Transparency of Writing in Video Games

Let me tell you about something that is important to me: writing in video games.

Early arcade games were light on writing. There was some text on the intro screen, maybe listing out the enemy names and telling how many points for an extra life, but besides that the game was self-contained and there was no more writing. That was fine back then, because video games were new and strange and cool.

But nowadays there is no excuse for having no or bad writing in games.

Bard's Tale was cool because it told a story. It was simple and unobtrusive, but there was a story. And even when you weren't following the story and just messing around the town, there was writing. There was descriptive text every time you fought monsters. Each tavern had a different name and each tavernkeeper had different things to say. You'd find inscriptions and messages strewn about the dungeon walls. When you fought King Aildrek, the game would explicitly break the fourth wall and say "I think you're in trouble."

I like it when games have things for me to read. Resident Evil's long tradition of plot-related files. Oblivion's many books and scrolls. Paper Mario and Mario and Luigi's comedic dialogue. Bionic Commando Rearmed's comm center hacking. Castlevania and Dark Spire's flavor text for each and every monster and item.

One of my biggest goals in game design is to make writing oblique. Put it at the forefront, right there on the main screen's UI for the player to see. Most of my game ideas employ a "narrator" that details actions in descriptive format for almost everything: healing, attacking, investigating items, et cetera.

It's not realistic, I will admit. Some games seem to be obsessed with being 'realistic' and giving the player no information on the main UI. That's fine, if it's done right. But Forcastia isn't supposed to be super-realistic. I don't think you can make a game where you play a giant cartoon dragon super-realistic. Forcastia's a fantasy story, and I want players to feel like they're writing a fantasy story just by playing, by seeing the text scroll up on the little status bar. Not realistic, but fun.