering the mythological woods
Trail of trials
Encountering the evil one
Gaining the hero's prize
Returning that prize to the community"
How can we use the Hero's Journey to build stories?
"Must the hero encounter all of Campbell's archetypical characters, or is it ok if he skips a few? We are continuously cautioned against using the Hero's Journey as a template"
Two things not to do:
"Don't look at all the possible steps in the Hero's Journey and make sure you've got them all in there and in the proper order. Fiction is flexible. Don't make a list of all of Campbell 's mythological characters and try to find a spot for each of them in your story. The Herald, the Threshold Guardian, the Trickster, the Shape Shifter, etc. Just create the characters you need to tell your story and you'll be fine."
What To Do:
Create your hero: Create a hero capable of embodying that premise. "A hero is the myth in action Frey (The Key) - qualities a hero will always have: Courage (or finds it), clever and resourceful, "special" talent, outlaw (living by their own rules), good at what they do for a living, Protagonist (takes the lead in action at some point) and sexually potent.
Traits similar to hero:
Full of hubris
Outlaw (Maybe)
Clever and resourceful
Wounded
Have a special talent
Sex appeal
Traits dissimilar to the hero:
"Motivated by greed, avarice, lust for power, variety, narcissism, and so on"
"Never acts out of idealism", except for his own cause and belief.
Often Cruel
Wins by luck, hero never wins by luck
Not forgiving
Might quit at very end
Whines and grovels, hero can't do that (shows weakness)
Characters who the player may encounter:
The Mentor
The Threshold Guardian
The Shapeshifter
The Trickster
"What practical use is the Hero's journey to us as story tellers and game writers?"
Why the Hero's Journey is so important:
"It's important because myths and important. Myths convey the values of society. Myths are how we teach each other who we are and how we should behave"
"Myths actively guide our actions. They're not dusty old stories in a book, or crumbling temples in a far-off land. 62% of people in America say they believe in the literal truth of the Bible, and that became a critical factor in the election of George Bush to the White House. Suicide bombers in Iraq believe by blowing themselves up in their holy cause, they will go directly to Paradise and will this day be with Allah. Game developers believe that if we work just a little bit harder, we'll soon see fat royalty checks."
Rollo May Four myths still active in Modern Life:
"Myths give us a sense of personal identity"
"Myths make possible our sense of community"
"Myths are what lie underneath our moral values"
"Mythology is our way of dealing with the inscrutable mystery of creation and death"
In ancient times a cavemen and tribes, the tribes that adapted and grouped together passed their genes on to use and was established by the telling of stories, myths, legends etc. Not just where the prey us but motivational stories i.e. "the good Samaritan" to tell them how to behave and to look out for others, not just themselves, making the stories, main character a role model.
James Frey writes in The Key about "Beowulf's heroic deeds" and how they are conveyed to others in the tribe to show how to act and to admire to be the next Beowulf.
"Hero's are our models: Their stories convey to each succeeding generation the cultural values of the tribe"
"By definition we are the biological descendants of the tribes who told stories to survive"
Carl Jung believes we have "Mythic structure built in to us, waiting for a particular belief system to be imprinted upon us by the culture we grow up in"
Frey - "The force of a myth is irresistible" they are the "foundations on which all good stories are built"
So story telling is hard wired into us to make sense of the world.
Without myths in our lives we would be lost.
When making games we need to, "what in previous ages was done by family, custom, church and state" basically create our myths to tell the story of the world of our game.
May - "Myths carry on the essential task of trying to create meaning out of our lives and actions, in a world that doesn't care"
"If we you take away a man's myth, the result is mental illness, depression and the loss of the will to live"
We need to believe that we matter, because it not what is the point of us being here.
"Literature proves there is order in the universe"
"I believe games are myth-reinforcing activities" - Gerard Jones
To make deeper, better and more complex game play experiences the myths need to be just as deep and complex combined with a deep storyline.
"To write those storied, you need to understand how myths are put together and communicated. And that is why the Hero's journey is important!"
What is the Hero's Journey?:
Joseph Campbell states that after analysing thousands of myths found that a few common elements kept appearing and no single myth contains them all. "But in categorising them, he tells us that the more of them a narrative has, the more likely it is to strike a deep mythological chord with the audience."
