My wife and I went to see Wonder Woman the week it came
out, and we loved the film. I immediately knew I wanted to write a Dev Take
post on the movie, but I wasn’t sure about what angle I’d go with. The more I
reflect on the film, the more I’m drawn to that pivotal moment when Diana
climbs out of the trench and enters No Man’s Land. The filmmakers didn’t
hesitate to highlight this scene in multiple ways. (Note: I’ve only seen the
movie once, so I apologize in advance if I got any details wrong.)
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| Image found on Entertainment Weekly |
First, the film waits to incorporate Wonder Woman’s forceful, electric cello musical theme—first heard in the Batman vs Superman movie—until this moment, when Diana chooses to truly become Wonder Woman. Second, the lighting and color suddenly change as Diana lifts herself into No Man’s Land. She’s still surrounded by the muted, mostly grey color palette but the color of her uniform is bright, contrasting against the darkness and “moral grey” around her. Last, the narrative choice of her entering a place literally called “No Man’s Land” emphasizes a key theme of the movie: her outsider status as both a woman and a stranger to all of mankind.
Each of those decisions probably merits its own blog post,
but the takeaway I ultimately garnered from all this is to do everything I can
to boost the pivotal moments in my games and my games’ narratives. I’m sure it’s
possible to oversell those moments,
but I think it’s much easier to undersell
them. As game designers we have a lot of tools at our disposal. We utilize many
of the same tools as film, but we also add player interaction and game
mechanics to our toolkit. In Alkanaur and any of my future games, I plan on
using all those tools to ensure a powerful emotional response to the “No Man’s
Land moments” in those games.
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