Cutscenes did not kill the gameplay

A thesis on the use of cutscenes and other storytelling devices in video games

by Anchel Labena
June 2012 IT University of Copenhagen. MSc in Games Design Super visor: Mark J. Nelson

Cutscenes did not kill the gameplay Anchel Labena

Cutscenes did not kill the gameplay Anchel Labena

Table of contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 3 Literature review ......................................................................................................................... 5 Why are cutscenes relevant in games? ......................................................................................... 8 The taxonomy of cutscenes ........................................................................................................ 14 A small history of cutscenes .................................................................................................... 14 Types of cutscene based on rendering technique .................................................................... 18 Live action cutscenes .......................................................................................................... 18 Pre-rendered animation...................................................................................................... 19 In-game graphics cutscene .................................................................................................. 21 The definition of cutscenes ..................................................................................................... 24 Dubious cases of cutscenes ..................................................................................................... 28 Types of cutscenes by function ............................................................................................... 33 The problem of cutscenes .......................................................................................................... 43 Alternatives to cutscenes........................................................................................................ 44 The structure of stories in games ................................................................................................ 48 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 60 Sources ...................................................................................................................................... 62 Games ....................................................................................................................................... 63

Cutscenes did not kill the gameplay Anchel Labena

Introduction
If there is one debate in video game studies that has never been fully agreed upon is the importance of storytelling for the enjoyment of the game. Games have applied different ways of conveying a story for years, from anime styled cutscenes in Ninja Gaiden (1988) to the fully hand-drawn animation that was Dragons Lair (1983), and of course more recent endeavors such as the sarcastic voice of GLaDOS in Portal (2007) and the gigantic movie-like production of Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception (2011). But even then a lingering question remains: should games really be treated as a storytelling medium? Shouldnt games be all about their gameplay and leave stories to the side? This debate has been ongoing for several years now as the battle between ludologists VS narratologists. But the following analysis does not attempt to step into that fight and take either side. Quite the contrary, the purpose of this thesis is to look at how games have been telling stories until now and analyze them, find what advantages and disadvantages each of the methods used has and how they can be used to best of their potential. Because, at the end of the day it is unquestionable that there is an audience out there that does want compelling stories in games. The big numbers in sales of story-heavy games like Uncharted 2 and Heavy Rain show that. Truthfully, not all games should have a complex and deep story. But neither do movies. Take the usual summer blockbuster action movie like Fast Five (2011) from the Fast and the Furious series for example. They do have a plot, of course. But it is definitely not the most interesting story out there. The entire narrative is just a cover to connect all the different action and racing scenes that make the movie series popular. And the audiences know this. They dont go to the cinema expecting an engrossing tale full of unexpected plot twists and heavy character development. They want to see action, and they want it from the very beginning. The horror genre is a different take, with the majority of the audience going there to feel the thrill of getting scared.

Cutscenes did not kill the gameplay Anchel Labena

But then we get to a romantic drama like James Camerons Titanic (1997). The premise of the movie was an easy sell: getting to see an interpretation of how the passengers of the boat lived the experience. But that was not what made the movie the immense blockbuster it became. What really caught the attention of the moviegoers was rather the love story between Jack and Rose. In this same way as movies, video games can sometimes do better without a complex plot that might bog down the gameplay with uninteresting cutscenes or repetitive fetch quests for the sake of embedding a story into it. Games like Tetris (1984) or Minecraft (2011) would only manage to get their gameplay hindered by shoehorning a story into them. Tetris players just want to jump into the blockdropping action, and Minecraft players want to do as they please in a world being built and modified by them. Someone who buys a platformer Super Mario game does not want to care about anything else than saving the princess. But there are those who will demand tales of epic proportions. Games like Capcoms Phoenix Wright series rely exclusively on the quality of its story, wrapped around the game mechanics of playing as an attorney. Those who play Quantic Dreams Heavy Rain (2010) do not play it solely to test their skills at keeping the characters alive, but rather because they want to learn the mystery behind the murders told in the story. And that audience is not wholly staying with books, TV series and movies to quench their thirst for narrative. They want interactive fiction where they can become one of the characters and be part of the universe. A universe that has a beginning and an end for their stories, one conclusive end that leaves them satisfied. Granted, not everyone is part of that audience. A casual gamer might not care a bit about why the birds of Rovios Angry Birds (2009) want to attack the pigs, and he will be content with jumping in level after level with no more thought given to why. But that is precisely the reason why there is choice in video games. The perfect example comes from the hundreds of first person shooters out there. Some are more story-focused than others, and a group of players might choose the title with a setting and plot they enjoy

Cutscenes did not kill the gameplay Anchel Labena

while others will pick the one with the gameplay mechanics they find the most interesting for them. That there is such an audience willing to make the choice and demanding deeper stories in games is reason enough to dive into the intricacies of storytelling in interactive entertainment. This text does not try to avoid the theories of ludologists in favor of narration in games. Quite the contrary this analysis looks at them, although briefly, as a source of inspiration for dissecting the different storytelling methods that have been used so far or could be used in future games. The objective of this thesis is then to analyze how video games have used cutscenes to tell their story and classify and dissect these cutscenes into different categories that allow for further examining. It looks at the current definition of cutscene as well as other storytelling devices that rely more heavily on gameplay. And at the end it takes a brief look at how game stories are structured as a whole by comparing it to the structure of stories in both movies and television.

Literature review
This is hardly the first analysis on cutscenes in games, even less on storytelling. There have been countless papers on the topic, especially about the never-ending debate between ludology and narratology. If one is to jump into this topic then it becomes necessary to know and understand what questions others have raised. To begin it is important to state beforehand what exactly narrative is. In The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative it is defined as the representation of an event or a series of events (Abbot, 2008) and it explains how it has two dimensions: the one of the narrative discourse, which is the time it takes the user to go through the text, such as the time taken to read a book or to watch a movie, and the story. The story has its own internal chronological order that operates independently of the discourse. It is the time it takes for the events inside the story to happen. A non-narrative text such as this paper only has the

Cutscenes did not kill the gameplay Anchel Labena

dimension of the time it takes to read it. Games however do have a narrative because the events happening on the screen have a different passing of time. But what makes a game different from other texts is that the player has an input. While the developer has planned a series of events that will happen in the game, players still have the chance of affecting them in a bigger or smaller degree depending on the game. This is what Abbot calls a collaborative narrative in which both the developer and the player participate in creating a story. After finishing a game players can easily retell a story out of their actions, such as I went to the castle and saved the princess. But ludologists claim that just because it is possible to tell stories out of a play session that doesnt make everything into a narrative. Henry Jenkins looks into this in Game Design as Narrative Architecture and says that for a game to inspire specific retellings, to be narratively designed, it must involve actions whose purpose is not just winning or losing but fulfilling a concrete goal. Stories in games are also less of a temporal structure and more a body of information according to him. The game designer can control the narrative process by distributing the information across the game space, embedded within the mise-en-scene (Jenkins, 2004). Celia Pearce deconstructs this narrative process into six different operators that can exist within a game, which manages to separate what part of the narrative is the one experience by the players themselves as they perform the act of play (experiential), the one perceived by the spectators that are watching the game (performative), the retelling of those same game events to third parties (descriptive), the layers of information and backstory around the game that enhance the other narrative operators (augmentary), the narrative overlay that creates a context for the game conflict (metastory) and the set or rules that allow for the player to create their own narrative context that can coexist with the metastory (story system) (Pearce, 2004). This allows us to separate what parts of the narrative are those that the designer is under control. On the other hand the degree of how deeply the players input affects the story in the game has been analyzed in An Oz-Centric Review of Belieavable Agents and Interactive Drama in three different dimensions of local vs. global control (how many of the players actions in the game the system takes into account for advancing the story), granularity of story control

Cutscenes did not kill the gameplay Anchel Labena

(how big are the portions of the dynamic elements that the system is able to change) and generation (if the reactions of the game to the players actions are fixed or generated within some constraints to varying degrees. It also comments how cutscenes can use all the techniques developed by the movie industry for creating engaging video sequences that produce a reaction to the players actions (Mateas, 1997). But having a cutscene in the game does not necessarily mean that the audience stops being active to become passive, but rather that there are several processes in the act of interpretation. Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska suggest that the ideal would be to find a balance between narrative as predetermined and structured into the game and the variable players story generated in each individual experience. Though they also add that it is the second one which is most important to the game since it is the one that the player will be more involved with. But this narrative structured is considered necessary to provide the pace, tension, foreshadowing of events and climax to the game. The key element remains in how game designers can deliver those in-game devices in a way that feels seamless with the flow of the game (Krzywinska & King, 2002). In Games Telling Stories Jesper Juul argues however that narration and interactivity cannot both happen at the same time and that the relations between reader/story and player/game are different because the player has both the role of a player and that of an ingame character (Juul, 2001). This however should not impede the player from being immersed into the game world deep enough that, with properly integrated cutscenes, the switch between narration and interaction happens almost seamlessly. But in his paper In defense of Cutscenes Rune Klevjer argues that a cutscene does not really cut off gameplay and that it becomes instead part of the configurative experience (Klevjer, 2002). As it will be shown further down this analysis cutscenes can provide a rhythm to the gaming experience, adding moments of interruption and stress release accumulated during the more action-packed sequences. All this discussion leads to the question of whether or not cutscenes are relevant in games and if they can be beneficial or detrimental to the players experience of the game.

Cutscenes did not kill the gameplay Anchel Labena

Why are cutscenes relevant in games?

