Literature overview and case studies
This term is devoted to narrative games in their various forms like autobiographical, political, and philosophical. All these game genres are characterized by prevalence of a narrative element the main function of which is to communicate a message. So, I would like to start the research on the topic from revisiting an abstract from my BA thesis, mentioning the split in approach to narrative analysis of video games:
“Worth mentioning here is the “narrativists vs ludologists” conflict in the area of game studies which significantly influences the choice of approaches to game analysis. In brief, narrativists (Ryan, Jenkins, Simons) tend to treat games as texts or stories, “study them alongside other storytelling media” (Jenkins, 2004) and consequently apply methods of narrative analysis. Ludologists (Juul, Eskelinen, Frasca), on the other hand, accuse narratology of “colonization” (Wesp, 2014) and “want to see the focus shift onto the mechanics of gameplay” (Jenkins, 2004). The debates are very deep and still ongoing, but I find the in-between position of Espen Aarseth (2012) the most appealing one as he calls for approaching the problem from the core structure, that is shared by both games and stories, – the four dimensions: world, objects, agents and events. Aarseth in general presents a narrative theory of games and proves that narrative theory can be used for games not neglecting their special features as a separate medium.”
As I have mentioned in project aims and objectives, I would like to focus on wordless narrative games, therefore I have established several key points to research and apply in the process of artifact production. Apart from general overview of works, devoted to wordless games, the main question I need to answer is what game elements are responsible for “telling a story” and communicating the message to players. I will provide several case studies of silent games to see not only which elements tell the story, but how they do it as well. Eventually I will get some understanding of which way to go and what to keep in mind while working on the wordless game of my own.
Games, obviously, are not the first medium that rejects words to tell a story. Laura McGee (2013) gives a brief retrospective about narrative minimalism in mediums, related to games, from which evolved similar approach to games. First of all, the film medium. Maria Carluccio (2016) also gives overview of that medium in terms of wordless picture books’ research and states that in order to keep the viewer engaged in the story, it must reveal itself gradually and make the viewer constantly ask questions of “why”, “what will happen next” or somehow try to predict future events. [p.67] Same applies to games as they rely on visual sequence as well. Coming back to McGee, she also mentions the fact that games literary started from being very minimalistic in narrative due to their dependence on technological levels, so “plot was kept to a bare minimum if there at all and narrative cues primarily existed to give context”. As technologies progressed wordlessness became an artistic choice as it allows to experience the game in a more deep and personal way. As both McGee (2013) and Gaikward (2014), and many other researchers in interactive storytelling field agree, human imagination works with patterns and does not need many detailed descriptions in order to produce a wholistic image. It prefers to construct meanings from small bits of information and that is what various media, focusing on telling a lot through less, try to work with and make watchers/players have a much more powerful experience.
While trying to narrow down my research to wordless games, I found out that researchers barely touched on the topic. A lot of scholars debate on questions of game narrative in general (like the abovementioned Ryan, Jenkins, Simons, Aarseth), but I managed to find only one definition of a wordless game by Emma Reay (2020) in her analysis of the games like Little nightmares and Inside: “Wordless video games convey narrative meaning, game rules and ludic feedback through visual, audible, haptic, and mechanical signifiers without the use of written text or verbal speech, other than in the extradiegetic game menus or title screens. Additionally, wordless video games don’t convey information via a ‘heads-up display’ (HUD), which is an interface overlaid onto the game world that displays information on score, lives, time etc.” [p. 8]
Due to this issue I had to base my research on related wordless narrative mediums like silent comics and picture books. Here I want to two main outcomes. First one was partly mentioned above – “show, don’t tell” principle. It means that players can reconstruct the narrative only with several correct clues from the author. To elaborate this point Carluccio mentions that creators should “consider, how much they want the viewer to guess at the story and how much they want to ensure the story is communicated clearly” [p. 59] This is important because imagination differs from person to person as well as cultural differences can lead to ambiguity and several various interpretations of the narrative. Because, as she rightfully claims, “there is no guarantee that the story they [creators] intend [to make] will actually be the story the viewer takes away”[p.56]
Second important point is “why silent?” e.g. why does a particular game or narrative doesn’t use text and how does it benefit from that absence? Here I would like to start with the example of The Arrival – a silent picture book/ graphic novel (opinions vary) by Shaun Tan. It is a story about migrating to a completely foreign country and trying to adapt to the new life there. I completely agree with Sly’s (2020) outcome that silence gives us experience of “trauma and alienation as well as silence resulting from people not having a shared language”. Such omnision makes the story “interactable” because together with the character viewers try to learn and understand the rules of a completely unknown world. It is supported even more by peritext, where even we, the ones outside the story, can’t understand a thing as it was designed not to resemble any known language. By excluding the core means of communication we can not only consciously understand that the character is alone and doesn’t understand a thing as if could have read about it but can feel in on our own. So, silence significantly deepens our experience.
