Non-linear Structures
Branching, nonlinear stories are the bread and butter of narrative design, but while we have an abundance of sources on traditional story structures, structuring the nonlinear stories still seems like uncharted waters.
Artur Ganszyniec
How to shape stories?
We are standing on the shoulders of giants. When it comes to shaping stories it’s giants all the way down to Aristotle, who—of course—was standing on top of a pyramid of storytellers predating the written tradition.
Protagonist
“What’s this character’s arc?” I got asked that a lot. “What’s this character’s evolution? How does the protagonist change during the quest?” But the thing is, that such questions do not always make sense.
Structure
“Dunking on Joseph Campbell is not only our duty but also a pleasure.”—my colleague writer and anthropologist used to say. While my view on this issue might be slightly more relaxed, I have my bones to pick with using the monomyth as the default story structure in video games.
Story
There are many definitions of a story, but there’s one that I find particularly useful as the starting point for talking about and designing game narratives. The definition is as follows: a story is the protagonist overcoming obstacles to reach their goal.
What is Narrative Design?
The first Polish encyclopedia, written in the 18th century, in its entry describing a horse, states simply: everyone knows what a horse is. When it comes to my chosen profession, which is narrative design, we seem to be very far from such a blinding clarity.