Game Stories

 So what is a story? Why is it important in games? Is a good story necessary at all?

In the oxford dictionary, a story is a:

"description of events and people that the writer or speaker has invented in order to entertain people". 

Having a well-written and well-executed story in a game is the most important part of a game. The gameplay can be ok or good but a story that has depth and gravity to it can really sell a game. As more and more games are developed, the bar for quality is increasing, and this includes the story of a game. 

A question that we need to answer is "how can we make a story?" What works and will work every time?

According to Robert Mckee, the real substance of a story, the foundation that always works, is Conflict. Conflict is a necessary part of any story. Conflict allows the story to progress and move full-swing from start to finish. So how can we make a story work using conflict? We'll be looking at the structure of classical stories as an example. 

Within classical stories, you have a simple but effective story structure; one that you can find in any other story. There are three parts within classical stories; the exposition (beginning), the complication (or conflict), and resolution (climax).

- Within the Exposition, we're introduced to the Protagonist; the Hero. The length of the exposition can vary at times.

- Afterwards, next, we come to the complication, which is also can be called the inciting incident. His or her world is thrown out of order. (The beginning part of Last of us.). 

- From this, a gap opens between the hero and his/her ordinary life.

- The hero tries the normal, conservative action to overcome the gap. This would fail and he/she will be pushed back hard. 

- The hero then has to take a risk to overcome the obstacles that are pushing back.

- Then there is a reversal. Something new or the hero learns something he/she didn't know before, and the world is out of whack again. A second gap has opened up. Here, the hero has to take a greater risk to overcome the second gap.

- Finally, there is the Climax, where The hero has to take the greatest risk of all to overcome this gap and get to that object of desire i.e. to slay a dragon, etc. This would lead the hero back into ordinary life.

This is what usually happens in classical stories. With more acts, you'll have more obstacles for the character to overcome. Three is the minimum for a good game.

Last of us was such a good story, before the disaster that is 2.