"Campbell summarises these elements, which become known as the Hero's journey", these are briefly :
" Establishing the hero's world
The call to adventure
Entering the mythological woods
Trail of trials
Encountering the evil one
Gaining the hero's prize
Returning that prize to the community"
How can we use the Hero's Journey to build stories?
"Must the hero encounter all of Campbell's archetypical characters, or is it ok if he skips a few? We are continuously cautioned against using the Hero's Journey as a template"
Two things not to do:
"Don't look at all the possible steps in the Hero's Journey and make sure you've got them all in there and in the proper order. Fiction is flexible. Don't make a list of all of Campbell 's mythological characters and try to find a spot for each of them in your story. The Herald, the Threshold Guardian, the Trickster, the Shape Shifter, etc. Just create the characters you need to tell your story and you'll be fine."
What To Do:
- Pick your premise: theme, myth. Must decide what is important and make your game about that. "Myth and stories consciously or subconsciously influence behaviour" How you want people to behave after playing your game.
Create your hero: Create a hero capable of embodying that premise. "A hero is the myth in action Frey (The Key) - qualities a hero will always have: Courage (or finds it), clever and resourceful, "special" talent, outlaw (living by their own rules), good at what they do for a living, Protagonist (takes the lead in action at some point) and sexually potent.
- Create a great villain: "The Strength of your villain is the strength of your story" Great villains are memorable, great example Jack Nicholson as The Joker in the original Batman film.
Traits similar to hero:
Full of hubris
Outlaw (Maybe)
Clever and resourceful
Wounded
Have a special talent
Sex appeal
Traits dissimilar to the hero:
"Motivated by greed, avarice, lust for power, variety, narcissism, and so on"
"Never acts out of idealism", except for his own cause and belief.
Often Cruel
Wins by luck, hero never wins by luck
Not forgiving
Might quit at very end
Whines and grovels, hero can't do that (shows weakness)
Not social
Not logical
Not physically superior, un-like side kick
No special destiny or birth but may claim one
- Show the hero's regular world:
- Disrupt the Hero's world:
Force hero into action (Campbell's call to adventure)
When disruption is a person its the Herald, in Campbell's terms.
Hero may refuse call to help, but not in games.
- Enter the Mythological woods:
Level progression normally best in games
Show character growth
Should end in a different place than be started on each level.
Physical or psychological "woods" - must endure inner/outer struggle
Outer struggle = achieve victory
Inner struggle = discover himself and transform his character
See character progression as levels progress
- Confront The Evil One:
Confronts and defeats evil is key
ideally confront and beat inner struggle before outer struggle
- Acquire the Prize:
- Hero's Return:
At the end you will have moved the character "from pole to pole" - Egri
Through identification, the hero's transformation has a greater impact on the audience
Three act structure:
"First Act, you get the hero up a tree
In the Second Act, you throw stones at him (in other words, you make things harder for him)
In the Third Act, you get him down out of the tree."
Can use Hero's Journey to fix/solve some game problems.
Hero doesn't always need to return but needs to have changed from the start of the game and the prize needs to survive.
Does the game have a flat ending? - take a look at hero's prize
Do the players not seem to be identifying with your hero? - Have you taken hero from pole to pole? Have you shown his change from start to finish? If not go back and do it!
Does working through levels become tedious? Is the villain strong enough?
Have you looked at your levels? - Each level should be a mini story
Hero's journey can't solve every problem though.
"As a game writer, the myths you create have the power to change lives. You have to take the hero's journey."
"Before you can acquire something really worthwhile to give to the rest of us, you're going to have to go through your own personal hell"
"Own personal myth: Do the work, and everything will be ok. Do the work, make it as good as you can, and eventually you will be awarded. You can always hope for the best, but not unless you first, do the work."
Gamasutra - what every game's designer needs to know
What every game designer needs to know about
"Story is a universally human experience"
"Games aren't movies.... movies aren't games"
"They are a form of story, not jut a new toy"
"Story is conflict"
Robert McKee author of "Story"
Real substance of story is conflict
How classical stories move:
"it's simple. It works"
"First, there's a protagonist. a hero. His or her world is thrown out of order by an inciting incident."
