Last night, I went to watch a talk given by critically-acclaimed sandbox game designer Will Wright, who put forth the opinion that the best stories are those that can be easily deconstructed. Like Legos, you should be able to take parts of a story and put them together in alternate ways, or combine them with different stories. You should be able to answer questions as to whether Darth Vader would win in a fight against Lord Voldemort. In other words, the best stories are those that tend to result in fan fiction.

I found myself unable to disagree more. Whatever happened to “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”? If a story’s parts are easy to separate, then it means that characters must be clear-cut archetypes, often representative of one particular attribute. I don’t enjoy such stories, because I like my main characters to be complex and three-dimensional, like real people are. As many of you no doubt know, my view on concepts such as “good” and “evil” is that they’re relational rather than absolute. Archetypes always tend to act the same all the time, with consistent value judgements applied to such actions. This not only makes for boring storytelling, in my view; it can potentially be harmful as well. Look at some of our world leaders and their polarizing “you’re either with us or against us” rhetoric, for example.

But wait, there's more! »

First off, I’ve written a review of Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure over at Adventure Gamers, which I recommend you all check out. As you can see, I wasn’t all too impressed with the game as a whole, cohesive unit, but I see it as a very important game nevertheless, as it’s the first adventure game ever to feature Wii-exclusive motion sensitive gameplay, and might just be worth checking out just for that reason. I’m being very optimistic and hoping that someday, we might just see games with the same kind of gameplay, but better stories and themes.

Also, some guy decided to interview me, and the eager survey-taking side of me kindly obliged. Yay.

I had a conversation with a friend yesterday about unresolved endings in movies. Having grown up in Canada, I’m quite accustomed to the Western convention of giving stories a clear beginning, middle, and end. However, I’m also half-Persian, and the vast majority of Persian movies I’ve seen have the bizarre tendency of ending right at places where you’d expect some kind of dénouement to occur. This has historically bothered me, but given some time to think about it, there are times when an unresolved ending actually works. If you’re doing a slice of life-type story, which a lot of Persian movies are, it gives you the feeling that life goes on outside of the vignette you get to see in the film. It’s a message that can make a very powerful point, if done well. [1]

But wait, there's more! »

I’ve just uploaded a new version of Chivalry is Not Dead, because a little while ago, a friend of mine managed to find a couple of bugs that none of my beta testers were able to come across.

To be honest, I think this says far more about the nature of the game itself than it does about the people who tested it. It appears that due to the high number of possible options, there are some actions in the game that only one in about twenty or thirty people will actually get around to trying. I think it’s pretty cool, and at the same time, slightly disappointing. There are, after all, a handful of situations I put in that I thought made for really interesting ethical questions which I’m surprised no one has mentioned yet, but it’s also occurred to me that it’s possible for said situations to have been skipped over entirely, simply by virtue of most people not taking the required actions to reach them.

I think I’m starting to understand why a lot of game developers don’t find it worthwhile to include more interactivity in their narratives. Slowly but surely, I’m learning that if you’ve got a message you really want to convey, you’ve got to make sure that your players will see it or some other version thereof, no matter what paths they take. Of course, if you make something hidden deep within the surface, it’ll be an even greater reward for the rare people who do find it. Oh, the tradeoffs…

Completely unrelatedly, I’ve got a new poem up at Scum and Miscellany, called “You Go About Your Business”. I’ll let you figure out for yourselves what it’s all about.

For the three people reading this blog who paid attention to the fact that I’ve become Adventure Developers’s new feature editor, you may or may not have noticed that I’ve already begun using the site as a soapbox for my nefarious agenda. In other words, my first article is now up, and here’s what it proudly proclaims:

“When I discovered the wonderful world of amateur adventure game development, all I wanted to do was make a game that was just like Monkey Island.

“Well, okay, not just like Monkey Island. Unlike a number of people, I had no intention of writing a fan-made sequel or anything silly like that. From the start, I know I wanted to do something of my very own. Something original. But back then, I don’t think I was quite sure what that something was. All I knew was that I wanted to make a game that made me feel the same way as I did when I played Monkey Island.”

Come hither for more…

The blog MusEditions wrote a fascinating little piece about music in computer games, and Cubert and TGTTPOACS are mentioned therein. I tend to agree with the author in that a game’s music is truly a huge factor that increases my immersion therein; perhaps a big reason I really got into LucasArts adventure games in my pre-teens was precisely because they put such emphasis on music to convey atmosphere. I suppose this is why I’m so flattered that someone has said the same about my own games. Although I know I’ll never have the talent and specialized training of Michael Land, Peter McConnell, or even Jared Emerson-Johnson, I do try and make the best effort possible to recreate the same atmospheric effects through music that influenced me in the classic Lucas games. I’m hoping to do this even better in Chivalry; though the music samples are a bit shorter in order to facilitate continuous looping effects (and to save me some time and space), I’ve been playing with a variety of different styles that I think fit well with the fantasy atmosphere. Time will tell if I actually succeed, I suppose.

On another note, I’ve recently been made feature editor at the somewhat dormant yet soon to be revived Adventure Developers. My my, the writing gigs just keep piling up, now don’t they?

The game I’m working on at my summer job has been announced to the public as of last week. Indeed, it’s quite the departure from any game I’ve ever worked on before. Still, it’s been a pretty interesting and educational experience thus far.

I finally played The Shivah a little while ago. Absolutely brilliant. I only hope I’ll have enough talent to make games with that level of writing and attention to moral issues someday. Dave Gilbert is definitely my hero.

They’re making a Neverhood movie. Like, whoa.

And finally, I posted a new poem. It’s the one called “Duty”.

That’s all for now. Thank you and have a nice day.