NARRATIVE

GAME RELATIONSHIPS

Player

User Interface

Storytelling Engine

Core Mechanics

Triggers

Narrative Events In-Game Events Player Events

STORY MODELS

Linear Branching Foldback Emergent

LINEAR STORIES

Aesthetically Greater emotional capability Deny dramatic freedom

Practically Require less content Engine simpler Less prone to bugs (absurdities)

BRANCHING STORIES

Aesthetically Replayable Harder to create specific emotions Event influence

Advise player of significance Deferred or cumulative

Practically Expensive and complex Merging Number of endings

FOLDBACK STORIES

Inevitable events that create the story arc Every play comes through them

Compromise between complexity and dramatic freedom

EMERGENT STORIES

No storytelling engine Story evolves strictly from player

actions

MUDs LambdaMOO: A Rape in Cyberspace

CONSIDERATIONS

Endings Dramatic and premature Multiplicity

Narrative granularity

ADVANCING THE PLOT

Mechanisms Challenges Choices Drama (time) Journey

Tools Cut scenes Dialogue

THREE ACT PLAY

Set up Confrontation Resolution

HERO’S JOURNEY (CAMPBELL 1949)

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.

Call to adventure Road of trials Boon Return to the ordinary world Application of the boon

Vogler’s version

RESOURCES

Interactive Fiction Tony Hirst’s Digital Worlds Lee Sheldon, Character Development

and Storytelling for Games (2004) Today’s MMORPGs