The hero trys the right, real world approach and it fails, then attempts to try another method against the changed world which "pushes back too hard"
"There there is a reversal. Something new happens. or the hero learns something. She didn't know before, and the world is out of whack again. A second gap has opened up."
This is repeated i.e. our hero overcomes one gap another open and they have to adjust to overcome that, then another opens and so on for three "gaps". Which is when the biggest risk of all is taken to overcome everything and achieve their greatest goal.
"In a comic structure, the last gap is overcome. In a tragic structure, one final gap opens up, and stays there. But games are comic by their nature, so we'll assume it's possible to get to the end."
Character, and why it matters to games:
Characterisation = the superficial stuff e.g. clothes, car, eating habits etc
"Character is what he chooses to do" for example risk his life or stay safe that's the defining point of a character.
"Any good story will have pressures on the hero to bring out these choices, and therefore the character. This is called the principle of protagonist, because they conflict with her to define her character"
"The world of the game should be designed to oppose the player at every turn. As games become more interesting choices, and our characters will become deeper."
The importance of Reversals:
The reversal is what keeps the hero moving forward and not back or no where at all.
"As you can see in the brief summary of classical story structure, each act is driven by a reversal. When the hero accomplishes the ordeal before him, the reversal is what keeps him going forward instead of resting on his haunches. A reversal can happen through action (somebody shoots a cop's partner, and that changes everything) or by a revelation (Luke Skywalker finds out that Darth Vader is really his father) "
Lethal Weapon 2 = bad reversal when Danny Glover's character shoots the guy he could have shot earlier on. It's cheating and "Your audience can smell cheating"
"What a good reversal does is expand the story's universe. Everything you knew was true, but now there's more, so the world is flipped on its head with this new knowledge."
Story forms refine Games
Types of conflict and types of story:
Intellect conflict = "what goes on inside your head"
Interpersonal conflict = between people
External conflict = "Conflict with society in general or the physical world"
Why important? "Certain story forms to certain forms of conflict more naturally than others."
"Internal conflict happens most naturally in novels.
Interpersonal conflict happens most naturally in plays, and in soap operas.
External conflict happens most naturally in movies, and in games."
Games are primarily visual like movies and unlike plays, this directly affects the approach of handling dialogue in games.
"Games don't tolerate a lot of dialogue"
Empathy, and the big protagonist flip:
"The viewer is the protagonist" for the first time unlike other art forms so must relate, enjoy and understand them completely to want to keep playing.
"How do you define a character if you're not making the choices? The answer is open ended."
Pacing stretches, dialogue shrinks:
Pacing is extend like never before because the player is the protagonist and doesn't need telling because they are doing it for example in a world war 2 trench game is would be a 3 minute clip in a film but can be dragged out in a game because it's the players "ass" out there. "This is life or death."
But the dialogue shrinks, "even from the level of our very visual cousins, the movies. Players who are wrapped up in action don't have a lot of patience for talking."
Exception of the rule though is when dialogue is a game mechanic. e.g. When the text/dialogue is part of the conflict it works such as in Knights of the old republic.
A game story that works:
Halo through a classical structure:
No deep character, as in no background or information on them, just a "Witty bad ass".
"It's thanks to Cortana that we see even that much of him"
"It's got real reversals that drive interest in the game"
How Halo's reversals work:
"Act 1:
Halo is a computer that the Covenant want to use as a weapon, so the humans, led by you, the Master Chief, have to get there first and activate its defence functions. There's a clear conflict: You versus the Covenant. And it's spurred by an inciting incident: The Covenant have attacked your ship, and you've had to take off in the equivalent of a minivan before the ship explodes.You have no idea what happened to Captain Keyes.
Act II:
As you fight the Covenant along side the Marines, you walk into a room where a freaked-out Marine shoots you, and you have to kill him. That's a great moment of choice, even in a linear plot. You also see Covenant corpses that you didn't kill. Then you meet The Flood, which try to eat both you and the Covenant. Reversal: The conflict isn't as clear as you thought. It has expanded, and caused your world to change. Some of your friends are now your enemies, and there are new enemies."
