Gaming Narrative

Gaming narrative is something we stress a lot in the Game Art and Design major. Everything from design choices to environmental storytelling, everything should lend itself to the greater narrative. It can tell you a lot about the people that lived here before you, or what you would do next. There are many great examples of game narrative that I can think of right off of the bat. Journey, Bioshock, and the new Laura Croft.

These games are the ones I have been fortunate enough lately to play so I have first hand knowledge of examples of narrative in each game. Bioshock Infinite for example is the latest game that I have played. As soon as you start the game you are on your way with two other people in a small rowboat, in the middle of a storm, to get to a lighthouse. They leave you there and it's up to you to figure out why you are there. Everything inside the lighthouse tells you not only why you are there but especially what will happen if you don't do what you are being asked too. Several bodies can be found in the lighthouse with a strange chair at the top of the tower where the light should be. You get in the chair, obviously, and are transported to a wonderful city in the sky. It seems to be a new and amazing place, but only though your journey do you discover how twisted this city really is. It has a lot of environmental storytelling from statues to stained glass. There are records places strategically around the environment to let you hear different characters perspectives on their lives or situations. It's a really great way to add to the story if you like delving into narrative. Overall this game is very well done and captured my imagination. If you are interested in great narrative and moral decision making this game would be a great play for you.

The new Laura Croft has environmental storytelling of the civilization on the island that you are now stranded on. Laura, a thrill seeking archeologist by nature, tells you about different markings on the walls or how to navigate certain areas. This is quite literall narration but it gives me a greater appreciation for certain details in the game like who was living here before, and how did they get here? There are also little additions like the adde bonus of finding objects. You can find objects in the game that have factual historical relevance. You can go and look at them in game and Laura would tell you a detailed summary and what it is and what it was used for during the Edo period. I found it very interesting to learn factual information inside of a fictional setting. If game the game more realism to me, and made me want to hunt down these other little pieces of narrative.

3 movies - Kurosawa

I was only able to watch two movies by Akira Kurosawa but they were both amazingly well done. The movies I watched were:

7 Samurai
Ran

7 Samurai was in black and white, but Ran was in color. You could really tell that Akira worked in black and white before based on the composition of the shots. He never relied on color to make a character read well or pop against a background. There is a specific scene where you are looking down on one of the main characters and he is framed by the ruined castle and basked in sun. He wears dark clothing so that he sticks out really well against the sunlit ground. 

Akira also likes battle themed movies, both of which are japanese. He was very true to the culture and themes of japan and it was very interesting to see what the culture was like back then. Compelling story lines with a heavy cultural background are the backbone of Akira Kurosawa. 

7 Samurai featured many different characters and wove them into a deeper storyline where they had to work together to try and protect a small rice village. Ran also featured many different characters and constantly switched between them. They all wove together by the end though.

Personally I think Akira has a tendency to be very dramatic and kill his characters off at the end. Almost everyone from 7 Samurai and Ran was dead by the end in some catastrophic battle. Ran's end scene was a 20min long gorilla samurai warfare onslaught, where 7 Samurai had the thieves attacking from all sides and breaking down the samurai's defenses. 

Both very good, very well directed movies. I really like Akira's style of drama and engaging storytelling. 

Chinatown 1974

I'm picking the first scene and doing an art directors take on the set, color sceme + lighting.

Scene 1:

Room: Rectangular shaped room lined with bookshelves and filing cabinets. Low ceilings with the lights off besides the desk lamp. Several nicely framed cheap copies of famous paintings line the office. A small, round glass table sits agsinst the right hand wall. It's filed with varying ages of brandy and scotch. The desk is in the center of the room facing the only door on the oposite side. Windows line the wall directly behind the dark, wooden desk. Newspapers litter the desk as well as two old glasses once filled with scotch, the contains long gone. An overflowing ashtray sits on the side of the desk still smoking from a freshly extinguished cigarette. The photographs Gittes shows Curly come from a large, manila envelope sitting on the desk. The pictures as strewn around Curly.

