The Game Makers: Inside Story

How do creators approach story in video games today? This episode explores how a recent movement in narrative-driven games has been down to an accumulation of new technologies, new voices and a rising demand within the market.

The process of writing in pre-production and production usually sees a story evolve and change to dovetail and complement the game design and vice versa. Many times, a game creator or a studio will spend months testing an idea through prototyping before the game is greenlit.

Creating lasting characters that emotionally connect with audiences is one of the most difficult challenges for a games creator. As players have the unique role of being the character themselves, often times the creators look to crafting surprising conflicts, memorable arcs, richer backstories and gameplay scenarios to immerse players emotionally into the game.

Game creators working on story-driven games will look to juggle immersive gameplay, story beats, player agency and playtest feedback. As the player is the priority, it is a fine balance of allowing the player to explore the world as they like, and yet be able to discover and connect with these story moments seamlessly themselves.

Game creators have to decide how to structure their game to provide the best player experience and also consider what the publishing schedule will allow. While linear storytelling is still the favorite means, more and more creators are choosing non-linear, open world and episodic stories to deliver the experience.

Preparing and directing actors for cutscenes is a crucial part of cinematic games, but performance and motion capture poses its own challenges to game directors and their team.

Environmental story is what makes a game different from creating stories for TV or Film because the game creator and team have to design and program the world from scratch. Once the environment is built, the team then has to decide what is the most effective way to reveal story to the audience?

Our luminaries talk extensively to the current challenges of immersive storytelling in virtual and augmented reality experiences. What they thought would be an easy transition onto another platform has proven to be more difficult and bear different rules of storytelling altogether.

Stories in video games are capable of moving audiences in unexpected ways. This episode examines how developers interweave themes in their video game for deeper resonance.

Our game luminaries deliberate and share their thoughts on what's next in creating the next evolution of stories for the interactive entertainment industry.