All the stuff I love most in game storytelling is never the big-picture stuff; it's the stuff that feels like curlicues, stuff that's just there because it's a game and because you can do it.
Interpretation
Game storytelling thrives on small, intricate details rather than grand narratives.
In this quote, Tom Bissell emphasizes the importance of the subtle, intricate elements in video game storytelling that contribute to a richer, more immersive experience. He suggests that it is these 'curlicues,' or small details, that elevate the medium and engage players on a deeper level, reflecting the unique possibilities that gaming offers.
In practice
In a game development conference talk, I quoted Tom Bissell to emphasize the value of incorporating small details in game design.
To create anything β whether a short story or a magazine profile or a film or a sitcom β is to believe, if only momentarily, you are capable of magic. These essays are about that magic β which is sometimes perilous, sometimes infectious, sometimes fragile, sometimes failed, sometimes infuriating, sometimes triumphant, and sometimes tragic. I went up there. I wrote. I tried to see.
So they were turning, after all - those cameras. Life, which can be strangely merciful, had taken pity on Norma Desmond. The dream she had clung to so desperately had enfolded her. Norma: You see, this is my life. It always will be! (In a whisper) There's nothing else - just us - and the cameras - and those wonderful people out there in the dark. All right, Mr. De Mille, I'm ready for my close-up.
That was the appealing thing about comics: There literally is no budget in comics. You're only limited by your imagination.
We are all affected by Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Alvar Aalto, and Mies van der Rohe. But no less than Bramante, Borromini, and Bernini. Architecture is a tradition, a long continuum. Whether we break with tradition or enhance it, we are still connected to that past. We evolve.
I sometimes think there is nothing so delightful as drawing.
Now we sit through Shakespeare in order to recognize the quotations.
I hate good taste. It's the worst thing that can happen to a creative person.
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