Storytelling has evolved throughout the years in video games and is done through so many different and creative ways that haven't seem possible. In this article, I will be writing about some different forms of storytelling, game genres, approaches, representations, emotional themes, interactive stories and writing strategies that all go into storytelling when developing a video game.
Starting off, I'll be talking about the different forms of storytelling that people have used throughout the years, starting off with the earliest forms of storytelling through cave paintings and telling about their stories of while they were hunting and would tell of their hunting through paintings. They did this as the same reason of why we make paintings and other forms of storytelling, to communicate with the viewer and to engage them in that sort of media and to get them thinking about it and to give their opinion. This is a major aspect for storytelling from back then to now and matters in every sort of the media such as film, television and video games.
Below is an example of a cave painting telling a story by the looks of it of two cavemen hunting animals with their weapons as you can see with their spears.
Another form of storytelling that is really popular and is how a lot of beginning games and films were made is through traditions and folklore tales such as fables, myths and legends. Fables such as Jack and the Beanstalk, The Pied Piper and The Three Little Pigs are popular fables that are told to kids of young ages with a fantasy sort of feel added to them such as Jack and the Beanstalk involving a giant. As said before, a lot of kids are told these stories at a young age and were really quite exciting and enjoyable to listen as it knew how to engage the minds of a child just like how a video game does nowadays with kids and older people also.
Below are some examples of the fables that I've listed before being Jack and the Beanstalk, The Pied Piper and The Three Little Pigs.
The final form of storytelling that I'll be going into which is very popular nowadays is through film and television. Through film we have seen animated films that focus on new stories or old stories that have been taken from fables, myths and legends such as King Arthur being made into an animated Disney film known as The Sword in The Stone being told in it's own way but still following the same story of how Arthur became king and pulling the sword from the stone and talking about Merlin and his bond with him. Such T.V series also such as Sherlock following it's own story and telling about adventures of Sherlock and telling it through an engaging way to keep people watching and wanting to know more. It even references some of Sherlock's old stories and back to the original canon of the story which is good for people who are into the old stories of Sherlock. These are one of the most popular forms of storytelling that we have today next to video games and books.
Going into storytelling in games more, I will now be covering the different types of game genres and how storytelling affects each genre. Video games affect have different genres such as FPS, Platformers, Fighting, Adventure, Puzzle, Simulation, TBS (Turn-based strategy), RTS (Real time strategy) and so much more. Story affects each genre in some sort of way or another such as platformers like Mario having basic, simple stories for small children to understand of to save the princess and to defeat the bad guy, whereas some games under an adventure genre would have quite complex stories such as Dragon Age Origins or The Elder Scrolls series.
As said before, each video game genre has it's own form of storytelling and tells it in a very basic or unique way that would engage the viewer to keep playing to find out what is going to happen next. Storytelling in video games has involved from very basic stories such as Mario with the save the princess and defeat the bad guy and has involved to much newer games coming out with very in-depth stories that create a sense of emotion for the player/viewer such as The Walking Dead, a popular point and click game that has created a lot of emotion for players around the world because a very specific scene (People who've played the game will exactly know what I'm talking about.), I feel that storytelling in video games can evolve even more in the future with such new tools like the Oculus Rift creating a virtual reality feel to a video game which could evolve storytelling so much in video games in the future by making the characters real and next to you by seeing them through the Oculus Rift. There are so many more ways of how storytelling can evolve in video games and I'm sure we will see it in the future soon enough and will create a lot of hype and excitement if done properly.
Below is that very specific scene in The Walking Dead video game that I was talking about. (Don't watch if you don't want to know spoilers!)
The next section of this essay that I'll be going into will be about the different approaches that storytelling takes in video games and other forms of the media. Approaches are very popular in storytelling (especially in video games), as it creates a great immersion for the viewer/player to engage in and, in video games, will make every playthrough different unlocking new endings and making the story different e.g. this person lives and other person dies, other playthrough the other person lives and the other person dies. Going back to The Walking Dead, it tells it's story through different actions of you following different sides and supporting different people in a Zombie Apocalypse. Other games similar to this with different actions that affect your ending include Beyond Two Souls, Fahrenheit and Fallout 3 each depending on what decisions you make during the story and how they affect your behaviour towards characters later on in the story. This is one of the main aspects of storytelling in video games that is essential nowadays if you're making a game focusing around story more than the game-play and mechanics. Below and to the right, are different choices in each of the examples that I've listed before.
