Feature: 'What Every Game Developer Needs to Know about Story'

In today's main Gamasutra feature, Microsoft Game Studios writer John Sutherland, who has performed a variety of script and story doctor work on games including Dungeon Siege II, MechAssault 2, and Jade Empire, explores what game story, in his opinion, is and is not. Sutherland suggests exactly what he thinks every developer should know about the essentials of video game storytelling, starting from the base, inalienable fact that 'story is conflict', commenting: "Increasingly, story is a hot item in games. Partly, this is because the quality bar is rising in this relatively young art form. As games evolve, people want more depth, not just higher polygon counts. More to the point, game developers want to sell their wares to more people. Selling them to the same ones every time doesn't lead to a lot of growth. It's clear we need to tap into something more universally human. And story is a universal human experience. So how do we approach story in games? Well, to answer that, we need to look at what has worked in other story forms, and what is unique to the new story form of games." You can now read the full Gamasutra feature on the subject (no registration required, please feel free to link to the article from external websites).