Mechanics and Tone - How Does Gameplay Relate to Story? - Extra Credits

Game mechanics often come "first" in the development phase, with a narrative being tacked on later. But when game mechanics become separated from story, the disjunct makes for a bad experience as players become impatient or disinterested. However many of the best games, from Shadow of the Colossus to Dark Souls, have mechanics that enhance the mood created by the story and the characters, and visa versa. Achieving that synthesis is key to the field of narrative design in video games.
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♪ Intro Music: "Penguin Cap" by CarboHydroM

♪ Outro Music: "Chrono Trigger Title/Main Theme" by Super Guitar Bros.

[Blacknight]

I'm strangely okay with the idea of _Kirby's Epic Souls_...

[iraniche]

Mechanics interacting with tone is like Special effects in movies. You only notice it if it doesnt work

[LaZodiac]

While this is all true, I feel like, as you mention with the "pop song over a tragedy" comment, it's possible to use this dissonance to your advantage. I can't exactly think of any games that intentionally have it's mechanics fight against it's story to give a greater sense of understanding ABOUT the story mind you, but I'm sure you guys can because you're smart at this stuff.

[sabatheus]

3:03 I dub thee, "Sir Rat".

[OmegaLittleBob]

Love the episode. Though I actually thought the mechanics of Infinite fit the story really well. I thought the whole theme of Columbia was that it was pretending to be more advanced and more civilized then the people on the earth below them, but just beneath the surface they were just as, if not more violent and sadistic then the mutants in Rapture. Kind of like a metaphor for how some people hide their true nature beneath a false colorful exterior.

[MCCanaryVideos]

So many people missing the point.  While I feel like EC could have done better explaining, it, I'm glad they have brought this up at all.  I do agree they should have been more analytical about it, rather than skeptical, because the truth is, the goal to getting good narrative in games is to have your gameplay reflect your narrative.  Now, that does not mean that every game needs to have a narrative, but if we look back and really think about how things like Dark Souls, Paper's Please, Spec Ops the Line, Thomas was Alone, Shadows of the Colosssus, and Journey and why these games reflect great story telling, it is because they use their gameplay to reflect and tell their narratives directly.  The narrative that is happening happens with you play, your gameplay doesn't just dictate the story, is is reflective of it.

Now, a lot of people will think, "Well then why add cutscenes then?" Having games with mechanics that directly reflect narrative doesn't mean "No more cutscenes", it means make cutscenes that reflect the game you are playing.  For an example of this, let's look at the TF2 videos (except the most recent one, everything up to Expiration Date I believe).  I'm using this as an example because it is how you can use things like cutscenes to build a believable narrative about your game.  Whenever Valve releases a TF2 video, they go through so much effort to make the characters act the same way they would in the game.  Why is this?  Well, if the first thing you thought of was, "Well, why wouldn't they, the only time we see them is in game", that is exactly the point.  When you have your characterization reflective both in and out of the game, you build a more solid character, as well as a more solid world.  The rules don't change when you are suddenly thrust into a cutscene, because the cutscene reflects the gameplay, and vice versa. 

People need to understand that having more people willing to talk about how the game play felt is not a bad thing.  The gameplay is not separate from the narrative, just how the cinematography is not separate from the script of a movie.  What makes a game good at narrative is when it's developers realize that everything, the gameplay, music, artstyle, writing, everything have to work together to for a single experience.  If one is out of sync with the other, the experience as a whole will suffer, and while it wouldn't necessarily mean that the game would be bad, it certainly would be better if these aspects are all worked toward a single minded goal, creating an experience.

Games, just like movies, music, visual arts, and anything that use crativity have no "right state".  Just as Georgio said for Daft Punk in thier latest album: "Once you've freed your mind about a concept of harmony and music being correct, you can do whatever you want. So nobody told me what to do, and there was no preconception of what to do, " games and any media for that matter can become anything people want them to be.  We need to stop think of what makes games defined as "games", and start thinking what games can become.  It is only then will we see a radiation in games and game concepts as being literal masterpieces.   And I think we are starting to see that today with much of the Indie crowd, and games like "Shadows of Mordor" and "Alien: Isolation" being made. 

We have games that have great narratives.  You just have to be willing to say, "I want more of this", rather than buying the latest Assassin's Creed or Call of Duty.

[Danmarinja]

Here's something that I want to know; how is it, then, that so many modern 2D platformers tend to have a light-hearted story, with bright and colourful visuals, but yet have a hideously jarring difficulty level? Like, I wanna be the guy, but yet we don't call them out for it? We just say it's just a contrast or whatever, but it's like that pop song playing over the tragedy, where it doesn't fit the tone of the game. Why is that?

[CoopCheese]

I would love to play as Kirby in Dark Souls... it would be amazing

[CappuccinoGuil]

Alright, I wanna share with you guys something that happened recently at a meeting with my groupmates:

We were going over the game document and getting everyone's input on what was written. When we got to the "resources" section, one of the members pointed out that placing the torch on the player's left hand wasn't gonna work and that we should have it go on their right hand. I raised an eyebrow at that. Most RPGs I know have players carry a torch on their left hand and I would have it on that hand as well, considering I'm right-handed. "Yeah, that makes sense, but isn't the left hand the one that carries the shield?" he asked. Sure thing, he was right. Left is for shields, right is for weapons. And then it hit me what his point was: the torch can be used as a weapon that can even set enemies on fire under the right conditions. With the torch on his left hand and a weapon on his right, he would be twice as powerful and that didn't fit our Horror game. However, sacrificing his weapon so he could have more light? That's a mechanical decision he has to make that puts him in the defensive.

