In March 2022, Arturo Pérez-Reverte went to one of the podcasts More famous in Spanish (that of Jordi Wild) and, between provocative and visionary, left a reflection that many liked, enraged many others and ignited the flame of a debate that has not yet been off. “If I were a young writer, what I would do would be to write scripts for video games,” he said. The games had already reached large narrative dimensions, but from then until today the level has risen even more. The country talks to some of the best video game writers to try to elucidate the big question: Are video games the new novels?
The question in the air is whether video games have matured enough to compare themselves to the novels. “Video games are The final artistic environment. They combine all other art forms and also have a unique element: the gameplay, which allows the player experiment The story instead of just reading or seeing it, ”says Daniel Vávra, narrative director of the mythical Mafia (2002), of Kingdom Come: Deliverance (2018) and his Magna work: Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, Published last and unanimously praised by world criticism as a narrative prodigy. “You are not reading about something that happens, you are living it. Video games are not seen or listed passively as other media; They look, they are heard And they are experienced through the game itself, ”he continues. The game contains all art forms: writing, performance, visual arts in all its variants, camera, lighting, costumes, conceptual art, architecture. So can video games be art? Yes. Are most art video games? No. Most remain only entertainment, at best. But heaven is the limit for those who want to go further. ”
Lawrence Schick, novelist and narrative director of Baldur’s Gate 3proclaimed the best game of the year in 2023 and considered by the criticism of the whole world as a miracle in terms of narration, clarifies: “The great novel of the 21st century will continue to be a novel, but will be located next to the best narrative game of the century, at the same level of artistic and cultural importance.” That is: no, they are not the new novels. But they are another something equally important.
“The goal of a game and a novel is the same: telling a story, entertaining, exciting. But you have to adapt the methods to the environment, ”says Jakub Szamalek, narrative director of the futuristic game Cyberpunk 2077 (2020) and medieval fantasy The Witcher 3 (Proclaimed best game of the year in 2015), amen of novelist best seller Polish. “Unlike linear media, such as books, movies or comics, video games allow the player choice and multiple finals. This means both challenges and opportunities. On the one hand, some of the methods proven and developed for linear media do not work so well in video games. For example, there is less control over the rhythm or structure of history. On the other hand, offering elections to the player transforms him from a passive observer into an active participant, even in a cooker in history. ”
Cooking is a term that all game writers consulted (in person or via mail) They will repeat at some point of their reflections. “Although a novelist tries to attract the reader involving him in the point of view of one or more characters, the author is always counting are History, and this does not change regardless of who reads it, ”believes Schick. “In a game, the authors create a narrative situation that allows history to happen, but events, structure and outcome depend on the player’s decisions. The player uses the game tools to count Your own History within the framework of the narrative scenario. We try to give players as many options as possible, both through the game systems and the multiple ramifications of the dialogue, so that the experience is as unique as possible. ”
So, can the writer control the reading experience in a game in the same way as in a novel? “It can do it, but that would go against the purpose of making a game instead of writing a novel. A game is a different experience to a book or a movie, since the player/reader is the protagonist instead of a spectator of a default narrative, ”believes Schick. Located in the medieval world full of magic of Dungeons and Dragons, Baldur’s Gate 3 Weave a story that makes the player interest not only the future of the world, but the destiny of all the characters. And it does not lie when it speaks of branch: although the game has four canonical finals, the different options can lead to more than 17,000 finals. “No, you can’t control the experience as in a novel,” he adds, bluntly, Jakub Szamalek. “All games contain some degree of interactivity and choice, so, by definition, the author must give part of the control over how history will develop,” he says, giving another of the keys.
Narrative molds
“There is still much to experience and for this it is essential that we begin to separate ourselves from these narrative molds that, although they were necessary at the time, are now cutting our wings,” says Marta advanced, narrative designer of, for example, for example, Do Not Feed the Monkeys 2099 (2023), one of the Spanish games with the best narrative in recent years. “Therefore, in many ways (including the maturity of the narrative, the potential to tell stories and cultural impact) we could get to understand the video game as the new novel, but my opinion is that to take this step it is precisely necessary that we stop comparing ourselves.”
“It looks more like writing a television series, but instead of writing a single episode, you must write several iterations of it with all possible ramifications,” says Vávra. “You also have to write everything that in a television episode would not be visible,” “Because the player can go anywhere and talk to any character. Basically, instead of writing 45 pages for an episode of 45 minutes, 120 pages are written here to tell the same story. ” To give an idea of the magnitude of his last work, an ultra -re -medieval play located in the bohemian of the early fifteenth century, Vávra gives dizziness figures: “The script has 2.2 million words and 220,000 lines of dialogue. The main actor spent 500 hours only in voice recordings. In addition, there are about six hours of kinematics within the game. ” As a reference, an average book of the saga that inspired Game of Thrones (whose creator, Jrr Martin, is behind the script of another of the best games in recent times, Elden Ring), has around 300,000 words.
“In recent years, the idea that video games have to be necessarily funny has been eliminated. Like the novel or cinema, they have settled as a medium that has the ability to tell any type of history and generate various emotions, ”says Marta Advanced, which also acts as a cultural disseminator with talks about video games. “Therefore, this feedback can occur in which, if we present ideas or debates that interest the players, they will assess and ask for increasingly deep and complex narratives.” And he adds: “The narrative in the video game, especially during the last two decades, has been able to explore what the media can offer (and not unlike, as it used to happen). It is a path that we are still traveling, but of course there is already an advanced part. ”
Advanced appointment a Baldur’s Gate 3 o Disco Elysium (Another game with a script that the specialized press defines as one of the best), but in addition to the games created by those who speak in this report, the participants in this article (and the criticism in general) indicate as narrative prodigies games such as the first role -playing games of the BioWare company (Neverwinter Nights, KOTOR, Mass Effect); those created by Lucas Pope, like Papers, Please o Return of the Obra Dinn; and others like Stanley Parable, Inscryption, Undertale, The Forgotten City u Outer Wilds. None of them aspires to be the best novel of the 21st century. But to be, next to her, on the same step of the masterpieces.