When I originally set to write this analysis my objective was to find different ways in which games could tell stories without having to fall back on the easy way of using cutscenes. However during the course of my research I encountered myself with several methods which were very close to being a cutscene, such as quick-time events where players have a certain degree of interaction by pressing the right button combinations with the right timing. Also there were several other findings that proved cutscenes were not the muchmaligned element that gamers hated and that they could, in fact, become a very positive element for games. All those results led me to thinking about how many types of cutscenes there are and how each of them works so as to use them at the best of their potential without breaking the flow of the game or the interest of the player. But, why analyze cutscenes in games? Depending on who is asked, cutscenes are either something they look forward to in a game or an element they find outdated and unnecessary. In the paper Cutscenes, Gameplay and Perceived Player Immersion (Sarkin, 2010) the author researches the impact of cutscenes on the players enjoyment and immersion. Immersion is defined here as the feeling of alertness that comes from being in this new place and the delight that comes from learning to move within it by Janet Murray (Murray, 1997) (p.99). As a test he used three modified versions of a level in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006), two with live-action cutscenes (taken from the 2000 film Gladiator) and one without. The first two differ in when that cutscene is triggered, with the first being before the gameplay starts and leading to it, while the second plays in the middle of gameplay. The level takes place in an arena where the player has to fight against other opponents, while the cutscene depicts a cheering crowd. Before starting the fight players have to walk through two rooms and get the option to talk to some non-playable characters that may give them better weapons and equipment for the battle. Depending on the version, the cutscene would kick in between each battle in the arena or disrupting the gameplay in the middle of the fight in the most breaking way possible. The participants were interviewed after the test, and the responses were quite varied. Some would claim that as long as cutscenes arent intrusive and actually contribute meaningful

Cutscenes did not kill the gameplay Anchel Labena

information they wouldnt mind them, or that it depends on the quality, preferring to watch the story unfold through the eyes of the character unless the cutscene is done with the same graphics as the rest of the game. The general consensus though was that cutscenes provided for a nice break from the gameplay and that, as long as they didnt last for too long so that they wouldnt feel distracting, they were enjoyable and presented the best way to present a story. In addition, Sarkin points out that cutscenes can add to the immersion. He argues that there exists a give-take relationship between the player and the game, in which the players have control of the game and move forward towards the next point in hopes of getting to a point when control is taken away temporarily. This loss of control can serve as a release or a reward, since the player will then get to know more about the story and advance the plot. As Sarkin states, the player creates the narrative through a give and take relationship between control and lack of control over the scene, but does so without taking the player out of the experience of playing the game. An element repeated several times in the transcripts from the interviews is the statement that cutscenes provide a nice break. This reflects the same point of view as Rune Klevjer (Klevjer, 2002) who comments that cutscenes do not really cut off the gameplay and that instead they become part of the configurative experience. The break from the players input affects the rhythm of the gameplay, not necessarily in a negative way. If the player gets used to the pacing of the game, with regular switching from action to inaction and vice versa, these changes of intense action and moments of release become something expected by the player. They learn the code and as such dont feel interrupted by the cutscenes. An example given by the author comes from Grand Theft Auto III (2001). The game combines both an open world where the player can move around as he pleases and a big, overarching story that advances through a mission structure. At the beginning of each mission the players are briefed on their objectives and, once those have been fulfilled, they are treated to a humorous cutscene that becomes a reward in itself, adding extra motivation and enjoyment for the player.

Cutscenes did not kill the gameplay Anchel Labena

There have been attempts at telling stories through gameplay while avoiding cutscenes as much as possible, such as in the aforementioned game Oblivion. But this sometimes leads to boring gameplay segments in which all the player has to do is a series of fetch quests or simple, repetitive tasks. In that department cutscenes can help alleviate the problem. A cutscene can replace that segment, telling the story in it in a more engaging way and, possibly, in a shorter amount of time. Another interesting note is that the actions of a games characters can feel more interesting when seen from a different perspective. After all players dont have access to all the same senses that the game character does, being limited to visuals and audio (with a very limited sense of touch through vibration-enabled controllers), so it may become necessary to convey certain actions by having a clearer view of what is going on. An example of this is Fallout 3 (2008), where the first person view might sometimes makes it feel like the character is a body-less soul. While this point of view can make the player be connected to his character, common actions like activating a machine or deactivating a bomb are not felt in any other way than the item on screen changing state. This can detract from the gaming experience because there is a lack of feedback. The videogame Halo 2 (2004) on the other hand changes to a more cinematic perspective when an important event is about to happen. A good example is when the character Master Chief attempts to deactivate a bomb before it explodes and, being too late, decides to throw it towards the enemy ships instead. This sequence simply wouldnt have worked the same way had the player been constrained to watching the events unfold from a first person perspective, even if the player was under the control and somehow able to perform such a move. This is because, despite being able to see the arms of the character, the scene would not have had the same level of strength and impact on the player from a cinematic standpoint. As any movie director would have explained, action scenes can take a huge advantage of specific framing and camera angles to amplify the effect.

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Cutscenes did not kill the gameplay Anchel Labena

Master Chief getting ready to disarm the bomb in Halo 2

But not only do cutscenes help achieve a bigger impact of the events on the player. They are also a simple and effective way of making sure that the player will see what the director wants him to. Say for example that a giant monster suddenly attacks the city where the player is in. If the player is left with absolute control over his character, he might unknowingly walk into a position where it would be impossible for him to notice the monster breaking through the walls of the city. This would be a waste of resources for the developer, who will have put a considerable amount of money into creating this spectacular entrance only for it to be ignored by the player simply because he didnt know it was happening. It also detracts from the general gameplay experience, since the player no longer knows up to what extent the monster is a threat. Had this entrance been delivered through means of a well-timed cutscene short enough to not interrupt the player immersion the director could have chosen the exact angle he wanted the player to see it from. A lowangle shot for example would have given the impression of a huge fearsome beast instead. And in the same way that through cutscenes the developer of a video game can control the impact of the story, he can also control the emotions the player may perceive through the order in which the different shots are shown. This is best explained through the Kuleshov Effect. The soviet film theorist of the same name edited a short film with a well-known Russian actor at the time. The same shot of the actor,

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looking expressionless at the camera, was used three times in the short movie, but each time preceded by a shot of a plate of soup, a woman and a small girl in a coffin alternatively. The projection was shown to an audience who didnt know the fact that the shot of the actor was exactly the same. Their reaction however was that of praise towards the actor, who was able to express a wide range of emotions like heavy pensiveness of his mood over the forgotten soup, deep sorrow towards the dead child and the lust with which he observed the woman (Pudovkin, 1970). This experiment showed how, through the power of film editing, the director could affect the feelings of the audience by simply changing the order the shots are shown. In a game this is much more difficult to achieve without the use of cutscenes. However there are games that have successfully managed to control what the player sees and in what order without taking away the control from him. The game Bioshock (2007) was praised for its unique setting and mood-setting environments. But that feeling would not have been as easily palpable hadnt it been for its clever placing of assets and scripted events. Right from the very beginning the player starts in the middle of the ocean after a plane crash. The only thing visible is the tail of the plane, inviting the player to swim to it, but it lights on fire before he can even make it. As the plane catches fire, a towering building becomes visible, and it automatically becomes the next point the player wants to reach. Once inside the pitch black lighthouse lights turn on one by one, showing the path to follow, but also forcing the player to look at the gigantic statue of a man holding the sign No gods or kings. Only man. Shortly after the player is taken deep down into the ocean in a bathyscaphe and, from a magnificent point of view, is shown the mysterious city of Rapture for the first time as the music becomes more intense. At another point an enemy appears, but a flying machine with a big white spotlight starts shooting at it as it jumps from wall to wall. After the enemy has been dealt with, the machine casts its light, now turned yellow, to the ground, exactly to where the wrench the player needs to pick up has been placed, right next to the first destructible wall. The spotlight in this case serves as the players focus point, and he will instinctively follow it through the eyes of the character. This way the developer makes sure that the player knows he has an ally helping him escape from the enemies.

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Cutscenes did not kill the gameplay Anchel Labena

A spotlight shines on the enemy as he tries to escape, calling for the players attention (Bioshock)

Not much later as the player walks through a glass underwater tunnel, part of the plane comes crashing down into the tunnel and water starts flowing in. At that specific moment, without stopping the player totally losing control of the character, the game causes an earthquake and forces the players point of view to tilt towards the plane coming down.

The players view is forced to look left by an earthquake so he can see the plane crashing (Bioshock)

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It is through these scripted events that the game is able to achieve the impact and feeling it wants, controlling the order in which the player views things either by force or by the use of elements that will catch their attention and make them turn towards them, such as spotlights or fires. So it is possible to avoid cutscenes altogether in most cases and still achieve an immersive experience with a story. But as it has been shown cutscenes do provide a set of advantages (and disadvantages) that help the author deliver his view. In order to understand how game designers can maximize the potential of these cutscenes it becomes necessary to analyze all the variables within them, as well as properly define what constitutes a cutscene and what should be left out.

The taxonomy of cutscenes

A small history of cutscenes
Cutscene in games is a very loosely defined term that lacks a proper explanation. According to Oxfords Dictionary (2012): Cutscene: (In computer games) a scene that develops the storyline and is often shown on completion of a certain level, or when the players character dies.

If we were to follow this term, cutscenes would only be tools for advancing the story in a game. However not only does this definition leave out many uses for a cutscene, like setting the mood of the game or explain the players objectives with in the level. It also doesnt make any reference to the fact that a cutscene typically cuts, as its name implies, the action going on in the game to focus its attention to another event. A deeper insight into what exactly is a cutscene is therefore necessary. The term cutscene is widely accredited to Ron Gilbert, creator of the 1987 point-and-click adventure game Maniac Mansion. The title is known for its time-triggered scenes that show what is happening elsewhere in the mansion, both to give players further insight into the characters that inhabit the house and to let them know that one of them was moving

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from one room to another and as such prepare to hide. In one example a cutscene is triggered after a specific amount of time after the game starts. It shows the room of one of the inhabitants of the house claiming that he is hungry and leaves for the kitchen. This serves as a warning for the player, who will have to hide the three playable characters elsewhere than the kitchen to avoid getting caught and being sent to a cell. Ron Gilbert defines these as sequences that cut away from the action, hence their name cutscene. Of course this was hardly the first time a cutscene was used. Although it was Gilbert who first coined the term, the earliest game known to include a cutscene is the game Pac-man from 1980 (Gaming's most important evolutions, 2010). The game included short comical cutscenes in which the ghosts are seen chasing Pac-man, but then the roles reverse after Pac-man eats a power pellet and the ghosts try to run away. These cutscenes had three main functions: explain the main game mechanic of the game (avoid the ghosts, eat a pellet to be able to eat them), provide a brief humorous break between levels as a reward for beating a certain number and, more importantly for the original format of the game, attract passersby to the arcade machine with a fancy animation on the screen and convince them to spend their coins on it. Another example comes from Nintendos Donkey Kong (1981), also considered to be one of the first games to tell a story through cutscenes. At the start of the game Donkey Kong is seen climbing his way up to the top of the first level with Pauline in his hand and then jumps on the platforms, changing their shape. After each level Jumpan (who would later become the more known Mario) and Pauline have a short moment together with a heart over their heads and a music playing in the background before Donkey Kong grabs her again and moves up to the next stage. After beating the final level Donkey Kong falls down and is knocked unconscious while Jumpan and Pauline finally get together before the game begins again. Both Pac-man and Donkey Kong had intro cutscenes that would play automatically while the arcade was left idle to attract peoples attention. Interestingly enough this type of cutscene meant to snatch the passersby was used later on for more modern games where the title

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screen, if left alone without touching any buttons, would trigger a cutscene to explain the background story, some game mechanics or just some pre-recorded gameplay action. These would sometimes even trigger in the home console versions of the same games if they were left on their start screen without doing anything for a few seconds. Other modern, nonarcade based games would follow this tradition later on (Super Mario 64 would show a gameplay video, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time displayed the main character Link riding a horse and after that a short cutscene from a later moment in the game and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater had a James Bond styled credits sequence). In these cases the purpose is to get the player in the right mood for the game. The tranquil music of Ocarina of Time with Link riding his horse gave a feeling of grandeur and Metal Gear Solid 3 pulled players into the spy and secret agent theme of the game. But ever since Pac-man and Donkey Kong cutscenes have become increasingly complex. The technology advancements have made it possible to achieve cutscenes that are far more dynamic. Just the addition of three dimensional graphics in games has allowed developers to use cutscenes that play around with different camera perspectives in ways that could not be possible before without recurring to fixed, pre-rendered camera views, such as the cutscenes in Eric Chahis Another World (1991). In fact Another World is one title worth commenting about, as it was a game inspired by Dragons Lairs cinematic style but using in-game graphics instead of a fully pre-rendered animation. While the game was at all times a 2D puzzle platformer the graphics for the characters were rendered with three dimensional polygons animated through the technique of rotoscoping. The designer would record real life people and items in action with a camcorder, then manage to pause one frame after another on the computer screen and reposition the polygons of the games characters to match that of the object on the camera (Chahi). Thanks to the use of these 3D characters not only did the animation of the characters look exceptionally good at the time, but it also allowed the developer to put those same characters on top of different pre-rendered backgrounds (which were still two dimensional bitmaps) and display them from different camera angles.

