Game creators seek mature storytelling in games

SEATTLE (AP) – For many of the game designers showing off their latest creations at the recent Penny Arcade video game expo in Seattle, the push to feature more mature storytelling has been one of their most significant challenges.

“We are changing as a medium,” said Rich- ard Dansky, a writer who has worked on several “Tom Clancy” games, in a talk called “You’re So Mature! Is Storytelling in Games Coming of Age?”

While recognizing there have been serious- minded games going back to the days of 1980s text-based adventures, Dansky said an unstoppable evolution is afoot in the industry — an evolution that has sparked recent online feuding between fans, bloggers and developers.

“We are throwing open new doors and exploring new terri- tory in ways that are advancing faster and obviously making some people unhappy,” he said. “We can’t just say, `They have to deal with it.’ They’re letting us know they’re unhappy in ways that are reprehensible. It’s up to us to keep reinforcing and pushing for change.” Over the past 50 years, the interactive me- dium once considered merely child’s play has gained both financial and cultural significance, but a disparity persists, as evidenced on the floor of the Seattle expo, known as PAX Prime. There, the likes of the kid-friendly, cartoony “Pokemon” icon Pikachu loomed over gamers firing virtual guns and slashing virtual throats in “Far Cry 4” and “Assassin’s Creed.” “I think it’s important not to lose track that games tackling serious subjects have been woven into the DNA of the industry since the beginning,” said Dansky. “We’ve always had people who’ve attempted to use this medium for more than just `shoot `em in the face.’ I think what’s happening now is unprecedented access to consumers and the awareness the Internet allows us.”

Ryan Payton, the head of game studio Cam-

ouflaj who previously worked on the “Metal Gear Solid” and “Halo” series, said he had to balance the financial rigors of game development with his personal desire to explore a mature topic while crafting the mobile game “Republique,” which casts players as a hacker guiding a woman through a dystopia where individuality is banned.

“My end goal is to not only make enough money to keep the business going and our 25 employees well fed,” said Payton. “It’s also that I know, through our game, we could touch millions — if not possibly tens of mil- lions — of people in all parts of the world and get them to think seriously about surveillance infrastructures, whether they’re corporate or governmental.”

While indie games have long been the big- gest sector of the industry to tackle sociopo- litical topics like diversity, personal freedom, mental health and sexual identity, developers at PAX Prime said that line of thinking has come to many mainstream games in recent years, pointing to “The Last of Us” and “The Walk- ing Dead: The Game” as examples of titles that took such risks.