Hey guys, and welcome back to Ezine online magazine, I’m Zayn Ali and today I will be talking about what makes a good story for computer games. Now first of all, games have always used narrative. The games of today such as GTA 5, until Dawn and The Last Of Us; all use narrative. The early games such as Pong, Pac Man and Space Invaders also use narrative, and they just feel less obvious. The narrative for Pong, is about two players hitting ball back and forth, until someone misses. It is a basic narrative but it is still there. Narrative is a very important factor when it comes down to games as they help sell the game to audiences. If you look at early computer games like Pong, Pac Man and Space Invader, you can tell that the narrative is what sold the game. For example, if you look at Space Invaders, it looks a lot like pixels on a screen which edge closer to a pixel that you can control. This seems like a very boring game but the fact that it had a narrative where you are in control of a ship and you have to fill aliens, this made the game much better as this is what people like.
The Narrative was sold to an audience through box art. For example the box art for space invaders looked like a alien walking towards you and there is a space ship in the distance. This made the game look more interesting as it gave the game a meaning. It made the game feel like it was more than just pixels on a screen. Some games however didn’t do as good. The game ET had a very good box art where it seemed as though you could play as ET and do a lot that Et does, but when people bought the game, they realised it was very bad and the box art wasn’t a good representation of the game.
The preferred narratives where made through the use of box art in the early games. This was heavily due to the fact that the technology wasn’t there yet and therefore the box art, title and sound effect had to make the game become alive.
One game I enjoyed playing was Until Dawn. This game was very limited with gameplay as all you had to do was walk from point A to Point B and then watch some cut scenes and occasionally you would play a few mini games. But even though the game had very limited game play, I found the narrative very compelling and scary. The narrative is what kept me playing.
Another game I really enjoyed playing was The Last of Us. I found this game to be very fun. The game play is very good as you can do so much and it makes you feel as though you really are in a survival situation. You can move around and swap between weapons, fights zombies, and there is a very clear crafting system where you need to make different objects such as medical kits in order to survive. There is a very good element of steal in the game, which I find to be really good as it helps create jump scares. The narrative of The Last Of Us is very good as it has a lot in it and the narrative helps connect the audience with the characters. Not only that but the fact that there is a narrative during gameplay where the characters would talk to each other really helps sell this game and make it feel more real.
A game which I didn’t really enjoy playing was DMC. The gameplay for this game was ok as all you had to do was run towards the danger and keep on killing demons. However because of the fact that this game is a hack and slash game, I felt as though I didn’t engage with the story as much. I was so focused on the game play itself that I forgot about the narrative. I think that the narrative wasn’t very strong because of the fact that I forgot about it and because I forgot there was a narrative and then when a cut scene was shown and I was reminded that there is a narrative, I kind of got board of the game.
In conclusion, I found that the narrative for a game is very important due to the fact that the narrative is what sells the game to an audience. With out a narrative, you are technically just moving around pixels on a screen. But once a narrative is added in, some how or minds can put new meanings to these pixels and make it feel very fun to play.
In conclusion, I found that the narrative for a game is very important due to the fact that the narrative is what sells the game to an audience. With out a narrative, you are technically just moving around pixels on a screen. But once a narrative is added in, some how or minds can put new meanings to these pixels and make it feel very fun to play.