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Story and Games, A Marriage Made in Code
By Corvus | March 13, 2007
For those new readers who haven’t heard me say this a thousand times, I consider games to be a narrative form. Like Tetris, they may not have a plot or, like Final Fantasy: Ad Naseum, they may be almost nothing but plot. Many people nod sagely when I make this claim and point out games which contain massive amounts of writing, like Ultima or Fallout. I’m not referring to traditional linear narratives when I make this claim, though. I’m not even referring to the branching narratives of those games. I’m referring to the gameplay itself. The gameplay is a narrative form.
My point is that game design has a grammar, just like every expressive medium which has preceded it. A grammar which is fluctuating and growing rapidly, a grammar which isn’t set in stone, a grammar which isn’t codified by Strunk & White, but a grammar none-the-less. Like any language, there are dialects which vary, often wildly, from region to region. Like any language, there are innovative authors push the boundaries and forge new territory, set new precedents. Like any language, we have poets who creatively interpret or ignore the established rules to make a point and wags who create humorous twists on established rules to maximize the comedic impact of a phrase.
And, and if gameplay itself is a narrative form, that means that games are capable of transmitting story. I’m not talking about plot here, but story. I’m not talking about some sequence of events cooked up by an author, but that emotionally impactfull experience which happens when your individual and unique life experience finds small mirrors within a narrative which makes it sparkle and shed new light on your life path. In other words, I’m not talking about the design/plot/mind, or the golem/narrative/body, but that which brings the whole creation to life, the magic/story/spirit.
I have yet to see a game that proves this theory more perfectly than Rod Humble’s The Marriage. Now, Rod has worked on a couple of games you’ve probably heard of, such as Nomad and Toonstruck, as well as a couple you may not have, such as Star Wars Galaxies and some games in series called Everquest and Sims 2 (although I understand some of those titles have done pretty well for themselves).
But where Rod really excels, in my opinion, is in the work he does when he’s at home. Accepting the challenge to produce games which qualify as art, Rod has designed an expressive piece I saw in action at a GDC panel this year. I’ll let Raph describe it for you with some text I ripped from his report on the panel in question (link):
He showed two games — and one of them, The Marriage, can only be called art. Picture a field with a blue square and a pink square. They are bouncing around the screen very slowly. They represent the husband and the wife. They fade out of the relationship if they do not see enough of each other — via touching. Each square changes size based on the “ego” of the person in the relationship. Things are bouncing around the screen that raise and lower ego — the husband who collides with a problem and solves it boosts his own ego, but might reduce that of the wife, and so on. If one’s ego gets too large, then the blocks cannot connect well — “kiss” as Rod calls it. One block subsumed inside the other is a bad thing. Lose all ego or fade out and the marriage ends. But if you stay together, then eventually you die — and are left with memories.
Did I mention that basically you have one control? All you can do is mouse over the husband or the wife in order to send them towards each other, because love is the only control you have.
It’s hard to describe what it felt like to play this game. It wasn’t what you would call fun. But it really made you think.
He did report that his wife didn’t like the rules.
To clarify, events external to the marriage are depicted as small disks of three colors which enter the field. Rod called these disks “events” and refused (quite rightly) to clarify much further. Each disk caused slightly different effects on the egos, with black disks clearly having an adverse effect. Beside mousing over the egos to send them toward each other, you could also mouse-over the disks and remove them before they impacted an ego.
Rod said that his design goal was to only represent things which couldn’t be better depicted with better graphics and didn’t reflect actual movement in physical space. As such, every single element of The Marriage, from the art assets (circles and squares) to object behaviors, is a metaphor, including the stage which changes colors for each phase of the relationship. The result was exactly the sort of thing I’ve been on about — a narrative with the metaphoric hooks needed to provide the audience a place to hang their own story.
Of course, even with a desire to provide a purely metaphoric experience to the audience, with little-to-no authoritative influence, Rod’s belief structure is clearly evident. Happy events and in-balance egos do not result in a longer life, for example, because as he said, “you have no control over the length of your life.” Now, my world view allows for happiness to positively influence your health, which can lengthen your life. His doesn’t and that’s fine. What interests me (and what may result in more posts) is how that little disparity bothers me! Regardless, I loved The Marriage and can’t wait to see what Rod brings to next years GDC.
