.png)
Books and Comics- Research
On the topic of books and games, narrative would be a clear aspect to cover, starting with the insurgence and popularity of episodic titles, a road paved by Tell Tale Games. They offer a few hours of gameplay and are usually heavily narrative focused, often with choices to make that effect the story later, Life Is Strange as an example. Narrative and story telling are arguably more important in these kind of games than gameplay, with a focus on good writing, multiple story arcs, character development and relatability. All covered in another Gamasutra article, written by Pascal Luben, its stated that its in fact the audience themselves that drive central writing decisions, a secondary character can easily become a main one if the audience's reception is largely positive, script writers follow the reaction of their audience and write accordingly, comparable with the penny dreadfuls of Charles Dickens. The game Virtues Last Reward is much like a playable graphic novel, it having many chapters and storylines and cliffhangers that have you feeling differently about characters, each timeline in the game comparable to an episode.
Harry Potter: Book of Spells came with a peripheral entitled the Wonderbook, that heavily focused on AR and allowed players to interact with visuals coming from the book and learn magic spells, an extension of the famous book series and a sort of digital toy. Similarly, the game Ni No Kuni originally for the DS came with a book called The Wizards Companion, the PS3 port came with a book too but it was purely for a collector's sake, the DS version contained runes and patterns that taught the players what to draw on the screen for each spell, for certain spells a connect the dot puzzle and other such physical puzzles had to be solved for use in the game. It also offered crucial clues and had a bestiary, it was a companion to the game that could be played without it.
Ancient tales such as Dante's Inferno are re-imagined, becoming a hack and slash romp through the circles of hell complete with action game staples like combos and quick time events. Similarly, American Mcgee's Alice is a dark a gothic twist on the original text, featuring demons and grotesque sights peppered with the absurdities of the original text, playable as a 3D platforming adventure game. The Witcher series of games actually stem from Andrzej Sapkowski's series of novels, life breathed into his text through games. As there are games based on Novels, there are now novels based on games, a long list of Assassin's Creed books can be found among others.
A strange old game for the PS1 is Parasite Eve, an early age action RPG that serves as a sequel to a book with the same name by Hideaki Sena, that was also developed into a film and manga. Its a sci-fi horror story about our own genes being sentient and turning on us, led by some creature known as Eve, the game continues where the book left off, a form of transmedia storytelling, the later games following the Manga series. Due to the limitations of the PS1, dialogue was written not spoken, words being capitalised for drama and emphasis. Virtual books and texts within games serve to push narrative should players choose to engage with them, RPGs like The Last Story featuring a Library you can go to to read about the lore of the world, Metroid Prime having a scanning system, allowing the player to read thousands of lines of text about creatures, the game world and its cultures should a player choose to.
The game company Cing, bankrupt in 2010, created many novella like games, rich in story and character, and they unfolded much like a mystery novel. Vice President at Cing Rika Suzuki fondly remembers their partnership with Nintendo who championed narrative led gaming. The games were very puzzle focused and had players mentally breaking the 4th wall multiple times, Another Code for the DS featured a puzzle that could only be solved by half closing the DS itself to see a reflection, the Hotel Dusk games had the console held on its side, much like an actual book. Cing made "mysteries out of mundane occurrences and complex human portraits" where other games that attempt mystery may feel rushed and have archetypes- "dolls without cohesive motives". Cing "spun novella-length yarns out of theirs casts" and the game Hotel Dusk featured rotoscoped sketches to animate the characters in a bewitching way. Quotes and info taken from Stephen Turner's article on Destructoid.
Spec Ops the Line, breaks the 4th wall consistently and parodies the nature of shooting games, mechanics echoing PTSD, it also takes the premise of Joseph Conrad's novella, Heart of Darkness. However instead of the Congo, the game takes place in sand swept Dubai. This Spec Ops info was taken from Chloi Rad's article on IGN. An obscure title known as The Dark Eye was playable on the PC in the 90s, it was a strange mashup of lowres environments, claymation and spoken dialogue, following the stories of Edgar Allen Poe, the visuals eerily lending themselves to the narrative.
Comic book heroes are widely seen in games, be it movie liscensed, the Batman Arkham Asylum games, the Lego games or even in a specialised version of the game Scribblenauts: Unmasked, liscensed and featuring many iconic characters. Fighting games create worlds where these characters can enter exciting and action packed scenarios reflecting the original media, Marvel vs Capcom and Injustice Gods Among Us being prime examples. The Borderland series features a strong aesthetic resemblant of older comic books, with strong black outlines and vivid colours. The DS "bullet hell"title Big Bang Mini featured a world based on New York and comic book iconography, the bullets being onomatopoeia, the player avoiding all manner of "BOOM" and "ZAM".
Games pushing narrative, offering a more tangible story than books can through visuals and interaction, books as tools to be used in games and games that bring older tales to newer, contemporary audiences. Episodic titles and interaction with audiences are key points to perhaps develop.
0 comments: