Friday 18 November 2016

Narrative Perfection... (Kubo and the Two Strings Review)


Now I'm all about games, you probably know this since you came to a blog about video games but I love a good story, in case you didn't realise that. Well you do now. 

I'm also not one for gushing about things. I'm quite negative.

However, I watched a film called "Kubo and the Two Strings" made by the very talented Laika Studios and...wow...

I could leave it there. That's your review. Ok, bye.

I won't though.

This film is almost near perfection to myself. The only problem for me is that I wanted it to be that little bit longer because it was so good. A brilliant "family film" reminiscent of Goonies, Monster House and Jumanji - dealing with the trials, tribulations and emotions of a young one-eyed boy named Kubo (played by the kid who did Rickon Stark who does a phenomenal job). 

His story begins with him looking after his disabled mother. It makes harrowing watching for a kid's film as Kubo feeds her food and she eats; staring out to the ocean from their home with no emotion. Yes; it genuinely goes there and I could not be more proud for the things they attempt to tell in their story with such soul.

Along for the ride are Charlize Theron and Matthew McConaughey who genuinely make you smile and laugh. You feel for these characters.

I want to tell you so much about what happens in this film; but I would be spoiling it. This is a genuinely heart warming experience and I could never call what the next beat of the film would be. I think I only saw one thing coming in the story but for the rest of it, I was so surprised.

Combined with a great soundtrack by Dario Marianelli (V for Vendetta) and gorgeous animation; this is quite the tour de force. I just hope that some day, games can constantly attempt to get to an emotional and hard-hitting level like Kubo and the Two Strings - to feel something genuinely for the characters, the world and the reasons why you're there in the first place.

There are many films and books that can teach you narrative, pacing, plotting and how to create emotion to your prospective viewer but maybe, just maybe, this could be what you should take a look at if you want inspiration.

If you want a story, don't blink - you'll miss it.

Friday 11 November 2016

The Starts of a Narrative Designer

You know when you take a look at yourself and you think you're not doing too bad? Wait, you have never done that before? Oh, it's 2016 isn't it? The year of woe or as I call it: the year of the "media getting it's happy fun time wank to every miserable thing it can find".

When I first started writing this blog, I didn't really know what to do with it. I still don't if I'm being blisteringly honest. Maybe you should know a little more about me and what I do.

"What I do" - it's a strange phrase isn't it? It makes you sound as if that you're a robot doing a same repetitive task. Well, I did that for quite a while in honesty. I worked in call centres for 5 years. A large portion of my twenty's was spent talking to people I would consider idiots or slow when really I was pretty much very angry at the situation I was in.

I had done a degree in Town and Country Planning and it had pretty much brought me to a dead-end. It wasn't what I wanted to do with my life and back then, the games industry had only really started to be taken seriously.

During this time I had managed to amass so many ideas of games and their worlds in my head. Some were pretty lame and some were pretty decent. These managed to manifest themselves in to games I made later on like "Recur" and "Ice Station Alpha". You can check those out if you want. SHAMELESS SELF PLUG ALERT!!!


Anyway...to get back on topic, cut to 2014. Imagine you had been in a call centre for four years; bumbling along paying bills and working pretty much 6 days a week. It was stressful to say the least. I'd been going through a few things in my head that I was "working to live" rather than "living to work".

My close friend, Dan, was chatting to me and he was one for insights that other people hadn't normally seen...and usually a lot of disgusting toilet humour. I remember the conversation clear as day; he'd been talking about his Dad and how he worked in the mines (Sheffield lad, born and bred).  He'd go in, do the job and come back home with a wage packet. We had rambled on for a while and it suddenly occurred to Dan to say the immortal words that stuck with me:

"I'll tell you, Call Centres are the Coal Mines of our generation."

It was shocking to me what he'd said. I'd been to see the bank about a mortgage the week before with my partner...and I was stuck...there in that place to pay it off.

I went off work for three weeks. I couldn't bear it. It hit me that hard.

So, yeah, if you can imagine it, I'd essentially done a crazy Kramer meltdown of epic proportions. Without the racism. And the yelling. It was more of a quiet sad sob in my underwear with a beer gut.

The job had given me a lot of disposable income so...carpe diem. I looked like crazy to get out of the hole I'd put myself in; by going to another hole. I'd decided to go to Barnsley University Campus and I started an HND in Games Design.

It became apparent in my life, I liked writing and making stories. Sure, I was starting out and I wanted to do more with words...

...so the problem with gaming is that its a very visual thing. It's difficult to get across to that you want to write and create the "narrative" of a game without getting a look like you've defecated loudly in your pants. Usually you're there because you want to draw, or model something or simply create a game with other people.

It didn't help as well that the course I was on was the first time that the university had run it...so it became difficult to know what it was that I was meant to do. It was self apparent, I was in for a long winding trek to becoming what I wanted...

Over two years, I had designed a crap looking cannon, drew some pretty awful characters and drank myself silly to make things. I just kept on finding myself drawn to explaining how everything worked. In that period of time, I made a narrative branching game called Pathogenesis. So that's there if you want to give it a play.

Putting that all to one side though, I managed to get a Distinction in my HND. Pretty badass eh? I'm like the cat with the proverbial cream.



My next step of my journey has taken me to Sheffield Hallam University doing a Masters in Games Design. If I'm going to be doing narrative, I need to write and I need to make sure that my grammar is good and I know how to talk good.

Steady as she goes though, I'm in a new world of high-brow academics and I'm just starting to pierce the veil of becoming what I want to be. In other words, I'm going to take some bruises...which has spurred this on in fact. Because I didn't get quite a good mark as I thought I had in a module with 3D modelling...

But if this little blog has a purpose to me to write and reflect on how far I've come, let me make sure that this post serves as somewhat an inspiration to you: Never settle for less and always come back wanting more.

I promise from this point on, I will be writing something slightly more fun; honest.

Ta ta sauce!
Dave (infectedflinch)