The trick behind this artistic direction is to leave the audience feeling the same as the main character and thus identifying him. The mystery behind it keeps you interested and wondering about every little detail. How this could translate to a game would be a little more difficult, but still doable. A couple of people have mentioned FF8. I agree that it was poorly done, but it''s probably a nice example of how to do something like that.
Take this imaginary design just made up.
Your main character is some kind of investigator exploring into some event (murder, explosion, whatever). While investigaing, he gets into standard bullet-time wire-effects trouble. However when talking with witnesses of the event, the gameplay alters so that the witness becomes the character of focus and the setting changes to before the event. Then the player gets to play as the witness, and gets to do his own bullet-time wire-effects. As it goes you have the sense of mystery trying to piece this puzzle together, and also you have the benefit of a non-linearity with some of the accounts, seeing as how some of the lesser stuff would be unimportant in terms of their sequential organization.
-> Will Bubel
-> Machine wash cold, tumble dry.
Discontinuity in games
quote:Original post by iNfuSeD
Pulp Fiction was not an independent film maker and Run Lola Run is not non sequential. Pulp Fiction is a big budget film (look at the actor lineup, speaks for itself)
They''re all big actors _now_ but how were their careers going in 1994?
iNfuSeD: By non-sequential, I meant a non-linear plot (i.e. one thing happens after another). The two transitions when the ''cosmic reset button'' is pressed cause the linearity of the story to be interrupted: therefore, I would classify it as non-sequential. I guess it depends on your definition though.
ShadeStorm: each to his own, I guess, but I disagree with the idea that ''if you want to think, read books; if you want to see explosions and stuff, watch movies.'' You''re not questioning the fact that some books are mindless rubbish and some movies are thoughtful; but I think that by ignoring them (well, maybe except for the trashy book part
) you''re missing out. But as I said, each to his own.
SpittingTrashCan: I don''t think she really *constructed* the outcome: most of it seemed to depend on whether she jumped over the dog at the beginning. The idea, IIRC, was that a load of small changes were made each time - i.e, a coin comes down tails instead of heads - and it was a way of seeing how all these little small things can have such an effect on things as a whole. But I digress.
There''s nothing that says non-linearity has to be implemented through gameplay - a ''bullet time'' feature or similar. A design I had for a HL Mod involved a sequence where the player played through a flashback - it was to be accomplished by simply having a level out-of-place with voiceovers from the main character.
Superpig
- saving pigs from untimely fates
- sleeps in a ham-mock at www.thebinaryrefinery.cjb.net
ShadeStorm: each to his own, I guess, but I disagree with the idea that ''if you want to think, read books; if you want to see explosions and stuff, watch movies.'' You''re not questioning the fact that some books are mindless rubbish and some movies are thoughtful; but I think that by ignoring them (well, maybe except for the trashy book part
) you''re missing out. But as I said, each to his own.SpittingTrashCan: I don''t think she really *constructed* the outcome: most of it seemed to depend on whether she jumped over the dog at the beginning. The idea, IIRC, was that a load of small changes were made each time - i.e, a coin comes down tails instead of heads - and it was a way of seeing how all these little small things can have such an effect on things as a whole. But I digress.
There''s nothing that says non-linearity has to be implemented through gameplay - a ''bullet time'' feature or similar. A design I had for a HL Mod involved a sequence where the player played through a flashback - it was to be accomplished by simply having a level out-of-place with voiceovers from the main character.
Superpig
- saving pigs from untimely fates
- sleeps in a ham-mock at www.thebinaryrefinery.cjb.net
quote:Original post by CheeseGrater
They''re all big actors _now_ but how were their careers going in 1994?
You mean John Travolta''s and Samuel L. Jackson''s? And Vin Rhymes, Quinten Tarintino and Bruce Willis? I would say they were alllllll well established in 1994.
"The human mind is limited only by the bounds which we impose upon ourselves." -iNfuSeD
Did anyone else not enjoy Run Lola Run? I found it very gimmicky and got the feeling the makers thought it was much more clever than it really was. I found most of the ideas and things that happened very childish and thoughtless; the only thing it had going for it was the mutliple timelines.
As mentioned, FF8 used this non-linear story telling, that intertwined and eventually met.
This would have worked in a movie perhaps, I didn''t feel it worked in the game though, because (as is the point with an RPG) you tend to identify with a single character, when you were suddenly forced into another role, you tend to resent it.
I think it may have worked if you were playing an era in Squalls past, perhaps something mysterious that''s hinted at in the "main" timeline, but he doesn''t like to talk about.
I believe, doing it in this fashion, it could certainly work well for videogames, and add a whole new dynamic to games, especially if crossed with the chrono-cross style past-affects-the-future effect. Although that''s where any kind of engine to support it would get to almost impossible complexity levels, unless events you can change are hard-scripted into the storyline, which somewhat removes the whole point
Andru™ a registered trademark of the Globex® corporation.
This would have worked in a movie perhaps, I didn''t feel it worked in the game though, because (as is the point with an RPG) you tend to identify with a single character, when you were suddenly forced into another role, you tend to resent it.
I think it may have worked if you were playing an era in Squalls past, perhaps something mysterious that''s hinted at in the "main" timeline, but he doesn''t like to talk about.
I believe, doing it in this fashion, it could certainly work well for videogames, and add a whole new dynamic to games, especially if crossed with the chrono-cross style past-affects-the-future effect. Although that''s where any kind of engine to support it would get to almost impossible complexity levels, unless events you can change are hard-scripted into the storyline, which somewhat removes the whole point
Andru™ a registered trademark of the Globex® corporation.
There''s a major problem with implementing an unordered (for lack of a better word) plot in a game as it''s done in some movies. Games, unlike movies, are interactive, and as you give the player more power to interact with the game world your ability to predict or control what they''re going to do goes down (exponentially I''d say). In other words, if you want the overall plot to make sense you''ll probably have to limit the player''s actions in some way.
As an example, suppose your game is some sort of adventure/rpg and it''s possible to kill other characters. What if the player meets their father in one scene, then later plays through a childhood scene and somehow kills him? The plot just blew up.
Of course this is assuming you want the plot to actually make sense and you''re not trying to go all David Lynch on the player''s mind.
As an example, suppose your game is some sort of adventure/rpg and it''s possible to kill other characters. What if the player meets their father in one scene, then later plays through a childhood scene and somehow kills him? The plot just blew up.
Of course this is assuming you want the plot to actually make sense and you''re not trying to go all David Lynch on the player''s mind.
This topic is closed to new replies.
Advertisement
Popular Topics
Advertisement