Another approach to storytelling that is quite popular nowadays is the episodic route that some games such as The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us have took. Releasing an episode every month or two, this is a route that most point and click games and ones that have different choices and different ending have took which is quite an interesting way of it's storytelling but I feel that the immersion goes quite quickly as you have to wait quite a while for each episode to come out one after another and you could forget what happened before and what choices you took for when the next episode comes out. Some people really enjoy it through an episodic way as it creates amazing and very good cliffhangers if done properly and is one of the best approaches towards cliffhangers in general.
The next section of this essay that I'll be discussing will be about different emotional themes that characters have in video games and how it affects the story and changes it and how it affects the player also. Emotional themes are a very important part of storytelling as it shows character emotion and even player/viewer emotion also, games that excel really well in graphics are good and really excel at pulling off character emotion as it looks so real using motion capture and the amount of technology that we have nowadays to pull it off, some games also do this through the actual story and how it turns out with some characters being killed or some special event happening that can create a sense of awe for the player/viewer. Games show the emotional themes through many different ways such as through anger, happiness, heroism, vengeance, valour, hope, competitiveness, vengeance and more. Creating characters that focus around these emotions can create really good plot points and twists for the stories and it allows the player/viewer to relate with them and be able to interact with them. Some emotional themes can be through happiness that someone is alive or that you completed a game after a long number of hours and happy you finished it and seeing a true ending to the video game for completing it 100% for example or that the worse thing happens and maybe that person dies if you choose a wrong choice if there are choices in the game and was really close to you throughout the story and was a major character in the story.
Some games for example are listed below of one that did make me choke up a bit and the other video being of the first game that I 100% completed when I was young which made me so happy. Again, don't watch if you don't want to know spoilers.
The final section of this article that I'll be talking about will be about how interactive some games are and the techniques they use to engage the player such as cinematics, cut-scenes, triggered events such as quick-time events, character customisation and much more.
The first part of interaction that goes into a lot of video games (especially AAA titles), are cutscenes and cinematics that really immerse the player/viewer into the video game and relating to the characters and environment creating a very good atmosphere. A lot of games are really good at doing this such as a lot of Blizzard's work (Diablo, Starcraft, Warcraft etc.) and CD Projekt Red with their Witcher IP. These allow the player to enjoy the story in a more graphic way and allowing them to see the characters fully fleshed out with brilliant animations using motion capture and making the reactions, facial features and other aspects really strong and can create awe for the player also.
Below are some examples of quite recent cinematics from Starcraft 2 and from The Witcher 3 which have been very popular among gamers recently.
Character Customisation is really heavy in a lot of games such as Saints Row with the amount of silly and funny customisation that you can have that allows you to be unique and make your character feel different from other people online. This feature is very popular in MMORPGs and multi-player games making you feel different and unique to other players in the world and giving a different experience for each player making their character feel like their own or themselves if they were immersed in the game world.
The final part of the interactiveness that I'll be talking about will be about through triggered/scripted events such as quick time events and scripted events of talking to characters that you need to talk to progress in the story otherwise you can't move forward or that as soon as you enter a new town for the first time, a cutscene may play that is quite important to the story. Some people enjoy these through a linear aspect and allowing them to progress through the story easily, however some people like it through a non linear aspect of you can talk to this person or do this action first without being penalized for it and allowing to go at your own speed of how you want your story to turn out.
An example below, is from Pokemon Black/White where a character in the game catches a wild Pokemon, this is done in every Pokemon game however as it teaches you how to catch Pokemon for when you want to.
Overall, storytelling in video games is growing massively and quickly with new ideas coming out allowing game developers to create the game that they want to create and to allow players to hopefully feel what they were thinking when they made the game and hoping that they will enjoy the storytelling and praise their game for it.
This unit that we have started is about learning to make stories and making them seem exciting and fun to read and get involved with by using good verbs, nouns, adverbs etc.
