Feature: Insomniac's Jon Paquette On Keeping The Resistance 3 Story Simple

Author: by Staff

As part of Gamasutra's latest feature interview, Insomniac Games lead writer Jon Paquette explained that, in order to give players the best story in a game with as little fragmentation as possible, it's essential to "keep it simple." Having worked on the story for the upcoming Resistance 3, Paquette explained that the plot for a game cannot be too complicated, as those players who jump in and out of the action may end up confused as to where they're up to, and what they're meant to be doing. "A game is not consumed the same way as a movie," he said. "A movie, you sit down and you say, 'I'm going to watch this from beginning to end.'" "A game you sit down and you play 30 minutes, or five minutes, or whatever, and then you're like, 'Okay, I've got to do the laundry. I've got to take my dog for a walk' -- whatever -- and you lose it." He continued, "So if you don't have a simple story, and know what the simple goal is for the player, the story itself is going to be fragmented, and eventually you're going to be shooting people, or doing whatever you do in the game, and you're going to be like, 'I don't know why I'm doing this, but the game wants me to do it, so that's why I'm doing it.'" The industry veteran concluded, "My personal strategy was to keep it simple." The full interview, titled Defining Resistance 3, is live now on Gamasutra.