Structures and portrayal

Narrative structures

• Branching

Player plays major role in how the plot and character in the world develop and how the game ends. Create your own story.

Common genre: Story-based games.

• Amusement park model

Much like branching narrative, but story is accessed through exploration rather than missions. For example, finding an NPC that triggers a story-arc, instead of unlocking it through previously completed content.

Portayal

Ways narrative can be conveyed to the player

• Text (For example: User interface)

• Dialogue

Talking to NPCs in the game world to uncover plotlines, context for characters and events, as well as giving quests.

• Cutscenes

Exposition of the story in the form of a short cinematic.

Dialog combined with action.

• Environment and worldbuilding

Letting the player interpret the story through objects, places and people in the game world, allowing them to form their own ideas about the plot.

Embedded narratives

Pre generated narrative content that exists prior to a player’s interaction with the game. They have backstories and are often used to provide the fictional background for the game, motivation for actions in the game and development of the story arc.

Emergent narratives

Arises from the player’s interaction with the game world, designed levels and rule structure. Moment by moment play in the game creates this narrative depending on the users actions.

By interacting with the characters/world in a game, the player becomes part of the narrative.

Players control the pacing of the gameplay, and the movements and actions of the main character, effectively becoming a co-author of the story. The player also identifies more with the protagonist when being able to interact and make choices, feeling responsibility and emotional attachment and empathy towards their role.