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In this case the cutscenes have to different purposes: either they advance the plot or they display a game over animation. In both scenarios the cutscenes use different camera angles to better convey the message. In the image to the left we see from a first person perspective how Lester enters his secret lab by typing in a secret code. Had we seen this same action from the same side view as the rest of the game it would have been much harder to understand that the place where Lester is entering is meant to be secret. The picture on the right corresponds to the moment when Lester is captured in cell hanging from the ceiling along with an alien creature. The change of camera angles here allows for close-up shots of both Lester and the alien, both saddened because of their situation. This is the first moment that lets the player care about the alien, who is no longer another enemy in the game but instead an ally in the same predicament as the player. In the case of the game over cutscenes these depend on the death the protagonist suffers. The best example of these are the black worms at the very beginning of the game. These creatures are tiny, seemingly harmless worms moving on the ground and hanging from the ceiling. But when the player gets too close to one of them, a cutscene is triggered in which an extreme close-up of the worm sticking out a needle and cutting the protagonists leg is shown. It is a very effective way of warning the player about the dangers of this new world he is venturing into, where even the tiniest object can be deadly. But at the same time these death cutscenes are interesting for the player on their own, who might want to see what happens with certain types of enemies: What will that tentacle-like plant do to me if it catches me?, How will Lester react if those teeth on the ground grab a hold of him?. The gruesome animations that follow are very detailed for its time and depict horrible deaths, something that for certain types of audiences seems interesting.

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Another World is just one example of a game that took advantage of newer technologies to create compelling cutscenes within the game with the purpose of achieving a cinematic aspect to it. Other game developers at the time used different types of techniques instead, using either real life actors or pre-rendered animations when the storage format allowed it to.

Types of cutscene based on rendering technique

In fact depending on the rendering technique used for the cutscene we can classify them in three different types from a very low-level perspective. These are live action cutscenes, prerendered animations and in-game graphics.
Live action cutscenes This type of cutscene uses real actors on a staged setting,

indoors or outdoors, or in simulated environments through the use of special effects. Actors use props to recreate the right attire and items that may appear later in the game. This type of cutscene provides the highest possible degree of realism, making the characters look as life-like as possible and they can be produced relatively fast in a TV studio. However they tend to break the feeling of continuity in the game because of the high contrast between the quality of the cutscenes and the in-game graphics, the later not being able to recreate the environments and characters with the same degree of realism that the live action cutscene can. Another problem present in this type of cutscene is the production quality. This is not a problem inherent to the type of cutscene, but it is very common to see live-action cutscenes done with really low budgets, resulting in cheesy dialogues and bad acting. Notable games that have used this type of cutscene are The 7th Guest (1993) and Wing Commander IV (1996). Also live-action sequences, once recorded, are very hard to modify, requiring either very precise post-editing or completely re-recording it. The fixed nature of these cutscenes limits their use since they cannot be repurposed easily. Some games have expanded upon the use of live-action cutscenes and made them also the in-game graphics, combining actors recorded in front of green screens and sets that

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act as the games environment. These games feature generally limited interactivity since the live actors cannot be controlled inside the game, instead having only a few triggers that change their video footage from one action to another. These could be considered playable cutscenes. Examples can be found in the game Mad Dog MacCree (1990), a Western-inspired game where the player has to aim a light gun on the enemies (all of them live actors) appearing on-screen before they shoot at the player. The game is stitched together by first-person view cutscenes with the same actors as during the game. Other notable examples are Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective (1991) and The X-Files: The Game (1998). This type of cutscene is very common in games that tie-in to movies or TV series.
Pre-rendered animation These consist of fixed video sequences that have been

previously animated on workstations and rendered to be saved as a video file that will play at specific points of the game. Since the animators have access to all the models and objects used in the game, the pre-rendered animations can be made to mimic the style and quality of the in-game graphics. They enjoy the added benefit of being able to use higher-poly models and more complex special effects, regardless of the processing power of the target system the game will play on. Thanks to this advantage over the in-game graphics engine pre-rendered animations are ideal for heavy action scenes that require many characters on screen at the same time along with resource-intensive effects like dynamic depth of field, several particle and light sources, complex character animations and destructible environments. Their biggest disadvantages are the fixed, non-editable nature of the scenes once they have been rendered, in the same way that it happens with live-action scenes, and the possible disconnection between the in-game graphics and the pre-rendered ones. The video game Final Fantasy VIII (1999) is a very good example of the advantages and disadvantages this type of cutscene poses. The game was originally released for the Sony Playstation, like its predecessor Final Fantasy VII (1997) which was the first title in the series to use cutscenes. However, unlike the previous game, developer Square-Enix (at the time of release known as Squaresoft) wanted to do a game with beautiful cinematics

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that would look highly realistic and tell a love story through it that would captivate the audience. For this reason not only do action scenes receive the pre-rendered treatment, but also other shorter, slow-paced moments with almost no character interaction interspersed throughout the game. An example of this is a short scene at the beginning of the game in which Instructor Quistis Trepe enters a clinic room. All we see is her entering the room, looking at protagonist Squall, and sighing with a smile on her face. It is a very small action placed in a pre-rendered cutscene that lasts no more than fifteen seconds, but it serves to show the facial expression of Quistis and her reaction towards Squall after seeing him injured. This achieves a closer understanding of the character herself in a way that the in-game graphics couldnt have, since the graphics at that time did not allow for subtle facial expressions like the one in this scene. Of importance for later parts of this dissertation is another scene later into the game in which Rinoa, the lead female character of the game takes Squall out for a dance. It is one small scene that does not advance the plot, but it sets the stage for the romantic relationship between these two characters. The reason for which this scene was done through pre-rendered graphics is obvious: the scene has several high-poly character models dancing simultaneously with motion-captured animation and a level of effects (reflections on the floor, dynamic shadows, moving hair) that would have simply made it impossible to run on the original Playstation hardware. Although current generation games dont make as much use anymore of pre-rendered cutscenes thanks to the graphical evolution of consoles and PCs, there are still many games that rely on them for specific sections of the game. Gears of War (2006), Devil May Cry (2001) and Metal Gear Solid 4 (2008) all use pre-rendered cutscenes for their opening scenes (in Gears of War this is at the end of the first episode instead). The reason for this is that, though the in-game graphics used for later cutscenes do have a very high graphical quality, those are still limited and lack the level of polish and lighting effects that the pre-rendered cutscene can offer. In these games though the models are the same as those in the in-game graphics cutscenes, but thanks to it being pre-

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rendered the scene can afford many more high-poly characters on the screen at the same time.
In-game graphics cutscene In contrast to the other two, these cutscenes offer the

lowest quality in graphics due to the limited processing power of gaming systems. They can still make use of certain effects like depth of field and dynamic lighting, but they can easily slow down the scene if the hardware is not powerful enough and the game engine not well optimized. Sometimes these scenes may use high-poly versions than the ingame 3D models, especially if the camera needs to take close-ups of the characters faces. They also have their own set of advantages though, first of all being that the break of the players immersion can be kept to a minimum since the graphics dont change very much between the actual gameplay and the cutscenes. But more importantly, since the scenes are being rendered in real time, it allows for the game to modify the content based on the players customizations. If the player has given the character a specific set of clothes, these can be reflected on the cutscene, in which the character can wear the same clothes. The Mass Effect series make good use of these cutscenes. Players create their own customized character right when they begin the game, with changes ranging from the hair style to the facial features. Thanks to the in-game cutscenes the game can represent the players own character, instead of using the generic one, further improving player immersion. But there are also other types of cutscenes that are rendered in-game and are triggered at specific points of the game. The Assassins Creed series features short cutscenes that start when the player manages to perform a counter-attack: the player will temporarily lose control of the protagonist while he performs an acrobatic move, with the camera taking a different perspective so as to maximize the impact the attack has on the viewer, making it more exciting to watch. There is however one big disadvantage in using in-game graphics for cutscenes. Since the game engine will need to load all the assets of the scene into the memory, loading a

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especially complex cutscene will result in slower loading times, especially in the case of games that are running off disc-based media. Each time there is a need to change the action to another location it is most probable that the game will need to load the new assets, causing another brief pause in the flow of the story. Even worse, if the cutscene needs to switch quickly back and forth between two different environments, such as what would be the movie equivalent of parallel editing (cutting between two scenes happening simultaneously in different environments), it would need to keep a huge amount of assets readily stored in memory, something not all current generation systems are capable of doing. Luckily it doesnt always have to be a choice between one of those three categories. A special mention should go as well for hybrid cutscenes that mix one or more of those techniques. The three of them can be combined for different purposes. The pictures below are from the Playstation 1 and Nintendo 64 versions of Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko (1999). Both make use of a combination of live-action video and either pre-rendered animation (Playstation version) or in-game graphics (Nintendo 64 version). The face of the live actress is placed on top of a screen in both versions as she gives you a short introduction to the games story.

Alternatively it can also be done the other way round, placing in-game models over a prerendered animation. The game Final Fantasy VII mentioned previously makes extensive use of this technique. In the example of the picture below, the protagonist Cloud jumps on top of a moving train. This case deserves paying a bit more attention. Why put the effort of

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combining both methods instead of using the higher quality model of Cloud used in other pre-rendered animations? Final Fantasy VII uses static pre-rendered bitmaps as backgrounds, which provide a high level of detail for the game world. With the limited graphical capabilities of the Playstation this was the best way to create a complex and realistic-looking environment. The 3D character models walk on top of these backgrounds. When a cutscene is triggered, sometimes instead of completely cutting to an animation using the higher quality models, the static background would switch to the pre-rendered animation, which would start from the same view as the bitmap. The player perceives this as a fully three dimensional world, with the character models rotating and scaling in sync with the now animated background. The reason for this rather complex technique is that it makes the cutscene advance in a seamless way, retaining the characters appearance. The only moments when Final Fantasy VII uses fully pre-rendered animations without in-game models on top of it is when the scene is too complex to coordinate both techniques or when the situation demands closeup shots or character animations that those models cannot perform.