Our first task in this unit was to make a five slide story in powerpoint using five pictures on each slide and to be able to tell a story from it, we worked with another partner and then began to make our stories in our own time and then show each other our stories for them to read and enjoy. My story was about a man finding a zombie and then running away from him, the man then quickly falls to the ground while running and the zombie is just about to devour him and then the zombie gets shot before it gets to him.
We then showed our story to our partner and my partner really enjoyed it, it wasn't very believable or has any rhythm to it but he said that the story is enjoyable and would like to find out more if there are other zombies finding other people. He also said that the sentences sound meaningful and enjoyable as it uses very strong adjectives and verbs to make the story enjoyable and fun to read.
Overall, I felt this task went very well and I enjoyed doing this with my partner and it is a nice start for beginning to make stories for video games.
Our second task was to make a story about something that has happened to you in your life or something you dreamt of.
The story that I will be typing will be something that I have dreamt of recently.
It starts off with me waking up from my sleep and wondering where I was as it didn't feel like home yet looked identical to it. I then got dressed ready to go to college for the day still everything looking identical and nothing different but it just felt off to me. As I was walking to my bus stop, I saw the bus just leave the stop and held out my hand hoping it would stop again for me to get on, but as soon as I held out my hand, I had the power to stop it like I was a wall or something similar, now I knew what was wrong and why I seemed a bit off. Everyone was staring at me on the bus thinking what I did was insane. After I got off the bus in the dream, I just woke up not remembering anything and feeling tired and then proceeded to fall back to sleep.
Once we finished that task, we then began collecting newspaper articles to look at the stories and see how they could be used as a plot for a video game story. The stories that I have found are listed below as a screenshot in Photoshop.
Once we had gathered our stories, we were then to make a story out of it or some sort of plot that could be used for a video game that could be exciting or interesting. My method of doing this was to put all of the stories together to create a funny yet interesting story that could add quite a lot of comedic value to a video game. A very popular author who uses this technique goes by the name of Carl Hiassen who is very popular for using this technique and has wrote a lot of different stories using this technique. The story starts with a man from an unknown planet who thinks he's Jesus Christ and conjures up a polar vortex across America on Earth with his 3ft fish companion.
I feel this is a really useful technique for coming up with a game story or plot as it can add some comedic or some serious value to it which could be interesting and gives a lot of opportunity for story-making and can create a lot of interesting ideas.
This is a mood-board that I have created based around my plot/dilemma that will be useful so I can get an idea of how it will turn out and work.
These are some statistics that I have found online of the weather in America which will help in my plot/dilemma as I can use this to choose a certain month in 2044 and I would choose the coldest month of the year for this to work.
I have chosen America for my plot as I want this plot to feel as overtop as possible because of how wacky and weird it could be, I feel America would be a good place to do it as I feel it can add quite a lot of comedic value to the plot. I will be basing it around many different places of America such as New York, Chicago, Texas and many more.
The date for this plot/dilemma will be the year 2044, I want it to be this date as I want it to feel quite far in the future but have no real differences from how America would look nowadays and still seem quite realistic even though it's 30 years ahead of current time.
Once we had got our story, we had to talk about the different plot points in the story and make a diagram to show of when the plot is at a low point and when it's at a high point showing the important parts of the story.
Once we knew where the plot points in the story were important and created tension and immersion, we then began to make a story summary known as the Three Act Narrative Structure with information about different things such as the protagonist/antagonist, the plot in detail, the goal etc. Below, is a summary of my story.
As you can tell from looking at my story, it's quite over the top with a funny feel to it. This is what I want from my story and for that to happen, I don't want most of the things in the story to be taken seriously in any aspect. To learn more about this, I researched into other video games and other stories that are quite over the top and not meant to be taken seriously to see if there's anything that connects to see what developers and story writers do to make their stories so over the top.
Below are a few clips from video games that are quite over the top such as Saints Row 3 and 4, Bayonetta and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (MGRR). These games keep player hooked using a lot of comedy as if it was an interactive movie that you could play. Developers make these games over the top through different ways such as nudity, action, character dialogue and more making these games easily humorous to players. These games are not made to be realistic as that makes it lose the over the top feel that makes the game funny to players. A lot of voice actors for video games also put on quite an over the top voice as well to add more of that humour feel. Music also becomes a big factor as well in these sort of games.