But let’s turn to games medium. Games are different from picture book and comics because of direct player’s interaction, game rules and mechanics that provide and control this interaction. So, the effects of silence would be different. I want to take 3 games as examples: Little nightmares 1&2, The Journey and The Flower. Apart from the question “why silent?”, I will define which visual ques (according to Carlussio) they use to communicate narrative and what role gameplay has in this communication.
The Journey:
Why silent? The case of Journey is related to The Arrival. All locations that we visit are vast deserted areas where our protagonist is the only one standing (we omit the multiplayer feature here). Verbal silence intensifies the feeling of loneliness as well as relates to the characters backstory, who turns out to be the last one standing from their civilization. Thus, you may argue that technically there is a form of verbal communication, using square signs and sounds. But it has the same peritext effect as in The Arrival. We as players don’t understand their communication and the meaning of squares. Everything that players really need to understand is depicted with clear images, that form parallel narrative, that eventually forms backstory of the world and produces meaning. If we analyse silence from the point of operational and interpreted components (Schellekens, 2020), wordlessness functions within interpreted ones (the ones that communicate message to player on their own): theme and aesthetics. From the theme of a lonely traveller in a desert and a destroyed civilization silence is a logical element while most of all we as players feel the influence of silence via aesthetics when there’s literary no one to talk to. Even a potential narrator. We have to find out everything on our own.
What visual cues? We can notice 2 types according to Carluccio, which are symbols and title. Thus, they communicate very little narrative information. The majority of it is communicated via environmental storytelling, where in each location we can see the story (picture sequence on walls + story fragment before proceeding to the next one) and its consequences, that is the ruins. By merging two types of information, we understand the main plot.
How gameplay communicates the narrative? Journey has a very simple gameplay. Though it can’t compare with environmental storytelling, core mechanics support emergent narrative. For example, we have to free cloth creatures from fragments of some cages in the beginning. Later on we find more preserved ones, which turn out to be snake-like machines and at some point we meet them alive which try to damage us. So, two mechanics “free the creatures” and “avoid cage-creatures” add to the world story narrative.
The Flower:
Why silent? Silence supports the theme element, which is nature. Most of the game is about the petal wind flying around. Player just does not need any verbal guidance or information. He must feel free and alone, being able to go wherever with a pleasant music in the background. In this game silence is related to aesthetics and game dynamics elements. Especially dynamics, because without any literal instructions at the beginning of the game you do not have particular understanding what to do and where to go. The clues are made only visually, and player must spend some time just flying around and enjoying colourful scenery. What was intended by developers in the first place.
What visual cues? Like in Journey it is possible to distinguish only 2 types – symbols and title. Petals symbolize nature and electric tower symbolize the city. Supported with gameplay it is not hard to get a simple message of nature struggling with the grey city. Again, most of the job does environmental storytelling and how locations transform from colourful and airy to hostile electrified and stiff ones as we approach the city.
How gameplay communicates the narrative? Gameplay can be described in one short phrase: collect petals and avoid electricity. From collision with electric tower players get a clear message that the city destroys nature. But closer to the end, we get another mechanics, which is demolishing the towers, which develops the narrative to communicate the main message.
Little Nightmares 1&2:
Why silent? First of all, I think that it contributes to the genre, which is horror. It is supposed to produce mystery and fear, because silence is like darkness: the unknown is what scares the most. Secondly it works well in combination with the main characters, who are children. Reay (2020) states that from one point it hints on children’s “quiet compliance”, making the player feel like “an anxious parent, protecting a dependent child as it moves through a dangerous world” [p.1] From another point it increases mystery and disturbance, when children become stronger with potentially sinister intentions and they “seem imbued with authoritative knowledge” [p. 12] Silence is needed to influence player’s perception of the story and characters, which means it is directly related to aesthetics element (which is “how it feel to play the game”).