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The definition of cutscenes

To properly start this taxonomy it is necessary to make it clear first what exactly constitutes a cutscene. As mentioned previously Oxfords Dictionary definition of cutscene as a scene that develops the storyline in a game simply does not reflect all the range of cutscenes that exist and so falls short. Ron Gilberts explanation of cutscenes as sequences that cut away from the action is closer but it doesnt explain several cases where the action continues seamlessly. It would also be easy to fall into the trap of calling cutscenes non-interactive sequences as Hugh Hancock does in his Gamasutra article Better Game Design Through Cutscenes (Hancock, 2002). The current evolution of video games, with all their new storytelling techniques render this definition outdated by todays standards. Many games like Shenmue or Heavy Rain have the so-called quick-time event moments in which players can change the course of the cutscene when prompted by an on-screen icon by pressing a button. Other games have also added different means of interactivity to their cutscenes, such as Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004), where the player can, at given times, press a button to watch from the protagonist Snakes perspective, or Assassins Creed (2007), where the player can still move protagonist Altar around a limited area during the course of the cutscene. Taking all those different aspects into account it is possible come up with a new definition. This is, by no means, a final definition of cutscene to replace all the others. Different perspectives on game theory would consider several of the cases that fit into the cutscenes category by this definition as absolutely irrelevant or belonging to another category altogether. But for the purpose of this analysis it is important to establish what can be considered a cutscene and what should be left out. As such I propose cutscenes to be defined for this text as, in video games, a scripted event or sequence of events that limits the players interaction either partially or totally while conveying visual information. I will explain the definition term by term. First of all, why scripted? A cutscene is an element of the game that has been previously planned by the developers, the author of the game. Whether it is a conversation between

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two characters or an action scene seen from another perspective, the developer has planned for this event to happen in the very precise way that he wants the player to see it. From the moment the cutscene is triggered the player has a much more limited interaction as the actions going on the screen are no longer fully controlled by him. I want to emphasize here the use of the term author as the developer of the game. While games are usually a collaborative effort it all comes together as a single creative mastermind that controls how the entire product of the game will end up. Greg Costikan states that a story is a controlled experience; the author consciously crafts it, choosing precisely these events, in this order, to create a story with maximum impact. (Costikan, 2000) With this explanation of the author, these scripted sequences could be seen as him taking hold of the gameplay momentarily and controlling it to further advance the plot, setting or personality of the characters in ways that the player could not achieve on his own or would produce far less interesting results. The author has in mind who the characters are better than anyone else, their story, their lives Even if all that information never ends up being shown in the game, he knows the universe where the events take place, the mood and feeling that he wants players to experience from playing in that universe. But we are talking, after all, about games. And that means that the player will have the chance to explore this universe on his own, to roam freely in it and do as he pleases within the gameplay constraints. During those moments the author will have as much control on the flow of the design as the gameplay restrictions that he has placed on it. In a game with very few interaction possibilities like Pong (1972) where the player can only move the paddle up and down to hit the ball or miss, the developer has a much tighter grip on everything that happens on the screen. But in a more open-world adventure like Activisions Prototype (2009) in which the player can move freely across all of Manhattan for unlimited time, the cutscenes are his best attempt at still maintaining a certain degree of control on what the player will experience. This of course brings up the question of whether this author should try to control the events of the game or if the player should be given a totally open sandbox to do as he pleases. And

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while many players appreciate the level of openness that games like Grand Theft Auto offer, there is also a relevant amount of players who want to experience a carefully crafted adventure with a clear series of objectives. The strong sales of heavily scripted games like Heavy Rain (2010) or LA Noire (2011) prove that. How does this scripted definition tie up with the aforementioned quick-time events? It matches it perfectly: the events happening in the game still read out like a script, except that now the player reaches certain options, already laid out by the author, to choose one path or another. Sometimes these paths lead to a dead-end (if the player doesnt tap the right button on time, he will see the character die) and sometimes they open up new branches of the story. But these branches are still under the control of the author, inside his carefully planned script. The next term in the definition is the event or sequence of events. An event is something of importance that takes place. Cutscenes are used to portray these events, either an individual one (a boss enters the room where the player is in) or several displayed in a particular order (two characters are fighting; another enters the scene and stops the fight), combining them to make the sequence. Of more importance however is the fact that cutscenes limit interactivity. It has already been shown how all the previous definitions agreed that cutscenes are non-interactive, but I have also stated several cases that prove cutscenes can be interactive. A deeper analysis of these specific cases, which are also starting to become a standard rather than a couple of exceptions, would suggest that, while interactive, the amount of control the player has on them is severely restricted. But by no means are they less influential on the outcome of the game. Take Heavy Rain as an example. The game is full of rather long cutscenes that act out as quick-time Events. In one of the many fight scenes the player has to keep pressing the right keys and performing the right movements with the analog sticks, always in timing with the events going on screen and marked by their respective action icons. Should the player fail to complete these actions in a timely fashion, the cutscene will branch out into a different one, with that branch still able to converge back to the successful one if the player manages to maintain doing the correct actions, and achieve the best possible ending for that sequence.

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However if the player keeps failing the outcome can lead to that character being killed or detained, with the game still continuing. In this way, the player has affected the outcome of the game in a longer term than a simple live or die option whether he succeeds or fails in the quick-time events. Another case where limited interactivity is present during cutscenes is in Peter Jacksons King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie (2005). In the paper Waiting for Something to Happen Narratives, Interactivity and Agency and the Video Game Cut-Scene (Cheng, 2007) the author describes one type of cutscene that, according to the designer of the game Michel Ancel, it gives the player the feeling that he is actually playing in the world of the movie. The cutscene is seen in first person with the player taking the role of Jack as he wakes up from being unconscious. The player has very limited movement options: he can move slightly left and right and look around to a certain degree. The reason for this is that Jack is actually tied up, and the only option left for him is to watch as the female character Ann is offered as a sacrifice to King Kong. According to the previous definition, this is still a cutscene: the event follows a script and the player has limited interactivity. This method gives the player a greater sense of being there, trying to break out of the ties that bound him as he helplessly watches the sacrifice start and. Cheng defends this creates a stronger sense of user agency.

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Dubious cases of cutscenes

Scripted events

Now though, if we are going to consider this type of scripted event a cutscene it brings to question a much bigger number of examples from other games. Worth mentioning is a video game series that takes pride in making no use of cutscenes to tell its story: Valves Half-Life series. The games from this series, especially Half-Life 2 and its later episodic releases, are filled with scripted events which happen naturally without the player ever leaving the first-person perspective of lead character Gordon Freeman. One example of this type of scripted scene happens in Half-Life 2 (2005) early in the game where Dr. Kleiner tries to teleport Freeman from his lab to the Black Mesa East facility. What occurs there is that Kleiner teleports first a soldier, then when the moment comes to teleport Freeman, a head-crab jumps in and causes the teletransportation to go wrong, sending Freeman elsewhere instead. This sounds like a rather complicated scene that many games would have tried to solve through the use of a cutscene. However Valves innovation came in how all these events are shown from the same first-person view that the rest of the game uses without taking away control from the player. In fact the player has access during the entire process to all of his moves: he can walk, run, jump, pick up items, push buttons and attack. However certain limitations still apply. Even though the player can press the attack button and Freeman will do the attack animation, this will have no effect at all on the characters around him. They will not move or react at all, instead continuing reciting their lines of the script. And although the player can move around the room, the door to get out has been closed prior to the event starting so that the player is forced to be there as the events unfold. Even more, no matter what the player does, if he wants the game to progress he will have to accept the established script and follow the instructions that are being told to him by the games characters.

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Dr. Kleiner tells the player to step inside the teletransportation machine (Gordon, as soon as you are in position we will send you in). Until the player steps inside the game will stan d still, not progressing at all in the same way that a book wont continue the story until the reader turns to the next page. This can be tied in to Espen Aarseths theories about ergodic interactivity in his book Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature (Aarseth, 1997). Espen claims that in ergodic literature nontrivial effort is required to allow the reader to traverse the text, with nonergodic literature being the opposite and requiring only trivial effort. One of the examples given of this trivial effort is the turning of pages in a book. If we assume these small interactions (walking to a certain spot, pushing a single button) to be akin to the trivial efforts explained by Aarseth we can then place these scripted events inside the definition of cutscenes. This is probably the most far-fetched case, but by accepting that these scenes dont have any further purpose than to follow the script designed by the author they fit in the definition perfectly. There is however a big difference to take note of inside the same game series. At the very beginning of Half-Life 2 the player is placed in a train station in City 17. There are several character conversations here as well as scripted events that take place as Freeman walks through the hallways towards the exit. Characters walk towards you to talk, a big screen on the wall has antagonist Dr. Breen talking to the recently arrived to the station, flying machines take pictures of you and guards push citizens around. All these events are not to be confused with the type of cutscene that I have described before. These are not events forced on the player that lock them in an enclosed area until the ongoing actions have come to pass. Quite the opposite, the player can just walk past them, completely ignore all those details around him and move straight to the goal. They are rather all part of the environment. Small specks of information that blend with the hallways and streets of the dystopian place that is City 17. These add detail to the story of the game world, give glimpses of the state of the city to the player and hints at what might have happened before the game started. Along with posters on the walls, signs, broken furniture and other assets in the levels this is what becomes the game space. Henry Jenkins

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says that properly structured game spaces provide different ways of storytelling in games (Jenkins, 2004), creating rich worlds in which just by walking around them we can get a sense of its past. This better fits the realm of environmental storytelling and is a topic I will return to later in this analysis.
Dialogues in games

Going back to the nonergodic literature term that I used to decide whether the scripted scenes of Half-Life 2 can be considered cutscenes or not, another dubious case can be resolved. This is the case of games displaying a scripted scene with dialogue where the player has to read a piece of text and press a button to continue the sequence. The classic game that has been doing this since very early in the series is Final Fantasy. The Japanese role-playing game is known for its beautifully rendered cutscenes, but also for its long sections where the characters talk, move around and talk some more. In Final Fantasy IX (2000) there is a sequence where several characters, including the protagonist Zidane, gather around a table to discuss their plans to kidnap the princess. With each sentence a character says they perform an action to make it easier to know who is talking (Blank moves forward as he says what his role will be in the kidnapping). The scene will stay still (the fan in the background still moving) and until the player presses the X button on the Playstation controller everything will stay the same. This allows the player to read the text at his own pace before moving on to the next sentence. Once again, this is a case example of nonergodic literature where the only action the player can do is press a button to continue, also similar to flipping to the next page in a book. During these sequences it is normal for the players character (or characters as is the norm in Final Fantasy games) to move around and perform actions of his own. This is taking away the control of the character from the player, once again putting it in the hands of the author for his script to continue as planned. As such these sequences can be considered cutscenes as well by the new definition.