Act 3:
"You are assisted by a hovering machine librarian in turning on Halo's defence system, so you can use it against the flood"
You then find out Halo is a machine designed to kill all life forms and you was tricked by the librarian as the flood and you will be destroyed.
You now have to destroy Halo.
Conflict expanded again.
The Ending:
"You have to destroy Halo" - Important point of all stories, in games the player has to end it and not just watch it.
"Show, don't tell" - stories rule
"Do, don't show" - games rule
"We want our players to experience as much of the story first hand, as the main actor in it. If there's ever opportunity to create the story through players action, make that choice. If there's a part of the story that must be out of the players control show it."
"Do show and tell in that order"
Story and the writer:
"Writers are essential to game story"
"Paste on some dialogue, buddy, and make it clever! NO, NO, NO. Don't do this."
Writers need to be involved from the start of the development process not just for dialogue, they need to know, understand, feel and believe in the whole story before dialogue so the writer knows what to write to keep the player interested.
Story and the whole development team:
"The writer isn't everything. The principle of antagonism might be planned by the writer, but it's created by the designers, and implemented by the programmers."
"Designers will always be the most direct allies of game writers."
"Designers are in charge of the forces of antagonism. Which are the essential elements of character development and plot advancement"
Art and sound obviously create the most perceivable parts of the game.
"Programmers work with everybody to keep the story alive in what the novelist John Gardner would call "The vivid, continuous dream.""
If everything is not at the same standard or something sticks out like a sore thumb the "dream" is broken.
"Creating this world so no one notices the code is the hardest job of all"
"It's not news that games are a collaborative effort"
But so is the story development in games design and this needs to be well established.
"The writer's job is to know all the details that I don't include here. Everyone else on the team, though, needs to know at least the basics I've outlined in this article. The development team has to speak a common language about story. If we all do, we stand an excellent chance of making games that will leave the last generation in the dust."
"Story is a universally human experience"
"Games aren't movies.... movies aren't games"
"They are a form of story, not jut a new toy"
"Story is conflict"
Robert McKee author of "Story"
Real substance of story is conflict
How classical stories move:
"it's simple. It works"
"First, there's a protagonist. a hero. His or her world is thrown out of order by an inciting incident."
The hero trys the right, real world approach and it fails, then attempts to try another method against the changed world which "pushes back too hard"
"There there is a reversal. Something new happens. or the hero learns something. She didn't know before, and the world is out of whack again. A second gap has opened up."
This is repeated i.e. our hero overcomes one gap another open and they have to adjust to overcome that, then another opens and so on for three "gaps". Which is when the biggest risk of all is taken to overcome everything and achieve their greatest goal.
"In a comic structure, the last gap is overcome. In a tragic structure, one final gap opens up, and stays there. But games are comic by their nature, so we'll assume it's possible to get to the end."
Character, and why it matters to games:
Characterisation = the superficial stuff e.g. clothes, car, eating habits etc
"Character is what he chooses to do" for example risk his life or stay safe that's the defining point of a character.
"Any good story will have pressures on the hero to bring out these choices, and therefore the character. This is called the principle of protagonist, because they conflict with her to define her character"
"The world of the game should be designed to oppose the player at every turn. As games become more interesting choices, and our characters will become deeper."
The importance of Reversals:
The reversal is what keeps the hero moving forward and not back or no where at all.
"As you can see in the brief summary of classical story structure, each act is driven by a reversal. When the hero accomplishes the ordeal before him, the reversal is what keeps him going forward instead of resting on his haunches. A reversal can happen through action (somebody shoots a cop's partner, and that changes everything) or by a revelation (Luke Skywalker finds out that Darth Vader is really his father) "
Lethal Weapon 2 = bad reversal when Danny Glover's character shoots the guy he could have shot earlier on. It's cheating and "Your audience can smell cheating"
"What a good reversal does is expand the story's universe. Everything you knew was true, but now there's more, so the world is flipped on its head with this new knowledge."
