27th May 2004, 8:02 AM
This is what I love about video games and storylines.
In film the audience sees the action on screen, the actors, the music, the direction, and sets and props. And of course special effects. But all of those things were created in the mind of the writer months or years ago on paper; The entire film, no matter what film you pick, existed in a perfectly edited story as a screenplay.
In video games, there is something called a tech script. Tech scripts are all about character and level designs and gameplay engineering. What does Samus look like while she's in a ball? what do the bombs look like? how do they move? how does gravity effect her? etc. But a tech script very rarely has anything to do with a story. The story comes from the producer and director but only in the most simple sense. "Scenario 4; Link has to get the Iron Boots, so he has to get the hookshot in area 2C and use it in area 23B to enter dungeon 5 where he finds the Iron Boots." etc. To a video game, that's as 'in depth' as the story gets.
Where the real story comes from in a video game is the art department, they sit down and think of all these things presented to them and they are going to decide how the game looks. And in doing so, will present the story with their interpratation.
In Metroid Prime, it was the art department that decided that Space Pirates use a mechanism that is shaped like the depression of their hands in order to activate something. It was also the art department who drew up Flaahgra and why it exists. Meta Ridley and why he exists, Metroid Prime and why she exists. All the scan data in the game comes from the art department, all the tiny tidbits of info about every creature and giant boss was thought up by the art department. The producer, the director and all of the coders usually have no idea what the story is (other than the overall picture) because they work on it a piece at a time, it's up to the art department to make sure all the pieces fit.
When people ask Miyamoto about the Zelda story, it's just like asking any of the actors in a film about the Lighting and Set Decorating, they aren't going to know lighting and set decorating from their ass and a hole in the ground. Talk to Miyamoto about game design and he'll show you his genius, talk to an actor about acting and they'll show you theirs. But if you want to know the story in a film talk to the writer and director. if you want to the story in a video game, talk to the art department because they're the only people who have a clue.
Now there are some video games that have a story from the begining, those are games based off movies or books and those almost always suck... unless there's some bend in the creative writing. In Goldeneye did Bond ever have to rescue hostages on board the frigate? Did he ever infiltrate the train station? There were alot of things he didn't do in the movie that happened in the game, and that's why the game is better than the movie in many ways.
I'd like to see a time where developers spend as much time on the game as they do the story, but then development time would be twice what it is now.
In film the audience sees the action on screen, the actors, the music, the direction, and sets and props. And of course special effects. But all of those things were created in the mind of the writer months or years ago on paper; The entire film, no matter what film you pick, existed in a perfectly edited story as a screenplay.
In video games, there is something called a tech script. Tech scripts are all about character and level designs and gameplay engineering. What does Samus look like while she's in a ball? what do the bombs look like? how do they move? how does gravity effect her? etc. But a tech script very rarely has anything to do with a story. The story comes from the producer and director but only in the most simple sense. "Scenario 4; Link has to get the Iron Boots, so he has to get the hookshot in area 2C and use it in area 23B to enter dungeon 5 where he finds the Iron Boots." etc. To a video game, that's as 'in depth' as the story gets.
Where the real story comes from in a video game is the art department, they sit down and think of all these things presented to them and they are going to decide how the game looks. And in doing so, will present the story with their interpratation.
In Metroid Prime, it was the art department that decided that Space Pirates use a mechanism that is shaped like the depression of their hands in order to activate something. It was also the art department who drew up Flaahgra and why it exists. Meta Ridley and why he exists, Metroid Prime and why she exists. All the scan data in the game comes from the art department, all the tiny tidbits of info about every creature and giant boss was thought up by the art department. The producer, the director and all of the coders usually have no idea what the story is (other than the overall picture) because they work on it a piece at a time, it's up to the art department to make sure all the pieces fit.
When people ask Miyamoto about the Zelda story, it's just like asking any of the actors in a film about the Lighting and Set Decorating, they aren't going to know lighting and set decorating from their ass and a hole in the ground. Talk to Miyamoto about game design and he'll show you his genius, talk to an actor about acting and they'll show you theirs. But if you want to know the story in a film talk to the writer and director. if you want to the story in a video game, talk to the art department because they're the only people who have a clue.
Now there are some video games that have a story from the begining, those are games based off movies or books and those almost always suck... unless there's some bend in the creative writing. In Goldeneye did Bond ever have to rescue hostages on board the frigate? Did he ever infiltrate the train station? There were alot of things he didn't do in the movie that happened in the game, and that's why the game is better than the movie in many ways.
I'd like to see a time where developers spend as much time on the game as they do the story, but then development time would be twice what it is now.