Understanding Without Reading: Storytelling in Video Games

Understanding Without Reading

Some of us like gigantic blocks of story text such as those found in CRPG titans in the style of Baldur's Gate or Pillars of Eternity. Another loves the famous "holotapes" that tell the player a story while continuing to shoot down aliens in the background. The fine art of game narration, however, is storytelling that does not require a lot of text or language. True to the principle of 'show, don't tell', well-designed games convey their story to the player through sound or creatively designed environments. We take a detour into the subtle story forge of the video game world and clarify the whole thing for you with clear examples.

Table of contents

1 The footsteps of our predecessors: Environmental Storytelling 2 Conversational narratives: Auditory storytelling 3 The Illusion of Free Will: Mechanical Storytelling If you want to deal more intensively with the subject after our crash course, we recommend reading GDC transcripts. The Games Developer Conference takes place annually in San Francisco and offers developers the chance to exchange ideas. You can find the documents on the website www.gdcvault.com, including a clear search mask.

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In the footsteps of our predecessors: Environmental Storytelling

Ashen uses a dynamic soundtrack to tell a story: Depending on the situation, the composition and the rhythm change without changing the song itself. Source: PC Games You wander through a well-kept office after work and pause when you notice a splintered coffee cup in front of you - something is wrong here. In another world, you sneak through the intensive care unit of a hospital; There is blood everywhere and in the background you can hear the soft crying of children from the ventilation shafts. In a third game you cross a ruined castle that still gives an idea of ​​the beauty of days gone by. All three examples have in common that it is the environment that tells a story here, instead of outsourcing the whole thing to letters or cutscenes. Attentive readers have probably already noticed that no game can do completely without environmental storytelling - there are, however, some techniques that improve the gaming experience and the conveyance of the story in equal parts.

When you start your favorite game soon, eight times on the three big criteria that make up good environmental storytelling: a recognizable identity, a well-integrated narrative context and competent telegraphing. From a design point of view, a "strong identity" means that the gaming world must be recognizable as part of a larger whole. In one of our examples, the destroyed intensive care unit is part of the hospital and you as a player automatically start to construct the story in your head: The history of the place, the living conditions on site and the atmosphere are all conveyed in a matter of seconds. Even wacky games such as "Zeno Clash" from 2009 use objects in their fever dream-like environment that we know from real life: A bar is only recognizable as a bar because it contains objects such as a counter, tables and Includes bar stools.

Ambiguous environmental storytelling works when intentionally kept diffuse. Dark Souls inspires a generation of game historians.

Source: PC Games If everything cannot be clearly interpreted immediately, it doesn't have to be a bad thing. This is where the narrative context comes into play: Dark Souls from 2011 conveys a clear mood with its level and creature design - however, due to the often unclear clues in the area, players came to very different conclusions. It wasn't until much later that "games archaeologists" were able to put the entire story together, which perfectly matches the mysterious atmosphere of the game. Anyone who gives their player the opportunity to discover the story themselves through the level design and the clues scattered around the area kills two birds with one stone: He increases the player's engagement and gives him the feeling of not being "held by the hand" "to become.

A third technique is the so-called" telegraphing ", which prepares the player for an upcoming gameplay segment by means of hints in the area. This includes things like an NPC companion running into a minefield or a body that is halfway in a river of acid. In both cases the player knows "Aha, from now on I have to face these obstacles." Anyone who sees a Necromorph crawling out of a ventilation shaft in Dead Space from 2011 will see ventilation shafts with different eyes from this moment on. In a brilliant moment, Isaac is even attacked by a specially created Necromorph while he is standing at a crafting station. The whole thing will never happen again - so the telegraph is lying in this case! In this way, however, it plays with the fears of the player and tells them, "You are not safe here. Not in the menu and not during crafting." You learn things about your surroundings, the conditions and the dangers on the ship without someone having to say in a holotape in a shaky voice "This spaceship is extremely dangerous!"

