Storytelling in Games - Chuck's perspective
TelltaleGames
Former Telltale Staff
Welcome to Part II of "Telltale spouts off about what makes a good story". Today we bring you Chuck Jordan's thoughts on the subject.
What elements make up a good videogame story?
The only hard and fast requirement is that the main character should have no memory of his past. After that, it's limited only to your imagination: he can be a marine, a space marine, an ex-marine, an elf, an elf marine, or a dwarf. And he can fight either demons or aliens, using either magic spells or cybernetic implants. The combinations are endless!
What influences, if any, do you take from other media (i.e. film, tv, comics/graphic novels)?
The Sam & Max episodic games are obviously based on a comic book series, so that's the biggest influence. I see the games as being an unholy combination of comic book, traditional graphic adventure game, and an animated sitcom.
Because our games have so much more dialogue than you'd see in a comic book or even a TV show, I'm always trying – to varying degrees of success – to keep it from feeling too expository or "gamey." I'd like to keep it conversational, like an episode of a sitcom where clues to get to the next scene are embedded in the jokes. And above everything else, we're trying to get the episodes to have the same feel of the comics – the non-sequiturs, the kinds of situations the characters get into, the way they talk (without just quoting the comics directly), and their remaining unflappable even as bizarre stuff is happening all around them.
More specifically, I'm a huge fan of "Mystery Science Theater 3000," and I've watched so much of it that it's affected the way my brain works. So I like to think the episodes have a little of that feel to them as well – a barrage of jokes and references, with semi-highbrow stuff and potty humor all mixed together, and if one joke doesn't work it'll be quickly followed by another that might.
[readmore]
Describe a narrative moment from one of your games that you are most proud of?
Even though it's "cheating" because it's a purely scripted moment that doesn't have anything to do with the rest of the episode, I like the scene in "Moai Better Blues" where Sybil breaks up with the head of the Lincoln Memorial. I like that with this season we're hinting at an overall storyline for the side characters, and the idea that the world doesn't just pause and wait for Sam & Max to do something. I also just like the random, senseless cruelty you sometimes see in the comics.
What is something you would like to see a videogame story attempt that hasn't been done yet?
I don't think the problem is for lack of attempts, just lack of successes. Games can get pretty derivative, but even now with the huge budgets, there's still plenty of experimentation going on – comedy, tragedy, suspense, romance, horror, surrealism, it's all been attempted. What I'd like to see (and to work on) is more attempts at telling the story through the gameplay, instead of relying on the old tactic of interrupting the game every so often to advance more of the story.
How does story fit into your development cycle? Does it evolve concurrently with development, is it saved for the end of the cycle when most of the gameplay is in place, or is it conceived at the beginning and treated as unchangeable?
Telltale's core focus is on story-telling games, so we always start with the story and let the gameplay fall from that. On the Sam & Max games, we start with an overall season-long story, and then break that up into the main plot for each episode.
During pre-production on each episode, we get the detailed story and puzzle design for the episode first. Once that's set, the script writing and creation of the new environments happens simultaneously, with the animation shortly after, and then the choreography. And because we're episodic, this is often happening concurrently with the previous or next episode. Nothing is strictly unchangeable, but we try as hard as we can to get the story solid first before any production is started.
What's the difference between story and gameplay?
Ideally, there is no difference. I think that's the biggest hurdle for storytelling games right now, to develop methods for advancing the story through the player's actions. And then, getting those methods to be as straightforward and easy to implement as cutscenes are now.
Where do writers fit in the traditional structure of a development team?
It varies from company to company and even team to team. The Season Two design was already solid by the time I came on board, and much of the first episode's script was already written. So for those I was mostly doing script editing (what they call "punch up" in Hollywood, I think), and the bulk of writing on the second. I got more involved in the design as the season progressed, so it varies even within a series.
Personally, I think it's crucial to have the writer or writers involved in the design process as much as possible and as early as possible. I have a much better idea for why things are happening in the story, and if I can picture how a scene is going to play out, I can suggest aspects of the puzzle design and player's actions that are going to build to that scene. I've read interviews with other game writers who have no interest in game design at all, and they seem to get good results, so I guess it varies from person to person.
What's one game story you admire? Why?
Last year, I was really impressed with Portal and BioShock, because I felt like we were finally seeing big-name titles experimenting with new ways to tell a story. The first reveal of BioShock's big twist was just a brilliant moment, because it threw a new layer of meaning on top of everything I'd done in the game up to that point, and more importantly, it did so without a cutscene or a character explaining to me what had just happened (until I went into the next room, of course).
Portal did an even better job, because it slowly built to that kind of reveal. You see that there's more going on to the test chambers than what you're told from the onset, and they trust you to figure it out for yourself – throughout the first dozen or so levels of the game, they build story and character more from what they don't tell you than what they do.
