You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villian (Narrative Design)

I recall a moment during my Undergrad degree where I did attended a talk with the script writer for one of the Crysis games, where it used the Hero’s Journey, in this case I distinctively remember making a very silly scenario involving Justin Beiber and something to do with his toilet….. Don’t ask me how the story ended it has been a long time ago. Regardless this is what our lecture with Hope Caton goes into detail about.

The Hero’s Journey.

I will admit, I had already accumlated some knowledge of the journey, but thanks to Hope I have received an in-depth knowledge of the simple yet effective narrative technique. I know there are many ways to tell a narrative and many means to do so. Using the environment or even doing so throught music, but the Hero’s Journey has also been the most utlised and has been so for many, many, many, many years. I enjoy these stories and am very observant to them when watching movies which is why I’m very critical of them.

Regardless the Hero is someone who puts their own needs aside and focus on the needs of the many. Like Spock says "The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few”. The Hero represents wholeness, so being one’s true self.

The Hero’s Journey always goes full circle as they start as a false persona as they follow the crowd and they are safe, but they get a call to action, they still want to stay safe, but the action gets called to them and then there is no going back to the way it was. The character the proceeds to a world they do not know, an unknown world to them and pursues what they want from there but then the hero thinks their strongest trait is what they are longing for but it doesn’t do anything and the antagonist makes it worse and preys on the troubled trait of the hero, but then the hero needs to find something to make him complete and his true self. however this can also backfire where the story can either end as a tragedy or a transformation.

The Hero can either succumb to the dark side, or push though it, but there always has to be a moment where our Hero falls so he can pick himself/herself back up again.

It’s quite simple but can be exceptionally complicated if going in-depth, but it works and has worked for many years.

This sense of the journey will always been a crazy selling point for me and is something I also always come back to time and time again. It is something that I’ve always wanted to make and this is one of many narratives to that I can use to my advantage.

When, not if, I make a narrative game, I want to make sure to creatively tell this narrative journey thorugh the environment or clever use of anything materials in the game.