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What would not be considered a cutscene is if the player moves to talk to an NPC who reads a couple of lines and the game continues normally. These are mere scripted monologues (sometimes dialogues if the character replies back) that do not fully take away the control from the player, since they can quickly skip these by pressing a button and return to them at will by talking again to the same character. A similar situation arises from the Mass Effect series: whenever the player loses control of Commander Sheppard (he aims his gun to shoot at a character, steps aside to let somebody walk through, has a meeting with a group of characters) it can be considered a cutscene. But here there is the added interactivity of branching conversations. The first Mass Effect (2007) already allowed players to pick one among several replies in the middle of a conversation. The game will then stop the flow of the game until the player has chosen his answer. What marks an important difference in considering when these events are a cutscene or not is the presentation however. Sometimes they will act just like the regular conversations in Final Fantasy: player walks to an NPC, talks to him, he says his line, you choose an answer, NPC replies. This is a very static scene where at most the camera will switch to close-up views of either character depending on who is talking. Those are not cutscenes since there are no events going on. Let us not forget that an event signifies something of importance happening. A conversation with an NPC, although informative, does not necessarily have to be an important element. This just leaves them as mere conversations away from the realm of
cutscenes.

On the other hand another there is a scene when Commander Sheppard meets with the Council for the first time. As soon as the player approaches the area where the meeting is going to take place, the camera cuts to another point of view and a conversation between several people kicks in. The camera switches points of view constantly, showcasing the emotions of the characters (one giving a knowing look to another one and then nodding) and other actions that express more than a simple conversation. This marks them as an important event in the game, and as such, better suited to be considered a cutscene.

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Cutscenes did not kill the gameplay Anchel Labena Moving from one area to another

In certain types of games it is common that when the player reaches the end of an area that connects to another a small cutscene will be triggered to symbolize the character moving from one place to the next. An example would be any game in which the avatar reaches a door and the player presses the action for opening and entering it: the players avatar will open the door, walk through it, and the screen will typically fade to black before loading the room on the other side of the door. These cases can be difficult to categorize since there is usually a small break during which the player cannot control the character as he opens the door and walks in. In some games these actions take a relatively long time. The Resident Evil series has used in many of its games slow door opening animations that serve the purpose of both creating some tension on the player and covering the load times between rooms to make them unnoticeable. Other games trigger the character to walk into the distance before the next area loads (Assassins Creed when entering a new city, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time when exiting the current area). However if we were to include them under the definition of cutscene we would be forced to consider adding other simple actions like the character opening a chest or pushing a button to turn on a light. But all these actions do not cut away from the current scene in any meaningful way that exposes new information. The characters animation of pushing a button to turn on a light at the players command (pressing an action button) does not tell the player anything new, and while opening a chest will reveal what is inside, the animation itself does not display anything new. These animations are rather the players direct actions in the same fashion that pressing the jump button will cause the character to jump. For that matter in this taxonomy they are considered to be part of the players actions rather than a cutscene. In a similar way the action of the character opening a door and walking into another area is a direct consequence of the players input. As such instead of cutscenes th ese can be better defined as transitions, that is, the period in between changing from one state to another.

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These transitions can be more or less complex, like the Resident Evil example of opening a door mentioned before, which also applies to when the characters go up a staircase, or the battle swirls typical from the PlayStation era Final Fantasy games that indicate the change to a battle scene. There are of course exceptions to both these players actions and area transitions that should be considered cutscenes. The 3D entries in The Legend of Zelda series always play a short animation of Link opening the chest as the camera circles around him, creating a feeling of mystery and curiosity for the content inside it that adds to the general mood of the game. And the Nintendo 64 Conkers Bad Fur Day (2001) has a cutscene of Conker and his girlfriend leaving a room totally destroyed after a heavy gunfight level, mimicking a similar scene in the movie The Matrix (1999).

Types of cutscenes by function

But if we are to make a taxonomy of cutscenes then simply classifying them by rendering technique becomes too shallow and not a proper way to distinguish and analyze the nature of cutscenes. In the previous examples I explained how some cutscenes use one rendering technique or another depending on the objective that it is trying to achieve, like display the characters emotions, show an action-full sequence or simply advance the games plot. Not all cutscenes are trying to achieve the same thing, they have different functions. Whereas it is true for all of them that they cut from the action to display something else, each one is trying to affect the player in different ways, be it by informing them, getting them immersed into the game world or create a tense feeling. What are cutscenes used for then? This list compiles some of the most commonly used functions of cutscenes: Telling the back-story, past events that have happened in the gameworld before the player started the game Deliver information quickly, for example through a conversation with a non-playable character

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Display an event that advances the plot in present time, like a kiss between two characters the death of one

Develop a character, unfolding his personality to the player Show an aerial view of the level Set the mood of the level, for example the characters entering a dark and scary room. Scare the player with an unexpected event Introduce the game, serving as an opening sequence Reward the player after completing a level, with a humorous cutscene for example Explain the upcoming levels objectives, briefing him on the tasks to complete Show a players action from another perspective, like an attack or a big jump Show the players consequence to an action, like choosing an attack on a turn-based battle Provide a break from the action, after an intense fight, to have a brief moment of relax Show the path forward, either with an aerial view or a flash-forward as is the case of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (2003)

Those are only some of the most usual types of cutscenes, with many others being possible, mostly based on variations of the ones described above. This already allows placing them in two very distinct categories based on their function. It is important to note however that in many cases a cutscene could have more than one purpose, such as a cutscene that moves the plot forward but also develops the personality of a character. In these cases I will take into account the primary function. What follows is then a categorization of cutscenes based on their function: their purpose for being inside the game, what is the type of message that they deliver to the player. By analyzing the list of cutscene functions listed previously it is possible to separate them into to high-level categories. Those are cutscenes that deliver exposition and cutscenes that affect the players mood:

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Cutscenes did not kill the gameplay Anchel Labena Exposition cutscenes

These are meant to deliver important information to the player, whether it is part of the story, the character and games universe background or simply the objectives that the player will need to fulfill. They expose this information to the player through several means, such as conversations, action scenes, flashbacks or simple camera movements. As such any cutscene that has the delivery of this information to the player as its main objective they belong to this category. They are more closely related to the overall story of the game.
Mood-setting cutscenes

They provide pacing to the game, set the tone and feeling for the player and develop the personality of the characters. No important information related to the plot advancement or game progression is given, or at least it is not the major component of it. (For example, two characters leaving a room). They help with connecting the player to the game world and its characters. They are more closely related to the overall aesthetics of the game. There are two initially confusing functions here: the difference between developing the characters background and their personality. Whereas the characters background is within the realm of storytelling (ex: in his past he had a big argument with his family and ran away), developing his personality, while it can be linked to what has happened in his backstory, instead aims at showing how the character naturally acts by his way of moving, talking, acting It can be a grim character, very dark and thoughtful who talks to himself with a disregard towards others, or it can be a comical, goofy character making jokes from time to time and clumsily failing at doing things, or even the adventurer type willing to take the risk to get big rewards in dangerous situations. While developing the personality of a character might not seem as important as continuing the story of the game seen from a gameplay perspective, it is this kind of scenes that allow the players to feel attachment to the characters, who go from being an interactive asset in

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the game to becoming breathing, living inhabitants of the game world. This is a core element for achieving player immersion into the universe. This basic differentiation between exposition and mood-setting becomes even more important now that we have established many scripted sequences as cutscenes earlier in the analysis. When creating the game the developer should take into account which category his cutscene will belong to by answering to a series of questions: Does the cutscene deliver important information to the player? Does it make the overall story of the game progress? How does it fit with the overall mood and feeling of the game idea? When the main objective is to deliver information to the player, exposition cutscenes become the main plot device. These are the ones who are going to introduce players to the games lore and get them started on what the rules of the game are. With a cleverly produced cutscene at the beginning of the game the author can quickly present in one swift stroke where the game takes place, who is the main character, what is the objective and what are the obstacles. Epics Gears of War (2006) does it all in less than a minute right from the very first moment the player presses the start button. We learn that main character Marcus Fenix was a former soldier that has been imprisoned, that it has been 14 years since the first attack of the Locust (E-day as the game titles it), the world is on the verge of total ruin and the military force needs Marcus back in action and so they send in his comrade Dominic to get him out. That is a lot of information conveyed in simply 50 seconds, but it is done effectively and gets the player ready for the mission at hand: he needs to get out of the prison and there are monsters lurking around; you are a soldier and you have a gun. And this intro cutscene manages to do that while already setting the mood and overall tone of the game with its gritty graphics, foreboding music and harsh voices. The gameplay starts right away from there, but the players are now ready for whatever it may through at them, and as such, more immersed than if the game had simply dropped them into the prison cell. And with its

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swift delivery it does not become intrusive. It just gets to the point and brings back the action. This cutscene has as such two main objectives. First of all it sets up a plot that the player will be intrigued about, wanting to learn more about as he moves on. And secondly it briefs the player of his escape out of the prison. We could say that the briefing is secondary and that the bigger purpose of this scene is to gear up the plot. But there are many times when exposition cutscenes have either one or the other objective only. This is why within the exposition cutscenes category it is also possible to find two different sub-categories:
Narration

These move the plot forward by informing the player about a series of events in a narrative style. They can introduce the player to the game world, explain the back-story of the games universe, such as events that have happened in the past that led to the current state of the games setting. But they can also give players a glimpse of the future, what things may come to if the player does not interfere. These can also happen through the use of more abstract dream sequences, where the main character has strange visions that lead him to action. These are also the main way of telling the characters story. Through the use of cutscenes the author can create a more intimate way of revealing the true nature of this person. This is especially common in longer games where developing the characters backstory slowly throughout the discourse is important, such as the Final Fantasy series. But the most common case scenario is that of a cutscene used to portray current events: the character gets shot, a building collapses, the enemies retreat
Briefing

They inform the player about the current objectives, guiding them and clarifying the path to follow and how to move on to the next level, much necessary in games with complex worlds or sandbox levels where it is easy for the player to get lost or not fully understand what they have to do. This includes short cutscenes for reactions such as a switch opening a door, a puzzle activating an engine or defeating all the enemies in a room opening up the next area. For example, in Batman: Arkham City (2011) at one point the player retrieves from cameras

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video footage of an enemy pushing a hidden button on the wall to open a door. After that the player has to find that same wall thanks to the hint received from the cutscene. Another example of a briefing cutscene happens in the real-time strategy game Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty (2010) at the beginning of each mission, where Jim Raynor gets briefed about the
objectives of the mission before getting to the actual level.

During the earlier stages of a game briefing cutscenes can also be very useful to teach players how to control it, as a tutorial. This does not only include cutscenes that shows the player how to move, but the gameplay features. In Mirrors Edge (2008) the player follows her friend Celeste running atop the buildings of a city. At specific points the gameplay stops and forces the player to watch Celeste perform a series of jumps that the player has to repeat afterwards. This is one very effective case where the cutscene helps the player realize what exactly he is performing. Since the entire game plays from a first person perspective, this is the only chance to see the moves of the protagonist from an external point of view.