Two warnings: Spoilers and some harsh language used.
From what I have noticed from these videos and from over the top games in general, they use a lot of pop culture references and references from other video games also (E.g Arrow to the Knee from Skyrim). Some of these games can pull it off very well but some can pull it off quite poorly to the point of when it is overused. I wouldn't like to go with this with my game as I want to steer away from pop culture references and be funny and over the top with just normal humour. I feel that this research has helped me greatly and will be able for me to get that humour right in my story.
Three Act Narrative Structure
Brief
Overview of Characters and Plot
An imposter Jesus Christ causing havoc
across America and creating a polar vortex across America that would eventually
lead to freezing the whole of Earth. The real Jesus Christ must stop him from
doing this and save the world.
The Protagonist is the real Jesus Christ
who hears about America and the rest of the Earth being frozen over and
eventually finds out why this is happening. As his job, he must stop this from
happening, as he’s the only one that can since no one else has the power that
he has.
The antagonist is the imposter Jesus Christ
who thinks that he can do Jesus’s job and feels that he’s a lot better and
wants to gain a cult following so that he can rule the world and usher in a new
age revolving around him.
Act
I - Beginning
The story starts out with the real Jesus
Christ waking up as if it was a normal day and then finding out that America
has been hit by a polar vortex and is confused why as he is unsure of what
could of caused it and doesn’t feel the it is a natural occurrence that just
came out of nowhere, he goes and investigates different parts of America such
as New York, Chicago, Florida and Washington to try and find out what caused
this and eventually finds out that someone is faking as him and people think
it’s the real Jesus Christ that is causing most of these disasters and
occurrences.
The location of this story starts out in
different parts of America and then proceeds to other parts around the world
such as Europe such as England and France and then other parts of Asia such as
China and Japan.
The major player in this story is the real
Jesus Christ of which it is his goal to save the world from the imposter Jesus
Christ.
The major conflict in this story is a
recurring conflict between the good Jesus Christ and the bad Jesus Christ that
you keep meeting throughout the story and keep stopping, progressively
weakening him and making him lose his powers to save the different areas of the
world from the polar vortex.
The main Narrative Enigma in this story is
that Earth could be frozen over and be destroyed ushering in a new ice age with
the imposter Jesus Christ ruling the world.
The Major Theme in this story is that Earth
has to be saved as the polar vortex is growing very quickly and must be stopped
otherwise it can cause even more catastrophic events.
The mood of this story is that it is very
over the top and is not meant to be taken seriously, it’s meant to give a very
jokey feel towards the story and is more of a laugh than a serious story.
Plot
Point I: “The plot thickens”
The plot point of the good Jesus Christ
finding out that there’s an imposter and meets him and tries to stop him but
fails in doing so.
This turns the story into a new direction of
that the good Jesus Christ must stop this imposter Jesus Christ and bring him
to justice and save the world now knowing what the problem is.
This sets up Act II and allows the story to
continue now that the good Jesus Christ knows what the problem is and who is
causing the polar vortex across the Earth.
This also raises the stakes knowing that
there is a villain that the good Jesus Christ must go against and could be a
tough battle making a good conflict in the story.
This also goes back to the Narrative Enigma
of that another outcome that the world can be saved and that everything would
be okay.
Act
II – Middle
After knowing who has caused the polar
vortex’s to happen, Jesus goes around to the different areas of the world to
help them from the polar vortex problem and saves them from impending doom. He
then proceeds to find the imposter Jesus Christ to stop him once and for all
and get down to the bottom of why he did it.
Adds struggle to the problem by him having
to get there and he’s the only one that’s going to be able to do it and won’t
be able to get much help or assistance to take down the imposter.
Plot
Point II: “The Longest Mile”
Plot point two occurs with that it wasn’t
the imposter Jesus Christ that wanted to do any of this and didn’t choose to
freeze America, he talks about that he’s always wanted to praise Jesus and
spread the word about him and about God and the religion itself. Turns out that
the imposter Jesus Christ had a 3ft fish companion named Jeff who told him what
to do for the good of mankind and then took after once his plans went to plan.
