I wrote another article for Game Design Skills about HOW TO WRITE A STORY FOR A VIDEO GAME Start writing a gameplay-focused story by defining the game mechanics. Establish exactly what the player does, how often they do it, and what (if any) secondary or tertiary mechanics support the primary one. Designer Shigeru Miyamoto has stated that he always begins with gameplay and only thinks about story once the mechanics begin to feel fun and novel. Define the major source of the conflict to increase the satisfaction of overcoming the gameplay challenge. The players’ level of satisfaction is linked to how invested they are in the central conflict. The major source of the conflict must offer a compelling reason to play that holds up from a storytelling perspective and not simply as a backdrop to the action. Heavily gameplay-focused experiences get away with simple, archetypal conflicts. Narrative games demand more thought-out conflicts and resolution options. The Walking Dead’s relatively open-ended worldbuilding allowed me to get creative when designing villains and conflicts. READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE: https://lnkd.in/d4dpfynM #NarrativeDesignTip
This was an interesting read and quite helpful. It has definitely given me some food for thought for certain things for our first time RPG story we are writing.
another great piece for the wiki!!
Very insightful article, I found it really helpful! One question though: do you think there are any games that are perfectly balanced between narrative and gameplay focused? That don't fully fall into either category?