Game Design

(Elliott) #1

least six months and probably a year, but I haven’t proved that. That is what’s stopping
the whole project: I need proof.


Is that something you’re hoping to provide with theLe Morte D’Arthurproject?


I don’t know. I’ve had some kind of writer’s block with that project and I don’t under-
stand why. I think one factor is a sense of demoralization. I’ve put nine years into this
project, and so far it’s been a failure. With the exception of the Markle funding, nobody’s
interested. There are always a few pots bubbling. Right now there are three separate
groups who have expressed interest in this. So it’s not as if I ever reach a point where I
can say “it’s dead.” There’s always something going on, and there’s always the hope
that it will go somewhere, but these things never go anywhere. I’m definitely getting
discouraged.


What would an ideal Erasmatron storytelling experience be like?


I’ll describe it in two ways — tactical and strategic. Tactical being what the audience
experiences moment to moment, and strategic being the overall experience. Tactically,
the audience will see a static image on the screen representing whatever has just hap-
pened. It will show the face of the person who just did whatever happened, as well as
anybody else who’s on the same stage. It will have some text explaining what has hap-
pened. The other thing I want to use is something like a comics technique. That is,
comics show action between frames very well. So it might require two frames. But I
want to use the artistic styles that have developed in the comics. In Scott McCloud’s
book,Understanding Comics,he has that triangle that represents the amount of
abstraction.


With the smiley face in one corner and the photo-realistic face in the other.


Right. My guess is we would want to move on that triangle far away from the photo-
realism corner. We’d want to be somewhere much closer to abstraction and representa-
tion. So I think we’re talking about a more abstract type of display. And then there will
be your menu of choices, expressed as complete sentences. This is what the player is
permitted to say or do. Strategically, the big difference is that all story-worlds have a
very meandering character to them. “Barroom Brawl” doesn’t, because it’s a single
scene. “Corporate Meeting” is a single scene and even it meanders a bit. We have fig-
ured out how to cope with that problem. I had thought that plot points would do enough,
but Laura and I have now come up with a scheme. I don’t want to describe this as a new
discovery; rather this is a concept that has been slowly brewing for several years now.
We’re putting flesh on its bones and I think it will work.
The idea is that there is something like a core plot that is beyond the control of the
player. However, the player does control lots of interactions that will not just influence
but ultimately determine the final outcome of the plot. For example, consider a murder
mystery, such asShattertown. Basically at some point, time is going to run out, and
either the clans are going to go to war or Sky will unmask the murderer or Sky will get
caught by the murderer. That ending has been established, and events will force that
ending. The thing is, what ending you get depends critically on all the things you have
done up to that point. Same way withLe Morte D’Arthur. The basic design says, very


274 Chapter 14: Interview: Chris Crawford

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