Jesus Christ must stop Jeff and save the
world so that everything can be in balance again and everything will be back to
normal, this leads to the end of Jesus’s quest of saving the world.
To be able to kill Jeff, Jesus must go into
his ultimate form and summons the power of God himself to smite Jeff and send
him back to Davey Jones’s Locker.
This leads to Jesus winning and saving the
world and then goes back to Heaven to live once more.
Act
III: The End
Jesus finds out who properly caused the
polar vortex and finds out that it was the imposter Jesus Christ’s pet fish
named Jeff who told him to do everything so his plan would go correctly without
any errors. This leads to Jesus Christ going off to fight Jeff and going into
his ultimate form to smite him down and save the world. He then defeats him
using his power and goes back to Heaven as everything is back to normal and
balance is in order.
Once we had our summary and talked about the different acts and plot points, we then had to make a draft for our story with dialogue showing that we've thought about our story and it gives us a lot to work with for when we make it into a text adventure video game and would work very well. Below is my draft story that I've made.
Below, is a draft of my story which will be finalised soon for when we are ready to make it into a text adventure video game, it is done in a linear sort of style with multiple choices but I've done it with the choices that already chosen for how I'd like it to turn out if I was playing it as an actual video game.
It's the year
2044, everyone in the world living perfectly normal with their normal lives
with no unsuspecting things happening, until one day..
A man,
pretending to be Jesus Christ, wanting to freeze the whole of America and bring
back the Ice Age to be able to rule the world, there can only be one man that
can stop him and save us from this Imposter and save the whole of America and
the world.
How is he
still not awake? Did he not read the script or anything? This is really not
helping for when we're trying to do this story, damn it Jesus, we need you as
you're the main protagonist to be able to do this story.
“Jesus
proceeds to wake up”
“You ready to do this Jesus?”
“Yeah, yeah, let's just get it done, want my rest as soon as
possible”
"Excellent, we can finally begin filming now."
As they begin filming, Jesus quickly notices something on the Television next to him, currently broadcasting a news report about America.
“Woah woah woah, hold on, when did this all happen?”
“When did what happen Jesus?”
“This polar vortex across America?”
“Um, we're not sure why...”
“It's just strange how I'm the only one thats able to do
that and I don't think someone would be able to just do it at a click of their
fingers like I can.”
“If you're so worried about it, why don't you go and check
it out?”
“I can't go out like this! Let me change first then I'll go
check and see what's going on.”
Jesus goes to get changed and comes out in the same clothes
“That's better”
“But you're wearing the same clothes...?”
“No! This has been pressed and ironed damn it!”
Jesus proceeds to go down to Earth to see what's been going
on and to see what could of caused this polar vortex.
As he gets down to America on Earth, he finds out that the
polar freeze is spreading across the whole of America rapidly at an alarming
rate. Jesus then proceeds to look around different parts of America to see what
is going on and to try and gain any evidence of what could of caused this
disaster.
“What could have caused all of this, this seems impossible
for just some normal mortal on Earth…”
“Heh, you really think a mere mortal isn’t able to do all of
this and cause destruction beyond imagining?”
“Wait, what, who’s there? Show yourself mortal”
“Being the all mighty Son of God, surely you could be able
to get me out of hiding and be able to defeat me?”
“Oh yeah…never really thought of it like that…”
Jesus then begins to clear away all of the snow and quickly
finds what looks to be himself.
“You’re…me? That’s impossible, no one can be in my image!”
“Ah, but that is where you’re wrong, Son of God, you see I
have these powers and nothing can stop me! Not even you.”
“Well, this is going to be easy, bring it on Imposter!”
Jesus quickly fires a blast of holy fire to try and hit the
Imposter but he quickly deflects it and sends it flying hitting a building
opposite him, causing the building to quickly crumble and fall. The Imposter
quickly shoots a bolt of dark energy hitting Jesus in the chest and knocking
him back onto the floor.
"Okay... this is going to be a lot more difficult than
I thought, time to improvise.."
Jesus sends down a giant bolt of lightning, giving a direct
hit on the imposter.
"Gah! You will never defeat me, Son of God! I call
forth the power of my own gods to destroy you!"
