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                      <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><font color="#904C10" size="3">Tell 
                        me a Story</font></i></font></b><br>

                      <div align="right"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">By 
                        Russell &quot;<a href="mailto:radpipe@loonygames.com">RadPipe</a>&quot; 
                        Lauzon</font></div>
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                    <h5 align="right"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#00025E">Vol. 
                      2, Issue 9<br>
                      January 24, 2000</font></b></h5>
                  </td>
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              <h5 align="right">&nbsp;</h5>
            </DIV>
            <div align="left"> 
              <h3><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Developing The Story 
                </font> </h3>
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
                If I can borrow a line from a review plucked from the early pages 
                of loonygames, and written by my mentor, loonyboi: &#147;<b>Grim 
                Fandango's</b> storyline, which may very well be the best I've 
                ever seen in a PC adventure game, mixes film noir with Mexican 
                mythology, and a definitely warped sense of humor.&#148; He goes 
                on to say: &#147;What really impressed me about <b>Grim Fandango</b> 
                is how...solid a game it is. The storytelling's in a class all 
                its own,...&#148;</font></p>
              <p></p>
              <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Grim Fandango</font></b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> 
                was designed by the same genius behind <b>Full Throttle</b>, another 
                great LucasArts game. And that genius was Tim Schafer. I asked 
                Tim and the other gents what they felt the key was to developing 
                a story throughout a game, without having it degenerate into a 
                mindless race of &#147;kill, find the key&#148;, where things 
                such as character development and a sense of accomplishment on 
                achieving a goal fell to the wayside.</font></p>
            </div>
            <blockquote> 
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <b>Tim Schafer: </b>I 
                think the key is to not separate the story from the puzzles, or 
                from any other part of gameplay. The story and the puzzles and 
                the characters and the technology are all connected. The characters 
                drive the puzzles&#151;Manny Calavera would never kick in somebody's 
                door, so he would have to solve several puzzles in a different 
                way then Ben Throttle. You have to constantly ask yourself, what 
                does this character want more than anything in the world? What 
                would be satisfying for him or her to do? If he wants to avenge 
                the death of his father, he can't defeat his father's murderer 
                in a game of chess. He has to kick some serious ass. Every action 
                has to be a wish-fulfillment for both the character AND the player. 
                &quot;I want to kick that door down. I want to run a night club. 
                I want to ride a motorcycle. I want to get the girl.&quot; A good 
                game is a long string of such wish-fulfillment's.</font></p>
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b> Marc Laidlaw:</b> 
                If you don&#146;t keep touching on aspects of the story, changing 
                and developing them in the course of the game, then you might 
                as well not even have a story. Character is probably the hardest 
                thing to develop in a game, especially when your &#147;character&#148; 
                is nothing but a pair of eyes and some weapons. In Half Life we 
                used the oblique strategy of having other characters talk to Gordon 
                Freeman and openly draw conclusions about his motives and comment 
                on his state; I hoped this would guide the player (just a bit) 
                to feel that Gordon is changing during play. But things are still 
                at a very primitive state. For instance, Gordon starts off with 
                bare hands. Toward the end of the game, when he&#146;s obviously 
                laden with weapons, a scientist tells him, &#147;You don&#146;t 
                look as if you have much trouble killing things.&#148; Most of 
                the techniques we take for granted in film and literature are 
                still in very rough form at this point, or haven&#146;t exactly 
                found their in-game counterparts.</font></p>
              <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Justin Chin:</font></b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> 
                First, I can't tell about that so called, &quot;key&quot;, even 
                if there is one. It's my secret sauce, and you can't have it and 
                I'm still trying to get it to open other stuff.</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">As 
                for conveying information to the teammates, it's a full time job. 
                You can't do much of anything else except that. Most designers 
                will probably agree with that. It takes meetings with groups, 
                individuals and good hiring. And it's turn me into a schizophrenic 
                madman. I can only hope I do this job well. Most importantly it 
                takes constantly reminding yourself and others what the goals 
                are on the project, and perhaps convincing them that those goals 
                are valid and worthwhile. A bit of self doubt is also good for 
                keeping yourself honest, and not becoming that &quot;rock star&quot; 
                thing that everyone is yapping about. Screw that, more crazy artists 
                (that includes programmers, who I consider artists) and less attitude. 
                No offense to people with attitude... sometimes it takes attitude 
                to create brilliant works. See, how schizophrenic I am?</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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