Theodore's Every Picture Tells A Story

Theodore has a great article in Gamasutra giving an insight on the link between graphic artists' work and the narrative players make from a game scene. It seems that every single peripheral things that may deceivingly look insignificant, in reality are important because they provide a sense of before and after events.

Theodore uses the example of a plane wreckage to elucidate this point. The wreckage is the main graphic and every additional details, no matter how small they are, have their own narrative to tell and it is up to the players' imagination what collective narrative they want to take from the graphic which is situated in their playing experience. For example, bullet holes on the plane tells us that the plane was likely to be shot at. Or a charred plane tyre in a far distance background might possibly tell us that that the type could have burst into flame upon landing and forced the plane to swerve dangerously to its side before coming to a stand still. This is just one interpretation and the possibilities are only limited by players' imagination.

I thought that this is an important insight because the article bring to attention another key player whose works deserve recognition and not look upon as part of a collectively work normally credited to game designers only. So graphic artists too play a part in the kind of narrative players create from their game playing experience.