The Imposter gets lifted into the sky, magical spells flying
around, and quickly punches the ground sending an earthquake which knocks Jesus
quickly back to his feet again.
"You think you have defeated me, Son of God? I AM THE
ALMIGHTY RULER OF THIS PATHETIC PLANET, NOTHING CAN STOP ME NO MATTER WHAT, NO
ONE CAN SAVE YOU NOW AND NO ONE SHALL SURVIVE, THIS PLANET WILL FALL TO THE
POLAR VORTEX OF THE GODS AND WE WILL USHER IN A NEW ICE AGE, YOU
HAVE LOST, JESUS.."
A quick beam of light from the heavens grabs Jesus and
brings him back to Heaven, quickly healing him and bringing him back to his
feet next to the camera crew.
"Jesus! Wha-What happened!?!?!"
"This..Imposter..An evil..Jesus Christ..trying to
bring..a polar vortex..from the gods.."
"Wha-What're you going to do!?!? You can't let him do
this and stop you, you're the Son of God!"
"Please don't mention those words, him mentioning it in
such a loud voice gives me a headache.."
"Sorry Jesus..What're you going to do?"
"I need to go round the rest of America, and the Earth
to see if it has affected other places, people can't live in a new Ice Age. It
would be total chaos, I can't let that happen to the people who care and want
me to help them in this time of need"
"But, what if he finds you again and tries to destroy
you again? He's stronger than anything we've seen before Jesus!"
"Well, I'm going to have to take that risk aren't I?
Remember what I said before that I can't let this happen to the people that
care and worship me, I'm the only one who's going to be able to save them and
help them."
"Hmm, okay, but how do you propose on doing this?"
"I think I've got an idea, do we have telebuttons to
Heaven spare?"
"Why do you need it? You are Jesus Christ
remember.."
"Y'know, I wonder how I forget all of this and wonder
how I'm the Son of God, should have a little more common sense for someone so
omnipotent and omniscient, anyway I've got to get going, can't let this planet
tremble in fear forever."
Jesus quickly teleports back down to Earth to explore
different parts of the world from Europe to Asia.
"How am I going to be able to find anything, I'm
useless and weak compared to this Imposter, there must be something around here
that would at least help me defeat him, huh? What's that sparkling over
there?"
Jesus quickly runs over to find some sort of mirror that
glistens quite brightly.
"Hmm, this seems to be some sort of ancient mirror.."
He quickly looks at the mirror to find that it seems to be
some sort of reflector that shows a persons true identity.
"I think I've got a plan, nothing can stop me no-"
Jesus quickly gets struck in the back by dark magic and
falls to the ground unconscious.
"Heh, he thought he could defeat me again? This guy is
an utter fool, how could he possibly be the Son of God..? What do you think
Jeff..?" says the Imposter.
A 3ft fish quickly comes round next to him to see Jesus.
"He is an utter sap, he is worthless, no wonder he
can't help anyone on this miserable planet when they pray for help, he just
doesn't have the power.."
"Hmm, we should take him back to the lab for testing,
maybe we can do something with him."
"Mhm, cmon, we need to get out of here before anyone
notices and loses their mind.."
As the Imposter and Jeff were heading back to the lab, Jeff
was cunningly thinking to himself about what to do next.
"This guy's an absolute fool, no wonder he was so easy
to manipulate and possess, this is just making my job ten times easier, soon
I'll be able to take over them both and take their powers to destroy this
wretched planet, all is going to plan, excellent.."
As they get back to the lab, they leave Jesus in a magic
vortex, essentially making him not able to use any of his powers or abilities.
He quickly wakes up wondering where he is
"Whe-Where am I? You! You Imposter! What have you
done?!"
The Imposter quickly gets up out of his chair.
"Hahahaahaha, you thought that you could possibly
defeat me again you fool? Look at you, you've lost, their is nothing else that
you can do, everything is going to plan and this world will soon fall into ruin
and I will be the new Jesus Christ that this world deserves!"
"Not if I have say anything about it, face your
reflection!"
Pointing it at the Imposter, the mirror does nothing but
just making him able to see himself.
"Really? Is this all you've been reduced to Jesus?
We're not playing make-up or dress-up or anything, how do you suppose that
mirror you have is going to work?"
