Searching through his feed, I located an article/ interview that he had given to another author and found that it would be relevant in my discussions for Game Design.
In the article, Gavin discusses that the creative processes for writing literature and game design are actually quite similiar, "Video games and novel writing are both very iterative and detail oriented. They use a lot of the same mental muscles," he said. I find this very interesting because as I have started creating games in Game Design, I notice how a narrative seems to come naturally to game creation. Suddenly paper clips become "space junk" and coasters become "landing bases", and to me storytelling within games amps the interaction and helps engagement.
But I think one of the most important topics that Gavin hits upon, is that games and novels are all about ideas and the expression of ideas, "Both games and novels start with a basic idea, and it’s essential to focus on what’s important. In both cases, this is a creative process, imagining something blurry and only partially formed that calls out to you." He uses the example of the creation of Crash Bandicoot, one of the protagonists in Naughty Dog's popular video game series, and his protagonist in his novel The Darkening Dream. In the interview, though Gavin does not explicitly state it, he seems to say there is a distinction between idea development for games and again for stories, but does not outright name the distinction. In Crash Bandicoot, it seems that story creation becomes more like a means to an end. We we want to make a game, we pick out the genre (a platform game with animals) and then we create a story around it. Whereas in novel writing, there seems to be more of an emotional creative process, as in "I have an image in my mind's eye that I want to elaborate more on". I imagine that Gavin is not ignoring the fact that games have mechanics, and there can often be a certain set structure that games have to be constrained to (in general) that maybe can detract from the certain freedom that he notices with writing novels. I can definitely see where gaming for him is definitely more "business/structure" rather than "leisure/creative" as his novel writing.
But I have noticed in my experience with designing our Pick Four Games, that the narrative really does seem like carrying the game to from Point A to Point B, with a set starting point ( we have a, b, c, and we need to come up with d, e, f) rather than I'm going to create a game around an image in my eye and my brain then develops the starting point. It's a slight distinction, and often difficult to express, but explains how storytelling in games has evolved, more outside in, than inside out.
In the article, Gavin discusses that the creative processes for writing literature and game design are actually quite similiar, "Video games and novel writing are both very iterative and detail oriented. They use a lot of the same mental muscles," he said. I find this very interesting because as I have started creating games in Game Design, I notice how a narrative seems to come naturally to game creation. Suddenly paper clips become "space junk" and coasters become "landing bases", and to me storytelling within games amps the interaction and helps engagement.
But I think one of the most important topics that Gavin hits upon, is that games and novels are all about ideas and the expression of ideas, "Both games and novels start with a basic idea, and it’s essential to focus on what’s important. In both cases, this is a creative process, imagining something blurry and only partially formed that calls out to you." He uses the example of the creation of Crash Bandicoot, one of the protagonists in Naughty Dog's popular video game series, and his protagonist in his novel The Darkening Dream. In the interview, though Gavin does not explicitly state it, he seems to say there is a distinction between idea development for games and again for stories, but does not outright name the distinction. In Crash Bandicoot, it seems that story creation becomes more like a means to an end. We we want to make a game, we pick out the genre (a platform game with animals) and then we create a story around it. Whereas in novel writing, there seems to be more of an emotional creative process, as in "I have an image in my mind's eye that I want to elaborate more on". I imagine that Gavin is not ignoring the fact that games have mechanics, and there can often be a certain set structure that games have to be constrained to (in general) that maybe can detract from the certain freedom that he notices with writing novels. I can definitely see where gaming for him is definitely more "business/structure" rather than "leisure/creative" as his novel writing.
But I have noticed in my experience with designing our Pick Four Games, that the narrative really does seem like carrying the game to from Point A to Point B, with a set starting point ( we have a, b, c, and we need to come up with d, e, f) rather than I'm going to create a game around an image in my eye and my brain then develops the starting point. It's a slight distinction, and often difficult to express, but explains how storytelling in games has evolved, more outside in, than inside out.
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