Richard Rouse III’s 6 techniques to make game narratives more dynamic
"Game streaming has revealed a dirty little secret," says Richard Rouse III in his Tuesday GDC talk "Dynamic Stories for Dynamic Games." Youtube viewers who watch multiple Let's Plays of a given game can now see just how often players can make very different choices and wind up with a similar result. The possibility space of games often isn't as wide as it appears to be.
"We've made gameplay experiences feel dynamic, but then the outcome is exactly what we wanted to happen," says Rouse. "We can’t hide behind that anymore."
Rouse insists that a writers must fight for the time and resources needed to create a genuinely dynamic story, and insists that this gives games a real commercial advantage. He points out that players clearly respond to the vast openness of AAA game worlds in Fallout and GTA and Witcher games, and they also love the unique possibilites that expert use of randomness and procedura…
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