1947

It's night, in a locked-down building somewhere in the USA, as two men in lab coats tinker with a bulky, experimental machine. Wires connect it to a cathode-ray tube display, across which are scattered several points of light. One flicks a switch and a thin beam of light sweeps the screen. 'It's a miss!' cries his accomplice, and quickly turns a couple of knobs labeled "missile curvature" and "missile speed". 'Again!' he urges, and the other man complies. A second beam arcs swiftly on the new path. They follow it closely, as it reaches one of the targets, which then disappears in an exploding flash of light. They lay back, grinning.

2008

Having the same task, hundreds of such cells exist around the world. They are now tightly controlled by powerful corporations which supply the multi-million dollar funding required to operate. They have dozens of technical, trained experts using only state of the art technology. They are highly organized and have assembly line efficiency. They work with methodological precision and will risk nothing. They fight for power and resources and protect them by any means necessary. Their objectives are self-serving. They have an international reach and may affect hundreds of millions of people, young and old. They are the video game industry - gone wrong.

2009

It's time for a new kind of video game. It's time for a return to the old ways of making them. It's time to break them down to the basics of what really matters. It's time for Meaningful Interactive Entertainment.

Click on the cloud to scatter it.

Play is both a recreational and educational activity and an integral part of human nature. It shall stand as the basic principle of the art form hereby known as storygames. It shall be governed by rules and goals requiring strategy, skill and sometimes luck.

High interactivity shall permit the player to have several, varied choices with distinct, dynamic consequences. A linear experience is better expressed through other art forms. Freedom of choice must be offered.

There shall be a striving for realistic depth in interactions, but not to such an extent as to become unintuitive or confusing for the players to interact. Fun must come first.

Participation shall be done in either single or multiplayer form. Whether cooperative or competitive, the ingenuity of human thinking and the experience of multi-human interaction are unparalleled.

The maximum number of players shall not be so high as to prevent deep interactions between them. Small groups are best suited. Writers must reserve a measure of authorship power in order to create characters with behaviors more dramatic than that of players.

Performing art shall be employed in the interactions between players and/or characters, conveying the narrative to the audience using combinations of vocal and bodily gestures, memorization and improvisation.

The players may become both performer and audience, adopting and acting out the role of characters that may have personalities, motivations and backgrounds different from their own. Rules must then exist to resolve conflicting actions.

Stories are present in most art forms and works, and particularly in the ones which are the most appreciated. They make the player's experience more meaningful. Narrative elements such as plot, setting, theme, characters and dialogue shall drive the player's experience. They shall be closely tied into the gameplay, and vice-versa. Developers shall respect the player's time and refrain from inserting filler content such as mini-games and repetitive combat.

Storytelling is a part of every culture and a means of entertainment and education. When fiction is represented through performance, the narrative becomes more dramatic and more memorable.

Multiple media and content forms, such as text, music, images, animations and sound effects shall be used to convey the narrative. These elements enrich and accentuate the player's immersion into the fictional experience.

The artistic value of multimedia content shall take precedence over technological photorealism. Multimedia shall convey the narrative rather than simulate the environment scientifically. Artistry focuses on the dramatic aspects of the scene and is better at evoking emotions.

Technological accessibility shall be strived for. Storygames must be available in any country, on any operating system, immediately.

3D realism is a major resource drain in game development. By keeping multimedia accessible rather than striving for virtual reality, the nature of storygames shall be simple enough as to allow development by independent parties. Passion and creativity must matter more than resources and technical knowledge. Storygames require only a producer, a designer, a writer, a programmer and one or more artists. A developer can fill more than one of these roles, and in the history of good games, they often have.

Computing power shall be used to calculate and simulate plausible world models and actors. Both the spatial and emotional dimensions shall be given importance. True artificial intelligence is not required in order to implement actors believable enough to offer a satisfactory experience for the player, but the generation of procedural content shall not exclude hand-crafted one.

Technology changed the way people connect with the rest of the world. It also makes the self publishing of accessible products easier, cutting out the middle man. The players must also have some power in distributing the game as to avoid the risk of having the publisher terminate a game by shutting down its servers.

Computers don't lend themselves very well to full-body input, and as such, mental gameplay elements such as problem solving, resource management and tactics shall take precedence over those depending on manual dexterity and hand-eye coordination. The latter must be kept at a minimum and better suited for sports.

What now? Join us in creating a Storygame Engine which will make it easier for developers to create games according to these principles. The source-code will be shared freely and by developing according to the open-source methodology, programmers can accomplish their common goals together, better. Through the community building of a powerful, flexible software engine, future developers will be free to work more on what matters.