Don't Show, Don't Tell, Interact

Perhaps the article's title might seem familiar to those with even mild interest in fiction. 'Show, don't tell', is a near-universal technique utilized by writers to express the story through actions and thoughts rather than a plain summary or description. This guideline is advised for nearly every medium, regardless if it's a novel or visual (movies and comics).

For a quick example. Imagine reading a story with a fantasy setting. In this fictional world, magic is the centerpiece of culture. The concepts of production of goods, the construction of buildings, and the systems laid by the government are very different to our world because how magic is added to the equation. What's the best way to introduce this world to the reader? Probably to show how each of these aspects of society works while they become relevant to the story being told.

So imagine if the book does not do this. Instead, every few chapters there's a character that says "In this world, magic is the centerpiece of culture,". How would that effect a reader's perspective? The world that's being presented could become less interesting, as we are only told what's important to this world, and not being shown how it ties into the lives of its inhabitants or the progression of the story. The purpose of "Show, don't tell," is to keep a story from reading less like a textbook, and more like a believable world.

But what about games? Games are a visual medium, possibly with lots of active characters and locations. Yet they provide an extra layer other medium don't, Interactivity. Sometimes, showing isn't enough to make a game world interesting or believable. These elements could also affect the gameplay, and possibly provide more interesting approaches to players when given options to provide stronger ties between the story and the gameplay.

There are points where interaction isn't entirely necessary, but it's important to view situations where the interaction could enhance the narrative.

The plot of Sonic Forces involves Dr. Eggman conquering 99% of the entire world, sending parts of it into ruins. The first of these changes to the world presented in Sonic the Hedgehog is replacing the water within Green Hill Zone with Sand.

While playing through the levels within Green Hill, the game often moves the camera in ways to show as much of this change in the most cinematic ways possible, at one point showing giant sandworms from Sonic Lost World swimming through the sand. However, the influx of sand in no way changes how Green Hill is played when compared to its previous incarnations. The Sand only exists for the story, not the gameplay. As far as the game is concerned, it's just a texture swap of a waterless Green Hill.

Even if the execution was generic, there are plenty of ways to add interactivity to this new incarnation of Green Hill. The franchise is not alien to desert obstacle gimmicks such as quicksand seen in Sonic and Knuckles or unique approaches such as sandboarding in Sonic Adventure. Perhaps there could be a segment utilizing Sonic's speed where you have to race to the other side of a platform before it gets submerged in sand, have an actual confrontation with the sandworm, or even have a section of the stage where you tunnel beneath the sand. This is just an arbitrary list of idea, however, the list's existence shows there are plenty of ways the stage could have had more of an identity within it's design.

Another example, moving away from platformers, is Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City on the Nintendo DS. The game has an excellent sense of atmosphere considering the limited hardware, having varied and unique locations tied together with a tropical theme. The early plot of the game involves the player guiding a group of adventures through a labyrinth in hopes of finding the mythical Deep City that supposedly sunk to the bottom of the ocean one hundred years ago.

The player eventually finds the city less than halfway through the game. Unlike other games in the franchise where the goal set at the beginning of the game is the goal kept for most of the journey, The Drowned City takes an odd direction to have its plot about the relation of the Deep City and its mother City of Armoroad. Eventually, the player will find themselves choosing to side with one of the cities as a conflict arises.

As expected from the norm of Etrian Odyssey, the background artwork for the Deep City is beautiful. Finally, a more fantastical location to act as a home base in the franchise. However, the amount of interaction the player is allowed to have in the Deep City is... minimal at best.

The shopkeeper is actually the Sister to the shopkeeper in Armoroad, she isn't even a citizen of the Deep City. This leaves the amount of optional interaction with the Deep City's inhabitants limited to its king and a single citizen. A far cry to Armoroad, which has many more areas for the player to visit with more citizens to interact with.

So once the player is presented with an option to side with either the Deep City or Armoroad for the first time, their decision probably has little to do with their opinion of the Deep City's inhabitants. They either like Armored and side with it, or dislike it and side against it. There is little about the contents of Deep City itself to encourage players to side with it unless the goal alone is enough to win them over. This is a huge hindrance towards the game's narrative, as the second half of the game is focused on this conflict.

The solution is also quite simple: Add more locations and inhabitants to interact with in the Deep City. Let the player decide which city they prefer for more than just their goals.

Games are an interactive form of art, so it's a bit disappointing when a design appeals towards a more cinematic or literature-driven direction when so much potential can be explored with this new layer. There is nothing inherently wrong with borrowing elements from other mediums, especially if it's to experiment with new directions. However, there's more to allowing the player to interact with a world than just giving them a branching narrative. They can experience the story and world at the author's intended pace along with a defined character who makes the story and character driven options for themselves.

Sometimes it isn't enough to show the player as it would be 'just enough' to drive the plot forward. If that's all the intended audience needs for your story, then why not make a movie?

Image Sources: Screenshots from Horizon: Zero Dawn, Sonic Forces, Sonic and Knuckles, and Etrian Odyssey 3. I claim no ownship over these images.

#Games #SonictheHedgehog #EtrianOdyssey #Story #Narrative #Interaction