S3E5 – Breaking the Fourth Wall

Yes, one week late, we have all recovered sufficiently from binge drinking and/or embarrassment to give you the episode we promised. This week, we’re talking about breaking the fourth wall. Which is a bit of a love/hate-mechanic among adventure gamers, if the input we received from our listeners is anything to go by. Breaking the

Continue reading S3E5 – Breaking the Fourth Wall

Yes, one week late, we have all recovered sufficiently from binge drinking and/or embarrassment to give you the episode we promised. This week, we’re talking about breaking the fourth wall. Which is a bit of a love/hate-mechanic among adventure gamers, if the input we received from our listeners is anything to go by.

Breaking the fourth wall is usually described as making the player/reader/watcher/porn aficionado aware that the work of fiction they are enjoying is aware that it is a work of fiction. Most of us are probably familiar with the Narrator mentioning how you casually glance at the title bar in “Space Quest IV”, noticing that you’re suddenly in “Space Quest XII”. Only minutes within the introductory movie, you’re made acutely aware that the protagonist is in a game. This type of snarky commentary is certainly one way to break the fourth wall, but is it really the only way to effectively do so in an adventure games? Are there any other ways, and what bearing do they have on the experience? Those questions, in part, are what we set out to answer (audio version at the bottom of this page):

We reconvened in the green room afterwards to elaborate on some of the stuff brought up in the episode. And on the illustrious career of BAFTA-nominated actor Cuntbubble Bunnysnatch:

(Download After Dark mp3)

We also got a chance to respond to voicemail this week! Granted, Francisco Gonzalez‘ voicemail had already been answered by Mr. Toleman, but we genuinely thought we could do better, and Francisco’s input sparked off a very interesting discussion.

Brian “Demodulated” Devins of the Square Waves FM podcast also chipped in with an interesting little speech about his love for the fourth-wall breaking ending of “Leisure Suit Larry 3”. A game that none of us had thought of, but which is still fairly unique for its reality-bending endgame.

Thank you, Brian and Francisco! It was a pleasure to respond to your thoughts. If there are any games you think we missed, or if you would like to speak your mind about next week’s subject (“Adaptation of other media into adventure game form”), we welcome you to email any contributions to [email protected].

Peace out!