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[TheAssist]

So a few years ago...actually quite a few years ago... I was playing an experimental indy game that tried a new way of story telling in games. It had block people similar to minecraft and a very low poly aesthetic. I think you were doing a heist, but unfortunately I cant remember the name, maybe someone knows what I'm talking about. Ever since I played this game I was hoping to see something like that an AAA game and I think we might finally be here.

So what did this game do?

Well, basically it used movie like editing to tell its story (it was a walking simulator). So you would walk up to someone, that someone was telling you about something and bam you instantly were in that situation. So for example you walked to someone and he was talking about how to escape after the heist and then you were playing a motorcycle chase. Then something happened and the game would cut again. There was no need for a cutscene to show what happened or a loading screen to load the new scene. It was really really cool and it flowed so damn well.
I mean remember when they put 3 characters in GTA 5 to switch between them, so you dont have to travel through the whole map every time you wanne go somewhere and as to make some missions more interesting by switching between different view points. The idea was already there but the execution was limited by hardware.

Imagine a fully dynamic heist were you have several people on the outside and inside. Lets say you get to the vault, clear it out and try to exit through the main entrance (which sounds like a great idea). Surprisingly police awaits you, so you switch to another character outside, you steal a car and drive right through the entrance. You use that distraction and walk your way back to another exit. Then switch to another character to drive a car to the other exit. And thats all fully dynamic and in real time. Maybe you decide to bring in a helicopter. And non of that stuff is ever scripted.

I always had this scene in my head were a soldier tells a war story and talk about a certain scenario. He would tell you the story, while the sound effects of that scene would slowly start to creep up in the background and with the sudden THUMB of an artillery piece you would instantly be transported into that scene. No loading, no cutscene (which is used as a loading screen, no slow start at the beginning of a level to load in more assets). And the scene could switch instantly as his narration goes on in the background.

There would be no need for level structures like in modern CoD and countless other games. Everything would be much more seamless and flowing more naturally.

Being able to basically jump cut from scene to scene will allow for so many different kinds of story telling. Imagine it like the jump from analog to digital in film. Suddenly cutting became much easier and more cost effective, so you could do it much more often.
If you watch old movies it really hits you when you realize how long these takes were. Sometimes thats cool if it serves the story, but often they show boring stuff that can be implied with good editing and an audience thats knowledgeable about the medium.

I'm struggling to explain the scenes in my head, but I'm super hyped for the next generation of gaming and I think that this generation will be a much bigger leap then the 2 generations before it. Simply in terms of new gameplay and narrative techniques that are being enabled by the new hardware.

What do you guys think? What kind of new gameplay or narrative techniques do you dream up? What structures will finally cease to exist after being a video game staple for decades (like "loading corridors")?

 

[Mypmarlo]

Industry for the most part haven't even remotely mastered the old ones
So let's not gonna run in front of the train
But so many things ll become much easier to achieve with Next-Gen so I am pretty hyped too

 

[Devilich]

The game you're talking about is
"Thirty Flights of loving".

 

[Yujin19]

So a few years ago...actually quite a few years ago... I was playing an experimental indy game that tried a new way of story telling in games. It had block people similar to minecraft and a very low poly aesthetic. I think you were doing a heist, but unfortunately I cant remember the name, maybe someone knows what I'm talking about. Ever since I played this game I was hoping to see something like that an AAA game and I think we might finally be here.

So what did this game do?

Well, basically it used movie like editing to tell its story (it was a walking simulator). So you would walk up to someone, that someone was telling you about something and bam you instantly were in that situation. So for example you walked to someone and he was talking about how to escape after the heist and then you were playing a motorcycle chase. Then something happened and the game would cut again. There was no need for a cutscene to show what happened or a loading screen to load the new scene. It was really really cool and it flowed so damn well.
I mean remember when they put 3 characters in GTA 5 to switch between them, so you dont have to travel through the whole map every time you wanne go somewhere and as to make some missions more interesting by switching between different view points. The idea was already there but the execution was limited by hardware.

Imagine a fully dynamic heist were you have several people on the outside and inside. Lets say you get to the vault, clear it out and try to exit through the main entrance (which sounds like a great idea). Surprisingly police awaits you, so you switch to another character outside, you steal a car and drive right through the entrance. You use that distraction and walk your way back to another exit. Then switch to another character to drive a car to the other exit. And thats all fully dynamic and in real time. Maybe you decide to bring in a helicopter. And non of that stuff is ever scripted.

