Tuesday, September 16th, 2008...6:11 pm - Cassandra
Advanced Storytelling Techniques + Tomb Raider: More from AGDC
Image by Calora
I can’t wait to play Tomb Raider: Underworld after reading in Gamasutra about Eric Lindstrom’s presentation at AGDC. Apparently Lindstrom expressed his frustration with the stagnation of the quality of storytelling in games emphasising the importance of effective use of all the techniques available to make satisfying, more meaningful next-gen game experiences.
I couldn’t agree more and it’s fantastic to hear this coming from the creative director of a big game.
Here is one of my favourite parts of Christian Nutt’s article - Lindstrom’s mini-manifesto:
“Stop saying that storytelling is less important than game mechanics. “There are lots of people who say this, but they don’t really mean it.”
Start putting storytelling on par with other pillars of game creation. “There are plenty of people out there who say this is true, but when push comes to shove, it’s not true.”
Stop hiding behind the word “interacrtive”. “If there’s really one thing to take away today — it’s that ‘oh, but it’s interactive’ is used as an excuse for bad storytelling all the time, and it just doesn’t wash.”
Start training and employing storytelling experts. “Hollywood knows how to write dialogue more than anybody in the industry on average. The last 10 movies I saw, seven of them had pretty crappy dialogue — so it’s not going to be perfect on average. But you’re going to find more people who understand storytelling.” It’s worth noting that Lindstrom is pro-training on all fronts, not just hiring from outside the industry.”
There is so much more - Lindstrom goes on to outline all the elements that matter when designing and creating your game and illustrates with choices made for Tomb Raider: Underworld. Really the whole article is fascinating and exciting - definitely worth reading but I’m not going to re-write it here (that would be plagiarism). Go read it!
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