Comments on: Stories built around core mechanics

By: JPL

JPL — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:32:44 +0000

One example that comes to mind: there’s a sequence in the second level of Gears of War where batlike animals named “Kryll” will attack anyone who steps into the shadow; while it’s not exactly the same (they’re photophobic animals, not manifestations of the darkness itself), the final effect is pretty similar.

By: Spatial Relationships. « Groping The Elephant

Spatial Relationships. « Groping The Elephant — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 01:20:34 +0000

[...] Tom Armitage recently posted an interesting article, ”Stories built around Core Mechanics“. It is worth reading not only because of it’s deserved praise of the superbly [...]

By: Lee Maguire

Lee Maguire — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:38:21 +0000

The “they can’t hurt you when you’re looking at them” mechanic of the Weeping Angels does turn up in videogames. The most obvious example being the Boos from the Super Mario series.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:09:09 +0000

Well, stealth games tend to put the shadows on your side. My point was: what if the actual darkness was your enemy?

There’s an interesting narrative about myopia you can tie to that, too.

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:37:59 +0000

A game built around shadows – isn’t that every single stealth game ever made? As Dan notes Thief is the classic and The Cradle in Theif 3 is moffat-tastic (made by the same bloke who did Fort Frolic in BioShock I believe). But when I read this I immediately thought of splinter cell. After all, in the most successful iterations that’s all Sam Fisher does, hide in the dark, keep away from the light and make sure dark secrets never come to the surface.

By: Dan Hon

Dan Hon — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:16:19 +0000

Thief – notable as it had a lighting system (amongst other things in its 3d Engine) – is a great example of a story that you can tell because of the game you can play.