Let's talk about game industry

[LeoIvanov]

I'll start off with Telltale.

 

Okay, so... Everybody here knows telltale, probably. They couldn't get away from massive popularity after their "The Walking Dead" game. And ever since then (Let's not count in the Jurrasic park) they seem to take the direction of "interactive stories", following a similar path that David Cage took with his games.

 

Do I like it? Yes, I do. For now, gaming industry lacks a GOOD interactive story with some good writing and choises that actually matter in the long run (I'm talking about you, Indigo Prophecy). It opens up the doors for as much creativity as writer could imagine, since all there is to the game are :

 

-Lots and lots of paper work.

About x3-6 more work than a usual writer could possibly imagine. Writing out the whole story, so that every choise affects one thing or another, isn't the most plausible or easy thing to do, but if done right, it may pay off in the long run.

 

-Long cutscenes before the "dialogue", "exploration" or "Quick Time Event".

Characters, who were created by the writer come to life with a talented work of animator, voice actors and other people.

 

-Exploration and QTEs

A part of the game where you walk around, collecting/examining stuff, and a part of the game where you press the right button at the right time.

 

-Dialogues

Where the writer has to get really creative, so you feel more immersed while playing as the protagonist.

 

It's like reading a book, but also watching a movie and playing a game, at the same time. Here you get visuals to replace imagination, here you get a gameplay where you can choose whatever you want, and here you get just a good writing that you really like to read during a day off.

 

It's not only the system that paid Telltale off, but also the way they approached it. The Walking Dead, seems like a very popular theme currently with a big fan base. They took it and made an interactive story out of it. The deficit of such games in that storyline is already a thing, and here you get thousands of purchases because you took your time and love to create it.

 

Now they've got Wolf Among Us, presumably based on a comic book (Which, sadly, I never read) about the fables that we all used to read as a child living in a noire, current world, wearing a human bodies to fit in with society. I can only assume that such a thing would have a good fanbase, but they did a good job of attracting new people to the story.

 

in the future, they announced, that they'll be working on Game of Thrones (TV show which I constantly see people praising) and a game in Borderlands universe. See where I'm getting at? At such rate in the near future Telltale will be one of the most richest companies in game industry, beavering away along with Valve, EA and other famous companies that you know of.

 

That will happend as long as telltale games will stay true to the universes of what fans love in their particular story, be it a Walking Dead or Game of Thrones.

 

What do you think about this? Also, feel free to discuss any other stuff that belongs to the discussion of game industry here

[Flachzang]

What came to my mind when I was reading this and took a glimpse at The Last Of Us in my shelve is that the old-man-with-young-kid-adventures-though-apocalyptic-world story seems pretty successful.

 

The Walking Dead Game told a very good story. I mean, I had the impression during the whole time I was playing it, but was certainly sure at the end of season1. You just know it when you feel with the characters like I did. And that the story was interactive and influenceable boosts this even more. You begin to feel like you experience those things yourself.

 

(real story spoiler)

One of the best moments in season1 was right at the beginning of episode2, I think. Okay, the beginning of the episode with the axe and the dude caught in the bear trap was intense enough, but when you have to decide who should get a food portion and who not and the hungry little girl disappointingly lowers her head when you decide she will not get food...I mean, c'mon, if you don't feel anything in that moment and if you play seriously, you're probably the antichrist.

 

It's true that there are relatively few games like that out there. Heavy Rain comes to my mind, which was a veery very good game as well. Oh, and that recently released one with the famous actors which I never played and can't remember the name right now.

[Connall]

I don't deny I like Telltale's stories. They are incredibly well written stories, that really hit me where it matters. However, while I do love these stories I feel people often overstate just how much the game changes from the players decision. The games do occasionally have some big decisions but more often than not, they really don't matter. The choices have the same outcome no matter what and some characters will die because they have to die at that point in the story despite what the player may believe.

 

If nothing else I guess it does a good job of convincing people their choices matter when they don't, and really it's much like indigo prophecy when it comes to decision making, it just hides it better than IP did. I do think Heavy Rain did the choices mattering thing a lot better though, it seemed to have some pretty big changes in narrative as a result of the actions of the player. I mean there's tons of endings to the game based on the decisions. While some don't matter, I think they do a better job of actions > consequences than TWD did.

 

Don't get me wrong, I think the games are really good and fun to play, but I mainly play TWD to get a good story.