Back to the Future Finally, I’d like to round off this epic discussion of Undertale by talking about the visuals. Yes, I know that I said at the start that I focus on story, so why would I want to look at...well, the looks? Well, the visuals of Undertale have played a big part in Undertale’s success, ignited the imaginations of a creative fanbase, and can tell us so much about good storytelling. That’s a big and bold claim, so let’s back up and take it one step at a time. One of Undertale’s defining features is its retro graphics. However, nobody would ever call these graphics impressive. I’ve seen many people call them downright ugly, and while that’s a bit harsh, I can see the thrust of their point. And yet, if you to take a peek into the Undertale fanbase, you will find a mountain of fanart, fanmade games, music, fan-fiction and a whole host of creative tributes, some of which you could argue exceed Undertale itself in pure aesthetic and technical quality yet show unconditional love for it’s inspiration. Lavish, “triple-A” titles like Assassin’s Creed or Final Fantasy have fanbases the size of small empires but the creative output of that fanbase is nowhere near as pronounced as Undertale’s. What gives? Well, it all comes down to that little thing called imagination. Those aforementioned Triple-A titles are already stuffed with millions of polygons and visuals that come threateningly close to realism. There is very little for your imagination to do. With Undertale, however, the simple sprite design and level layout is an open invitation for the player to fill in the blanks. Of course, this can be done badly, but Undertale is a great example of giving just enough for the player to work with, and trusting in them to fill in the rest. Imagine all the People And that trust in your audience is key. One of my very first posts about good writing technique talked about trusting your reader, that not everything needs to be spelled out for them, and it is as true as it has ever been. Look at the cultural phenomenon that is Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling is often lauded for her excellent worldbuilding and vivid characters. If you are or were a reader of her series, you could probably conjure up a rich tapestry of the wizard of world from memory. But if you were to go back and read them, you might be surprised at how sparse the description of most characters and places are. The introduction of Hogwarts castle is a single sentence. Ron is described as "tall, thin and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet, and a long nose." From this, we all conjured people and locations as real and breathing as the real world. And Undertale does the game equivalent of these simple descriptions, with same result of imaginative gap-filling as witnessed in a very creative fan base. The imagination can do incredible things! This all sounds fantastic, so you might be wondering why so many writers, especially aspiring and new ones, still inflate their work with over-description, painting every last corner of a room and every freckle on the cheek of their protagonist. I think the reason is twofold: first is a misplaced belief that flowery description is a sign of writing skill, and using plain and straightforward language is a sign of weakness or poor skill. This is clearly untrue: your writing is like a window that looks out on the story beyond, and the clearer the window the better the story can be viewed. Over-descriptive prose turns that window to stained glass: it puts the attention on the window itself and obscured what lies beyond it - your story. The second reason, I think, is the fear of surrendering control of your creation. The writer has spent so long incubating these ideas and building a world in their head that they want to convey that exact same specific world over to the reader, down to every last rigorous detail. Not giving your world or characters enough description can feel like you’re selling them short, or that you’re not giving your reader enough information to really sync up with your fictional world in the way you have. Leap of Faith You have to trust in your reader, to give them just enough to go by and allow them to fill in the blanks. You have accept that your detailed vision of your fictional world cannot be perfectly conveyed to your reader. But take heart: with the right approach you will be surprised at how closely readers can synchronize their imagination with so little information. Again I refer to Harry Potter: when the first movie was new, almost everybody remarked that this was exactly how they envisioned it. Think about that: two people, from entirely different backgrounds and thought processes, conjuring the same mental image while reading words on a page. And Ron’s description is only 14 words long! So rest assured that while you’ll have to accept some loss of control of your creative vision, you won’t need to relinquish completely. You just need to be economic and selective in what you choose to describe - much like what Undertale achieves. And look again at all of that fanart: sure there’s some interpretation and slight differences, but there’s a huge amount of overlap. The added advantage of trusting your reader is that you allow them a sense of ownership of the world you’ve painted. If they need to fill in certain gaps with their imagination, they participate within it in a way that wouldn’t be possible if the writer was at pains to describe everything on their behalf. And if the reader takes ownership, they become invested, and are much more likely to enjoy build a connection with your creation. It’s a powerful tool, one I’m sure even you have experienced. How many times have you read a book with a certain idea of what a character looked like, only to discover that you’d missed a certain piece of description and they in fact look completely different, but you prefer your version anyway and keep it? No word of a lie, for the first three books of Harry Potter I imagined Hagrid looked like Mr Hyde from the Pagemaster movie - yes, green skin and all! But do you think J.K. Rowling failed me as a reader as a result of not giving me enough handholding on Hagrid’s description? Do you think it stymied my enjoyment of the books? Of course not! When training yourself to write economically, you constantly ask yourself “do my readers absolutely need this information? Or is it just purely cosmetic?” if the answer is the latter, then you should seriously consider whether you want to keep it. And this is what Undertale dos so well. It gives your imagination room to breathe. It doesn’t use the stain-glass window of florid and fanciful visuals to obfuscate it the content. The added benefit of this stripped-back approach allows Undertale to really stand out when it needs to. The big moments feel big. Look at Omega-Flowery: it is a design that, without fail, incurs a reaction when it appears (usually a “What the f***?”). The creep factor in the True Lab is real. And two tiny sprites hugging on an otherwise blank screen will make you cry. Not all the polygons in the world can conjure up half of the emotional range that Undertale has. The player is invested by being plugged into a medium that allows you to think and feel for yourself. Game, book or movie, this is something that all creators should aspire to. I hope you've enjoyed this deep-dive look into Undertale! It's the first time I've deconstructed a game on it's narrative aspects, so if you've liked this and want more let me know your thoughts in a comment below!
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Off the ShelfHere I share my ideas, musings and advice on the writing process. I also analyse some of my own writing for examples to show how I work. ShowcaseHere I will show off of some of my favorite good and great stories, gushing lovingly over why I adore them and why you should too. I will also show you the other side of the spectrum: bad examples of stories and what we can learn from them.
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