Gamasutra posted an article from the Hollywood and Games Summit on The Art of Pitching. It is an interesting read because it shows just how far the divide between games and film remains, partly because the gaming industry still hasn’t matured enough to create great stories that could stand on their own. Our industry’s greatest storyteller is probably Hideo Kojima, and that’s something I wouldn’t be entirely comfortable with. Western developers certaininly have a greater grasp of traditional storytelling – one would think Bungie with Halo and David Jaffe with God of War are probably the closest to converging games and storytelling. But I disagree. Although Halo and other games have a limited extended universe, these are mostly due to their unexpected sucesses and the desire to maximize the exposure of their franchises rather to expand on their lore. In a sense, they are limited because they were made as games first and foremost, rather than as games made to tell a story.

Look at the huge worlds of World of Warcraft, Anarchy Online and EVE. MMORPGs by default have cities, planets, even universes full of content. The boundaries of these have been defined within the game, with the exception of Second Life, and a story can be extracted from the most miniscule of elements within that game world. These can be tailored for any medium – books, film, comics, etc.

Probably the best recent example of storytelling within a game was Donald and Geremy Mustard’s Advent Rising. The story, which was originally planned as a trilogy of titles, was first storyboarded in comic book form and then farmed out to scifi author Orson Scott Card to create a fully realized screenplay. Although sales of the game nearly put Majesco, its publisher, out of business, and technical problems marred the final product, it was recognized for: an engaging story, creative art style, and a motion-picture quality orchestral soundtrack. In order of importance – story, visuals, sound – these characteristics are essential for any medium. It just so happens that the game industry doesn’t prioritize them the same way.

I think game designers are selling themselves too short. We all have great ideas but are shoehorning them into design documents, rather than letting ideas breathe and take on a life of their own. These stories need the freedom to grow, only after which they would be ripe enough to tell.