Tag Archives: narrative

Nov
12
2009

Justifying the Means

[This post contains spoilers as to the entirety of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's plot. I loved Modern Warfare 2 and will write about the brilliant core gameplay, mechanics, and level design in a later piece, but this is not that piece.]
“Two men took down an entire base. I ask much more from you [...]

By Trent Polack | Posted in Game Design, Gaming | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , | View Comments
Sep
08
2009

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is one of those games that does pretty much everything right. It doesn’t take a lot of chances as far as its subject matter or game design go, but developer Naughty Dog nailed all of its elements so well that it’s nigh-impossible not to enjoy it as a whole. It’s one of [...]

By Trent Polack | Posted in Game Design, Gaming | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , | View Comments
Aug
25
2009

Wild Card

That Orson Scott Card did it again with his involvement with Chair Entertainment’s newest game, Shadow Complex. It looks quite astounding, doesn’t it? I can’t wait to play it. That activity is somewhere on my top fifty list of things to do when I move to Austin next week. Anyway, Orson Scott Card is probably [...]

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Jul
28
2009

Lie to Them

Everything I say is a lie.
When we read books, we tend to think that the perspective we’re reading is telling us the truth. It’s not something we ever doubt; we make a subconscious social contract with the work’s narrator: we’re reading through your story because you’re our window into this world. We have no way [...]

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Jul
16
2009

Game Design Round Table 3: Observing Open Worlds

Round Table Topic
When I was coming up with a topic for this round table, I realized that I quickly went back to thinking about all of the games I have been playing over the last few weeks: Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, Red Faction: Guerrilla, Infamous, Prototype, and Skate 2. All of these games have a [...]

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Jul
13
2009

Epic Scale

Narrative is an essential part of any game; I don’t think anyone ever denies that point. Even the most emergent game design has the goal of presenting some sort of narrative to its players. Story sets the stage for meaning (of gameplay). It frames the player’s context for the actions he engages in within a [...]

By Trent Polack | Posted in Game Design, Gaming | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | View Comments
Mar
30
2009

Embrace

“Basically, and I’m speaking to the Blizzard guys in the back: we need to stop writing a fucking book in our game, because nobody wants to read it.” [...] We need to deliver our story in a way that is uniquely video game.
– Jeff Kaplan (Former Director of World of Warcraft) Speaking at the 2009 [...]

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