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              <h5 align="right"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#00025E"><img src="../../images/cover2.9_sml.jpg" width="280" height="219" align="left"><loonystart>Vol. 
                2, Issue 9<br>

                January 24, 2000<br>
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              <div align="center"> 
                <p align="center"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><font color="#904C10" size="6">Tell 
                  me a Story</font></i></font></b></p>
                <p align="right"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">An 
                  article by <a href="mailto:radpipe@loonygames.com">Russell &quot;RadPipe&quot; 
                  Lauzon</a></font></p>
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<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.15/">2.15: Livin' With The Sims</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.14/">2.14: To the Extreme</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.13/">2.13: Not Just a Passing Wind</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.12/">2.12: It's Not Easy Being Green</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.11/">2.11: Inside Origin Systems</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.10/">2.10: Game Networking 101</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.9/">2.9: Tell me a Story</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.8/">2.8: Anatomy of a Video Game</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.7/">2.7: 1999 loonygames Awards</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.6/">2.6: PC Fight Club</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.5/">2.5: Paul Steed '99</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.4/">2.4: Sounds From All Over</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.3/">2.3: Kicking Back with a Bear</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.2/">2.2: End of the Line</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.1/">2.1: American McGee's Alice</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.41/">----- Volume 1 -----</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.41/">1.41: Put a Little Love...</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.40/">1.40: Game Programming...</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.39/">1.39: More loonygames @ E3!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.38/">1.38: loonygames at E3!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.37/">1.37: The ReRuns Issue</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.36/">1.36: Inside Raven Software</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.35/">1.35: Waking Graeme Devine</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.34/">1.34: Writing the Game</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.33/">1.33: Totally Tribal</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.32/">1.32: Under His Skin</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.31/">1.31: The Glory of G.O.D.</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.30/">1.30: Chillin' w/Jason Hall</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.29/">1.29: Extreme Annihilation</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.28/">1.28: Adventures in ASCII</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.27/">1.27: Serious Brass Ones</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.26/">1.26: Two Programs...</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.25/">1.25: The Unreal Cliffy B!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.24/">1.24: Gimme Your Money!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.23/">1.23: Old Crusty Gamers</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.22/">1.22: Bugs!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.21/">1.21: 2001</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.20/">1.20: Can't Please Everyone</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.19/">1.19: The Rise and Fall...</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.18/">1.18: romuluSngan HoH!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.17/">1.17: A Very Geeky Christmas</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.16/">1.16: 5 Years of Doom!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.15/">1.15: Tune Up Your Game!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.14/">1.14: NT + Games = ???</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.13/">1.13: Blue and Levelord...</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.12/">1.12: When It's Done!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.11/">1.11: Hangin' With John Romero!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.10/">1.10: Still Sick of Games</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.9/">1.9: Gettin' Odd with the loonies</option>
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<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.7/">1.7: The Community Summit</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.6/">1.6: DRAW Pardner!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.5/">1.5: Taking Aim at Paul Steed</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.4/">1.4: Play Where You Like!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.3/">1.3: *Special Duke Issue*</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.2/">1.2: Are You Sick of Games?</option>
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              <p align="right">&nbsp;</p>
              <p align="right">&nbsp;</p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="../../images/letters_new/a.jpg" width="22" height="39" align="left"> 
                &nbsp; pleasant female voice speaks in your ear: &#147;Good morning, 
                and welcome to the Black Mesa transit system. This automated train 
                is provided for the security and convenience of the Black Mesa 
                Research Facility personnel..&#148;</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The train 
                takes you through a twisted maze of tunnels, deep underground. 
                As a First Person Gamer, you see things you&#146;ve never seen 
                before. A mysterious melody is felt more than heard as you descend 
                deeper into the labyrinth that is Black Mesa&#146;s Headquarters. 
                Large multi-legged spiders move materials from one location to 
                another. Security guards walk along skinny platforms and knock 
                against nondescript doors. Scientists move about performing complex 
                experiments that the average layman couldn&#146;t possibly comprehend. 
                This is a place you&#146;ve never been before.</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">This is 
                the game that is <b>Half-Life</b>. Awarded &#147;Game of the Year&#148; 
                by over 40 publications, its revolutionary single-player game 
                brought the FPS world to a new level of awareness. <b>Half-Life</b> 
                proved to gamers everywhere that you don&#146;t have to sacrifice 
                story for action. Indeed, the story of Gordon Freeman and the 
                experiment gone wrong at the Black Mesa Research Facility is as 
                immersive as it gets.</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In this 
                article we&#146;ll take a look at story development in several 
                top-notch games, and talk to the industry giants behind them: 
                Marc Laidlaw of Valve Software (<b>Half-Life</b>), Justin Chin 
                of Infinite Machine (<b>Jedi Knight</b> while with LucasArts), 
                and Tim Schafer, formerly of LucasArts (<b>Grim Fandango</b>).</font></p>
              <h3 align="left"></h3>
              <h3 align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Concept</font></h3>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> My first 
                question centered around the initial stages of game concept, where 
                the inspiration and ideas come from that start the creation process. 
                Key to my thinking were two things: First, who&#146;s involved 
                with the creation, and second; whether they constantly have to 
                remind themselves they&#146;re making a game and therefore have 
                constraints.</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
            </DIV>
            <blockquote> 
              <div align="left">
                <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Marc Laidlaw: 
                  </b>Well, most of the design work at Valve starts off as a team 
                  effort -- that&#146;s the most significant initial difference 
                  in the way I approach the story for a game. I don&#146;t continually 
                  remind myself that I&#146;m working on a game and not a book 
                  or a movie, though-the constraints come into play soon enough. 
                  First, it&#146;s nice to try to think of all the things you&#146;d 
                  really like to do, and work out a story that will allow you 
                  to do them. It&#146;s inhibiting to imagine a great dramatic 
                  moment and then start worrying about if the framerate will allow 
                  it. We go from whiteboard scrawls to outlines to fully detailed 
                  specs with dialog and scene descriptions.</font></p>
                <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Tim Schafer: </font></b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Honestly, 
                  I sit down with an empty notebook and just free-associate. It's 
                  a writing technique I learned in this seventh grade English 
                  class I took. You pick up your pen and you just write, and the 
                  only rule is you can't stop writing, even if you're writing 
                  gibberish. So most of what I write sounds like this: &quot;The 
                  game, the game, the game, must think about the game, and not 
                  about my transmission leak. Must figure out the bad guy's name 
                  today. Man, this coffee tastes bad. Maybe the bad guy's name 
                  is CoffeeHead. Java man. Bean grinder. Toaster head. Krupps. 
                  Braun. I'm getting a headache. There's a chip in my mug. The 
                  bad guy's name is Chip. Chip Mocha. No, that doesn't sound evil 
                  enough...&quot; And I don't think I try to worry about forcing 
                  the story into a game, but maybe I do that subconsciously because 
                  I know what works in a game by experience. </font></p>
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Illustration 
  &copy; 2000 <a href="http://www.3dpalette.com/dimension">Durrenberger David 
  (dines)</a>. This article is &copy; 2000 Russell Lauzon. All other content is 
  &copy; 2000 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited. So 
  don't do it, or we'll make you cry, sissy.</font></i></p>
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