10 Reasons Video Games Are The Hardest Thing To Write
3. Story VS Exposition
We may, finally, be coming to the end of a Dark Age in video games that period in history where people tried to weave basic tutorial instructions into the plot. For a while it seemed that every grizzled soldier or up-and-coming ninja started the day with their superiors putting them through some sort of initiation ritual or combat readiness training that involved walking, pressing buttons and jumping over a bunch of barrels. Its not just laborious gameplay, its a terrible opening to a story that youd promised was going to be an exciting action-adventure. Fortunately, game designers have wised up to this while games still have tutorials, they tend to be tightly-guarded rollercoasters (making your way through an exploding base or ship is a favourite) where dialogue is used to set up the plot rather than teach you the buttons. Its still exposition, but the narrative doesnt get bogged down by instructions. Sadly, the rest of the game normally doesnt get off so easily. Part of what makes game dialogue so clunky and unconvincing is that its riddled with all the exposition that plagues film and TV, but games need to go one step further they dont just have to tell the audience whats happening, they have to tell them what needs to happen next and how to go about doing it. Its as if Jack Bauers mission briefings had to be both gripping drama AND a fool-proof method for the audience to assemble a set of shelves. Clever game design can give players the thrill of working out solutions without exposition, just like we get a thrill when a hero gets themselves out of trouble in a way we werent expecting. It not only makes the player feel smarter, it allows the writer to concentrate on the plot and not the instructions. Rest in peace, tutorial boot camp, you wont be missed.
