BA7 Research: Visual Storytelling

Visual Storytelling

Visual storytelling is a way in which a medium can tell a story through visuals, whether this be through cut scene, assets or just visual clues such as a discrete sign. In video games visual storytelling is an important design element and forever getting bigger. It allows the creator to put across more story through visuals than just plain out right saying it. Examples of visual storytelling can be found in games where there are cut-scenes, although some can be tedious and some can be overdone, this mechanic is a clever way of producing a story easily that the viewer can understand. A good example of this is in Bioshock through the subtle assets left throughout the game such as ‘a teddy bear left on the floor of a child's room, small remnants of humanity that echoed through the now hollow city. These small things communicate much bigger themes that would perhaps be much duller had they been explained verbally.’ – (Team Infestation Blog) or ‘A pile of luggage left at an elevator door’ –
(Team Infestation Blog).

These small visual assets really help to communicate a story and like Team Infestation said ‘small remnants of humanity’ that can be seen through these objects. Within my scene I hope to achieve similar design elements such as a bit of clothing hanging from the rope bridge or a rope hanging from the pub sign, these little assets will help to create something that will tell a story, something that may or may not have happened. Hopefully it will make the viewer intrigued, feel curious about what might have happened before. Through research around the area that I am creating and some creativity in the assets I make I hope to achieve some form of visual storytelling within my scene, giving it a story.

A great blog talks about visual storytelling and more specifically how Left 4 Dead (Valve, 2008) did a really good job on providing visual storytelling in the game. Joe, the author of the blog speaks about how there isn’t much story in the game, you simply kill and run away from zombies but within the environment there are brilliant design details that tell a story such as ‘graffitti in the safe rooms tells the stories of those here before you, corpses covered with sheets tell of those who didn't survive whose friends didn't just want to leave their bodies to the elements, but couldn't take the corpses with them.’ – (Joe, Shakewellbeforeenjoying blog).

Visual storytelling in video games –
http://shakewellbeforeenjoying.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/visual-storytelling-in-videogames.html