The sound design of Hunt: Showdown is like this closely interwoven with the gameplay that naturally creates a dark mood. The sound creates a larger part of the setting here than the graphic assets.

Source: PC Games In addition to the colossus of environmental storytelling, there is also the often underestimated auditory storytelling. This does not mean that the player just "gets told" the story. Instead, the mood of the game, the character of NPCs or emotions are conveyed through subtle sound effects. On the one hand, this can be the binaural audio in Hunt: Showdown from 2018: Thanks to a special sound technology, every sound in the PvPvE Battleroyal was recorded with extremely high directional precision. This not only allows you to locate your teammates very precisely - the atmosphere is also much more tense. In the swamps of Louisiana you just wait for a smack, the clink of chains or the quiet click of a loading mechanism and images of the enemy's hiding place explode in your head. The setting and the sound mechanics work hand in hand here.

Conversation-free narratives: auditory storytelling

In Pneuma you play the eponymous protagonist - until it becomes clear that your hero does not particularly appreciate that you control his actions. The following scramble for control is a great example of mechanical storytelling. Source: PC Games In addition to the colossus of environmental storytelling, there is also the often underestimated auditory storytelling. This does not mean that the player just "gets told" the story. Instead, the mood of the game, the character of NPCs or emotions are conveyed through subtle sound effects. On the one hand, this can be the binaural audio in Hunt: Showdown from 2018: Thanks to special sound technology, every sound in the PvPvE Battleroyal was recorded with extremely high directional precision. This not only allows you to locate your teammates very precisely - the atmosphere also becomes much more tense. In the swamps of Louisiana you just wait for a smack, the clink of chains or the quiet click of a loading mechanism and images of the enemy's hiding place explode in your head. The setting and the sound mechanics work hand in hand here.

On the other hand, auditory storytelling can also produce calm, emotional moments, for example in the game Ashen from the same year. In the Soulslike the player builds a refuge in which different NPCs find shelter. Each of the characters adds a new note and a different instrument to the background music: If you talk to the strong but sad blacksmith, you will hear how deep, bass-heavy string instruments slowly creep into the music, while the mysterious priestess of the melody in her environment sounds bright harp adds. Fights suddenly add rolling drums to the melody. A dynamic sound design that is interwoven with the gameplay enables the game to convey a suitable atmosphere even in very technical moments.

The illusion of free will: Mechanical storytelling

No matter how deformed the guests Or how crazy the surroundings: Objects that you recognize from real life make even the bar in Zeno Clash clearly identifiable.

(1) Source: PC Games The last category is the most interesting and at the same time the most difficult: With the help of mechanical storytelling, the game communicates directly with you, the player. The battle notion of "player agency" or "playful self-determination", which is so often used in development, comes into its own here. What better way to portray the helplessness of the main character than to deprive the player of their freedom of movement? Used incorrectly, the whole thing seems to be trying very hard - torture scenes in which the player can only helplessly watch the action are not mechanical storytelling, but a classic cutscene.

A good example of mechanical storytelling is provided by SUPERHOT VR the year 2016. At the beginning you will be asked to "prove your loyalty". You stand in an empty white room, only a pistol hovers in the air in front of you. You can surely guess what your mysterious masters want of you. The VR environment actually makes it physically uncomfortable to pick up the gun and point it at your own head. The setting and the mood of the game were clearly conveyed in this two-second sequence. In the puzzle game Pneuma from 2015, you wake up as an ignorant protagonist in a world reminiscent of the Greek Olympus.

Accordingly, the hero assumes that he must be a god - until he realizes that he is from you are controlled. Shortly afterwards he begins to fight against your control by bracing himself against the camera or trying to ignore your "orders". The character's begging and screaming would only be half as effective if they weren't actively struggling with you for control of their own body.

Clearly: In this short introduction we only have the surface of the video game version of the "Show." , don't tell "broached. We are already very excited about your favorite examples of creative storytelling! And don't forget: If you can show something instead of just telling it, you have almost won as a designer.