Show, Don’t Tell Story Telling
Warning, Contains Spoilers for Hollow Knight, Halo, and Doom.
Proceed with caution!
There are many ways to tell a story. You can tell it through words, through the way characters talk, and my personal favorite, telling a story through imagery and action. Small details sprinkled throughout the world that give it life. Not Ubisoft “Living and Breathing” but actual little details that make the world feel lived in. ‘Show don’t tell’ storytelling, or environmental storytelling, can bring a lot to the table. Characters that otherwise would seem bland are deep with personality.
Take the one game I’m always talking about, Hollow Knight. Hollow Knight’s lore almost always is conveyed through vague text, and things in the world. Let’s take the “Final” boss if you can call it that. If you pay close attention you will notice its arm is missing. You’ll think, “Oh, I wonder why its arm is missing?” And then later in the fight, it starts stabbing itself through the chest with its sword. And then it clicks. The Hollow Knight cut its arm off in an attempt to end its life. Why does it want to die? Well it contains the greatest evil in all of Hallownest. The source of the infection that brought the kingdom to ruin. This is never told to us directly, but the Hollow Knight hates itself and what it has become. No lore dump, (lore is the deeper story to a game, also known as exposition) no character ever tells us this, it’s all implied. Or why is the Hollow Knight not Hollow, because it bonded with its father, the Pale King. A bond was formed, and the infection will cling onto any emotion or bond or feeling and won’t let go. All this and so much more is told with just a few details.
When it comes to environmental storytelling to scare or horrify the player, look no further than Halo Combat Evolved. In the level 343 Guilty Spark, the marines are gearing up for an armed assault, with Master Chief coming to back them up. When you gaze into the distance, you can see the alien Covenant running scared. Are they running from marines, or something more sinister? You walk into a room and there’s corpses everywhere. You didn’t kill these, and the Marines aren’t around either. What happened here? You leave a room, only to return to find the corpses gone. You finally get your answer when the Flood shows up. Basically space zombies. The beginning of this level, in which the environment sets the mood is great. Rather than an exposition dump, we get it slowly and are meant to make our own interpretations of what happened.
Something similar to environmental storytelling can be found in Doom 2016’s show don’t tell way of conveying information. The first thing the Doom Slayer checks when he gets access to a computer is how many casualties have occurred due to the Demonic invasion. When Dr. Samuel Hayden blocks him out of the system to attempt to hide the information and get the Slayer to help him with the demonic invasion and convince him that it’s for the greater good. While on the elevator to the surface of Mars, Hayden remarks about how this was for the “betterment of mankind” and as he says that, the Slayer looks down at the corpse of a soldier in the elevator. He then cracks his knuckles and punches the screen that Hayden is using to communicate with him. The Doom Slayer obviously cares for innocent people and dislikes Dr. Hayden for trying to cover up the mess he made. So much is said about The Slayer without him speaking a single word.
This is where environmental storytelling shines. Showing the player something, and letting them make their own interpretation. Whether it be the various ruins in Minecraft, or the ruined kingdom of Hallownest, the ‘show don’t tell’ method goes such a long way, and can make a story that much more memorable as well as leaving a lot of depth, I’m still seeing and finding new things in Hollow Knight, and showing us the danger gives a sense of stakes.