Fable 3 is the latest game form Lionhead studios.
It’s a mix of fantasy, action/adventure and role play game. There is an emphasis on morals and decision making which creates the impression of interactive narrative.
The reason why fable 3 is worth mentioning in a blog about world building is because of its android and I-Phone app entitled Kingmaker.
Kingmaker is basically four square meets Fable 3. The app enables you to plant up to 10 virtual flags per day according to where you are located on Google maps. When you sign up to the app, you are automatically allocated a team, either a rebel or a royalist. The two teams compete to plant the most flags. The team with the most flags control the area on the map. The whole of Europe is separated up into areas, in Fable 3, the east of England is called Bogshire.
There is a reason for this competition. Each time you plant a flag, you claim 50 virtual coins which you can actually upload into the game via the kingmaker website. Before the game launch, the winning team won an extra amount of coins. The game is also running until the end of January.
Dotted around Norwich (where I currently live) are chests and coin symbols, mostly around Game and Game station shops, there is also one at Norwich Castle which I find fits in with the genre of the game. One you are at the selected places on Google maps, you can claim treasure (more coins). This process entices players the game to go to digital game shops where they are more likely to buy more digital games.
The app acts like a world within a world. The actions you take in the kingmaker app, affect your characters economy in the Fable 3 world.
Game, Competition, marketing strategy, world building, beyond the objective participation.
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
Friday, 19 November 2010
Sharon Sage Tutorial - Story Worlds
The class had a tutorial from Sharon Sage about story worlds entitled “An explanation of what works”. This post will be about the tutorial, the notes of which were published on the school intranet.
The first point Sharon makes is that you don’t notice story worlds “Especially if they work well”. I agree that the story and the world should work together, if the story world stands out in contrast to the story, it usually wouldn’t work.
Sage also explained the importance of getting the balance of explaining the story world and leaving enough room for the imagination to fill in the gaps. Good narratives leave the player or audience wondering about parts of the world, however, if the world isn’t explained enough, the world becomes vague.
Sage explains that the game world is very import to narrative; it “is far more than simply a cosmetic add-on”. Sage suggests that the audience judge weather or not the world is one that they would want to engage with, as if it were a protagonist or antagonist. I agree that the world is a very important aspect to narrative. It should not be confused with genre. As a good story, with a well-built world would work well in any genre. The Narrative of Star Wars for example would fit well in a swash buckling Errol Flynn style genre.
Terry Gilliam is a successful director with his own stamp of what a narrative world can look like. His films like Brazil and Twelve monkeys have a very unique and unorthodox look and feel, they both feature warped pasts, which create augmented futures. These two films have created a personal visual style that is easily recognizable. Gilliam’s success proves that narrative worlds don’t have to fit within industry norms.
Gilliam created a very well recognized aspect of a story world through financial constraint. In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the knights had to run, clanking coconuts together as the budget wouldn’t cover horses. The audience perceives this as a joke written into the film. Another example of a creative restraint turning into a well recognized world-building feature is Mario’s moustache. Mario was created with a moustache because there weren’t enough pixels to create a mouth. Now Mario’s moustache is a vital aspect to his character adds to the bizarre world in witch Mario is a part of.
Tim Burton is another director with a unique visual style. His use of black and white and love of the gothic are turned on it’s head in the film Edward Scissor Hands. The pastel shades of the suburbs, where most of the film is set is far reserved from the gothic character and home of Edward. This creates a contrast, which further alienates Edward from the rest of the characters. It also shows how the visual constraints that a directors style has, can be played with to emphasize a part of the film. Creating the film with two distinct worlds (the suburbs and the gothic house), adds to the world building.
Some key questions around good narrative worlds are “how much of a character is the story world?
Does it give the audience, reader or player imaginative space to inhabit the story?
I will try to answer these with some examples of games.
Fable 3 is a good example of the world being a character. In the game, your character has to make a series of financial decisions, which directly affect the game world. The world can then change visually; form a damaged fire being rebuilt to a swamp being filled with sewage. The visual changes affect what missions are available for you to do, which affects the gameplay.
Rockstar games like GTA 4 and Red Dead Redemption are good examples of games that create imaginative space to enable the audience to inhabit the story. This is party because of the way some side missions are started; they start with the player entering a part of the world where a character is in the middle of doing something, for example looking at a map. The character then explains the mission in a cut scene. The fact you come across the character in the open world immerses the character and the world into plausibility. The player can imagine what the character was doing prior to the cut scene and the situation they would find themselves in.
Having actions and characters mentioned to the player “off scene” creates the illusion of a larger world that the playable character is merely a part of.
The first point Sharon makes is that you don’t notice story worlds “Especially if they work well”. I agree that the story and the world should work together, if the story world stands out in contrast to the story, it usually wouldn’t work.
Sage also explained the importance of getting the balance of explaining the story world and leaving enough room for the imagination to fill in the gaps. Good narratives leave the player or audience wondering about parts of the world, however, if the world isn’t explained enough, the world becomes vague.
Sage explains that the game world is very import to narrative; it “is far more than simply a cosmetic add-on”. Sage suggests that the audience judge weather or not the world is one that they would want to engage with, as if it were a protagonist or antagonist. I agree that the world is a very important aspect to narrative. It should not be confused with genre. As a good story, with a well-built world would work well in any genre. The Narrative of Star Wars for example would fit well in a swash buckling Errol Flynn style genre.
Terry Gilliam is a successful director with his own stamp of what a narrative world can look like. His films like Brazil and Twelve monkeys have a very unique and unorthodox look and feel, they both feature warped pasts, which create augmented futures. These two films have created a personal visual style that is easily recognizable. Gilliam’s success proves that narrative worlds don’t have to fit within industry norms.
Gilliam created a very well recognized aspect of a story world through financial constraint. In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the knights had to run, clanking coconuts together as the budget wouldn’t cover horses. The audience perceives this as a joke written into the film. Another example of a creative restraint turning into a well recognized world-building feature is Mario’s moustache. Mario was created with a moustache because there weren’t enough pixels to create a mouth. Now Mario’s moustache is a vital aspect to his character adds to the bizarre world in witch Mario is a part of.
Tim Burton is another director with a unique visual style. His use of black and white and love of the gothic are turned on it’s head in the film Edward Scissor Hands. The pastel shades of the suburbs, where most of the film is set is far reserved from the gothic character and home of Edward. This creates a contrast, which further alienates Edward from the rest of the characters. It also shows how the visual constraints that a directors style has, can be played with to emphasize a part of the film. Creating the film with two distinct worlds (the suburbs and the gothic house), adds to the world building.
Some key questions around good narrative worlds are “how much of a character is the story world?
Does it give the audience, reader or player imaginative space to inhabit the story?
I will try to answer these with some examples of games.
Fable 3 is a good example of the world being a character. In the game, your character has to make a series of financial decisions, which directly affect the game world. The world can then change visually; form a damaged fire being rebuilt to a swamp being filled with sewage. The visual changes affect what missions are available for you to do, which affects the gameplay.
Rockstar games like GTA 4 and Red Dead Redemption are good examples of games that create imaginative space to enable the audience to inhabit the story. This is party because of the way some side missions are started; they start with the player entering a part of the world where a character is in the middle of doing something, for example looking at a map. The character then explains the mission in a cut scene. The fact you come across the character in the open world immerses the character and the world into plausibility. The player can imagine what the character was doing prior to the cut scene and the situation they would find themselves in.
Having actions and characters mentioned to the player “off scene” creates the illusion of a larger world that the playable character is merely a part of.
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