Story Collectibles & Method (Gaming)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Saturday, January 29, 2022, 14:49 (1027 days ago) @ EffortlessFury
edited by Cody Miller, Saturday, January 29, 2022, 15:00

However, there's nothing inherently wrong with introducing new "verbs" that are orthogonal to others within the same game.

There is. If verbs exist here but not there, then the world does not feel whole.

It's why solving a puzzle in the original Portal made you feel like you made a solution, versus solving a puzzle in an adventure game where you felt like you found the solution. This principle is why old school point and click adventure games are dead by the way. Other genres simply got enough verbs.

Gone Home's a great example. The game is about picking up and examining objects. So, if you were to say, pick up a letter with text on it, and read the text, that's totally consistent with the game overall.

Control almost had this. When you interact with the puzzle locks, the camera moves in for you to manipulate the cube. That system could have had Jessie pick up a memo, and zoom in on it as you look at the actual text on the paper.