Raynold being briefed about the target to destroy in the first mission of Starcraft II

On the other hand we have the mood-setting cutscenes. These when used properly can become key elements of the game by helping the player breathe the world in. They dont

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necessarily need to give any new information to the player and they can make two games with similar gameplay feel very different. Even the way the players death is presented makes it stand out against the rest as it has been shown with the case of Another Worlds gruesome deaths. Some of these cutscenes can even be used to make the general feeling of a battle more intense. Such is the case of Assassins Creed (2007) and Altars counter attacks, but also in Grand Theft Auto IV (2008). In this open world game if the player manages to drive the car really fast off a ramp, the camera will switch to another position (one that has been previously defined by the developer), hide all the on-screen GUI elements and put the game into slow motion, with little to no control given to the player. This manages to improve the visual impact of the jump from a perspective that makes the image far more interesting than the usual behind-the-car camera. Depending on the distance of the jump the camera might even switch position several times, one in a static position and the next one following the car from the side in a camera pan for example. Its only purpose is to excite the player, make him more interested in performing these jumps. The same stunt without the cutscene might not have been interesting enough on its own for the player to bother.

A GTA IV car jump stunt The camera switches position three times for extra visual impact while in slow motion then returns to normal as soon as the car touches the ground

Similarly Fallout 3 (2008) does the same action when the player performs a critical attack. The camera will step out of the players first person view and follow a bullet all the way

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through the environment and into the enemys head in once case scenario, also in slow motion.

A critical shot in Fallout 3 changes the view to third-person for added impact

But where this category really shines is in its ability to provide pacing to the game. It is as important in games as it is in every other type of narrative media to pace the action in a way that doesnt become too overwhelming or underwhelming. Games like Devil May Cry 4 (2008) or Gears of War feature levels packed with enemy fights of intense action where the player has to be highly concentrated in order to avoid getting killed. These are usually very exciting moments of the game, but their impact would not be as big as it is if it was not for the use of cutscenes. They provide for a moment of relaxation for the player to take a break, knowing that his active role in the game can be spared momentarily as the action moves on its own. Its a refreshing stop of sorts. These cutscenes do not necessarily have to be calm, quiet moments either. Devil May Cry 4 tends to have extremely flashy fights where the main character, either Dante or Nero, does a surprising and unexpected array of moves that are usually not available to the player. But these scenes go a long way in establishing the style of the series with its Japanese anime influence of fast combat with almost choreographed moves. The introductory cutscene that starts the game serves no other purpose than this: it introduces players to protagonist Nero and his

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girlfriend Kyrie through a pre-rendered mood-setting cutscene. Kyrie sings a slow opera as Nero is seen battling enemies in the streets. The plot at this point is non-important, as it will be explained soon after in an expository cutscene, and the main focus is instead the wow factor: impressing the player with the agility and strength of Nero, getting him acquainted with his abilities at the same time as the game shows its characteristic style that has defined the series for a decade.

The introduction of Devil May Cry 4 is a mood-setting cutscene showing its stylish combat

As explained previously mood-setting cutscenes can also be used to develop the personality of the games characters. This is in a way related to their ability to set the tone and feeling of the game. Through the use of cutscenes players can learn how the characters lead their daily lives (during the introduction of the game for example), react to certain events or simply relate to the rest of the world. While this may seem like something irrelevant during the course of a game it is the small details like this that make gamers fall in love with certain characters: they have a personality. Other ways in which mood-setting cutscenes can be used as an introduction to the game is in a series of establishing shots of the game world as shown in L.A. Noire (2011). The same can be applied for the beginning of each new level to help the player familiarize with the new environment before being left to move around freely in it.

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If we combine all the previously mentioned cutscene types and criteria for classification into a single chart we arrive at one separated by principles: their level of interactivity, the function they serve and the rendering technique used.
Interactive Function Narration Yes (limited) Exposition Briefing Tone and feeling / No Mood-setting Character personality In-game graphics Mixed Pre-rendered animation Live-action Rendering technique

All these categories should allow the game developer to think about what the ultimate purpose of the cutscene is and, according to that and based on the definitions given above, decide which course of action is better to integrate the cutscene into the game. The game writer should be able to carefully choose what approach is best for the overall result that he wants to achieve, whether it is advancing the plot or delivering a specific feeling to the player. The different categories are interchangeable too. A live-action exposition cutscene can still be interactive by using several video clips that branch out from the main one depending on the players press of a button for example. Or a non-interactive in-game graphics cutscene can be used to show a close-up of the protagonist crying over someones death, developing his personality. There are multiple possibilities to be explored, tested and used in upcoming games.

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The problem of cutscenes

So far I have defended the use of cutscenes in several case scenarios and how useful they can be for delivering both a compelling story and coherent aesthetics. But the reality is that using cutscenes in games can be a risky move if not taken care of properly. There are several cases of cutscenes getting in the way for not being properly planned. A particularly annoying one is in Kingdom Hearts (2002) where an inevitable, relatively long cutscene plays right before one of the most difficult boss fights in the game. The result is that players are treated time and time again to the same cutscene with no chance to skip it, leading to frustration and giving up on the fight. Not to mention the negative effect that cutscenes can have in taking the player out of the game. Without a director planning how cutscenes and gameplay will be tightly woven together their use can lead to constant breaks right in the midst of the action, a strong change of pace that feels awkward and out of place in a game. The player wants to feel in control. And while cutscenes limit that control if the player is kept engaged with the events on-screen he will not notice that tightening of the user freedom or the linearity present in the level. But having a 27-minute long non-interactive cutscene in the middle of the game like Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008), while entertaining for the biggest fans of the series, can be very off-putting for everyone else who just wants to play. They did, after all, buy a video game instead of a movie and scenes that long can easily break the immersion of the player who can simply leave the controller on the table and sit back while doing nothing else. A key element to make sure that cutscenes remain unobtrusive and retain the immersion of the player as much as possible is to avoid cutting the players current action. If the player is fighting an enemy, it is not a good idea to trigger a cutscene in the middle of the fight as he will be suddenly taken away from being in control of the character. If a cutscene needs to start right after defeating an enemy boss for example the cutscene shouldnt start as soon as the boss health bar reaches zero, but let the player finish the last blow and get back into a standby position.

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The style of it should also be as similar as possible to the in-game elements to avoid breaking any possible conventions the player might have learned about the look of the game. That is why the use of pre-rendered animations and live actors has to be handled carefully to prevent stark differences between the in-game character models and those in the cutscenes, especially if the cutscenes are being outsourced. In an article for technology-centric website Wired.com, Jason Schreier mentions five mistakes that video game cutscenes have done in the recent past that go against traditional film theory. Among those he mentions endless exposition that could have been avoided by leaving certain elements to the players imagination (Schreier). The longer cutscenes take to give important information, the more likely the user is to lose his interest and start thinking of something else.

Alternatives to cutscenes
It is precisely because of those risks that it is important to keep in mind alternative ways to tell the story when making a game. The most important of these is with no doubt environmental storytelling. This consists of using the environment itself to convey a message imbued in it. The environment includes from the decoration of a room and the look of the assets to the look of a character and the way he reacts. Through this method game developers become effectively architects of game worlds. There is not always a need to stop the gameplay to tell the player what happened in the room they were in. If there has been a robbery in an apartment, instead of having a non-playable character telling how something of his got stolen it would be more effective to simply construct a room where the drawers has been left open with several items thrown on the floor, the sofa taken apart into pieces, vases broken on the floor A well designed character can tell a lot more about him by the way he walks around than a conversation of him explaining his past, and it is definitely going to be more immersive for the player, who will instead find himself thinking about the elements that he can detect.

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Why is that character limping? Why does he stop to look at that portrait of a girl so much? And why does he keep biting his lips? In an article for Gamasutra Lewis Denby explains how not too long ago a studio would come up with the basic game premise, then bring a writer in last -minute to help bash together some words, maybe some CG scenes. (Denby, 2011) But nowadays as storytelling has become a more integral part of video games it becomes more important to learn how the entire game can tell the story instead of having it feel tacked on. This, he explains, can be achieved by a comprehensive amount of background material. Game writers should come up with entire character biographies, details of the locations and how they came to be and a full backstory preceding the events that will happen in the game. The player might never get to see all that material while playing the game, but the design and art teams will most definitely benefit from it and define all the assets and missions around it. If done right the player should be able to discern where he is and retrieve enough impressions from the world by just glancing at it. A cave with engravings will signify that there has been a civilization living in there before. A smoking fireplace indicates that somebody was there not too long ago. A man with a scar on his right cheek and a mean look can tell the player that he is someone with evil intentions. But environmental storytelling is not the only way game writers can avoid cutscenes to tell the story. Some are more appropriate than others depending on the situation. For example The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011), with its expansive universe full of background lore makes use of books, notes and other items that the player can optionally collect and read at any moment in the game. These contain long pieces of text that in other games would feel too bothersome for the player to read. But in a game that encourages the player to learn about the background history of its world, reading through the pages of a long lost book telling the tale of a treasure of ages ago feels more immersive than watching a cutscene where the player could see what happened to that treasure.

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The books in Skyrim leave much information to the imagination and curiosity of the player

Another game that makes appropriate use of long texts is the puzzle-platformer Braid (2008). The poetic and absolutely optional nature of the story makes for a better fit as text that hovers on the screen if the character stands in front of a book long enough. These poems require several read-throughs to understand completely because of their subjective nature. Other storytelling methods would not allow for the player to reflect on those words long enough. But walls of text are rather the exception than the norm. Reading text on certain screens can be tiring, so this method should only be used for the moments where it would be the absolute best solution. Another popular method in the last decade has been the use of voice-overs. The main character expresses his feelings or reveals details about his thoughts on the current events in an internal monologue as the player continues moving along, not pausing the gameplay at any moment. The psychological action thriller Alan Wake (2010) has the protagonist of the same name constantly comment on the events that he sees. Another possibility is having the main character conversing with other non-playable characters. Prince of Persia (2008) uses this method to slowly develop the relationship between the Prince and Elika, who continue having conversations even as the player performs difficult jumps. The player has the option to trigger these conversations at any moment by pressing a key so he can decide

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how much dialogue he wants to have during the game. Perhaps a more popular example is that of Portal (2007) where the evil artificial intelligence GLaDOS talks to the silent protagonist at the beginning and end of each level, with other lines delivered mid-way through. However the use of dialogues during gameplay can also become distracting if overused. The Nintendo 3DS game Kid Icarus: Uprising (2012) received criticism for constantly throwing conversations between the players character, Pit, and the Goddess of Light Palutena, which often got in the way (George, 2012). There have also been other modern takes on storytelling that mix the qualities of environmental storytelling, cutscenes and voice-overs: parallel storytelling. One example is seen in the horror game Dead Space (2008) in which cutscenes are usually eschewed in favor of a pop-up video projection from the main character Isaacs suit. The videos are prerendered animations that both advance the plot and brief the player on his next objectives. But while these videos play the character still has full control and he can move around and even go to the next area, though these are usually triggered at points in the game where there is no immediate threat so as to avoid the video from covering the enemies. Splinter Cell: Conviction (2010) uses a similar technique by displaying pre-rendered animations on the walls, usually to visually display what another character is talking about. Both examples help the player feel more immersed in the gameworld by letting the gameplay continue, but may also get in the way of the game if they last for too long and the player needs to stop to see all of the video.

