Script sequence

A script sequence , scripted sequence or scripted event (English for "staged event") refers to events triggered at certain points in the course of the game in computer games . They mostly serve a narrative purpose, that is, to convey action during the game. In contrast to passive perceived, film-like cut-scene , the player retains full control of his game character, creating the impression of a script sequence during immersion is maintained.

Technical implementation

To include a script sequence, the game designers placed within a level a trigger ( trigger ), which is activated once when the steered by the player playing piece crosses it. The trigger is linked to a script that executes a series of coordinated animations, sound effects, speech samples or special effects in the environment. During the course of the game, the trigger is invisible to the player, so that the events activated by it appear to occur randomly. In this way, for example, characters ( NPCs ) can be represented who exchange words and then move away. Meanwhile, the player has the impression that he happened to be a witness to this incident.

development

For a long time, the still young medium of computer games was closely based on the established medium of film in terms of the narrative component . So were (and still are today often) represented important scenes of the play action in the form of movie scenes, either as full motion video (FMV) or in the form of a cutscene (Engl. Cutscene ) in the game graphics. A high point of this development was the computer game genre of interactive film ( Interactive movie ) in the 1980s and early 1990s, in which the player could influence the progress of the film plot through inputs at certain points. The weakness of this concept, however, was that the interactivity that is essential for computer games was largely restricted and the player was confined to the passive state of a viewer for much of the time. In contrast to the FMV and the cutscene, the script sequence does not interrupt the player's interaction with the game world.

Traps and similar events triggered by the player can be viewed as precursors to script sequences. In Doom (1993) , for example, falling ceilings or hidden doors can be activated at certain points, which open to let attacking monsters loose on the player. Although these simple scripted events are directly aimed at the game (the player has to react immediately to avoid being crushed by the falling ceiling or killed by the attacking monsters), they already have a narrative component.

An influential milestone for the narrative use of script sequences was the first-person shooter Half-Life (1998). Here, narrative script sequences are integrated into the game in a variety of ways, whereas cinematic cutscenes are consistently dispensed with.

literature

Martin Sallge: Interactive narration in computer games. In: The game. Pattern and metaphor of the media society. Edited by Caja Thimm . Wiesbaden 2010, pp. 79-106.