story told through environment

i really really suck at blogs. it was all going so well for a moment there.

at any rate, i've been seeing a lot of stuff lately about how stories can be told through an environment, for the player that is willing to find it and it's definitely a subject that interests me.

bioshock, fallout 3 and fable 2 are good examples that immediately come to mind. all to give you a sense of world and environment. the random little stories in fallout 3 just added to everything, where you found discarded notes or piles of bodies - events that happened long before you got here. it's nice to see a world that isn't solely affected by the main hero.

i remember quite a few certain scenes in fable 2 that were there for no other purpose than to be found, and weren't easy to do so. there was one quest that you had to figure out on your own, to do with this rabbit trying to find an egg to bring back to his family. you read his diary, try to figure out what he's talking about, perform various tasks that you would have not known had you not found the diary, and an egg appears. you get a little freaked out, there was no fanfare or no glowing light as you've come to expect whenever you achieve something in a quest, it's just there.

you pick up the egg and try to find the rabbit's home (which wasn't easy i seem to remember), eventually finding yourself transported into this tiny underground house with a table and chairs and beds, and plates set on the table with big carrots and small carrots laid about. and not a soul in sight. overall the whole situation is pretty creepy, there's just silence. no NPCs, no opening sequences, no "quest complete!". there was no quest, there were no checkpoints, anything you had to do, you simply did it all out of interests sake because that's the type of player you are - and you are rewarded for that. interestingly enough, there were also no enemies.

it says a lot for atmosphere too when you want to grab the carrots and get the hell out of there before some giant zombie rabbit appears (which you more than half expect).

i love this style of optional extra storytelling, which is only revealed to the players that actively seek it. this means there are no players bored waiting for the story to finish so they can slice something, and there are no players annoyed at the constant break from the story where they have to slice something. completely perfect, and it doesn't take away from the experience if you don't find it, simply adds to it.

at any rate this technique described doesn't necessarily tell the entire story to a game, though it can. that's the idea that i'm interested in. there are plenty of players out there that don't want to waste time with cutscenes, and there are plenty of players out there that eat this stuff up like chocolate sauce on an ice cream sundae (myself included).

and also maybe i'll start writing some more. probably not.