WRITE TO REPLAY
Richie Shoemaker hears from Jon Ingold as the Inkle co-founder considers the issue of replayability in narrative games ahead of delivering his thoughts at this year’s Develop Conference
A
Jon Ingold, Inkle co-founder and narrative director
s the narrative force behind 80 Days, Heaven’s Vault and the upcoming A Highland Song, Inkle’s Jon Ingold is
no stranger to speaking his mind at Brighton. However, this year he is feeling a pang of dread at unexpectedly being selected to deliver a keynote speech at this year’s Develop Conference, partly because, he reminds himself, it will be his first. He insists he’s looking forward to it though,
as the replayability of narrative games (or lack thereof) is a subject that Inkle has been wrestling with for some time – and with some degree of success, it should be noted. Why, Ingold has been asking, might we reread a book or rewatch a movie a number of times, while we seem less able to restart a narrative game we cleave to just as dearly? It’s a question he’s yet to find an answer to, but he hopes to be able to deliver some semblance of one by the time July comes around.
What’s the problem with replayability in narrative focused games? Surely it’s just a fact of life that they’re just not as replayable? Quite often when I’m thinking about narrative in games, I start by thinking about books. I think, ‘What is it about a good book that means that you can reread it and the fact that you know how the story works just doesn’t matter.’ Whereas, in a game, it’s extremely rare to have a narrative where you want to actively go through the same storyline again. I remember enjoying Monkey Island when I was a kid, but I picked it up again when I was a little bit older and almost all of the magic was gone even though the writing was the same. There’s something in the design of classic adventure games that I think is probably present in linear games like Uncharted as well, where so much is about the discovery and the learning process, or the mechanics about finding out what’s around the next corner, that
18 | MCV/DEVELOP April/May 2023
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