Dead Space and Splinter Cell: Conviction during one of their parallel storytelling sequences

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It is then clear that neither of these techniques is perfect for every type of game. Cutscenes, voice-overs, walls of text they all have their advantages and disadvantages as well as case scenarios where they work better. It becomes then the job of the game director to decide what is the most appropriate method to use at each point in the game, maybe even mixing several types during the entire length of it but always considering the need for consistency.

The structure of stories in games

Up to this point the main topic of this analysis has been on methods of storytelling in games, mostly focused on cutscenes. However all the storytelling techniques can be rendered useless if the plot and character development is not properly structured and thought out. The current trend is to compare the structure of story-based games with that of movies. This makes sense in many ways: many game designers want their games to have a story that has an impact on the audience in a way similar to how a movie has. The holy grail of videogame writers would be for the player to become emotionally attached to the games characters, just like a viewer can become attached to the characters in a movie, eventually getting to feel their emotions as well as their love and pain. There is also a constant search for the feeling of grandeur of movies; adventures of epic proportions that have attracted videogame writers for ages. There is no need to look further than the story of Nathan Drake in the videogame series Uncharted. Players become so immersed in the unfolding events of the games that they really feel like being the protagonist of a blockbuster film, with many of the games environments acting like extremely complex set pieces. A perfect example of this is the introductory level of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009). The game starts with a cutscene where players see from a first person perspective that they are inside a train for a brief moment. The camera then cuts to a close-up of the games protagonist Nathan Drake sitting in the train, waking up completely lost and disoriented. Without any other given explanations the player feels just as disoriented as the main character himself, but even more so once the player (and Nathan himself) realizes that the train is hanging vertically from a cliff and about to fall.

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Uncharted 2 feels pretty much like playing an action movie

The entire level plays like a movie production set-piece, as players move Nathan up the hanging train and, upon reaching certain triggers, they activate a quick cutscene where pieces of the train break or something explodes. These events are certainly scripted, much like a director calling up for the special effects expert to trigger a strong gust of wind or some rain during the shooting of a film. They are meant to wow the player in the same way that impressive special effects would wow the audience in a movie theater. The player reacts emotionally as they see the protagonist almost fall down the cliff, only for him to quickly grab to a ledge as the camera changes perspective to a top view of the chasm to emphasize the long distance of the fall he just avoided and create a feeling of vertigo. Control over the character is taken away and given back at breakneck speed as these small events happen, making it feel more like a seamless experience rather than the action full of cutscenes that it really is. And during these moments the player only grows more and more attached to Nathan Drake as he feels like he just saved his life from an almost certain death. But then the game moves to a flashback with a long dialogue between Nathan and two other characters. All of a sudden all the control gets taken away for five minutes straight and all the player can do is watch as the game throws down all the necessary information needed to understand how the situation got to where it was in the train. Surely enough this makes the entire experience feel very cinematic. Many of the techniques that have been used for just those first ten minutes of the game have been ripped right off

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film theory books. From the way the game implements its in media res introduction level to the feeling of disorientation imbued on the player by choosing the right camera shots. Not to mention the dynamic camera that tries to position itself in ways that will cause a feeling of vertigo on the player as he moves up the train and the exposition-heavy flashback that simultaneously serves to introduce players to the other two core characters in the story. Even Sonys marketing material makes reference to how close the game is to playing a blockbuster movie. And the Uncharted series is not just the exception to this trend. Games have been trying to draw similarities from the movie industry for many ages, with different degrees of success. A great example comes from the hand-drawn animated game Dragons Lair (1983), which brought in what were at the time unprecedented animated sequences at the expense of gameplay and interactivity in general. The players actions were limited to pushing the right button at the right time, becoming more a matter of quick reflexes than actually controlling the character Dirk. While the game was a hit at the time and it is still considered a cult classic it is clear that such type of gameplay wouldnt work by todays standards. Gamers demand far more control over the gameplay experience and they want to feel like their actions can really affect the outcome of the game. Other games that have successfully implemented a cinematic movie-like approach to storytelling have been Resident Evil 4 (2005) and Peter Jacksons King Kong (2005). Resident Evil 4 employed what could be considered an evolution of Dragons Lair quick -reaction system. The level of freedom in the game is definitely much bigger than in the former game, with players being able to move character Leon Kennedy around the 3D environments, stop to pick up items, aim and shoot at the enemies and interact with the environment. But at specific points in the game the story will advance through the use of scripted cutscenes in which players lose control over Leon as he runs automatically. The similarity: certain visual cues will let the player know that he has to press a specific key to get Leon to avoid an attack or jump. Failure to press that button on time will result in the character dying and the game to be reset back to the last checkpoint.

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The objective of these quick-time events is, of course, to keep players on their toes even while watching cutscenes, always prepared to react upon these events. When implemented properly the gameplay feels to be fluent and cohesive. The game hasnt stopped to tell us a portion of the story. Instead it is merely changing the gameplay during these bits while allowing the digital characters to perform more stunning actions like jumping out of an exploding house or avoid an enemy swinging a giant axe towards him. And at the same time it affords the camera to be placed at angles far more cinematic than the standard over-theshoulder camera used during the rest of the game. Even more notable is how developer Quantic Dream took all these ideas for their storytelling game Heavy Rain (2010). The entire title could be considered one giant quicktime event cutscene in which players perform all the actions in the game by doing similar movements on the Playstation 3 controllers joysticks or pressing the right button combinations. Another important aspect of Heavy Rain is how the players actions dont simply end up in a win or lose situation as it happens in Resident Evil 4. Here if the player fails several times to do the right actions in the middle of a fight he might get the character killed. But the game will continue despite of this, although with a new character that will keep the story moving and everyone acknowledging that the former has died. Even though these events are still scripted cutscenes the players contribution to them shape how the game moves on, something far more dynamic than the static script of Dragons Lair or Resident Evil 4. The main problem with these quick-time events is that the player can lose the immersion if the visual cues that appear on the screen indicating what button to press become too distracting and the player pays more attention to them than to the events happening on screen. However research has shown that there are other methods of cueing the player without being disruptive, such as haptic feedback (Rasmussen, Lauritzen, Lundberg, & rbk, 2010). But where Heavy Rain really stands out is in its approach at making the entire experience feel like a dramatic movie. Even its first few hours are meant to simply get the audience used to the character (as well as the somewhat different controls) and also to set up the mood and pacing of the game. This is not a fast-action game but rather a drama with a few

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fights thrown in. So the first thing players will have to do in the game is take the character Ethan Mars through a series of mundane actions like taking a shower, brushing his teeth and putting some clothes on.

The very slow beginning of Heavy Rain makes helps build up tension for what will happen This slow pacing helps the game achieve a feeling of grandeur on the player. That slow beginning in an empty apartment, playing with the characters children and going to a shopping mall sumps up together to build up the tension for what will be coming next, all in true film fashion. But is it really the right approach to design games in such a cinematic style? It is impossible to deny that games can greatly benefit from movie-making techniques like the ones mentioned earlier. After all the film industry has had over a hundred years to improve its storytelling methods which in turn have evolved from the storytelling ways of written narrative. As such it would be a big mistake to dismiss all the rich plot-advancing devices that have been developed for movies over the years the same way that it would be an error not to evolve storytelling methods created specifically for games. But perhaps a revision of this model is needed in order to rethink how games can adapt their storytelling in original and interesting ways. The current goal in story-heavy games seems to be to get as much of a feeling of playing an interactive movie as possible. But when we stop to think about the differences between games and movies, focus on

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gameplay aside, there are several important points that make it difficult to achieve this marriage. The average consumer who goes to the cinema usually enters with a movie to watch in mind already, either because he has seen the trailers or heard good reviews about it. Once he has bought the ticket there is only one action left to do: watch until the movie is finished. Movies have as such developed a very precise way of telling stories by adapting their pacing and plot twists in such a way that during the projection of the movie, typically lasting between an hour and a half and two hours, viewers will get introduced into the universe of the story, watch the events unfold and finally see the conclusion to the story. This is what narrative studies have called the dramatic arc (Lynne & Foust, 2009) and, although there exist several models of it that are better suited for different types of genres, for the purpose of this text the classical separation of the three-act structure will be used. The three-act structure has been commonly used to divide the structure of a story into three parts, those being exposition, rising action and climax. The exposition is the part that establishes the main characters and the world they live in as well as their relationships, and poses a dramatic question: the incognito that the story is trying to resolve (Will the main character get the girl? Will the hero save the world?). The rising action starts with the first turning point of the story: an incident occurs that makes the protagonist change the course of his actions, attempting to resolve the dramatic question as they find themselves against a series of hurdles that gets the protagonist to learn something or realize who they are. Finally the climax is the resolution of the story and the most intense moment of the dramatic arc. It solves the dramatic question and leaves the characters knowing more about themselves. While obviously this structure does not fit perfectly for every single type of story, it is a basic sequence that can be easily used with most films. Even book to film adaptations like The Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series have had their stories simplified and restructured to better fit the three-act model. The reason for this is simple: given the limited amount of time a film has with the audience not being able to stop the action and continue at a later time (of course this is from the perspective of a cinema audience, domestic releases being an afterthought), a movie has to

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quickly gain the audiences interest by delivering the dramatic question early on, build up the tension, and finally resolve it in the climax, usually in under two hours. A more complex structure could be detrimental for the enjoyment of the movie, either slowing it down too much or making it feel too bloated. This small detour into dramatic structure theory relates to the previous topic in that games that play like a movie many times fall into the trap of using this same style of dividing the overall story into three acts. The Uncharted games, Heavy Rain, Peter Jacksons King Kong and Resident Evil 4 mentioned before all follow a similar structure to the three-acts. Some of those still use areas separated as levels for the sake of letting the player feel like he is progressing through the game, but overall the structure of the story stays the same. This delivers a movie-like experience for sure, but that is not necessarily the best option when trying to make a compelling story in a game. If anything, story-based games should be compared much closer to TV serials. First of all it should be noted the distinction between the terms TV series and TV serial. TV series are sets of broadcast episodes based on the same characters or central theme. This means that usually the viewer does not need to have seen previous episodes to understand what is happening in a current one. Sitcoms like Friends, where except for very punctual developments the overall plot never moves forward after what happens in one episode, belong to this category. Other examples are cartoons like The Simpsons or South Park, where the character Kenny gets killed in several episodes but the next episode ignores that he was killed and has him always back in the season. TV serials on the other hand have an overarching plot that continues in every episode, usually with one big central problem to solve at the end of each season. Each episode normally beings with a recap of previous events to allow those who have just jumped in into the series to get hooked easier and avoid getting lost in the serials plot. Examples of serials are Lost, Prison Break or Heroes. Because of this big plot that lasts throughout the season the story of a serial takes a much longer span of time to reveal all of its plot twists to the audience. The first story arch of

