One way to change the conversation around video games is to open up the thinking about the kind of conflict that drives narrative games.
One way to open up those stories to more voices and create more space for more kinds of characters in those games is to have more kinds of stories.
As Francisco Gonzalez, a designer at Wadjet Eye Games, pointed out at IndieCade East this weekend, the conflict doesn’t always have to be the same. “Not every story has to be a global conspiracy or a ‘big bad,'” he said, during his talk this past Friday at the Museum of the Moving Image.
Gonzalez argued that one kind of conflict that could be used more often in games is “Person vs. Self.”
Remember the forms of conflict we learned in 9th-grade English? Most video games are Person vs. Person or Person vs. Society, but there’s no reason why a game couldn’t explore a person grappling with his or her own inner demons.
Gonzalez highlighted three games that have used this conflict to drive the narrative:
- Planescape Torment, 1999, for PCs. A “Dungeons and Dragons” roleplaying game where an immortal goes looking for his memories.
- Silent Hill 2, 2001, for PlayStation 2. A horror video game where your character is wandering through a town and confronting all these monsters, until you gradually realize that the monsters are all manifestations of his own fears and guilt. It introduces legendary horror character, Pyramid Head, who, in this game, is the chief manifestation of the protagonist’s desire to be punished for his wife’s death.
- A Golden Wake, 2014, for Steam. This is Gonzalez’s game for Wadjet Eye, a narrative based on real events. It seems like it’s a story about Man vs. Society, but, in truth, he’s really working against his own impulses. It’s a rise and fall story, based on actual events from real estate in the 1920s.
Gonzalez ran the talk to raise these questions:
- Why aren’t there more games like this?
- Do games have to be so driven by battle-oriented plots?
- Could intentionally looking at new kinds of conflict draw in new audiences for games?
- How invested are the people who play games in narrative over the gameplay itself?
Gonzalez told Technical.ly Brooklyn that he moved to New York from Miami in August 2013. He began working as a designer for Wadjet Eye this past November. He lives in Ditmas Park.
Check out his full game-making résumé at Grundislav Games.
Before you go...
Please consider supporting Technical.ly to keep our independent journalism strong. Unlike most business-focused media outlets, we don’t have a paywall. Instead, we count on your personal and organizational support.
3 ways to support our work:- Contribute to the Journalism Fund. Charitable giving ensures our information remains free and accessible for residents to discover workforce programs and entrepreneurship pathways. This includes philanthropic grants and individual tax-deductible donations from readers like you.
- Use our Preferred Partners. Our directory of vetted providers offers high-quality recommendations for services our readers need, and each referral supports our journalism.
- Use our services. If you need entrepreneurs and tech leaders to buy your services, are seeking technologists to hire or want more professionals to know about your ecosystem, Technical.ly has the biggest and most engaged audience in the mid-Atlantic. We help companies tell their stories and answer big questions to meet and serve our community.
Join our growing Slack community
Join 5,000 tech professionals and entrepreneurs in our community Slack today!