Telling stories through play
Tell a story with the world, the rules and the player's own choices, not only with cutscenes.
Two kinds of game story
Embedded narrative
The story the designers wrote: cutscenes, dialogue, notes you find, the ending. It's the same for every player, and you control it completely.
Emergent narrative
The stories that come out of the rules and the player's actions: the night your Minecraft house burned down, the drama in a Sims family. Nobody wrote them, and players retell them for years.
Check yourself
Written by the designers, or made by play?
- A cutscene where the king reveals he's your father
- My friend's character betrayed us in the middle of a match
- A diary found in a drawer explains what happened to the town
- My last soldier held the bridge alone for three turns
- The final dialogue with the villain
- A wolf followed me home and ate my chickens
Show the answer
Embedded: written: A cutscene where the king reveals he's your father, A diary found in a drawer explains what happened to the town, The final dialogue with the villain
Emergent: made by play: My friend's character betrayed us in the middle of a match, My last soldier held the bridge alone for three turns, A wolf followed me home and ate my chickens
LET THE SPACE TALK
Environmental storytelling
Put the story in the world and let players read it. Objects, damage, what's missing and what's out of place all say something. The player puts the pieces together, and a story you work out yourself sticks better than one you're told.
Portal (2007): a friendly voice guides you through test chambers. Behind a loose panel you find a hidden room with scribbled messages on the walls. Someone else was here, and they didn't trust the voice. No cutscene says a word, and you start doubting everything.
Check yourself
A player walks into a dusty room: a table set for three, one chair knocked over, a half-eaten meal and an open door. No text appears. What technique is this?
- A cutscene
- Environmental storytelling
- A reward schedule
- Emergent narrative from the rules
Show the answer
Environmental storytelling
Yes. The room itself tells a story: three people, something sudden, someone left in a hurry. The player works it out without a word.
THE STRONGEST TOOL
Let the mechanics carry the meaning
What the player does says more than anything they're told. The verbs from lesson 2 are part of the story. If the story says "you're small, weak and hunted", the rules should make hiding and running the main actions, and fighting a bad idea. Then the player doesn't just hear that they're hunted. They feel it in their hands.
Two games about surviving a storm. In one you read that food is scarce. In the other, you have three cans for four people and you have to decide who eats tonight. Only the second makes you feel it.
Check yourself
Mina's game is about a child hiding from a monster in a dark house. Which rule fits that story best?
- The child finds a big gun in the first room
- The child can't fight; hiding under beds and running are the main actions
- Defeating the monster gives extra points
- The child levels up by fighting smaller monsters
Show the answer
The child can't fight; hiding under beds and running are the main actions
Right. If the only safe moves are hiding and running, the player feels small and hunted without being told. The rules are telling the story.
Ludonarrative dissonance
When what the story says and what the rules reward pull in opposite directions. "Ludo" is Latin for play. Designer Clint Hocking named it in 2007, writing about BioShock. Players notice the mismatch even when they can't name it, and the story starts to feel hollow.
The cutscenes call the hero a gentle soul who hates violence. In play, every enemy defeated earns points and the only way forward is through a hundred fights.
Check yourself
- Game A: the story says the hero is a pacifist. Sneaking past guards earns the most points; knocking one out costs points.
- Game B: the same story. Every guard defeated earns 100 points, and there's no way past them except fighting.
Players say Game B's story "doesn't feel real". Why?
- Game B's story is written worse
- In Game B the rules reward the opposite of what the story says
- Game B has too few guards
- Game A has better graphics
Show the answer
In Game B the rules reward the opposite of what the story says
Exactly. Same words, different rules. Game A's rules agree with the story; Game B's reward violence, so the story and the play pull apart. That's ludonarrative dissonance.
Small stories, real choices
- Short is fine. One line on a card can give a paper game a whole setting.
- Let choices change something, even a little: a door that stays open, a character who remembers.
- When a choice can't change anything, say so clearly instead of pretending it can.
- React to what the player just did. A story that ignores it breaks the spell.
Event card, drawn at the river:
THE BRIDGE IS OUT.
Choose a route.
Ford the river: roll a die, 1-2 lose a supply
Walk upstream: lose a turn, stay safeOne line of story + one real choice.
Players retell it: "We risked the ford
and lost the medicine."The sentence sets the scene; the rule makes it matter. Neither alone would be remembered. This is the size of story you'll use in lesson 12.
Check yourself
A long, unskippable cutscene right at the start is a good way to pull new players into a game's story.
Show the answer
False
False. New players came to play, and a long lecture before they've touched anything is one of the most common story mistakes. Start them playing and let the world, the rules and short moments tell the story as they go.
Lesson recap
- Embedded narrative is written by designers; emergent narrative comes out of the rules and the player's actions. Both count.
- Environmental storytelling lets the space tell the story, as Portal's hidden rooms do.
- Journey tells its whole story without dialogue, through landscape, music and meeting strangers.
- What players do is the strongest storyteller: make the rules fit the story.
- Ludonarrative dissonance (Hocking, 2007) is when the story and the rules pull in opposite directions.
- Keep it small: one line and one real choice can carry a story.