Overwatch, Halo Devs Discuss Importance And Challenges Of Story In Games

Overwatch and Halo are very different franchises: Overwatch only has competitive multiplayer, while the Halo series includes many different games, each with several modes to play. Halo has a huge, overarching storyline stretching across books, TV shows, movies, and games. Overwatch's narrative, on the other hand, is found in in-game dialogue and environmental hints--although it has recently received some short videos and comics. Recently, Overwatch lead writer Michael Chu and Halo executive producer Kiki Wolfkill spoke at a panel about the different challenges they face when crafting stories, but also the importance of a narrative to a successful game.

As reported by The Ringer, they appeared on a panel at Tribeca Games Festival. Chu spoke about how developer Blizzard goes about crafting a story that can only be conveyed through the multiplayer mode, explaining that it's difficult but nonetheless a vital part of the game.

"We felt that it was equally important to develop [not just] Overwatch the game, but also this universe. Because [at] Blizzard, that's what we do," he said. "What we've learned about development over the years is that when you're making these heroes and you're making the levels and the art, it really helps to have the story background to figure out what kind of content you want to make, context for heroes and levels."

To communicate this background information to the player, Blizzard relies on the snippets of dialogue that appear at the beginning of matches. "We had to be really efficient," he explained. "There weren't that many places to get story out in Overwatch. One of the ways that is actually most effective is the pregame dialogue. It's one line, one response."

For developer 343 Industries, the huge Halo lore poses quite a different challenge. Wolfkill explained that it's a huge undertaking to deal with a series that has five mainline games, a handful of spinoff games, and multiple companion novels and TV series. It can be overwhelming for players.

"I will admit that it's easy for us to drink a little bit of our own Kool-Aid, we get so deep into the lore that we forget how unapproachable it can feel sometimes for someone who is new," she said. "So it's tough because on the one hand we have an obligation to carry the stories forward. On the other hand, we do want to bring new people into the universe."

To avoid this pitfall, 343 Industries makes efforts to communicate narrative through other media, to help get new players accustomed to the Halo universe and the nature of the narrative arc. She explained, "We do look at ways of expressing a story in the universe in other places around the games, as a way of on-boarding people into the universe. We look for opportunities... Where are places where we can get back to some very clean, pure, Halo storytelling for people to come on board for the first time and really get pulled into the universe?"

You can listen to the whole panel or read more from the transcript over at The Ringer.

The most recent installment in the Halo series, Halo 5: Guardians, was released back in October 2015. 343 Industries has been pretty much silent on the next game, although recently the developer acknowledged that there was a "disconnect" between Halo 5's marketing and the final release. In addition, 343 also stated that it "took some digs for storytelling" after Halo 5's release.

As for Overwatch, publisher Activision announced this week that it had become the company's eighth billion-dollar franchise. It also now has 30 million registered users.