I was thinking of some classic movies and what went int to giving them effective stories and I started to think of "The Birds" the classic Hitchcock thriller. The more I thought about it the more I released that what made it so good was that there was no explaination for the events that occured and no resoltuion to them then simply stopped. For those who haven''t seen the movie. At the start of the movie birds start attacking people and at the end of the movie the attacks simply stop. There is no explaintion given for why they began or why they stopped. The whole thing is left unresolved. So I thought to myself would the same technique work well in a game? The player finds themselves in the middle of a situation no explaination given and by the end of the game they have manged to solve their immediate problem but they still have no knowledge of what caused the original situation or why they where involved. for example: The character wakes up their legs hand cuffed to a pipe and a nasty burn on their back from where hit by a stun gun. ... The game ends with the player escaping on a train back to civilization and safty. With no more knowledge about who kidnapped them or why. ----------------------------------------------------- Writer, Programer, Cook, I''m a Jack of all Trades Current Design project: Ambitions Slave

I think I disliked the Birds for exactly the same reason you seem to like it. Though, not to suggest that any explanation for it would have made the movie any better. I suppose what would work here is some sort of really loose explanation. Something thats really open to interpretation. For example, if there was even the slightest hint that the birds only attacked certain people, it could be infered that Hitchcock has introduced them as the instruments of a vengeful god attacking the sinners, hitchcock condemning the certain activities and viciously assaulting them. Come to think of it, that may have made the movie better by today''s standards.

That would defenitly not improve the movie, adding a moral reason for which the people need to be punsished for is not what the movie was about, and an explaination would have only weakened the plot. Besides the birds is a classic and considering todays standards a remake would never be as good as the original.

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Writer, Programer, Cook, I''m a Jack of all Trades
Current Design project: Ambitions Slave

quote: Original post by TechnoGoth
Besides the birds is a classic and considering todays standards a remake would never be as good as the original.

Night of the Living Dead. Psycho. Both were classics, both were remade, both were as good as the original, if not better thanks to color. Though, the lack of color did make the movie more interesting. Not something you see a lot now in the twenty-first century, so it''s a good change.

quote: Original post by TechnoGoth
That would defenitly not improve the movie, adding a moral reason for which the people need to be punsished for is not what the movie was about, and an explaination would have only weakened the plot. Besides the birds is a classic and considering todays standards a remake would never be as good as the original.

Well, I was just saying I didn''t like the Birds, because, it wasn''t about birds, but some chick that finds a guy she likes and decides to aggressively pursue him. The birds that come along are just treated like some natural distaster, like a volcano or a tornado.

No, retroactively changing the story of the Birds is not a good idea. I''m suggesting that if you want to make a story where internally nothing gets explained, it may serve to leave external hooks, such as having the natural disaster only hurting certain people, but not others.

Thats not really what I''m talking thats more of anticlimatic ending or a non ending. What I''m taking would have a full story arc however that story arc would seem only like a subset of some larger story.

Lets use an example.

(Game opens)
Player finds themselves tied up in a wharehouse, they mumble some confused phrases about remembering being attacked while leaving a bar and unsure as to what is going on.

Two men dressed in green jackets are standing in front of the player arguing, both carry guns and seem very upset and one of them keeps pointing in the player''s direction.



Both men draw their guns as the argument esclates and one shots the other. However a stray built hits one of the oil drums in the wharehouse and soon flames are spreading quickly. The surviving man runs out the wharehouse in fear.



Now free the player is in trouble the flames have spread and there have been several small explosion the entire wharehouse is engulfed in flames and begins to collapse around them.



Having escaped the wharehouse the player finds themselves at the docks of what looks like the city they call home. As they continue to run from the wharehouse the player notices several more armed men in green jackets.



The player having slipped by the group of men breathes a sigh of relif and nearly walks into a lone green jacket peeing in a corning.



Having knocked the man unconcious the player manages to grab the mans gun, but the commotion has attracted attention of the rest of the green jackets. So quickly the player makes a dash for freedom, one of them fires a bullet that grazes the players shoulder and they fall into the harbour. Seeing an open flow pipe the player crawls into it and into the sewars. The sound of a series of large splashes behind them warn the player that the green jackets have not given up yet.



At last the player finds an exit that brings them out into a subway terminal and then dashing upto the platform they hop into a subway train just as its pulling out of the terminal and to freedom.



Thats the kind of thing I''m thinking of in terms of an unresolved story. They player has achomplished a goal feels satisfaction however they still left wondering why they where kidnapped in the first place and if their escape is truely the end it.

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"Fate and Destiny only give you the opportunity the rest you have to do on your own."
Current Design project: Ambitions Slave