Games should look after Ken Levine's "Narrative Legos" idea

Under Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2014, previous Biohock and present Judas Developer Ken Levine described his game design philosophy, which he described as “narrative legos.” Levine has repeated her commitment to this concept several times over the years, claiming that it Judas will be designed with that in mind. But even if both Judas and Bioshock 4Which will probably keep some Levine -DNA even though he is not working on it, has not yet been released, there is still room for other developers to experiment with their own stories Legos.

The narrative LEGOS philosophy, which is distilled to its essence, can be described as putting on interconnection in front. Levine explained the concept of the above -mentioned GDC and used the example with a traditional fantasy -rpg, asked the audience to imagine an ORC smith who hates elves, has a crush on another Orc and worships specific gods. In this theoretical RPG, players' behavior in relation to these various factors would affect ORC's treatment of them. For example, helping elves would get ORC to like the player less and offers fewer goods in his store as a consequence, with the opposite result that arose if the player acted against elves. Philosophy is very similar to those who run the interactive sim genre, but with a special emphasis on stories.

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Why and how other game developers should use Ken Levine's narrative LEGOS concept

The narrative legos philosophy is suitable for ever-increasing complexity

“Lego” is a suitable term for what Levine described in his GDC call: through this method, a player can constantly build larger and more complex structures through seemingly different game elements, much like how to create beautiful or impaired creations with a box with different legos. There may be theoretically endless combinations of factors that aggravate each other, which increases the complexity exponentially. Of crucial importance is the player is the one who drives this increase in complexity, and the gradual, incremental nature of these systems helps to prevent things from becoming too overwhelming.

When you stick with Levine's ORC example from GDC, you can imagine a scenario where the player character nourishes a band with ORC, perhaps by killing a rival elk. ORC can then offer further, exclusive side assignments to the player, and this assignment may contain its own narrative lego pieces, in the form of, for example, a crucial decision that will lead to further damage or strengthening of the ORC player relationship. Thus, a branch path leads to another branch, and so on until the developer decides to mark an end point. This frame can then be repeated for several different NPCs.

The narrative legos method can be as simple or complex as developer wants

What is interesting, at least in theory, about the narrative Lego method that Levine describes is that it does not necessarily require AAA resources or advanced technology. As long as a gaming world is properly wiped out, the above-mentioned concepts can implement a large budget shooter Judas Can give players narrative legos in the same way as a text-based indie game can. In addition, the level of complexity is dictated by how many variables or legos, the developer includes, and it is not required for many to create a layered story.

So while Judas may not be released at any time soon and Bioshock 4 Seems even further away, other developers should take up the narrative Lego method and build games around this elegant and new philosophy. For many games neglects what makes their medium special and chooses to tell linear, blockbuster stories a la The last of usAnd although this is good, games that use interactivity in their stories deserve more attention.