Game 'Narrative'. Let's get this boxed off. - The Bear and Badger

Escape

Brooks wrote:

beats

Quit.

IanHamlett

That's legit screenplay talk yo. I know this because I'm entering my sixth month of having a screenplay that's basically 75% done.

Escape

It's a shitty shorthand term for replacing more interesting descriptors.

I enjoyed the zooms in that F1 race, and the strides in last night's football.

monkey wrote:

Games are just generally made by people who aren't good at narrative.

IanHamlett

It's only as vague as "gameplay" or "mechanics". There are times when I'll detail the interplay between individual mechanics, by name, to describe what's good about the gameplay, but sometimes it's fine to say the gameplay is tight, the mechanics are tired, and the story is weak.

Escape

The graphics need tightening.

IanHamlett

Yeah but the audio score is dope.

Escape

Not to say it's entirely invalid, but it sure is hijacked on the regular by bullshit-bingo jigsaw players. The jiggy in this case being Peer Inclusion. It's like an anti-teacher defence for dudes what ain't read the book.

Alan Partridge would talk about the beats. The Best of the Beats.

Brooks

Shutyer hole Scape, my usage was conscious and within tolerances.

Meanwhile: If one thing gamedev to date has demonstrated handsomely is that there's no game format that you can't write a suitable narrative context for, and no rule or mechanic you can't write around (i.e. excuse). Just takes some sober assessment of what you can and can't push.

Hilarious example: Asscreed sets the entire medieval thing within a kind of sci-fi-VR scenario to try to deal with all the player-friendly info display systems you get in game. It's fucking cheeky but I can't resent it. (Deep Down seems to be doing this for the DkS model?)

Escape

Mr and Mrs Writing-Chops must have to self-edit with loving care to not overstuff the gaming infant's mouth. Just because gaming isn't the most receptive medium for the couple's talents doesn't mean that we shouldn't overturn our walkers, but, y'know... I've no feelings of rejection in their absence.

Music's another matter. Fahrenheit: story by Cage; music by Badalamenti. Sergio Leone's game would've been something; story-fulfilling visuals. You say Lynch, I'd add Mann.

[ Manhunter > Heavy Rain ]

Brooks

Well the best instance of Mann in games is probably Kane & Lynch 2 (though I'm aware the odd GTA mission touches this territory too, the total aesthetic of Dog Days is more successful). That game is gets pretty close to sublime, though it isn't without a bunch of execution problems, not least being that two hefty middle-aged men never felt heavy enough to move around.

Brooks

But I mean even there, you're asked to ignore the fact that your involvement comes down to blatant puppetry. I'm never really convinced 3rd person perspectival control is a good fit for the level of immersion the best dramatic fiction demands, it's too distancing when you're literally pulling the levers to me - the difference between being a driver and passenger is pretty big.
Dynamite Headdy got round this, rather simply, by literally being about a controlling a puppet on an evolving stage. That kind of tightness is something I always appreciate and will endorse. Honest, but hardly po-faced.

I think in general the greater the distance, the more vague/expressionistic your writing should probably be. Please don't try to convince me I'm Involved when the interactive reality is constantly enforcing a barrier. I don't think much of Journey, say, as an actual videogame, but the tone is bang on.

Escape

I've long fancied talking about the experience I feel a GTA could offer with the right team behind it, but I could sketch my desires much sooner than describe them.

Save to say it needs to leave the US and de-HBO.

Brooks

If nothing else, I'm dying to see the kind of safaris we'll get to check out when Rift-enabled software matures. In the meantime, Jibs' point about mechanics and rules having a considered narrative weight will need to suffice. Granted, that's kind of a post-match, formally analytical, even academic payoff but it's still valuable to pursue, because it demands rigourous writing and I like rigour.

Skerret

I like rigour too.

Brooks

I'm not confident in the rigour of your assessment of your preference for rigour.

Escape

Skerret wrote:

I like rigour too.

Rigondeaux, oui?

Skerret

Nuts to both of you, empirical nuts.

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