28 Days Later Writer is a Positive Influence on Enslaved

In an interview with Develop, Tameem Antoniades of Ninja Theory has gone into detail about the influence that 28 Days Later writer Alex Garland has had on the Enslaved project, calling his input “eye-opening”.

Explaining how Garland’s role progressed, he explains that “in the first instance we brought Garland on for writing, but what he ended up delivering was way more than that…what I didn’t realise was how much story telling was non-verbal and wasn’t done via cut scenes…”. He added “[It’s the] camera placement, the atmosphere, the sound cues and so many little things make up a good visual narrative, and that is what he brought.”

Garland, an avid gamer himself, is famed for his writing work on films like The Beach and Sunshine, two of the more original and interesting films to come from British cinema in recent times. He is also an acclaimed novelist, and can now add computer games to his expanding CV. Antoniades goes on to explain that they utilised Garland throughout the process of development, getting him in “once a week, all day long, to help set out the level design, because you can’t separate level design from the story – it has to be as one”.

News like this is incredibly encouraging, one of the biggest criticisms leveled against games by gamers and non-gamers alike is the dearth of story telling. It’s evident it’s possible to tell a million different stories a million different ways in the medium from games like Metal Gear Solid, Heavy Rain, Grand Theft Auto IV and Mass Effect, but often the story and story-telling elements of big budget games are neglected, even in narrative based games.

It’s great to see a genuinely innovative developer team up with a genuinely innovative writer in way that ensures the product is cohesive and considered rather than assembled on a factory line, with each stage passing it on to the next. I was worried that the story of Journey to the West might have been re-appropriated beyond relevance, but now I know that it’s in good hands, I’m excited to see exactly how strong Garland’s influence will be.