What every game developer needs to know about story.

John Sutherland talks about stories in games in one of his Articles which we had to read a few months back. He starts off by noting some of the common misconceptions in the story of games.

At the very start of the article he makes a very clear statement that most games designers treat story as dialogue and as something that does not matter. He mentions that Story is actually a large part of games nowadays and the dialogue is important.

The other thing that he makes very clear from the start of his article is that story is conflict; and that is something that I can completely agree with. It makes perfect sense to me; since some of my spare time is dedicated to writing I have formed some sort of understanding of what is at the core of each good story. That is conflict.

But when you think about it, conflict is at the centre of anything or at least most things, comedy is the product of conflict and so is drama. Almost every genre requires conflict, and so every story will have conflict in it, in video games conflict is especially important because most of the interface with the player and the video game is in the form of the players’ endless conflict against the waves of enemies that fly towards him or her.

He mentions that conflict in some way should throw the players world out of balance.

Sutherland later goes on about how a classic story would move in a game, mostly outlining the basic bones of the story of the heroes’ journey, talks about some other important aspects such as the reversals.

The reversals are the sort of new information that is crucial for the story, it gives a character a reason to go on with his journey when things are looking hopeless, or it hinders the hero by showing new information about how the villain is still alive. Either way, it’s something that will drive the hero through his journey and expand the story universe.

Sutherland said that reversals happen each act and while I believe that to a certain extent I sometimes feel that once act thee rolls around reversals stop happening. It is time for the resolution of the story and there is no time for another reversal. During act three the heroes are ready, the villains are ready and there they have their massive showdown. Unless a reversal happens in the middle of a losing fight, like the hero gets an epiphany of some sort then I don’t welcome them in the final act.

When Sutherland starts talking about Empathy and protagonist flips, right before that he talks about the three types of conflict.

I feel that conflict helps the players build empathy for the character. For example; using internal struggle the character is more empathetic because the player gets in on his personal demons, the things he is worried about, and that makes the character more interesting. When the protagonist is in the middle of interpersonal conflict you empathise with him or her. External conflict is to provide some sort of adrenaline pump as it appears in the form of manly gun fights or fisticuffs. Either way, conflict, specifically internal and interpersonal help build the players’ empathy for the protagonist.

Sutherland mentions how it’s harder for the storyteller to control what happens in the world if the protagonist is out of his control and in the hands of the player, while this concern would apply only to RPG’s where the player get’s to make multiple choices, it’s still a valid point. Keeping the story engaging would be hard without the control of the protagonist.

There is little for me to say about the rest of the article, Sutherland goes on to talk about the three act structure and some other minor things that I really already was aware of.

In any case, the things I did learn I learned and while there was little I could take away that I didn’t know, I took it and I’ll be using my new knowledge in the future. I also need to learn some humility but that’s beside the point. 

1. John Sutherland, “Gamasutra - Features - What Every Game Developer Needs to Know about Story”, July 27, 2005, http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2359/what_every_game_developer_needs_to_.php.