Task 5 – Interactive Story and Writing
strategies
Explain
and use elucidated examples on how interactive story elements are used to help
get the player invested and involved within the game’s story, this should also
include what writing strategies they would of used to create this, do this for
the following areas:
Cinematics (Trailer)
The cinematics of a video game helps in many different ways, within advertising the game itself and getting people excited, hyped up and interesting in the game. Cinematics shows various things in limited forms and amounts, as they give us little snippets of game-play and cut-scenes that are shown in the game, using interesting game-play that can get the player hooked to what they see including things such as unique and original game-play and emotional scenes using quotes that can get the audience interested and make them want to buy and play the game. However, this can be different depending on how the company of the game want the story of the game portrayed within the cut-scene as most of the time, they like to give the audience the small parts of the story that will get them integrated into the story to make them think that the game will reveal more secrets or character connections which creates emotion and gets the player wanting to buy and play the game. Cinematics also include music which suits the theme to spread the emotion that they want the audience to feel about the game whether it be heroic, fast paced, playful, emotional and many more. I think that the music is very important, especially in a trailer as it powers up the vibe that's is given off and it gets us interested in the story that has been shown.
Cut scene
A cut scene shows a moment that is not controlled by the player and shows a scene where characters do something or something happens within a certain environment. A lot of cut-scenes give us information about what to do within game-play, give us emotional feedback between the characters or some cut-scenes can get the player pumped up for game-play such as saving a character from what could be their death. In my opinion, I think that cut-scenes give us feedback that allow us to take in crucial information about the story itself as it practically forces the player to watch as they have no control over the cut-scene to change what the outcome will be. Cut-scenes are usually filled with emotion which lets the player take in mind what they have done through the game-play, what they need to do next and what the have achieved after what they have done.
Triggered Event
A triggered event within a game is something that occurs when the player has done something in the game to trigger an event within the game that couldn't be done before the player has done a certain thing. this happens in many games to make sure that players can't skip to the finish and experience the necessary things within the game that they need the players to see so they know exactly what is happening in the game. This is to direct the story so the player completes the story in order as the pieces of the story are put together in the order it should be in.
Pokemon Red & Blue
Pokemon is a game that mostly always uses triggered events to progress through the game. For example, you can't skip a gym or a city because there is always something stopping you, which means that you can't defeat the elite four and become the champion. A good example of this is in Pokemon Red and Blue when the final gym is located in one of the first cities you enter but you are never allowed to enter the gym because you're not strong enough. Another way that Pokemon uses this is that when you first start the game, you can't leave Pallet town and you are forced to get a starter Pokemon or you can't progress through the game.
Player Control
This is where the player practically chooses what happens within the story and what the outcome will be and how the main character will act. for example, infamous 2 is a good example as there are 2 sides to be chosen between evil and good, which can change game play, outcomes and the powers that the main character possesses. this also means that the other characters within the game will have a different perspective of you meaning that some may like you more and have more respect or some will hate you more and try to kill you/ hunt you down/ side with the villain.
In Infamous 2 - Second Son is a game which also has a future based on what choices the player makes. In the game, there are "good" and "evil" options, which leans you towards a side and will alter what will happen within the game and the superpowers you can gain within the game which is also restricted depending on the choice you make choosing mostly good or evil options. This means that the player will think carefully about the options they make to save characters, make things better
Until Dawn is another game that is controlled by the choices that the player makes. It has the genre of survival horror which is a very effective theme to use where player control is an option as it creates more hype and it makes players think twice about the actions they make
The Walking Dead is a survival and zombie apocalypse themed games which casts of using multiple options that the player can make to change what happens in the story and the way the other characters within the game will think and act with you. This is interesting as the smallest things that may not even seem to matter at all may result in somebody dying or being injured within the future of the game.
Character Customisation
Character Customisation is something that allows the player to personally create their own character whether it be; changing clothing, hairstyle, facial features, height/ width, superpower, strength and much more. This allows the player to change the appearance of character to their personal liking whether they want them to resemble themselves in a game, make them look funny which could include glitchy/ unrealistic tweaks or maybe even a previous character they like from a movie or anime series. Character Customisation is located in games where a story is usually not involved, due to the fact that the character that you have created won't have a specific role or voice to actually communicate and work within a story. This is why we see Character Customisation in games which have multiplayer where dialogue is not required.
The cinematics of a video game helps in many different ways, within advertising the game itself and getting people excited, hyped up and interesting in the game. Cinematics shows various things in limited forms and amounts, as they give us little snippets of game-play and cut-scenes that are shown in the game, using interesting game-play that can get the player hooked to what they see including things such as unique and original game-play and emotional scenes using quotes that can get the audience interested and make them want to buy and play the game. However, this can be different depending on how the company of the game want the story of the game portrayed within the cut-scene as most of the time, they like to give the audience the small parts of the story that will get them integrated into the story to make them think that the game will reveal more secrets or character connections which creates emotion and gets the player wanting to buy and play the game. Cinematics also include music which suits the theme to spread the emotion that they want the audience to feel about the game whether it be heroic, fast paced, playful, emotional and many more. I think that the music is very important, especially in a trailer as it powers up the vibe that's is given off and it gets us interested in the story that has been shown.
Unravel
This is a trailer that shows multiple things that gets the audience interested using the visuals and the music combination, giving us a general base of the story and game mechanics. I really like this trailer because is shows strong emotion and dedication as you can see that the character you play as is trying to make its way back to the owner who created it and you can see how it uses its own body of yearn to get around the environment around it which looks very creative and unique and I am personally interested in this game by watching the trailer as its gave me a brief view of the story which looks very interesting and I would like to play the game to see what dilemmas the story could hold and how the game finishes overall.
