[In a Gamasutra-exclusive analysis, Krawczyk and O'Connor, writers for the God Of War series and Far Cry 2/Gears Of War respectively, discuss how writers and designers can collaborate smoothly and successfully.]
What does
it take to create a story for a game? A lot of work, for one thing -- from the
concept phase right through to the final draft. The process usually begins with
the creative director or lead designer. At some point, a writer is brought on
board. It's a collaborative process -- and it can be a rocky one as well.
For one
thing, not all games need stories. When push comes to shove and development
time runs out, story can fall by the wayside. It can become a serious PR
effort, internally, just to get the story work bumped up on the list of
priorities.
And there
are plenty of challenges for the team to resolve -- system complexities, time
& resource constraints, and communication gaffes.
So if
story development in games is both hard and nonessential, why do so many
studios make the effort?
Because
even at their worst, stories can enhance gameplay. They provide context. What would
players rather shoot -- a wall, or a Nazi?
At their
best, stories transform gameplay -- and gameplay transforms story. Stories help
us make sense of the world; games bring stories to life in a completely new
way. Immersion and agency create brand-new possibilities for storytelling.
Gameplay gives us freedom; story gives us meaning.
So why do
so many writers and designers get bogged down in 10-car pileups when they work
together? They have the same goal, after all: create a compelling experience
for the end user. The trouble begins when they approach the same problem from
opposite directions.
A game
writer looks for brief moments -- cutscene or otherwise -- when she can take
control of the game so that she can create throughlines, pacing, conflicts,
character development, plot twists and thematic meaning.
A game
designer looks for ways to give
control -- not to the writer, but to the player.
Both the
writer and the designer are right. Stories benefit from structure, and players
love their freedom.
How can
teams resolve this conflict so that writers and designers can collaborate
successfully? We can start by rethinking our assumptions about how stories work
- and what players expect.
The heavy
lifting in story development happens at the very beginning of the process,
months before a single line of dialog is written. In this article, we revisit
the basic building bocks of story and look at ways we can arrange them in new
ways to build a compelling, player-centric experience.
If the
golden age of game narrative really is right around the corner -- and we think
it is -- then writers and designers have the opportunity to redefine how
stories are told, by looking at old problems in new ways.
It's in
this spirit that we are asking, "What if?"
What if we didn't build the story
around the player?
Most game
stories revolve around the player character. This makes sense -- sort of.
Players are the stars of the show. They make things happen. It seems logical to
make them the focal point of every event.
But this
approach also creates problems. The designer can find his options limited by
the story's logic. The team has to struggle to find ways to present the story
events without interrupting the game. And regardless of the quality of the
final product, there will always be players that resist the story, or subvert
it, or ignore it altogether.
So what
do you do if your goal is to create a compelling story that involves the
player? One option is make a distinction, right out of the gate, between the
game's story and the player's narrative.
What does
that mean? "Story" is the sequence of events that take place in the
game - the main character overcoming obstacles in pursuit of his goal. "Narrative"
is the player's unique experience of that story -- the player controlling his
character and/or the game world as he sees fit.
(These
terms are not perfect or precise. Better terms will probably emerge eventually,
as the industry grows.)
Who
defines the narrative? The designer -- by creating the world and its rulesets;
the ways in which the player comes to understand the game.
Who
defines the story? The writer -- by creating themes, characters and plots; the
ways in which the story comes together in the end - the way the game comes to
understand itself.
This is a
subtle distinction; story and narrative are tightly intertwined. But it can be
a useful starting place, for both the designer and the writer.