The Careful Design of Cave Story

February 11, 2016 9:56 AM

Still not having enlightened you to the extent of your plight, Cave Story teases bits and pieces of its plot to remind you that you're not just a player jumping and shooting enemies. You're a character, venturing forth in an unknown world for unknown reasons, and it's up to you to unravel the story. Cave Story recognizes the importance of narrative, and utilizes this storytelling experience to enhance the game's design while simultaneously guiding you through the mysterious island and its inhabitants.
posted by smcg (15 comments total)

I loved this game so much. I wasn't actually done playing until I had done the "secret" boss level in... 3 minutes? 4 minutes? Just one notch about the best that people could do turbo controllers.
posted by atoxyl at 10:57 AM on February 11, 2016

Cave Story is easily one of the best platforming shooters ever made, and like many singularly incredible games (Spelunky, Axiom Verge) it was made by a single person. If you haven't played it you really, really ought to.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 11:13 AM on February 11, 2016 [3 favorites]

Cave Story is such a beautiful game. I think because of how it was created as a labor of love by a single person in his spare time, when I play it and take in the elements of the game, the music, the art, and writing, and the gameplay, I'm seeing the world and experiencing life through another person's eyes. I think that's one of the main attributes of great works of art.
posted by zixyer at 11:13 AM on February 11, 2016 [5 favorites]

HUZZAH!
posted by rodlymight at 11:40 AM on February 11, 2016 [6 favorites]

Amazing game, and definitely in the show-don't-tell style of storytelling. Related to the Souls games in that. You could play through as a marauding murderer just destroying everything as you go, or you could start asking, "wait a second, who are these people? Why am I doing this?" — and find that the answers were there right there, just out of reach, waiting for you to put the work in and connect the dots. Bloodborne is perhaps the epitome of this style so far (though of course a wildly different game).

Download link for Cave Story (it's free, though the 'remaster' isn't):
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 12:14 PM on February 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

I have convinced so many friends into playing Cave Story when it was only the free version, and now sent copies to so many more.

if you like this, also consider Treasure Adventure World (pretty sure you can still get the first version for free as "Treasure Adventure Game")

things like this go so far past the icon that it's just mind-boggling.
posted by dorian at 12:26 PM on February 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

Cave Story was the only video game I ever consciously decided I was going to skip all of my classes for a day for, back when I first tried it in college. It really was/is that good.
posted by DoctorFedora at 1:08 PM on February 11, 2016

Cave Story did environmental storytelling so well, but I didn't know that term back when I played it, so just said "it is so good." Which it still is.

It pulled me into a story even though I started playing it with no expectation of or desire for any coherent narrative.
posted by ignignokt at 1:10 PM on February 11, 2016

Cave Story got me through a rough semester at University... it was either my probability or discrete math course that was giving me the chills.

Anywho, I'm on to reading the article.
posted by JoeXIII007 at 3:23 PM on February 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

It surprises me every time I'm reminded that Cave Story came out in 2004. It feels like such a foundational game, and not just because of the trappings. Hell, Half Life 2 came out in 2004!

The fact that so many developers still seem to struggle with the sort of "soft" game design that they both excelled at is crazy.
posted by lucidium at 3:49 PM on February 11, 2016

This article focuses on level design and game mechanics, but the really amazing thing is that you could write a similar article about any other element of the game. And then another whole article about how well all those pieces come together. The game has a really unique "12-bit" aesthetic. The graphics are too colorful and high-resolution to be 8-bit, but more pixelated and blocky than other 16-bit games. There are lots of very obviously synthesized sounds including 8-bit chip waves, but with fidelity and a number of channels you'd get in the 16-bit era.

definitely in the show-don't-tell style of storytelling

I had this same thought shortly after finishing it, but after reflecting on it more, I'm not sure it's actually true. So much of the story is told through dialog. I point this out because the dialog is so good and I'd love to see more like it: characters have distinct voices, and they talk to you as if you're in their world. The writing trusts you to pick up the plot through what different characters with limited perspectives tell you. But they definitely tell you what you need to know.

Everybody loves the characters, too, and the dialog is a huge part of that (the prime example, right in this thread). With the possible exception of the top two villains, everyone is very relatable—and even the villains have understandable, realistic motivations.

Usually when I decide to go completionist on a game, I'm playing at purely the game level, and I can be pretty detached about the consequences of my actions on the plot. After I finished Metal Gear Solid, I replayed partly to get the bad ending, for example. But I've never been able to choose the bad ending of Cave Story. I can't bring myself to do that to all these amazing characters.
posted by brett at 5:52 PM on February 11, 2016

definitely in the show-don't-tell style of storytelling

I had this same thought shortly after finishing it, but after reflecting on it more, I'm not sure it's actually true. So much of the story is told through dialog.

You aren't wrong in a technical sense, and I appreciate you explicitly pointing this out. I do think there's a reason people use that phrasing though: I think what people are getting at is how there's obviously a larger context and an internal world to everything going on. Your Cave Story is a little journey that is pre-figured by a painful history you never fully understand, and has consequences that will extend majestically and intimately beyond what you can see as you play. That's what's "shown" and not "told" by the dialog, if that makes sense.

It's like Shadow of the Colossus, in that a good portion of the "epicness" is derived from the knowledge that there's a greater context and sadness beyond what you see. The Lord of the Rings is similar, it being the third or fourth fading echo of a conflict that first appeared during the creation of Arda when Morgoth interrupted the song of creation. The hero's role is small, and they are carried by tides beyond their reckoning. It's bittersweet.

With the possible exception of the top two villains,

Only one, by my count.
posted by tychotesla at 6:40 PM on February 11, 2016

("You aren't wrong in a technical sense" is such a bad way to phrase that. What I meant is: "That's interesting, and correct as best as I can tell, and I appreciate you pointing it out because it's not something I've thought of... and also I think what people are trying to describe is this other related thing")
posted by tychotesla at 7:15 PM on February 11, 2016

Welcome to hell

I still have a save right before that part that I will load up from time to time when I'm feeling masochistic. That may be one of the hardest challenges in any game that I've ever played - I have yet to actually get through all of it. Close, but not quite there.

What a wonderful game, though. It sucked me in as few others have.
posted by MysticMCJ at 7:48 AM on February 12, 2016

I haven't played that game since around when it came out and I was in college. I bought a copy of the remastered version a while ago, but it hasn't been updated for years, and the Mac version apparently crashes on launch on any of the last few versions of Mac OS X. I found some instructions for working around the crash on the Steam version, but none of them seem to work on the DRM-free Humble Bundle version. At least the original game still runs.
posted by JiBB at 3:01 PM on February 12, 2016