Jesus quickly wondering why it isn't working, hitting it
produced a beam of light, bursting through the magic vortex and hitting the
Imposter knocking him back into the chair and transforming him back to his
original self, feeling weak, the Imposter talks.
"Wha-Whe-What's going on? Where am I? Jesus Christ?
What're you doing here?"
Jesus quickly left confused speaks.
"Wait hold on, you defeated me? You're but a mere human
being, that's impossible, how did you gain that power that made you able to
defeat me?"
"Ugh, that, fish. He manipulated me or controlled me to
do his bidding, I can't remember a thing, you've got to believe me, I'm a huge
follower of your religion Jesus and a follower on Twitter as well!"
"Uh, okay, do you know where this fish could be that
controlled you or manipulated you to do his bidding?"
"He's somewhere in this forsaken lab, you've got to
find him and end him Jesus, if you don't, he's going to have enough power to
take over the world and eventually the universe.."
"I better get going then, you stay here, I'll be
back."
Jesus quickly runs off looking around the lab trying to find
some sort of place of where Jeff could be, he quickly finds a small dark room
with lights turning on very quickly, finding a huge jar that is labelled
'Jeff'.
"Are you the one that's caused all of this disaster and
destruction upon this peaceful planet, Jeff?"
"Well well well, if it isn't the almighty Son of God
himself, yes, I'm the one that's done all of this, all that power that pathetic
mortal you saved back there had, I gave him that power and forced him to do my
bidding, what do you suppose you're going to do? You're just a pawn in my side
now."
Jeff quickly bursts out of the jar growing in size and power
as big as the Earth itself.
"I SAID, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING TO DO,
WORTHLESS MORTAL."
Jesus, quickly comes up with an idea of how he could defeat
Jeff and save the word.
"Well, I haven't gone into this form for a very long
time, guess it'll work though, confused why I didn't think of it before.."
Jesus quickly grows in size and power and looks at Jeff.
"So, what do you suppose you do now, you silly
fish?"
"HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE, NO ONE IS AS STRONG AS ME, NO
ONE, YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY STOP ME."
"Oh but I can, I'm going to smite you down and send you
back to Davey Jones Locker and banish you down there forever."
Jesus quickly charges a powerful smite beam that hits Jeff
in the chest and sends him flying back down into the ocean to whence he came.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO, YOU HAVE NOT WON SON OF GOD, I WILL BE
BACK TO DESTROY THIS WRETCHED PLANET, YOU'LL SOON SEE AND BOW BEFORE
MEEEEEEEE!!!"
The world started to flourish in new life and the polar
vortex faded quickly for the world to be able to live on again.
"Well, looks like my job here is done, this planet is
saved and looked after now, time to get back to Heaven and get some rest, I'm
knackered after that adventure."
The camera crew quickly run up to him just as he's about to
get some rest.
"But Jesus, what about this film we need to shoot, we
need to get this part done quickly so that we can work on other parts of the
film!"
"Can''t we just take a break, I'm knackered, I promise
I will after just give me 5 minutes."
"Ugh, fine. It better be done soon though!"
Below also is a basic outline of my story showing how the tree would look and how the game would play out with different decisions.
Task 3 - Write interactive dialogue for a game
Once we had finished our story that we were going to use for our interactive video game, we then proceeded to look into different types of dialogue such as interactive dialogue and monologues so we can see how characters interact with each other and how it shows they're facial expressions and how certain stories turn out.
We then went back to our story and took a piece of dialogue out of it to use and give it a non linear look so that they're maybe different choices on what could happen E.g person dies if this option happens or person lives if this option happens.
Below is a piece of dialogue from my story that I gave a non linear aspect to so that it can change the course of the story. I developed this on Spiderscribe to show how the dialogue would turn out easier.
Task 6 - Write believable interactive dialogue for a game
Our final task of this unit was to be able to make our text adventure into an actual game which was quite enjoyable. We incorporated the elements of the non linearity and other story enhancing effects. We used our dialogue trees as reference also to be able to get our story just right for people to be able to play
Below is the link to be able to play my game on a website.
http://textadventures.co.uk/games/view/mwa-gp66jukwqh5dr3aapq/judgement