Interestingly, there was someone in the audience, obviously on a coding track (I hope), who simply didn’t get it. Rod was reluctant to concretely define what was happening on the screen, but this young man practically demanded a codified definition for every behavior and design decision. Clearly, this storytelling track I’m on may leave some people a bit cold, or confused. I wonder if my ultimately dense system will provide enough appeal in the long run? It’s something I’ll be keeping an eye on. I don’t know that I need (or even want) to appeal to a broad demographic, but the more temperaments and mind sets I can appeal to, the happier our bottom line will be.
Tagged:Design, storytelling. |
March 13th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
Can we download ‘The Marriage’ from anywhere?
Oh, and when is ‘Final Fantasy: Ad Nauseum’ out - I just can’t wait! (Even though I’ve never played one before…)
March 13th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
I can’t find links directly to any media for it, much less a download link.
*tuop*
March 14th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
It’s nice to hear you explain your ideas with an example. Sometimes I’m not sure I get exactly what you mean.
What I’m wondering about is: Doesn’t the title and the explanation of the game metaphors provide a similar amount of authorial control as many other games? Why would you say there was “little-to-no authoritative influence?” After all, the game is about something, and that something is made quite clear by the author. He didn’t say, “Here is my game - I call it Disks. Have fun.” If he had then the experience would probably be quite different. Likewise if the game were called “Whale Hunting.” I think about those early games, say, Adventure on the 2600 - “Here is the brave explorer and here is the dragon. Interact, imagine. No, it doesn’t look like what we say, just picture it.” This isn’t to denigrate abstraction in the least, only to say that I don’t really see a divide at all, more like a continuum.
So I’m probably really wrong about this, but I kind of imagine a basic grammar level, something like the verb model. Then on top of that a metaphorical level, what could be called the theme (even text-heavy, strictly-plotted games have this level, in the sense that no matter how realistic the graphics the game itself is metaphor - the game is “like” something familiar but isn’t, the best combat engines are still abstracted out and the craziest ones a la God of War are cartoonish; But also in the sense that our interaction gives at least a little authority back to the player to construct their own metaphors, no matter how slight). In something like The Marriage this metaphorical control is greater than Final Fantasy The Clone Wars Adventure of Doom Return, but both titles retain this function. Some games never go past this point (I’m thinking of Flow).
But then there’s what would be called plot, branching or linear. It’s odd how many people think of games at this level when the essential components of a game are from the levels beneath this one (this one not being necessary at all).
Maybe I’ll turn this into my own post. I’m still trying to get a handle on this narrative of gaming that you mention. It seems like it’s going to be central to the Honeycomb Engine.
Thanks for the GDC info. Lucky. Maybe I’ll make it some year.
March 14th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
I should clarify that Rod seemed pretty uncomfortable explaining any of the metaphors and the readme file which he included with the game contained no detailed explanation of the metaphor. Since we were getting a behind the scenes view, as it were, he opened up a bit… but reluctantly. His intent was to only provide the framework and let you make your own assumptions.
Otherwise, you’re pretty spot on. It is a continuum from authoritative control to audience control. It’s a small step from that thought to the idea that gameplay as narrative isn’t something that will be unique to the HoneyComb Engine. It’s more a way of looking at gameplay from a storytelling standpoint. Games exist on a spectrum from deep integration of gameplay in plot to complete isolation of gameplay from plot. Of course, the fact that I look at gameplay as narrative is bound to be obvious. It’s not going to be as abstract as The Marriage, but it’s certainly going to be a less plot centric design than most RP engines.
March 15th, 2007 at 2:30 am
I would like to thank you for your kind comments on the game. When you do something that is easily open to misunderstanding or ridicule every positive encouragement and clear understanding of what you were attempting is very much appreciated.
For those interested I will be making the game available for public download in the next couple of weeks. I will email Corvus and others with the download location when I do.
All the best,
Rod
March 15th, 2007 at 8:21 am
Thanks, Rod! I look forward to getting a chance to get The Marriage running under WINE and pointing my readers to a download link.
March 17th, 2007 at 9:51 am
[...] The Marriage during the EGS and Nuances of Game Design session (you can check out a coverage in Man Bytes Blog). It’s a game about the abstracted dynamics of a married couple and the lifetime evolution of [...]
March 24th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
[...] imaginations of at least half a dozen bloggers ( Arthouse Games, Joystiq, Indygamer, TIG Source, Man Bytes Blog, Raph Koster, Jonathan Blow ). Probably precisely because of its explicit purpose of trying to [...]
March 25th, 2007 at 10:12 am
Be sure to visit my post on where The Marriage doesn’t succeed as well (link)!