Skip ahead to a game like Mass Effect we now use digital actors that are amazingly close to the real thing.
Occasionally we could use simple animations to let players know a character was angry or sad, but game-makers were limited by technology. We relied heavily on dialogue, and - if we could get it - voice acting. In the not-too-distant past, all we had to work with was a few pixels that roughly composed an entire character on the screen. This is a big area I've been paying a lot of attention to lately. How has the portrayal of emotion changed over time? These huge explorable worlds make great backdrops for people to live out whatever adventures they enjoy. Beyond the mod community, the big sandbox games coming out are another great way for users to develop their own stories. There's a lot of great user-created content out there.Īt BioWare, we tap that talent pool from time-to-time in our search for new staff. Toolsets like Neverwinter Nights literally allow players to make their own story-based mods and share them with the rest of the world. How has technology enabled the player to tell his own story more? I'm always fascinated to see new and exciting ways of using narrative, both in the games BioWare produces and those from other developers. There's still a lot of untapped potential, and the landscape is evolving every year. Although most game producers will agree that narrative is important, the industry is still perfecting the best ways to deliver top-tier stories - that's what makes this time so exciting. We set a very high bar at BioWare you don't have to look hard to find otherwise strong games on the market that would've jumped 10 points in their ratings if more effort had been put into storytelling. As proud as we are of our accomplishments, there is much more we can do. Many games coming out now rival other forms of media for their ability to tell compelling and exciting stories. Game narrative and storytelling has become a key focus for numerous studios these days. What's your view on the evolution of storytelling in games in the past decade or so? One of the most intriguing aspects to the game, other than the branching and absorbing dialogue sequences, was the overall story arc that allowed the player to tread a path between paragon and renegade.Īt GDC Paris recently took some time to talk to BioWare's senior writer and managing editor, Mac Walters, and get his thoughts on the evolution of storytelling in games, and the blossoming importance of emotion. One of the most talked about titles of 2007 was the story-driven action RPG Mass Effect, from Canada-based studio BioWare - now a part of Electronic Arts.
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