Whilst I will be discussing my narrative development for each prototype in their relevant blogs, I thought it was worth outlining my general practises for narrative design in a single space.
When starting these prototypes I knew I wanted the story to be a strong underlying aspect which I would need to research into and develop until it worked seamlessly with the game type and mechanics.
I began my research by looking into The Shapes of Stories by Kurt Vonnegut. He outlines eight stories, each with their own graph, or "shape". Whilst there are obviously variations on these, and not all stories adhere to these shapes, I thought it was a good place to start to see if I could correlate my general feelings about the ideas we were having with one of these story types.
Having examined these, the type that I was most interested in was the Man in Hole story. I think I was most drawn to this one as it has an element of hope in it, but unlike the other stories that curve up at the end, this one began with good fortune that the main character somehow loses, and then regains again at the end. This shape lends itself towards stories like The Parable of the Good Samaritan, or Les Miserables, in which the main character receives redemption for past actions. I think this is a really uplifting story that I'd like to include in our narratives. I think it also makes for a very character-driven story where the protagonist is more in control of their fate.
I have discussed general themes elsewhere on my blog, but felt it was important to reiterate on my thinking behind choosing them.
"What you have is enough", or "defeated greed":
- response to the climate crisis
- response to socio-political difficulties (the 1%, wage gap, civil unrest)
- promotes sustainability of lifestyle
"Redemption"
- you can always be forgiven
- emphasis on hope
- showcasing how people can be merciful
"We are better when we work together", or "community":
- reflective of issues in current society
- universal truth
- argues against "every man for himself" argument
- promotes togetherness and mutual respect
The ideas that my team wants to take forward and the themes that underline them seem to be positive spins on negative issues. They promote the idea of change rather than the idea of nihilism, and in our unrestful society I think that's a story that needs to be told, and I can tell from my research into other literary works that storytellers have felt like this for generations. I want to make sure to imbue our game with a positive, hopeful energy, that's still self-aware and has a lot of moxie. How I choose to design the narrative will change depending on the game-type and particular focus of the game we're working on, but these are general design aspects that I want to include in the final product.