Planning the Theme, Storyline and Setting: Storytelling and Narrative

My blog posts slowed a bit, as I was busy with my proposal, but now that's been handed in, so it's time to get stuck into some more research!

Computer games will generally have a story attached to them, of varying depth. Some games, such as Space Invaders, may only have a one-liner to explain the story: "Aliens are invading Earth, and only you can stop them." In these types of games, the story is largely unimportant, as the story has no effect on the gameplay itself; the player's imagination takes care of any narrative needs. On the other end of the spectrum, adventure games such as Grim Fandango and Discworld Noir have engaging storylines that are as complex and meticulous as any novel.

In Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design (2003), Rollings and Adams state that "The use of stories in games is a fundamental part of game design." and that the vast majority of games "are much improved by the addition of a story".

While my dissertation will require me to decide on a storyline for my game, to give it context, I will not go into great detail with it, as creating a full story will take far too long to be part of a dissertation, especially when the story itself is not the main focus of the dissertation. The aim is to pick a section of the story to create the style guide for. The best place to start, is by researching a story pattern called the Hero's Journey.

The Hero's Journey is a pattern that can arguably be observed in many narratives. This pattern was described by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949). The steps in the Hero's Journey are as follows:

• The ordinary world.
• The call to adventure.
• The refusal of the call.
• The meeting with the mentor.
• Crossing the first threshold.
• Tests, allies, and enemies.
• The approach to the innermost cave.
• The ordeal.
• The reward.
• The road back.
• The resurrection.
• The return with the reward.

In some cases, some of the steps would add nothing to the game, so are glossed over. For example, sometimes the player actually wants to be a hero that is ready for anything, so the refusal of the call would not be appropriate. Games don't always have to conform to reality, as long as the game itself is consistent.

In my next blog posts I will explain the steps of the Hero's Journey in more detail.