Kinda proud of that guy for noticing we were making a decision that'd set the player up with the wrong idea for the game :)

[lleon]

You are right in so many levels, unfortunately, many childish people don't recognize videogames as a narrative medium, and don't appreciate the capabilities of telling a story through gameplay. They just want to have fun; they don't want to feel strong emotions, or to get involved in social commentary "because that is not what games are for". Keep doing this videos, just don't expect people to get them.

[CazMeister]

This video pretty much summarizes one of the main reasons why I enjoy the Fire Emblem series:  Their ability to marry its mechanics and narrative.  In particular, their ability to get the player invested in the fights that take place with the individual characters and their own stories.  Each of the games (the localized ones, at least) have some form of support where the characters interact with each other and form bonds.  These bonds, in return, help a given unit in each battle (in the case of Awakening, they may even prevent a lethal blow or add an additional support attack) and simultaneously makes the player more invested in the ongoing narrative and encourage them to utilize careful tactics when utilizing for their favorite characters.  Since each character, as a unit, is unique and cannot be used if they die, the consequence of death is reinforced through the mechanics and story, as not only will their support be removed from fellow comrades, but they will no longer be unusable to you during the game's campaign.

[TheUnspokenKibbles]

I agree. My strongest, most resonant experiences in gaming have been when the mechanics and story (or atmosphere, in some cases, especially when the story was on the vaguer side, e.g. Dark Souls) were the most strongly aligned. What's more, this phenomenon has the power to tell stories that simply couldn't be told any other way or bring new life into stories we've heard before. I can think of a couple of notable examples for the second point- Gone Home, for one, which if anyone hasn't played at this point you really need to. Spec Ops: The Line is another good one- War Is Hell is a story that's been done to death, but Spec Ops' approach and the way it uses its mechanics makes it feel almost completely new.

[clag]

Dark Souls practically does have Zelda combat, just different controls.

[jondoe]

".. like a pop song playing over a tragedy."
Oooh whatcha saaaay~.

[redcurry]

I think a lot of the stuff discussed on this channel sums up what I could've never put into words about why I loved Okami so much. The way you interact with the world and engage in combat, as well as the stylized art of the world meshes so beautifully with the story and the idea behind the main character.

[CynicatPro]

i love you guys EC. but this pair of videos i think is really short-sighted. I'm a video game writer. when i say that i'm not talking about most writers where they are here because they like games and also like writing. i LOVE telling stories using mechanics. not with the mechanics as an assistive agent but as the core of the story.

One thing that has bothered me a TON in games writing is that alot of the writers have no clue how to use games properly. Example: in film there is the phrase "Show don't tell." and this gets applied to games. however games aren't film or books. i use the phrase "Do don't show." anything you DO in a game is going to be far more gripping than something you are shown.

[dishonored spoilers ahead]

dishonored: high chaos path is way more personal that the low chaos one.
high chaos you have killed so many people that when certain plot elements happen they feel like responses to your actions. in the low chaos it seems like stuff just 'happens' because its part of the plot. way less gripping. i nearly cried near the end of my first play through of dishonored(I'm not a weepy person). i was so frustrated that i had cornered myself into this chain of events. i was so immersed in the world because everything matched what i had done up to that point. so by the end i was left with the best choice being to kill the one person i had been trying to save. and the thought that it was my violence that had caused her to become that monster. compare to the light ending which really didn't grip me at all other than giving me more lore about the world.

[Minor bioshock inf spoilers ahead]

in bioshock infinite when you have to choose who to hit with the baseball at the beginning is such a powerful moment. but why? because its a genuine decision. not a multiple choice question. compare with when Elizabeth stabs the resistance leader. i was FAR more tense when asked to hit a black family with a baseball then when i was shown the girl I'm supposed to be protecting stab someone to death.

games are interactive entertainment and that means using that interactivity in your story. not just being a movie with certain interactive scenes.

[jimmyc.]

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones combined its story with its mechanics and a pretty unique (and amazing) way. I remember the anticipation of seeing Ephraim and Eirika on opposite sides of a room and waiting to make it through enough of the gameplay until they were reunited. It really made me feel like a part of the story.

[InMaTeofDeath]

The best example I can think of where the gameplay fit the narrative was Brothers a tale of two sons, I won't go into detail as to why as that would be major spoilers but holy shit that left a lasting impact after you were done.

[HatofMuffin]

I think as a rule of thumb, the mechanics work well with the story being told if the mechanics and challenges of the game evoke the same kind of emotions/ reactions in the player as the character they're playing as in the story (like the pressure of multitasking in FTL, or the terror of waiting for the animatronics to advance into your office in FNAF).

[Xeloph]

I think that Far Cry 3 is an excellent example of congruent mechanics and story. Throughout the game you are constantly being told that you are becoming a "hunter" and this is definitely reinforced as you are silently sneaking through the jungle, carefully picking off your prey, be they pirate or tiger.