What visual cues? Little Nightmares have more visual cues as it presents humans and human-like creatures that express a big variety of gestures. A significant amount of storytelling goes by symbols, which make players engaged in the process of finding out their meaning. For example, in part 1 the eye that is present in many locations and is even an obstacle at some point. Part 2 is especially rich in symbols, that can help players develop their understanding of narrative. That is the music box of Six, the door that Mono is constantly trying to reach, TV sets all over the game etc. These key symbols make us ask questions and suppose their meaning and role in the story while playing. Players are interested in finishing the game in hope that the meaning will be revealed in the end or at some point of the game. The key engine of Little nightmares is mystery which creates dynamical interest in the narrative. We are in constant state of “what happens next?” For example, in LM2 with each location change we wonder, which one will be next and what monsters are awaiting there; the mysterious Thin Man by giving us small hints first forces us to move further to reveal his origin, which is the climax of the whole game and turns the narrative understanding inside out. Peritext-like elements are also massively present in the game which allow players to have debates over the whole game story. For example, portraits of the characters, that we saw before together with the ones we don’t know makes us ask questions one who they might be. In LM2 children’s chalk drawings giving hints to future or some explanation to the past events etc.
How gameplay communicates the narrative? Basically, the gameplay supports the message of vulnerability of child characters. All we can do is hide and trick monsters. But gameplay changes dramatically together with the story and supports the narrative trick. As children gain powers, they not only start to attack, but player gradually has less and less control over them. Especially it is vivid in the ending scene of LM1, where Six devours souls of everyone around, and player has no control, but to let her move forward.
Outcomes:
– Wordlessness of a game is a tool that must be applied for some particular purpose. Mostly to enhance some kind of feeling and make the experience deeper and more immersive. Depending on the genre, silence can me calm and meditative or disturbing. So when thinking through a project, we must clearly answer the question “what for do I need this silence”.
– Absence of words already communicates a message on the level of aesthetics most of all. It means players can feel something they not always can verbalize. I believe it is a deeper level of interaction with the medium.
– Words or verbal clues are the pieces of the narrative puzzle that can be deliberately omitted in order to stimulate players’ imagination and make them produce meanings by themselves. Alongside core game elements it creates narrative dynamics – the holes, which players’ mind need to close in order to feel comfortable. But important to remember that the main message must be communicated clearly via other elements because there is no guarantee that players will take out the same understanding as developers intended.
– Most of communication in case of wordlessness relies on visual cues. Case studies showed that the most widespread ones are symbols and peritext together with environmental storytelling. Since characters can say nothing, the surroundings will.
– Silence must be supported by gameplay. Characters must demonstrate behaviour and abilities in correspondence with the narrative state they are supposed to be in. Otherwise, the aesthetics will not work properly, and the message is highly probable to be distorted or the narrative will not be engaging enough to keep the player interested.
– In terms of the story, I must clearly think through, what parts of it can be hidden or omitted in order to still keep the main idea clear.
SOURCES:
- Carluccio, M., (2016). Wordless Children’s Picture Books: A Universal Language, Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York.
- Gaikward, K. (2014). Use of a Wordless Narrative in Gaming. Available at: https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/KaranGaikwad/20140831/216312/Use_of_a_Wordless_Narrative_in_Gaming.php (Accessed: 21.02.2021).
- Jenkins, H. (2004) ‘Games design as narrative architecture’ in Wardrip-Fruin, N. and Harrigan, P. (ed.) First person: new media as story, performance and game. Cambridge, Ma.: The MIT Press.
- Mcgee, P. A. (2013) Minimalism inGame Narrative: Can we say more bytalking less? Available at: www.dreamfeel.net:http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/PaulAndrewMcgee/20130517/192492/Minimalism_in_Game_Narrative_Can_we_say_more_by_talking_less.php (Accessed: 20.02.2021)
- Reay, E., (2020) Secrets, Stealth, and Survival The Silent Child in the Video Games Little Nightmares and INSIDE. Barnboken, 43.
- Sly, C. (2020) An eloquent silence: The value of wordless narratives. Scan, 39(7).
- Schellekens, J., Caselli, S., Gualeni, S., Giappone, C. (2020) Satirical Game Design: The case of the Boardgame Construction BOOM!. In In the Proceedings of The International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games. FDG.