14 DAY TRIAL // One of the more heated debates in the recent history of video games has been the apparent conflict between story and gameplay. The main point of contention has usually about which of these two elements should take precedence in the process of development. Tameem Antoniades, the co-founder of Heavenly Sword's developer Ninja Theory, seems to be on the narrative side of the argument, according to a recent interview.
Speaking to Videogamer, he talked about the transformative experience that Heavenly Sword's creation was. “In Heavenly Sword I thought, ‘Actually, let's try and do a story.’ Working with Andy and everyone else, working with Weta and having people talk about story as something serious - not something throwaway like we do in games - was quite eye-opening to me.”
He continued to comment about the general opinion that developers should focus more on making the game fun, rather than telling a compelling story, saying that, “I still see a prejudice, actually. I still come across a lot of people who say, ‘it's a game and it doesn't need a story.’ You're trying to make a particular point of storytelling, trying to refine it, and somebody says ‘it's just a game, it doesn't matter.’ What's more important - the gameplay or the story? If you're doing a [story-based] game, it's got to be the story, actually.”
Antoniades also gave an example of the positive collaboration possible between gameplay and narrative as he talked about Resident Evil 4. While playing through the story, he admitted that he never got bored and could not wait to see what happened next. Once the story was finished and he moved on to the arcade mode, he just could not play anymore. The gameplay was the same, according to Antoniades, but lacking the story to support it, the whole enterprise became pretty dull.
Ninja Theory is currently working on Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, an action adventure game that will arrive on the 8th of October on the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.