Game Stories

 

Game Stories

Stories & Games

What is a story?

In games, identification between the player and their characters, avatars, tokens and so on is a common way to get players to be emotionally engaged with the game.

There are 6 main elements that make up a story. We have similar elements in games with a strong story component:

• Plot. The narrative that describes what actually happens.
• Theme. What does it all mean? Why does it happen?
• Character. As in, a single role within the story.
• Diction. The dialogue, and also the actor’s delivery of that dialogue.
• Rhythm. This does include “rhythm” in the sense of music, but also the natural rhythm of human speech.
• Spectacle. This is what Aristotle called the “eye candy” or special effects of his day. 

A story is not about formulas, it is about forms. You do not create a story by following a template. However, by understanding the common links between different stories, you can make one that is unique.

All stories have this form:

• The protagonist has a goal, which is created by an inciting incident.
• The protagonist tries to reach the goal, but a gap (that is, some kind of obstacle, not necessarily a literal gap) opens up and prevents the immediate achievement of the goal.
• The protagonist attempts to cross the gap. Either the gap widens and they are unable to cross, or they do cross the gap but a new gap appears.
• This cycle of gap-crossing continues until the protagonist either finally completes the goal, or is prevented from completing the goal in an irreversible manner.
• In a typical three-Act structure, there are two reversals (new gaps) that happen between the Acts.

Three assumptions that we often make when trying to tell stories in games:

1. The “holy grail” of interactive stories is a complete sandbox, a “Holodeck,” a perfect world simulation that responds believably to all player input.
2. Interactive stories aren’t games.
3. When a player is involved in an interactive narrative, they should be thinking about story and not game mechanics.

 Here's some tips for when you're writing your story. Written by Bob Bates:

• When writing, start with a core premise or vision first. Choose a hero and villain that embody your premise.
• Show the hero’s common world, then disrupt that world through an inciting incident. This is typically what happens at the beginning of a game.
• Enter the “woods” – the game itself.
• “Encountering the evil” is essentially a description of a boss fight – suggesting why we see so many boss fights in games!
• “Claiming the prize” can be thought of as the hero realizing the Premise of your story. It does not have to be finding a literal “prize” like a bag of gold or a princess or an ancient magical artifact.
• During the game, the hero character should grow. Again, it is easy for us as designers to fall into the trap of only having the main character “grow” in terms of power level (and it is convenient that the player is growing in their skill at the game as they play). Still, it can often make a better story if the hero’s character grows during the story as well. They don’t have to start out as a god. It can be more interesting if they start out as a peasant and become a god. Remember, it’s the hero that must grow, not just the player. 

 Sources:
https://learn.canvas.net/courses/3/pages/level-9-dot-5-joseph-campbell?module_item_id=44586
https://learn.canvas.net/courses/3/pages/level-9-dot-4-ernest-adams?module_item_id=44585
https://learn.canvas.net/courses/3/pages/level-9-dot-2-mckee?module_item_id=44583
https://learn.canvas.net/courses/3/pages/level-9-dot-1-aristotle?module_item_id=44582