Environmental storytelling
The player pieces the story together through exploration of the environment. It can convey narrative backstory and exposition by embedding it in the environment itself.
No piece of dialogue or cutscene will show the whole story or explain exactly the situation. But these cutscenes and dialogue, along with items found throughout the game world, are clues, small pieces of a puzzle that must be discovered and put together to reveal the whole picture. The player connects them in their mind, stringing points together in a web. Players create their own story with the pieces they learn from the environment. Interactivity is the key.
Everything in the world is put there for a reason. A seemingly random item found on a dead body can reveal a clue. By interacting with the environment, the characters, and the items/objects in the world, can the player seek to understand the story of the game.
Environmental storytelling has the option to not force the narrative on the player, but instead give the player control to explore themselves and allowing them to skip story if they so choose. The game makes the player feel smart if they manage to uncover the plot and rewards them for their dedication to, and interaction with the story by providing them with knowledge of the game and context for their actions.
"Environmental storytelling is the art of arranging a careful selection of the objects available in a game world so that they suggest a story to the player who sees them. (I'm using "story" in a fairly loose sense here, so let's not get hung up on what is or isn't a story -- I just mean a sequence of events that has emotional meaning.)"4
Good visual storytelling is almost like telling a good joke. By the end of the joke, there comes that moment where the person has to piece together everything that was said throughout the joke and here comes that "aha" moment when they realize what the punch line is.
Good visual storytelling is like that. You stare at a scene, you try to piece elements of it together in your head, and then you reach that point where you go, "Oh, these things are kind of related, and now I understand what happened here..." and that's a really cool moment.3
Environments3
Environment help define and elaborate the world of the game.
It connects the player to the world and emotionally invests them into caring for it and protecting it from whatever the threat is. It draws them into the experience of the game, adding to immersion and suspension of disbelief.
Environments are primarily designed for the gameplay to shine, and in case of Metroidvania's usually playable in different ways.
Environments tell information and clues about its population, as well as its culture and history, even if it's abandoned.
An Environment Description Document will include important as well as trivial details about the space.
Architecture
Questions that can be answered by looking around at the buildings and their arrangements:
What kind of people live here or used to live here?
What are/were their lives like?
How wealthy are/were they?
What do/did they seem to love? To hate?
Which do/did they value more, form or function?
Were they at peace or at war when this was built?
How densely are/were they populated?
Are/were they especially focused on comfort?
On micro scale inside buildings and exploring interior:
Who lives/works (or used to live/work) here?
What was the purpose of this building/room/space?
Internal logic in Architecture
Does the location make sense?
For example. A building with more than four floors has an elevator, but game design wise, we don't want the player to use the elevator.
Solution options:
Don't include an elevator.
Include an elevator, but make it noninteractive with no explanation.
Include an elevator, but block access to it.
Include an elevator, but disable it and attach an Out of Order sign.
Include an elevator, but cut power to the entire building to explain why it doesn't work.
You have to give a logical narrative explanation to your environments.