What elements make up a good videogame story?
The only hard and fast requirement is that the main character should have no memory of his past. After that, it's limited only to your imagination: he can be a marine, a space marine, an ex-marine, an elf, an elf marine, or a dwarf. And he can fight either demons or aliens, using either magic spells or cybernetic implants. The combinations are endless!
What influences, if any, do you take from other media (i.e. film, tv, comics/graphic novels)?
The Sam & Max episodic games are obviously based on a comic book series, so that's the biggest influence. I see the games as being an unholy combination of comic book, traditional graphic adventure game, and an animated sitcom.
Because our games have so much more dialogue than you'd see in a comic book or even a TV show, I'm always trying – to varying degrees of success – to keep it from feeling too expository or "gamey." I'd like to keep it conversational, like an episode of a sitcom where clues to get to the next scene are embedded in the jokes. And above everything else, we're trying to get the episodes to have the same feel of the comics – the non-sequiturs, the kinds of situations the characters get into, the way they talk (without just quoting the comics directly), and their remaining unflappable even as bizarre stuff is happening all around them.
More specifically, I'm a huge fan of "Mystery Science Theater 3000," and I've watched so much of it that it's affected the way my brain works. So I like to think the episodes have a little of that feel to them as well – a barrage of jokes and references, with semi-highbrow stuff and potty humor all mixed together, and if one joke doesn't work it'll be quickly followed by another that might.
[readmore]
Describe a narrative moment from one of your games that you are most proud of?
Even though it's "cheating" because it's a purely scripted moment that doesn't have anything to do with the rest of the episode, I like the scene in "Moai Better Blues" where Sybil breaks up with the head of the Lincoln Memorial. I like that with this season we're hinting at an overall storyline for the side characters, and the idea that the world doesn't just pause and wait for Sam & Max to do something. I also just like the random, senseless cruelty you sometimes see in the comics.
What is something you would like to see a videogame story attempt that hasn't been done yet?
I don't think the problem is for lack of attempts, just lack of successes. Games can get pretty derivative, but even now with the huge budgets, there's still plenty of experimentation going on – comedy, tragedy, suspense, romance, horror, surrealism, it's all been attempted. What I'd like to see (and to work on) is more attempts at telling the story through the gameplay, instead of relying on the old tactic of interrupting the game every so often to advance more of the story.
How does story fit into your development cycle? Does it evolve concurrently with development, is it saved for the end of the cycle when most of the gameplay is in place, or is it conceived at the beginning and treated as unchangeable?
Telltale's core focus is on story-telling games, so we always start with the story and let the gameplay fall from that. On the Sam & Max games, we start with an overall season-long story, and then break that up into the main plot for each episode.
During pre-production on each episode, we get the detailed story and puzzle design for the episode first. Once that's set, the script writing and creation of the new environments happens simultaneously, with the animation shortly after, and then the choreography. And because we're episodic, this is often happening concurrently with the previous or next episode. Nothing is strictly unchangeable, but we try as hard as we can to get the story solid first before any production is started.
What's the difference between story and gameplay?
Ideally, there is no difference. I think that's the biggest hurdle for storytelling games right now, to develop methods for advancing the story through the player's actions. And then, getting those methods to be as straightforward and easy to implement as cutscenes are now.
Where do writers fit in the traditional structure of a development team?
It varies from company to company and even team to team. The Season Two design was already solid by the time I came on board, and much of the first episode's script was already written. So for those I was mostly doing script editing (what they call "punch up" in Hollywood, I think), and the bulk of writing on the second. I got more involved in the design as the season progressed, so it varies even within a series.
Personally, I think it's crucial to have the writer or writers involved in the design process as much as possible and as early as possible. I have a much better idea for why things are happening in the story, and if I can picture how a scene is going to play out, I can suggest aspects of the puzzle design and player's actions that are going to build to that scene. I've read interviews with other game writers who have no interest in game design at all, and they seem to get good results, so I guess it varies from person to person.
What's one game story you admire? Why?
Last year, I was really impressed with Portal and BioShock, because I felt like we were finally seeing big-name titles experimenting with new ways to tell a story. The first reveal of BioShock's big twist was just a brilliant moment, because it threw a new layer of meaning on top of everything I'd done in the game up to that point, and more importantly, it did so without a cutscene or a character explaining to me what had just happened (until I went into the next room, of course).
Portal did an even better job, because it slowly built to that kind of reveal. You see that there's more going on to the test chambers than what you're told from the onset, and they trust you to figure it out for yourself – throughout the first dozen or so levels of the game, they build story and character more from what they don't tell you than what they do.
This discussion has been closed.