Dark Souls 3
In this trailer, we are shown some gameplay footage of your character fighting some enemies and huge bosses. What I love most about this trailer is how the music within it emphisises how deep and dark the game actually is as it shows the raw power that the bosses can possess. It makes the game feel really epic and it makes the person watching want to play it as everything fits together tand the music especially gives us that emotional vibe that players want.
Pokemon Sun and Moon
These trailers show us certain Pokemon, locations and other things that will be included in the game. These trailers are really good as it creates hype for long term Pokemon fans that are excited for the the new release of Sun and moon. These trailers give us features of characters that are going to be in the game, what the environment looks like and also a general back story of where the protagonist is from. In the Japanese trailer, we can see that the main character is supposedly somebody who moved from Japan to Hawaii, which is really good because we have never seen a region of Pokemon that has been based outside of Japan before. We also see things such as how there will be different islands to explore which is something that we haven't seen for a very long time in the Pokemon games which also hypes a lot of the viewers up.
Cut scene
A cut scene shows a moment that is not controlled by the player and shows a scene where characters do something or something happens within a certain environment. A lot of cut-scenes give us information about what to do within game-play, give us emotional feedback between the characters or some cut-scenes can get the player pumped up for game-play such as saving a character from what could be their death. In my opinion, I think that cut-scenes give us feedback that allow us to take in crucial information about the story itself as it practically forces the player to watch as they have no control over the cut-scene to change what the outcome will be. Cut-scenes are usually filled with emotion which lets the player take in mind what they have done through the game-play, what they need to do next and what the have achieved after what they have done.
As you can see, the opening cutscene to this game is extremely emotional as Eren tries to save his mother from collapsed rubble as the Titans have broken the wall and can enter the city. The Titans are destroying the city and eating the people in it and whilst Eren and Mikasa are trying to save their mother, a member of the Survey Corps grabs both of the and takes them to safety. this cutscene portrays emotion perfectly in my opinion as emotional music starts to play and you can hear Eren screaming for his mother and you can see the emotion in his facial expression as he is crying.
This is another cutscene that I think is portrayed really well and I love the whole story behind it. I love this cutscene because it switches it up and uses some rock type music which gives the whole theme of the game a really cool and badass feel to it. I also love the time period that this was set in, as you can clearly see that it was set in the war time looking at the soldiers uniform and the trenches they are located in. In the cutscene, we are given actually quite a lot of information such as the characters names, specific locations in the map, guns that will be available in the map and much more. We can see how they meet eachother and then they are all pointing guns at one another, and then they see Dr. Edward Richtofen, who is experimenting with a zombie which gives us more sign to the backstory of the whole of zombies. After that, they look around and see the zombies and all seem like the are truced.
Triggered Event
A triggered event within a game is something that occurs when the player has done something in the game to trigger an event within the game that couldn't be done before the player has done a certain thing. this happens in many games to make sure that players can't skip to the finish and experience the necessary things within the game that they need the players to see so they know exactly what is happening in the game. This is to direct the story so the player completes the story in order as the pieces of the story are put together in the order it should be in.
Pokemon Red & Blue
Pokemon is a game that mostly always uses triggered events to progress through the game. For example, you can't skip a gym or a city because there is always something stopping you, which means that you can't defeat the elite four and become the champion. A good example of this is in Pokemon Red and Blue when the final gym is located in one of the first cities you enter but you are never allowed to enter the gym because you're not strong enough. Another way that Pokemon uses this is that when you first start the game, you can't leave Pallet town and you are forced to get a starter Pokemon or you can't progress through the game.
Player Control
This is where the player practically chooses what happens within the story and what the outcome will be and how the main character will act. for example, infamous 2 is a good example as there are 2 sides to be chosen between evil and good, which can change game play, outcomes and the powers that the main character possesses. this also means that the other characters within the game will have a different perspective of you meaning that some may like you more and have more respect or some will hate you more and try to kill you/ hunt you down/ side with the villain.
In Infamous 2 - Second Son is a game which also has a future based on what choices the player makes. In the game, there are "good" and "evil" options, which leans you towards a side and will alter what will happen within the game and the superpowers you can gain within the game which is also restricted depending on the choice you make choosing mostly good or evil options. This means that the player will think carefully about the options they make to save characters, make things better
Until Dawn is another game that is controlled by the choices that the player makes. It has the genre of survival horror which is a very effective theme to use where player control is an option as it creates more hype and it makes players think twice about the actions they make
The Walking Dead is a survival and zombie apocalypse themed games which casts of using multiple options that the player can make to change what happens in the story and the way the other characters within the game will think and act with you. This is interesting as the smallest things that may not even seem to matter at all may result in somebody dying or being injured within the future of the game.
Character Customisation
Character Customisation is something that allows the player to personally create their own character whether it be; changing clothing, hairstyle, facial features, height/ width, superpower, strength and much more. This allows the player to change the appearance of character to their personal liking whether they want them to resemble themselves in a game, make them look funny which could include glitchy/ unrealistic tweaks or maybe even a previous character they like from a movie or anime series. Character Customisation is located in games where a story is usually not involved, due to the fact that the character that you have created won't have a specific role or voice to actually communicate and work within a story. This is why we see Character Customisation in games which have multiplayer where dialogue is not required.
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