and drives their game-world surrogate. The character they create in their mind will be
one whom they like and with whom they will want to continue to play.
Game Stories ................................
As I have discussed, when writing a story for a game, it is important to stay away from
the conventions of linear media, such as forcing players to follow only one narrative and
instilling too much character in the players’ game-world surrogate. Beyond the pitfalls
to avoid when creating the game’s story, the game’s scriptwriter should worry less
about the overall plot and more about the situations in which players find themselves
and characters with which they interact. Indeed, many film directors are keenly aware
of this technique. For instance, in talking about his notoriously confusing filmThe Big
Sleep, director Howard Hawks said: “Making this picture I realized that you don’t really
have to have an explanation for things. As long as you make good scenes you have a
good picture — it doesn’t really matter if it isn’t much of a story.”
I have played countless games where the overall plot was completely lost on me; I
simply did not care to follow it. Often in these games, I enjoyed the gameplay, the situa-
tions the game placed me in, and the interesting and amusing characters I met there.
Since the characters and situations were interesting, it did not really matter if I knew
who did what to whom and when. All I knew was that I was having fun playing the game.
Often when games try to hit me over the head with their plot through long cut-scenes
that go into minute detail about the reasons for the state of the game-world and the
character’s motivations for every last action, it becomes tedious. Remember that play-
ers want to play games. If the story enhances that experience, that is good, but if the
story starts to get in the way of the gameplay, that is bad. Spelling out too much of the
story is also a common failing of novice writers. Readers, viewers, and players alike are
able to figure out much more than novice authors give them credit for. It makes sense
for the author of the story to have all of the character’s motivations figured out in detail,
with all of the nuances of the different twists and turns of the plot detailed in her note-
book. Indeed, having a rich back-story or story bible can be a fantastic way to ensure
consistency and allow for later changes or additions to still fit with the overall game fic-
tion. But does every last element of this story need to be included in the game? No,
what is more important is that pieces players are presented with are consistent and
could be used to put together the complete story. Players will not mind if every last plot
point is not explicitly spelled out.
In Chapter 9, “Artificial Intelligence,” I talked about Brian Moriarty’s concept of
“constellation” and how it could help to create more interesting AI. Constellation is a
natural tendency that game storytellers can also use to their advantage. Moriarty has
described constellation in media as the ability of an audience to fill in the holes or incon-
sistencies present in a storytelling experience, regardless of what form that story may
take. For instance, if a storyteller only hints at the true appearance of an evil foe, the
image conjured in the mind of an audience member may be far more frightening than
what the storyteller might be able to describe to the audience. One can also look at the
fan base for a TV show such asStar Trek. The slightest hinting at a bit of story by the
writers of the show will lead to endless speculation among the audience members as to
what the implications of that subtle hint are, and the fans will come up with their own
222 Chapter 11: Storytelling