Lighting: It's dark outside with cool street lights lighting the room through the venetian blinds. Cars frequently pass buy making the horizontal shadows flicker across the room. Gittes sits at his desk rim lit by the street lamps. Every time a car passes by you can make out hints of detail around his iconic fedora and cigarett. There is a dim desk lamp that is on that illuminates Curly. The lack of light makes the room feel smaller, more intimate. Curly is bathed in street lamp light. You can see the sweat dripping off of him, particularly well when a car passes by. The shadows from the blinds fall across him like a cage. The windows are open slightly so a faint breeze and sounds of the night can be heard. Overall the tone of the room is monochromatic.

Both men are wearing period garb of the 1930's.
     Curly is a large man with short, curly hair. He wears his pale salmon shirt buttoned all the way up making it look like his white tie is choking him. The shirt is ill fit for his girth making the buttons bulge when he starts to become angry. He does not wear a hat, but has pulled his jacket collar high around his  fatty neck as a failed attempt of stealth on the way to see Gittes.
    Gittes is dressed in a white loose button up with a dark blue tie. He has dark navy suspenders holding up his dark blue pants. His grey fedora has a tattered, stumpy, white feather tucked into it as if a keep sake. His shirt is loose enough to move a little in the slight breeze

Lo. Lee. Ta.

"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-leeta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta."

I know it may seem so obvious to pick the opening sentences as my exert but they mean everything about the book to me. I was unlucky enough to listen to the audio book for my Lolita experience and I have to say it was horribly disturbing. The voice that echoes when I say Lolita is always the echo of the audiobooks syrupy drawl of "Lo. Lee. Ta."

This statement embodies the book for me because of the feelings of discomfort embodied in that statement. It was brilliantly written, and listening to it made it easier to get through because his voice would glide on and on and I wouldn’t have to stop and think about things before he was progressing on to the next scene. Lolita is described in this first sentence with an unsettling amount of detail for something so peculiar. It prepares you, in a way, for the rest of the book. He goes into disturbing detail about his thought and actions regarding Lo and other nymphets. I will admit that it is taking me awhile even now to get all the way through the book. The writing is incredible which makes the subject matter a little bearable, but then I reflect on what I have just listened to and feel somehow dirty. Like I’m some kind of voyeur on his unforgivable molestations of these poor little girls.

The detail of his actions is what allows me to picture the story so clearly. He knows that his actions are wrong but creates the idea of nymphets to get around that his desires are not his fault, but the lustful intentions of these little demon girls. “My sin, my soul.” Only emphasizes that he knows what he’s doing is more than frowned upon by honorable members of society.  Throughout the whole story he’s writing some kind of jailers journal reliving his life and what he’s done to end up in jail. The preface of the story tells us that he died before his trial, of which I’m sure he would have been found guilty, even without a book detailing his actions.

I’m glad that I read the book and was able to experience it. It’s rare that a book, even and audio book, gives you the shivers. This is an important work of literature and I had fully intended to finish. Upon asking my room mate if she had finished she said that it got rather dull besides the part where he does have intercourse with Lo. I REALLY wasn’t excited about hearing the detail of that encounter and decided not to finish. Apologies, but I’m glad that I read as far as I did. It was still a very interesting, meaningful book. 

Picture Storie - Miss. Peregrine's home for peculiar children

I leaned lazily over the edge of the boat letting my hand make little wakes behind each finger. The small wooden canoe I was sunbathing in leaned lazily to the side making the boat tilt towards shore.

            “Elizabeth!” the voice echoed around the lake. Sighing I adjusted my parasol back over my head for shade and grabbed the ores. I paddled slowly to the dock at the north edge of the lake where my mother waited for me. I took my time wobbling out of the boat, not quite ready to face my mother. “How many times have I told you, going out on the lake alone is dangerous. You make my fret ever so much.” She waved a white lace handkerchief as if to fan herself. I sighed again pulling the black umbrella lover over my face so she couldn’t see I hadn’t regretted it at all.

            “Yes mother” I curtsied as I said it. I tried to edge around her towards the main house but she stopped me wish a quick pinch on the edge of my parasol.  

            “Liza, I know today will be hard for you, but you must be strong okay? For me?” She pulled my parasol up to see my face. I looked up at her, annoyed but not daring to show it. What she was asking wasn’t a question, it was a warning. Be good or else you’ll regret it. She smiled at me but didn’t let go of the parasol

            “Yes mother” I replied dutifully. She let out a triumphant sigh and relinquished her grip on my parasol. I turned to look longingly back at my little wooden boat. Someday I would get away; someday I would take one of those new steam ships and get away from this place. I wouldn’t have to suffer through any more family reunions like the one I was about to face today. I trudged after her towards the house making sure to trail behind as long as I dared.

