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Games on the Go: The Art of Storytelling

by Ben Deitz on June 18, 2010 at 03:00 PM

As a medium, video games have a plethora of ways to tell a compelling story, especially with the advances of technology and the acceptance of more experimental design choices. In the '70s, gamers craving context had to create their own internal narrative for 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. By the time the home console market had exploded, game manuals and limited in-game cut scenes began to provide the barest of plot elements (e.g. 'Bionic Commando's' infamous in-manual story setup). In recent years games like 'Metal Gear Solid' have shown us that games can emulate the cinematic flair of Hollywood, or, in the case of 'Shadow of the Colossus', use purely experiential methods to evoke emotion, mood and develop plot. Today, we'll take a look at a variety of storytelling methods and their effect on game play.

Loved

'Loved' screen shot
'Loved' bills itself as a short story, and had it been told in prose form, it would be described as a widely interpretable, surrealistic journey. Players control a small, pudgy creature through basic platforming challenges in a chiaroscuro landscape that is slowly transformed with pixels of color. Taking cues from 'Portal', gamers are immediately presented with an omniscient, malicious narrator whom one learns early on not to trust. Initially, loose controls are frustrating, but are slowly realized as the challenge of "loved," as you leaps and crawl, deciding whether or not to listen to the voice guiding you. The narrator is a mystery, as is the lead character, and unfolding the story is the point of this masochistic and atmospheric title.

Alice Is Dead - Episode 1

'Alice is Dead' Screen shot
Before we had glorious CG cut scenes and fully voice acted in-game dialogue, the adventure game genre dominated narrative-driven gaming. 'Alice Is Dead' harkens back to the heyday of the adventure game (e.g. classics such as 'Monkey Island' and 'Day of the Tentacle'), thrusting gamers into a noir Wonderland where they must solve puzzles in order to figure out the game's mysteries. Combine one part Lewis Carrol, one part Raymond Chandler and a story told through tantalizing, barely glimpsed clues, and you have a recipe for an intriguing adventure that we can't wait to finish.

ImmorTall

'ImmoTall' screen shot
'ImmorTall' cleverly subverts our conceptions of how a game ought to play. Controlled with only the forward and back arrow keys, it still tells a compelling story about an alien who has crash landed on Earth and winds up befriending and protecting a group of humans in the midst of an armed conflict. This is one of the only games we've played in which the game mechanics involve acting in a completely defensive manner (no jumping or attacking here), and yet by the time it was over we felt utterly attached to our protagonist. 'ImmorTall' may be morose, but it's also a great example of how game-play itself can be used to convey themes and produce a specific mood.

Larry and the Gnomes

'Larry and the Gnomes' screen shot
'Larry and the Gnomes' begins with a framing device featuring an aged storyteller, Wittwick. He tells the tale of the benevolent Gnomes of the kingdom of Karryon who have been turned evil by the powers of the malevolent Overlord. Players assume the role of the titular Larry Mittenhands, a thoroughly unlikeable 19-year-old tasked with defeating said Gnomes. The game is a 'Final Fight' style beat-em-up, featuring a wide variety of obtainable weapons and power-ups with which to bloodily dispatch hordes of malicious enemies. The plot is developed through in-game cut scenes, although there's no real need to provide context when the real draw is chopping Gnomes to pieces.

Sonny 2

Sonny 2 screen shot
'Sonny 2' takes its cues from Japanese console RPGs, but strips out all the extraneous details, going from plot advancing cut scenes to turn based combat without any digressions into overworld or town exploration (sounds kind of like 'Final Fantasy XIII', doesn't it?). The combat plays out like a typical 16-bit RPG: Wait for a meter to fill, then choose whether to attack or defend. It may be bare boned but it's also a good way of adapting the RPG genre to the limitations of Flash-based gaming, providing a streamlined approach to a typically long-winded and time consuming genre.

Tags: adventure, alice is dead, AliceIsDead, flashgames, games, gamesonthego, imortall, larry and the gnomes, LarryAndTheGnomes, loved, sonny 2, Sonny2, storytelling, timewasters, top, videogames, web

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