July 21st (Reading Notes) Turning a linear story into game

Gamasutra

Turning a linear story into game: The missing link between fiction and interactive entertainment.


Talking about games getting more popular,it needs to widen its audience by using familiarity of of other text mediums.
Sounds a bit sexist.

Says games limit how you go about writing it.
Says that the article is going to give you tips on how to make a game and that they aren't that far from cinema experience.

Creating a cinematic experience:

Theme,character,script,production  are all things that texts have.   Production =how its shown
books can use a different choice of words to show it differently.
Cinematography can easily transfer into games.

Questioning how to about effectively go about the narrative.

Using a directors knowledge for cinematography.
fusion parts =interactive cutscenes.
game designers need to know narrative and cinematography.


Choice of shots
Certain shots create different moods or put the player in different situations
purposefulness of shots.
some shots arent suitable for gameplay.

these kind of shot can help balance shot control and player camera control.

-taking away player control to show them something important. agency
- issuing objectives?
-slow characters can allow use of nicer shots


Editing

Editing=use of discourse

-dividing cutscenes and gameplay
-changing shots to bring attention/stimulate things
-shortcuts to avoid repetition in gameplay (fast travel)
-context based sound


A credible universe

believable

1-proper interaction between character and environment.
2-believable appropriate decoration
3-environment being to uniform (dont tessalate trees)
4-variety of sound effects
5-avoid repetition of objects
6-give the effect of a living world
7-give life like actions to AI
8-restricting view for immersion
9-realistic damage to give believably

Appropriate game design

Game design must make room for principles above
If someone gets used to a game it bores them
no challenge,no motivation to finish
Too difficult frustration causes them to give up.
He says games shouldnt be longer than 15 hours.

The following mechanisms form solid game design:
10-Linear paced game where you are guided along it at your own pace.
11-Harmonious fusion between action and narration,regular intervals
12-Don't have too many sub plots or things going on at once
13-Side characters provide motivation for the hero,can be played and protect the player.
14-varied actions through familiar common interface
15-correct use of camera for the context of the gameplay
16-hints,skipping difficult parts,lowering difficulty based on performance
17-handle the heros death in a  believable manner

The defining traits of fiction:Theme Character Script Production
Theme being important to guide the cinematography and other aspects for the right atmosphere
Script organizes events and give appropriate info at the right times.ensures events have no unintentional gaps
production combines them all together cohesively
strong theme=successful game
games can have fully developed characters
storyline is support by strong character
story as reward
games can fully reach cinematic levels.

...
Main points
Important things
Believe-ability,Cinematography,Shot control,Balancing agency



Disagree/Agree:
-Games can be longer than 15 hours,there are ways of having quality through solid competition and gameplay with a unique experience each time.Games also don't have to end at their release date.date. -A lot of successful games add onto the existing game.
-A games lifespan can mean multiple things,the time it spends on sale (usually the consoles lifespan)
and the lifespan of retaining enjoyment of the game.
-Some games don't have to be varied and non tessellated.
-I personally don't like a game making things easier for me because I'm having difficulty,I'd rather beat it and get more of a reward out of knowing I did it.
-I don't really agree that only the villains can be weak to ensure believeability. A hero could be extremely weak and cause the player to fully assess situations ,as if they are in the characters shoes where you value your life as the player/character making it more believeable to play as.
I have yet to see a good game where you have heroes that  can perma die and have less heroes ,it usually leads to not being able to finish the game through saving and having a low number of heroes,making impossible content if you needed a certain hero.
-I agree that games usually enable the player to live via proxy,but characters devoid of character can sometimes be better than a character who you hate the personality or reasoning of.Empathy is key.
You can even fill in the personality with your own if given the freedom.
How does this relate to the game I'm playing?
To be continued.