            The Gelson Manner was obscenely large in my opinion; four stories of gaudy upholstery and crisp linens. The house was kept spotless thanks to our four housewives that I swear were more to entertain my mother than anything else. We had a book room, sitting room, drawing room, and all manner of rooms that you could think of any number of useless activities to do in them.  The grounds around the manner were just as lavish. We lived on a small lake with a little island in the middle that I could see from my third floor bedroom. There was a large, wild forest encompassing the house on three sides with a large entranceway road looping around the house. We had stables, and a barn with a number of animals as well as an archery range. My mother was quite fond of archery of all things and would spend countless hours in the yard practicing. Another fine activity my mother loves to indulge in is photography. My mother and her giggling maids would dress her horrible little Pomeranian dog Freckles in human clothes and hold it in ridiculous poses then take pictures.  Who names a dog Freckles anyway.

            I marched up the bank towards the large house grinding my heels into the sundried grass. Today was going to be horrible and I could feel it. The gooseflesh rose on my arms as I followed my mother toward the back entryway. I closed my parasol and tossed it against the far wall making a loud thump. The sound was much louder than I had anticipated and I cringed as I caught sight of three women standing in a perfect row facing the fireplace. Each figure was slender and wore a pale blue gown. They were the same height, same build, and they all had wavy black hair that brushed the floor as the turned in unison to peer at what had made the sound.

            “Hello Elizabeth” they droned in harmony, their monotone voices making my heart race.

            “Hello Aunt Bailey, Aunt Kailey, Aunt Hailey” I half nodded half curtsied to each one. They turned their attention back to the fire place, which I thought very strange as there was the middle of summer, and no fire roaring in the hearth. Then again, the rest of my family was rather unusual.

STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS

The Great Gatsby - Scene

The Great Gatsby

By:  F. Scott Fitzgerald

Screenplay by Shannon Berke

FADE IN:

Int. Room – Sunset (Apocalyptic West Egg -New York where books are a very rare and dangerous commodity)

Small room lined with bookshelves and cardboard boxes along the floor. Looks like it could have been used as a decent sized office at one point if not for all of the books.

Two people enter in dusty, unkempt clothes. The man holds a rifle low but is clearly wary and shifts from side to side, always keeping an eye on the windows. The female closes the door quickly behind herself and they enter the room. She stays by the door a moment as if to check if they were followed.

A man kneeling on the floor already in the room stands. He has the same weathered demeanor as the other two with very large owl eyed spectacles.  He has an “off” look about him. He looks startled but calms himself when he realizes who has entered. He gestures around himself to the room crammed with books.

Glasses Man –

“So what do you think?”

Man  -

“About what?”

Glasses Man –

Gives a slight chuckle at the clearly dimwitted man

“About that”

He kicks over a cardboard box close to him spilling the contents of many books. They tumble out onto the floor falling at the woman’s feet.

 Woman bends to pick one up.

Glasses Man –

“As a matter of fact you needn’t bother to ascertain. I ascertained. They’re real.”

Man –

“The books?”

Woman –

Cracks open the old, dusty book she just picked up

Glasses Man –

“Absolutely real! Have pages and everything. I thought they’d be a nice durable cardboard. Matter of fact, they’re absolutely real! Pages and – here lemme show you”

He steps towards the woman and grabs the book from her.

“See! It’s a bona-fide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. This fella’s a regular Belasco. It’s a triumph. That thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop, too – Didn’t cut the pages. But what do you want? What do you expect?”

He closes the book with a snap. She jumps and looks annoyed

“Who brought you? Or did you just come? Most people were brought.”

Woman

“I was brought by a woman name Roosevelt. She said you had goods to sell but, --I see you might be busy”

Glasses Man -

A little bit, I think. I can’t tell yet. I’ve only been here an hour. Did I tell you about the books? They’re real. They’re”

Man –

“You told us”

The Man and Woman leave the office clearly disgruntled with the Glasses man. The woman makes sure to slam the door when she leaves.