Category: Storytelling
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I’m thinking of a number between 1 and You’re Dumb
Since this is about adventure games, I feel like I should make my usual disclaimer explicit: this is a personal blog, I don’t speak for my company, and vice-versa. Any opinions I spew out here are not necessarily my coworkers’; in fact, when somebody at work tells me, “I read your blog,” it’s most often…
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Who’s in control here?
That’s Alexander Haig. Look him up. Also: This post has spoilers for BioShock and Grand Theft Auto IV, in case you’re paranoid about that kind of thing. Previously on Spectre Collie, I made the claim that videogame developers can learn more from “non-interactive” media than just how to make more cinematic cut-scenes and more literary…
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The Calls Are Coming From Within the Ice Level!
Previously on Spectre Collie, I made the claim that storytelling in “passive” media like books and movies isn’t as passive as people like to think. A well-told story demands that the audience stay actively engaged in the telling, processing what’s come so far and anticipating what happens next. The interesting thing is: this is so…
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There’s no second chance to make a first impression
Update 2/22/2021: Removed broken links and images Previously on Spectre Collie: about once a month I’ve been squeezing out a lengthy treatise intended to debunk some “myth” about storytelling in videogames. I’m still headed towards making a point with those, more or less, eventually. But they take a long time to write, and sometimes it’s…
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There is no places for writers in the games industry.
Last week there was a bit of fallout on the internets from an article titled “The Case Against Writers in the Games Industry”. It was by a game designer named Adam Maxwell, and it basically makes the claim that having a dedicated writer on a development team is a waste; it’s always better to have…
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The Old Man and the Realistically Rendered Water Volume
I’m just arrogant enough that I tend to automatically dismiss anything presented as a list of rules or guidelines about writing. There’s obviously a ton of craft involved in writing, independent of any concerns about talent or personal style. But attempts to codify it are always either too vague to be practically useful, or too…
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Ready… Be fought against!
Previously on Spectre Collie, I got alarmed at what I saw as the rising sentiment against storytelling in videogames. The people on the message boards and blog comments kept saying that storytelling and interactivity are mutually exclusive, that story-based games aren’t games at all! And notable people like Will Wright were making proclamations that the…
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Pro Choice
It’s nice to get a day off, because it’s a hell of a lot easier to sit in front of a blog editor and pontificate about how games should be made than it is to actually make a game. (Even one that’s already been plotted out and designed for you, and you just have to…
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Steady now, your genetic code is being rewritten.
The Xbox 360 demo for BioShock came out last night (a PC demo is in the works), and I tried it out for a little less than an hour. Key discoveries: It’s awesome. It looks like it may be able to live up to most of the hype it’s been getting. They weren’t lying when…
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You’ve unlocked… Rosebud!
When I started writing about storytelling in videogames almost a month ago, I’d intended to turn it into a series, with more arguments and maybe even some examples more concrete than “videogame stories should be good.” To keep things going, I’ll take some of the comments I’ve read about the topic online (in blogs, articles,…
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Is there anybody going to listen to my story?
There’s been quite a bit written on the internets lately about writing and storytelling in videogames, and frankly, I’m relieved. I was starting to get concerned that everybody had just given up. People have been bitching for years about how the writing in videogames sucks. Long cut-scenes suck. And nobody cares about that stuff anyway,…