TheAssist
Member
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")?