Story forms refine Games
Types of conflict and types of story:
Intellect conflict = "what goes on inside your head"
Interpersonal conflict = between people
External conflict = "Conflict with society in general or the physical world"
Why important? "Certain story forms to certain forms of conflict more naturally than others."
"Internal conflict happens most naturally in novels.
Interpersonal conflict happens most naturally in plays, and in soap operas.
External conflict happens most naturally in movies, and in games."
Games are primarily visual like movies and unlike plays, this directly affects the approach of handling dialogue in games.
"Games don't tolerate a lot of dialogue"
Empathy, and the big protagonist flip:
"The viewer is the protagonist" for the first time unlike other art forms so must relate, enjoy and understand them completely to want to keep playing.
"How do you define a character if you're not making the choices? The answer is open ended."
Pacing stretches, dialogue shrinks:
Pacing is extend like never before because the player is the protagonist and doesn't need telling because they are doing it for example in a world war 2 trench game is would be a 3 minute clip in a film but can be dragged out in a game because it's the players "ass" out there. "This is life or death."
But the dialogue shrinks, "even from the level of our very visual cousins, the movies. Players who are wrapped up in action don't have a lot of patience for talking."
Exception of the rule though is when dialogue is a game mechanic. e.g. When the text/dialogue is part of the conflict it works such as in Knights of the old republic.
A game story that works:
Halo through a classical structure:
No deep character, as in no background or information on them, just a "Witty bad ass".
"It's thanks to Cortana that we see even that much of him"
"It's got real reversals that drive interest in the game"
How Halo's reversals work:
"Act 1:
Halo is a computer that the Covenant want to use as a weapon, so the humans, led by you, the Master Chief, have to get there first and activate its defence functions. There's a clear conflict: You versus the Covenant. And it's spurred by an inciting incident: The Covenant have attacked your ship, and you've had to take off in the equivalent of a minivan before the ship explodes.You have no idea what happened to Captain Keyes.
Act II:
As you fight the Covenant along side the Marines, you walk into a room where a freaked-out Marine shoots you, and you have to kill him. That's a great moment of choice, even in a linear plot. You also see Covenant corpses that you didn't kill. Then you meet The Flood, which try to eat both you and the Covenant. Reversal: The conflict isn't as clear as you thought. It has expanded, and caused your world to change. Some of your friends are now your enemies, and there are new enemies."
Act 3:
"You are assisted by a hovering machine librarian in turning on Halo's defence system, so you can use it against the flood"
You then find out Halo is a machine designed to kill all life forms and you was tricked by the librarian as the flood and you will be destroyed.
You now have to destroy Halo.
Conflict expanded again.
The Ending:
"You have to destroy Halo" - Important point of all stories, in games the player has to end it and not just watch it.
"Show, don't tell" - stories rule
"Do, don't show" - games rule
"We want our players to experience as much of the story first hand, as the main actor in it. If there's ever opportunity to create the story through players action, make that choice. If there's a part of the story that must be out of the players control show it."
"Do show and tell in that order"
Story and the writer:
"Writers are essential to game story"
"Paste on some dialogue, buddy, and make it clever! NO, NO, NO. Don't do this."
Writers need to be involved from the start of the development process not just for dialogue, they need to know, understand, feel and believe in the whole story before dialogue so the writer knows what to write to keep the player interested.
Story and the whole development team:
"The writer isn't everything. The principle of antagonism might be planned by the writer, but it's created by the designers, and implemented by the programmers."
"Designers will always be the most direct allies of game writers."
"Designers are in charge of the forces of antagonism. Which are the essential elements of character development and plot advancement"
Art and sound obviously create the most perceivable parts of the game.
"Programmers work with everybody to keep the story alive in what the novelist John Gardner would call "The vivid, continuous dream.""
If everything is not at the same standard or something sticks out like a sore thumb the "dream" is broken.
"Creating this world so no one notices the code is the hardest job of all"
"It's not news that games are a collaborative effort"
But so is the story development in games design and this needs to be well established.
"The writer's job is to know all the details that I don't include here. Everyone else on the team, though, needs to know at least the basics I've outlined in this article. The development team has to speak a common language about story. If we all do, we stand an excellent chance of making games that will leave the last generation in the dust."
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