5 Reasons Until Dawn is a Master Class in Writing Craft
Five years is the usual distance I like to keep between myself and the current trend in gaming. My heart has been broken too many times by full-price release titles. I’ll sometimes make an exception if something interesting darts into my field of vision. This being said, it should come as no surprise that I’ve only just started playing Until Dawn, a game many people became acquainted with quite a few years ago.
Yeah, I knew it existed. I contemplated playing it a couple of times. I think something about the concept rankled on me. It was only this year, with a subscription to Playstation Now and a sense of wanting to play a game that wasn’t a 100-hour RPG or another FPS that the idea of an interactive movie started to appeal.
Let me tell you I regret waiting so long. Anyone who hasn’t played Until Dawn should avail themselves of at least a Let’s Play on YouTube before reading this article because I am going to spoil the hell out of it.
This isn’t a review necessarily. I’m looking at it from the perspective of what we, as writers, can learn about the craft from the game. Here are five reasons Until Dawn is a master class of the writing craft.
1. Characters You Can’t Help But Care About
We’ve all watched the movie about the college kids on spring break. We all know the college kids are irritating as hell and they’re mostly fodder for whatever cool-looking monster/machete-wielding maniac is chasing them. Actually, I wrote an article about this phenomenon a short while ago.
Until Dawn has the college kids too. At first, I wasn’t impressed by any of them (except possibly Sam, who was conscientious and kind from the outset). But, when things start to get real, layers peel off these guys like dry onions. Whether it’s Chris’s moral dilemma of choosing between Josh and Ashley, Mike’s (absolutely thrilling) chase after Jessica is abducted, Sam’s towel-clad badassery or Matt and Emily’s mission to save the day, I thawed on these characters quicker than that mountain during the summertime.
By showing these characters pulling together, showing strength and backbone, succeeding against the (frankly overwhelming) odds, you really start to feel for these guys. And that makes it even more painful when they start to die. It’s a perfect study of how to turn potentially irritating characters into actual protagonists whose lives matter and I recommend it for anyone wanting to study this subject in more detail.
2. Consistency Across Alternates
Until Dawn’s most attractive feature is its multiple paths. Denoted by ‘butterfly effect’ markers that pop up pretty regularly throughout, you can influence events and relationships that constantly change dialogue and events, sometimes in small ways, sometimes in irrevocably major ways.
The writing staff really took pains to ensure character consistency across these branching paths. Even when you are the one making the decisions for them, they still feel like they are within the field of possibilities for that character.
Let’s say Chris chooses to save Ashley instead of Josh. Does he then turn the gun on Ashley rather than himself because he blames her for what he ultimately did to his best friend? Mike chases after Jessica to rescue her even if she resists his advances, so it makes sense he’d charge headlong into the asylum to save the others. Even his decision to shoot (or not shoot) Emily makes sense considering he doesn’t want anybody else to die.
It’s a brilliant example of character consistency when you are given two completely opposite courses of action but can still justify those behaviours by a character’s personality.
3. Even the Characters Can Build a Narrative
It’s not just the writers of Until Dawn who can tell a compelling story. Josh does exactly the same thing when he concocts his ‘psychopath stalker’ game. He leaves little clues dotted around the location for the characters to find. Yes, these are collectibles in-game but, when you find enough of them, you’re treated to a little conjecture between Chris and Ashley during one of the early chapters.
The way Josh gets the characters to believe in the fake psychopath is exactly how writers will wrong-foot a reader into thinking someone is a villain who isn’t, that the murderer is a different suspect, that a character can be trusted when they can’t. They’re also a prime example of what happens when you let people draw their own conclusions from disparate clues rather than state things explicitly.
This confusion works particularly well for long-form horror, thriller and crime novels, where the outcome needs to be less obvious to be really satisfying.
4. The Pincer Attack is Powerful
Until Dawn makes superb use of this method by pitting the protagonists against both Josh’s fake psychopath and the eventual villains, the wendigo. The confusion caused by Josh’s hardcore lunatic pranking means that the group are in complete disarray by the time the wendigo have begun to make their presence seriously felt.
Despite only being a red herring, Josh manages to still feel like a villain right up until the final chapter of the game. This push-and-pull between two malevolent forces is a great way of stacking the odds against characters, as well as giving interesting opportunities for alliances, betrayals and surprising twists.
