Anyways, before I start on explaining why my research is useful and what I learned let's take a look at our goals for this story.
For me I want an original story that has a lot of meat in it. I don't want a hollow shell of a story that doesn't mean anything. Just a superficial little shell that offers nothing to the overall end product. A game that is simply a game.
I want it to make people think and enjoy the story for what is. This is especially important to me. For a story to be like that I want it to be a stand alone original story. I don't want people to play this game and think, "This is just like this story I know but in a different setting and different character names. Everything else is the same." That would be boring and predictable. I want people to play it and think of the story as a story on its own rather than a copied story of something else.
That's not to say we shouldn't look for inspiration and merely pull a story out of thin air. That's impossible. Everything comes from somewhere, it's just a matter of expressing what you want to say and determining how you want to say it. This is where you need to find the core of your story. Decide what you're really trying to say and how you want to say it. Do you want the audience to see what you're getting at guided by your voice or do you want to show them and let them decide for themselves what they have just seen?
I'll show you what I mean by that using our main inspirations for our game. There are three main inspirations that we're using at the moment:
Bastion by Supergiant Games
In Bastion the story is told through narration that happens throughout the game. What your character does is narrated at times and when your character moves through the world details and history of the area are told by the narrator. The details and histories string together to explain what happened prior to the Calamity (an apocalyptic event that happened moments before your character wakes up) and why it happened. This style of storytelling is very specific in the information it gives and adds a lot of depth to it. It gives you additional information as the game moves along and most if not all of your questions are answered by the end of the game. There is no debate as to what happened in the story because it was guided and defined. No loose ends.
In summary, Bastion's story is very clear in showing you what the story is about. Narration is a great tool that it utilised to give flow. This is because when you have a lot of cutscenes to explain the story it becomes staggered and disjointed. Here, using narration you play as the story unfolds through narration.
Limbo by Playdead
At the other end of the spectrum we've got Limbo. Limbo has zero dialogue and zero cutscenes. It simply refuses to tell you anything in favour of you finding out what's going on by yourself. Even the ending is really ambiguous and doesn't tell you much. I'll explain what happened.
The tagline for the game is "Uncertain of his Sister's fate, a boy takes a journey of exploration in the mysterious and hauntingly beautiful world of LIMBO." At the beginning you wake up in a forest and along the way you meet giant spiders and children who for some reason want to kill you. In fact, wherever you go everything is trying to kill you in one way or another. Eventually you reach a total of three different areas: The forest, the rooftops with the hotel, and the factory place. In the end you're back at the forest where you finally find your sister. The boy doesn't approach her though, standing a short distance away. She senses him there but the scene doesn't show her turning around. The final scene in the credits shows that a lot of time has passed shown by the rotting ladder and two swarms of flies buzzing away where the two children once were.
As you can see, when you play the game the game just IS. It doesn't explain anything to you so you gotta decide what it is you've just seen/experienced. Is it a sad story with a happy but wistful end? Or is it something much, much darker? Because of the way the game doesn't tell you details of the story there are many interpretations and theories as to what Limbo is actually about. The player has the freedom to decide what the story is.
There are many theories about Limbo due to the fact that it doesn't actively tell you what its about like in Bastion. Here I'll show you the two most interesting theories I've come across.
The Death Theory
One theory is that the Boy is actually dead. He's traveling through Limbo, a place between life and death, to get back to his sister to say goodbye (Homestar563, 2011; ImaBee2, 2010 ). The sister senses his presence at the end, where she mourns his death beneath the tree house he fell from, and after a long time she dies too, hence the ending scene with the flies.
The reasons for his death vary depending on the person who supports this theory. Some say he fell from the tree house (the most popular) while others say he died in a car crash. In some theories the sister is also dead (Bratcher, 2010).
In a way, this theory is about dealing with grief and death.
Villain theory
The villain theory is more morbid. Limbo is already a very macabre game so to some it doesn't make sense to have a happy ending. The ending scene is gritty and filthy; doesn't look happy at all. This theory postulates that the Boy is, once again, dead. However, he is seeking out his sister for revenge--to kill her (Reparaz, 2010). The children who try to kill the Boy are actually trying to protect his sister from him. This also explains why the children flee when the Boy gets close. You are defenseless against something that's already dead. It also ties in well with how the Boy respawns moments later. It also explains why the sister doesn't turn around even when she senses his presence.
For me this theory is really interesting because that way you'd be unknowingly playing the villain the whole time. I think it fits in well with the overall vibe of the game as well.
There are many other interpretations of the story, for example, some think it's about growing up, rejecting rural beginnings and sacrificing your friends and family for power, and so on. I love how this game gives different people a different story. This is the kind of freedom a game that doesn't tell you what it's about can give you and I think that's really special.
You can find more story theories about Limbo here, here, and here.
Journey by Thatgamecompany
Journey is somewhere in between Bastion and Limbo. Journey uses cutscenes to tell you the story about the world you're in but has no dialogue. So the story is guided in a way but leaves enough room for different interpretations to be made. When I played it I thought the story was about how greed and power destroys peace between people and how your desires can lead you to get out of control. It causes you to forget who you are. Thus, the journey to the mountain is about learning from past mistakes and finding yourself.
The various other theories for Journey I've read about read along a similar line of thought. For example, the search for enlightenment and higher understanding about the world, growing up, life, and so on. The theories aren't as varied as Limbo's but they do run across similar trains of thought.
The thing we need to decide on is where we want to be on this spectrum. Do we want to guide the player, give them a lot of freedom to decide what it's about, or a bit of both?
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References:
Bratcher, E. (2010). Limbo: What Does it all Mean? Retrieved August 3, 2012, from http://www.gamesradar.com/limbo-what-does-it-all-mean/
Homestar563. (2010, September 10). Limbo; The Ending Speculation and Thoughts [Video file]. Retrieved August 3, 2012, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR3mreYegVA&feature=watch_response
ImaBee2. (2010, July 21). LIMBO - The Ending (HD 720p) [Video file]. Retrieved August 3, 2012, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kgZZ89mh-Q
Reparaz, M. (2010) Limbo: What Does it all Mean? Retrieved August 3, 2012, from http://www.gamesradar.com/limbo-what-does-it-all-mean/
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