Senior Staff Writer Christopher "Pwyff" Tom got the chance to talk with Tom Abernathy about video game writing and the upcoming Game Narrative Summit being hosted at this year's GDC Online.

ZAM: An ongoing discussion I've been having with some developers relates to the topic of game narrative and how, to this day, some of the biggest development teams in the world are still trying to find the 'right' way to do it. In film, there are some general guidelines to delivering a strong narrative, but we seem to have no such rules in video games. 

I realize I'm crossing game genres here, but BioWare games, for example, are known for their extensive dialogue options and heavy focus on literary and verbal exposition. Other games, like Valve's Portal and Portal 2, or 2K Games' (now Irrational Games) BioShock, deliver a lot of 'on the run' narrative, with a heavier focus on environmental exposition. This is a rather open-ended question but, given the plethora of ways in which video game narrative has been presented in the past, how do you feel about the way it is currently being delivered: through cinematics, heavy exposition in dialogue, or other methods?

Tom: That's a great question, and it's a real thorny one, where everyone is trying to arrive at a different answer. I'll start my answer with an analogy: I was once speaking to a group of industry peers, all very experienced in the field, and I asked them, "What do you think of cinematics?" Age-wise, I'd say that this group ranged from around 30 to maybe late 50s, early 60s, so they were all veterans. Now, there were a few general exceptions, but I'd say that almost everyone who was in their late 40s or over were all asking "what's wrong with cinematics?" while everyone who was under 40 were saying "I hope we can get past cinematics."

To use cinematics as an example, I think they're a convention that we've borrowed from film, which says that this is a pretty young medium. Back in the day, if you looked at a lot of early films, they were pretty much plays, but in a different medium. When sound came around in the '20s, your setting was this camera being locked down, with microphones being hidden in the potted plant while the actors sat and discussed topics around that plant. Generally speaking, film imitated theatre because everyone didn't want to be surprised by new conventions until they got used to this new medium. I feel like we're currently getting through that phase.

When I first worked at Activision Studios, we literally taped our cutscenes because, technologically, we had no ways to tell interesting stories other than the way we had been doing it before (through film). But now our technology has grown by leaps and bounds and there are tons of ways for us to tell stories more effectively than stopping the game and having the player sit through a cinematic.

This isn't to say that there are moments or times in games where this isn't appropriate, and there are certainly times for "exposition dumps," like in MMORPGs, where people are conditioned to that feature, but I would say that I'm more interested in games like Portal, or BioShock with its audio books, where we're finding new ways to show instead of telling, where the storyline becomes environmental, and the player can read into the things he sees, but are never fully explained. You end up looking for something that's beyond your own environment.

I mention this a lot, but I remember in Portal, there's a loose panel in the sixth or seventh room, where you can see this corroded, dripping place behind the walls, where the sleek paneling fades away, and you see something beyond your environment. It's the player doing something active to find out what's beyond what you've given them. Ultimately, I'm trying to explore the mechanics of this, and it's fascinating. I know, as a player, I appreciate experiences that don't take me out of the game, where what exposition that is given to me is done so environmentally or through dialogue, where it's all part of the continuous experience. I like that a lot and I think that's a goal worth shooting for. 

ZAM: Well, that's a great place to wrap up this interview! Thank you so much for taking the time to talk about this upcoming Game Narrative Summit; it's truly been a fascinating interview, and I'm looking forward to seeing what new ideas will come in video game narrative design. 

Tom: Thank you! To me, when people are finding new paradigms and new solutions, that's just pure gold. That's why we have this summit!

Christopher "Pwyff" Tom, Senior Staff Writer

For more GDC Online details, check out Chris's recent interview with Gordon Walton about the Virtual Items Summit and how the market has changed for online gaming.