Congratulations, you get the job. Have a seat in the director’s chair. Here’s the script:

IZZY lands a punch on the jaw of an OUTLAW, who flops unconscious into a water trough. Searching his vest, Izzy finds a Wanted Poster: $2,000 for PROFESSOR DUNSON, alive or dead.

Got it? See this movie in your head? Good, because the story only works if you tell it well. How are you going to establish the scenes, explain the plot, convey the emotions? Here’s the good news: you control every motion of the camera, every element of composition, and every cut and jump in the editing room.

Izzy, revolver drawn, peers down the silent, dusty street. She turns to her left and moves cautiously towards the bank. Suddenly she darts for cover – further down the street, several DEPUTIES have appeared and are hauling Professor Dunson, handcuffed, towards the jail. Izzy climbs up to the bank s roof.

Oops, update from the studio. Turns out this needs to be a videogame. Easiest thing would be to stick with what we have but make it interactive. Completely linear, ‘string of pearls’ design. The player has to follow our script, so the trick is telling them what the script is. Use lighting to draw their eye to objects they need to use. Prod them back on the path if they get confused and wander off. Keep them from facing the wrong way when we trigger a big set-piece. Makes our job a little harder.

Izzy peers into the saloon to size up the drunken, singing outlaws, deciding there are too many. A rickety wagon ambles by, but Izzy lets it pass. Looking to her left, her eyes settle on a crate of TNT.

The studio says choice is BIG these days. I mentioned customising Izzy’s outfit, but they want gameplay options. So let’s take chunks of the script and add a few branching variations. They all start and end the same, but the player gets to pick different paths. We’ll need to make sure the player knows they’re making a choice, and ideally give them challenges and rewards to make it meaningful. You’re still up to it, right?

As Izzy sneaks away, a voice comes\ from the telegraph office.

VOICE (O.S.)

He’ll talk. And when he does, we’ll find out who signed the contract.

Open-city games are selling like hot cakes. We have to build it as one continuous area and let the player go wherever they want. That’s going to make everything harder. Before, we could enforce events’ order and location. Now, it has to add up no matter how they tackle it. The player has to read the scene and know what to do, no matter which entrance they take. Story beats have to make sense in any order. There can’t be degenerate routes past the enemies.

Izzy checks her revolver: only five bullets left, plus one with SHERIFF BAXTOR’s name on it. Izzy notices the rickety Jail sign rocking in the breeze, just above the deputies heads. She takes her lasso from her belt and starts to swing it.

You know how RPGs have different special powers? Different tools and resources? Studio says we gotta support all that too. Gotta add meaningful uses for every special ability. Gotta have solutions when the player runs out of ammo. Gotta support different playstyles: players who like to kill everyone, players who like to outwit everyone. It’s all gotta be balanced. Can’t suck to play the sneaky guy.

Sheriff Baxtor stands over Izzy, who is laying on the ground dabbing at her bleeding nose. The remaining deputy is holding Professor Dunson.

How is the player supposed to be anybody, go anywhere, pick their own approach, and still find a good game? We used to talk about ‘the player climbs to the roof, then the wagon goes by’, but now it’s ‘if players overtax their supply of weapons, we prod them into searching for environmental affordances, making it likely they’ll find hints about secondary objectives’.

The bank detonates in a deafening shower of rock and debris. Izzy rolls to her feet and punches out the deputy. She grabs his rifle with one hand and Dunson with the other.

IZZY

I didn t realise how explosive that stuff is.