INTERACTIVE NARRATIVE: Gameplay Blog

WEEK SIX: Grim Fandango

How is the narrative developed through character interactions?

I played the game Grim Fandango, where I played as Manny, a reaper of the afterlife. For this game, I really felt that character interactions were important, as I found that I actually didn't know what to do without conversing with the NPCs. Other times, interacting with the characters triggered events, so that the story progressed and I moved forward in the game. An example would be breaking the delivery system, where after acquiring the right parts (balloons etc), Manny can steal a client, and thus the narrative can be developed. However, to acquire the objects that is needed, the player has to talk to a clown. Therefore the clown - though a side character - plays an integral role in the narrative development. Without talking to the clown, the player is effectively suspended in game play, unable to move on with the story.As described in one of the readings, characters can be defined by their role in a game. Labelled as Cast Characters by the reading The fictional world setting and characters, it describes, "...they are characters with a particular function in the game related to the story.", which is very apparent in Grim Fandango. The characters that Manny interacts with reveals hints as to what needs to be done, as the reading describes, characters "...that will react to us and do things to us that we can respond to. Characters in games are not just the people that the game is about, but also the people who are making action happen and thus producing different stories."However, in Grim Fandango, the interaction wasn't straight forward; the player simply can't speak to anyone at any time, it has to be completed in a certain order. This further exemplifies how the characters in the game are important to moving the narrative forward, as you can't ignore them or simply talk to them in any order or skip other characters. As Mark J. P. Wolf states, "characters as the driving force of narrative development in video games.", so the completion of the interaction is vital, as you have to talk to one character to understand your next move in game. There are some things only one character can tell you or give you, so interaction to develop the narrative in Grim Fandango is imperative for the continuation of the plot.

LucasArts. (Developer). (1998) Grim Fandango [videogame]. United States: LucasArts
Egenfeldt-Nielson, S., Smith, J., & Tosca, S. (Authors) (2008) Understanding Video Games [Book]. Retrieved from: http://animation.onlearn.co.nz/pluginfile.php/2710/mod_resource/content/0/Egenfeldt-Nielsen%2C%20Smith%20and%20Tosca%2C%202008%20-%20The%20fictional%20world%20settings%20and%20actors.pdf