I always had this scene in my head were a soldier tells a war story and talk about a certain scenario. He would tell you the story, while the sound effects of that scene would slowly start to creep up in the background and with the sudden THUMB of an artillery piece you would instantly be transported into that scene. No loading, no cutscene (which is used as a loading screen, no slow start at the beginning of a level to load in more assets). And the scene could switch instantly as his narration goes on in the background.

There would be no need for level structures like in modern CoD and countless other games. Everything would be much more seamless and flowing more naturally.

Being able to basically jump cut from scene to scene will allow for so many different kinds of story telling. Imagine it like the jump from analog to digital in film. Suddenly cutting became much easier and more cost effective, so you could do it much more often.
If you watch old movies it really hits you when you realize how long these takes were. Sometimes thats cool if it serves the story, but often they show boring stuff that can be implied with good editing and an audience thats knowledgeable about the medium.

I'm struggling to explain the scenes in my head, but I'm super hyped for the next generation of gaming and I think that this generation will be a much bigger leap then the 2 generations before it. Simply in terms of new gameplay and narrative techniques that are being enabled by the new hardware.

What do you guys think? What kind of new gameplay or narrative techniques do you dream up? What structures will finally cease to exist after being a video game staple for decades (like "loading corridors")?

Battlefield 2 you could switch between different teammate on the fly

 

[Dontero]

i hope fucking not. If anything this gen proved is that people want to play games instead of watching movies for 60$

 

[Goliathy]

i hope fucking not. If anything this gen proved is that people want to play games instead of watching movies for 60$

This. I still dont get it why those cinematic games are praised so much with 90+ metacritic. seriously.
I want to PLAY a game, not watch a movie, when I turn on my console

 

[TheAssist]

This. I still dont get it why those cinematic games are praised so much with 90+ metacritic. seriously.
I want to PLAY a game, not watch a movie, when I turn on my console

You didnt get me. Its not a cutscene. Thats the whole point. Before you had to rely on cutscenes to tell the story, now you can tell that story via gameplay, because there is no need for loading. Its a story telling technique that can be adapted for gaming and has nothing to do with taking away control to make things more cinematic. Obviously the games narrative needs to be purpose build for that.

Battlefield 2 you could switch between different teammate on the fly

I thought about this a well. Though the game looked rather basic even for the time to be able to achieve that. But I was always wondering why they never tried to do it again. Maybe it wasnt possible with their more sophisticated games like Bad Company and BF3. At least on console.

Thirty Flights of loving

Yes, thats the one. Thank you!

 

[Ballthyrm]

The game you're talking about is
"Thirty Flights of loving".

It's really a great game.

Lucas Pope has also been working the the strength of the medium like OP was looking For.
Both Paper Please and Return of the Obra Dinn have strong meshing of game design and narrative design.

Both are great empathy machine and making you think like their lead character.

 

[eot]

I don't think game narratives are limited by technology. You could perhaps argue that procedural dialogue / speech generation could open up new possibilities in dialogue heavy games, but the way I see it narrative and gameplay will almost always be in conflict. There are exceptions where the mechanics and story work in concert, but the fact of the matter is that game mechanics are fairly rigid and in most cases you can't design an entirely new type of game just to tell a story.

Personally I'm fine with the state of things, I've played through some decent game narratives, but I would not put games on the same level as other storytelling mediums.

 

[H . R . 2]

it would require uncompromising levels of cooperation/collaboration between the developers and the writing team. Studios like ND or Kojima Productions where a single creative director is in charge of overseeing multiple aspects of the game such as the storytelling, gameplay mechanics, and level design can bring an unprecedented sense of narrative immersion to their games. I believe the first step is a willingness to let the writers and the narrative directors be as much engaged in the creative process of developing games as the main devs usually are. (looking at you Ubisoft CEO's kid)

 

[Fbh]

There's definitely some neat stuff that could be done with instant changes of scenery or perspective.

Though I still think it's people and not tech that's the biggest limiting factor. You have directors like Yoko Taro that even on limited budgets tend to do a great job at taking advantage of games as a medium to tell stories in unique ways, but then you have a lot of people like Neil Druckmann who has bigger budgets and teams to work with but just comes across as a frustrated movie/tv director that wants to tell stories in the "traditional" way.