5. The Butterfly Effect is Layered as Hell
I remember it being said that, if a character is to be shot in the third act, the gun should be introduced in the first act. This is the approach that Until Dawn takes with its butterfly effect. Choices made early in the game have lasting effects later. Chris’s choice between Josh and Ashley, Mike’s experience with the bear trap, Matt and Emily’s ability to stay on the same page, all have major repercussions for their lives and well-being.
For writers, it’s worth remembering that small details often make a story. An offhand comment that one character makes to another can foreshadow something major. A seemingly pointless item can crop up to play a huge role later. One of the reasons why it’s always important to draft a story, even a short one, is to connect the ending to the beginning. Draw from the final chapter, the final thousand words, and feed them back into the opening so that the story really feels like it was building to that ending all along.
And those are my five reasons why Until Dawn is a master class in writing craft. Do you agree with the points I’ve raised? Have your own examples of excellent writing craft from video games, TV shows, movies or books? Leave me a comment! Let’s get a dialogue going.
The writing staff really took pains to ensure character consistency across these branching paths. Even when you are the one making the decisions for them, they still feel like they are within the field of possibilities for that character.
Let’s say Chris chooses to save Ashley instead of Josh. Does he then turn the gun on Ashley rather than himself because he blames her for what he ultimately did to his best friend? Mike chases after Jessica to rescue her even if she resists his advances, so it makes sense he’d charge headlong into the asylum to save the others. Even his decision to shoot (or not shoot) Emily makes sense considering he doesn’t want anybody else to die.
It’s a brilliant example of character consistency when you are given two completely opposite courses of action but can still justify those behaviours by a character’s personality.
3. Even the Characters Can Build a Narrative
It’s not just the writers of Until Dawn who can tell a compelling story. Josh does exactly the same thing when he concocts his ‘psychopath stalker’ game. He leaves little clues dotted around the location for the characters to find. Yes, these are collectibles in-game but, when you find enough of them, you’re treated to a little conjecture between Chris and Ashley during one of the early chapters.
The way Josh gets the characters to believe in the fake psychopath is exactly how writers will wrong-foot a reader into thinking someone is a villain who isn’t, that the murderer is a different suspect, that a character can be trusted when they can’t. They’re also a prime example of what happens when you let people draw their own conclusions from disparate clues rather than state things explicitly.
This confusion works particularly well for long-form horror, thriller and crime novels, where the outcome needs to be less obvious to be really satisfying.
4. The Pincer Attack is Powerful
One of my favourite story builds is the ‘protagonists caught between two villains’ framework. The creator of MTV’s Teen Wolf, Jeff Davis, did this exceptionally throughout the run of the show, even as early as season 1, with the alpha werewolf and werewolf hunters butting heads, while Scott and his friends were caught in the middle.
Until Dawn makes superb use of this method by pitting the protagonists against both Josh’s fake psychopath and the eventual villains, the wendigo. The confusion caused by Josh’s hardcore lunatic pranking means that the group are in complete disarray by the time the wendigo have begun to make their presence seriously felt.
Despite only being a red herring, Josh manages to still feel like a villain right up until the final chapter of the game. This push-and-pull between two malevolent forces is a great way of stacking the odds against characters, as well as giving interesting opportunities for alliances, betrayals and surprising twists.
5. The Butterfly Effect is Layered as Hell
I remember it being said that, if a character is to be shot in the third act, the gun should be introduced in the first act. This is the approach that Until Dawn takes with its butterfly effect. Choices made early in the game have lasting effects later. Chris’s choice between Josh and Ashley, Mike’s experience with the bear trap, Matt and Emily’s ability to stay on the same page, all have major repercussions for their lives and well-being.
For writers, it’s worth remembering that small details often make a story. An offhand comment that one character makes to another can foreshadow something major. A seemingly pointless item can crop up to play a huge role later. One of the reasons why it’s always important to draft a story, even a short one, is to connect the ending to the beginning. Draw from the final chapter, the final thousand words, and feed them back into the opening so that the story really feels like it was building to that ending all along.
And those are my five reasons why Until Dawn is a master class in writing craft. Do you agree with the points I’ve raised? Have your own examples of excellent writing craft from video games, TV shows, movies or books? Leave me a comment! Let’s get a dialogue going.
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