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Prison Break took one year of weekly episodes (save for the usual stops the TV industry takes) to be concluded. Each episode however can stand out on its own thanks to its subplot: the events that happen specifically during the span of time the episode lasts. This requires each episode to be captivating enough to maintain the interest of the audiences, repeating the three act structure used in movies but in a shorter timeframe of between 20 and 50 minutes depending on the serial. And at the same time they need to maintain the connection to the overall plot with constant references. In order to keep the audience interested enough to tune back in for the next episode a common practice is to end the chapter with a cliff-hanger, revealing a mystery partially at the very last moment to have users wanting to see what will happen next. When we compare the way a movie tells a single plot over the course of hour and a half against how a TV serial tells a plot over several episodes of 40 minutes each it becomes clearer that video games have a closer resemblance to serials. Typically players do not finish the entirety of a game in one day, even less on a single playthrough. Some even start a game, leave it somewhere in the middle, and return to it even months later to finish it. Also these play sessions are generally short, with an average of 80 minutes per play session in a game like Half-Life 2 according to a Nielsen report from 2009 (Nielsen, 2009). This closer corresponds to the way TV serials work. After several playthroughs depending on the total length of the game and the amount of time spent in each session the player will eventually reach the final part where the story will reach its conclusion. However the story in these games is often not adapted to work with this structure and unless the player has been paying close attention it becomes forgettable because the build-up to the climax has been going on for too long. There exist games that have adapted a more episodic format though, both in their internal structure and in their distribution model. L.A. Noire (2011), a game that has been critically acclaimed in several reviews for its successful way of telling the story (Metacritic L.A. Noire critic reviews), has a series of separate cases, each one being presented as an episode with an exposition act, a build-up and a climax. This allows each episode to become something memorable on its own but at the same time these episodes begin to draw a thread that connects the separate cases with the overall plot as the protagonist Cole Phelps discovers a

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drug trade organization. Episodes are also grouped within desks, which could be compared to the different seasons of TV serials. Also within each episode the player is granted a high degree of freedom that allows him to move around the entire city of Los Angeles and sometimes take optional cases. Also several episodes end with a cliff-hanger through flashbacks of Coles memories of the war, a smaller element that keeps the player interested in playing the following episode to learn how the story continues. By the end of the last case all the plots are closed down with a much bigger climax than those of each separate episode. This precise structure strongly resonates with that described by Marie-Laure Ryan as the vector with side branches (Ryan, 2001). The story advances in a pre-determined chronological order, but offering the opportunity for the player to get side-tracked. In L.A. Noire this happens in the form of optional side-investigations. In Ryans diagram the horizontal line represents the chronological order of events. The nodes of the central line represent the main plot points (or, in this comparison, episodes) and each branch represents the side-investigations that are available from within each episode. That way the story follows a linear path from its beginning to its end but still offering a certain degree of freedom for the player to get side-tracked.

Ryan's diagram for the vector with side branches

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But there have also been other games that have taken on this episodic nature not only in the way the story structures itself, but also in how the game gets distributed. Telltale Games has had a moderate success in its model of selling adventure games in separate monthly episodes via online distribution, with titles such as Sam & Max: The Devils Playhouse (2010) or Jurassic Park: The Game (2011). This model allows them to apply feedback received from the episodes released to the upcoming chapters, as well as reduce the amount of funding needed to release the first part and adjust the budget in response to the commercial success as the serial keeps going. Also for the customer it allows him to pay less for the first part of the game (or even get it for free as a promotion to hook the player) and if he likes it he can buy the rest of the episodes, which means a higher chance of customers trying the game. Of course it also has the disadvantage that a series might be finished off early if the game is not received well enough. Story-wise however it makes for the perfect example of the TV serial model. Each chapter needs to be interesting enough for the player to be hooked to it and be willing to pay for the rest of the season, but at the same time it needs to connect to the rest of the overall story arc. These episodes are relatively short with about two hours of gameplay and as such they can be finished in one sitting, maintaining the interest of the player with a controlled story arc. But this structure seems to be killing off the player freedom for the sake of linearity and keeping the story confined to a single track. This does not have to be like that however. Ryan also describes the structure of a directed network or flowchart (Ryan, 2001) in which the plot can branch out in different directions based on the players actions. These variations of the plot merge later on back into a single track, creating the illusion of choice. The game can then finish with a single, unified ending or branch out to different endings based on the games memory of the players actions throughout the course of the game.

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Ryans diagram for the directed network

Also Telltales game The Walking Dead (2012) follows this structure, where the actions of the player in one episode can have an effect in the following ones, such as who the player decided to let live and who would die. These actions cause the branches of plot possibilities to extend, but ultimately lead back to the same line. This series is still ongoing as of this writing however, and the developer has not stated if at the end of the game the all players will experience the same story or if all the actions taken up to that moment will have an effect on the final outcome. Marie-Laure Ryan also describes other types of story structure that adapts itself better to different game genres. Of those I consider the most important for this analysis the one called Action space, epic wandering and story-world, in which the diagram represents space rather than time. The player can choose where to go or even if he wants to go at all to a certain place, giving him a certain degree of freedom. Once he has reached one of those areas in the space however the game takes over and switches to a linear structure until the player has completed it, which would be the episode of this structure. This type of structure lends itself well for sandbox games where the player is given total freedom to explore the world, triggering missions that have their own story each and can later connect to the overarching plot. In a way Mass Effect 2 (2010) follows a similar model where the player, once he chooses to land on certain planets, triggers an episode that tells the story of one of the characters in Commander Sheppards team. The episode has a linear structure where events happen in the same way of Ryans directed network , with a

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few choices in between the mission that eventually lead back to the main line and take to the same ending or a few different endings with similarities. After that the player returns to the open world structure of the game and he can choose where to go next.

Action space, epic wandering and story-world

In this case the author greatly loses his grip on the storytelling, since he can no longer control the order in which events take place. But this structure, combined with others (for example, after completing a series of individual episodes a linear structure takes over to advance the plot in a significant way before giving back the freedom to the player) can be very powerful for creating storytelling worlds in games. In any case all these models allow an episodic take on better distributing the storytelling throughout the game, making it more interesting for the player, easier to keep them engaged through several play sessions and a more memorable plot. Of course this does not mean that game developers should think of the game as a TV serial, but rather learn from it and analyze how these capture the interest of their audiences. From there on, these can be applied to video games in new ways to create a new video game specific model that allows for new engaging experiences.

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Conclusion
This analysis has reached several conclusions during its development. First and foremost is the fact that not all games need to have a story but that there is definitely an audience who likes having them in certain games. For those games that do have a story carefully crafted by the author cutscenes are not the immersion and gameplay killer they used to be anymore. With the development of new technologies applied to video games the old definition of a cutscene is no longer valid, since the assumptions that these block all player interaction dont apply anymore. For that matter the new definition acknowledges that cutscenes do limit player interaction, but not necessarily all of it, allowing for a better integration of the cutscene within the game world and still being able to mix in-game graphics, pre-rendered animations and live-action video. The function that cutscenes have nowadays is much more expansive and as such game designers should learn their advantages for both exposition of information and their mood-affecting qualities. Knowing how to properly place these cutscenes in an unobtrusive and obvious way so that the pacing of the game feels more natural is important in maintaining the immersion of the player. But an improper overuse of them can lead to frustration and completely shutting off the gameplay for the sake of playing a movie. Also different alternatives to cutscenes are available for developers to use, improve upon and evolve that let the gameplay continue without limitations, although with a lesser control of the experience from the author. Finally it is not only the proper use of plot devices that needs to be taken into account when writing a story for a game, but also the overall structure and integration into the entire playthrough. The comparisons between games and movies are not always the most adequate, and a new model needs to arise. Learning how TV serials attract their audiences back to watch the next episode is crucial for knowing how to pace the story of a game in a way that will keep players thrilled to get back to the game and see what happens next. As more games try to apply deep, meaningful stories to them these guidelines should help them as a stepping stone. Cutscenes are most definitely not dead, they have simply evolved. And structuring them along with other plot devices in an episodic way, whether they are

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sold as a single product or in periodic releases plays a big part into achieving a well-rounded package of a game with a story that does not feel tacked on, but rather integrated and developed along with the game so that one cannot coexist without the other.

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Games (listed in order of appearance in the thesis)

Tecmo. Ninja Gaiden. 1988 Taito. Dragons Lair. 1983 Valve. Portal. 2007 Naughty Dog. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. 2009 Quantic Dream. Heavy Rain. 2010

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Alexey Pajitnov. Tetris. 1984 Mojang. Minecraft. 2011 Capcom. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. 2005 Rovio. Angry Birds. 2009 Bethesda Game Studios. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. 2006 Rockstar. Grand Theft Auto III. 2001 Bethesda Game Studios. Fallout 3. 2008 Bungie Studios. Halo 2. 2004 2K Boston. Bioshock. 2007 Lucasfilm Games. Maniac Mansion. 1987 Namco. Pac-man. 1980 Nintendo. Donkey Kong. 1981 Nintendo. Super Mario 64. 1996 Nintendo. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. 1998 Konami. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. 2004 Eric Chahi. Another World. 1991 Trilobyte. The 7th Guest. 1993 Origin Systems. Wing Commander IV. 1996 American Laser Games. Mad Dog McCree. 1990 ICOM Simulations. Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective. 1991 Hyperbole Studios. The X-Files: The Game. 1998 Square-Enix. Final Fantasy VIII. 1999 Square-Enix. Final Fantasy VII. 1997 Epic Games. Gears of War. 2006 Capcom. Devil May Cry. 2001 Konami. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of Patriots. 2008

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Bioware. Mass Effect. 2007 Ubisoft. Assassins Creed. 2007 Crystal Dynamics. Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko. 1999 Atari. Pong. 1972 Activision. Prototype. 2009 Team Bondi. L.A. Noire. 2011 Ubisoft. Peter Jacksons King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie. 2005 Valve. Half-Life 2. 2005 Square-Enix. Final Fantasy IX. 2000 Capcom. Resident Evil. 1996 Rare. Conkers Bad Fur Day. 2001 Ubisoft. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. 2003 Rocksteady. Batman: Arkham City. 2011 Blizzard Entertainment. Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty. 2010 EA Digital Illusions CE. Mirrors Edge. 2008 Rockstar. Grand Theft Auto IV. 2008 Capcom. Devil May Cry 4. 2008 Square-Enix. Kingdom Hearts. 2002
Bethesda Game Studios. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. 2011

Remedy Entertainment. Alan Wake. 2010 Ubisoft. Prince of Persia. 2008 Nintendo. Kid Icarus: Uprising. 2012 EA Redwood Shores. Dead Space. 2008 Ubisoft. Splinter Cell: Conviction. 2010 Capcom. Resident Evil 4. 2005 Telltale Games. Sam & Max: The Devils Playhouse. 2010

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Telltale Games. Jurassic Park: The Game. 2011 Telltale Games. The Walking Dead. 2012 Bioware. Mass Effect 2. 2010

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