作者：Richard Terrell

以电子游戏和其他媒介中的故事构建来作为文章的开篇似乎很奇怪。但是，请相信我，故事可能是我们理解这个世界和相互理解的最为重要的工具。我获得了英语相关学位，并且 专注于创意写作，所以故事设计是我研究的领域。许多年来，我听过许多人谈论起他们对故事的理解以及故事各个部分所起的作用，但是他们的想法与现实情况偏差甚远。在讨论 何谓故事之前，先明白故事的各个部分是很有益的。

为构建起文学评论理论和游戏设计之间的桥梁，我开设了博客Critical-Gaming。我发觉，利用某些我们较为熟悉的东西（游戏邦注：比如说故事），我们可以更容易地理解游戏设 计。通过博客，我创造和定义了许多的术语，解释了为何像“优秀”之类的描述完全不准确而且起不到任何作用。我的想法在于剖析游戏设计的每个方面，这样我们就能够更清楚 哪些做法能够深化游戏设计，反过来也能让我们明白为何我们会喜欢或者不喜欢游戏的某个方面。我觉得这是种很棒的方法。所以，是时候将这种方法运用于故事中了。

下文将剖析和比较所有类型的故事。虽然我以前提过某些建设性的基本游戏设计理论，但是我相信故事设计要简单得多。我们对故事构建的直觉应该会超出以下观点。如果要理解 故事，我们必须先理解三个主要元素：内容、执行和讲述。

内容

故事就是许多事件的集合。在我们探讨更深层次的含义或执行之前，我们必须关注基本细节或内容。

场景。故事发生的地点。场景由宇宙万物、世界、国家、城镇和时间构成。

角色。维基百科对角色的解释是：叙述性或戏剧性艺术作品中所呈现的人物。角色有各种各样的形式。现实主义并非最佳的角色呈现类型。更为重要的反倒是角色能够以与故事相 关或对故事有用的方式呈现。

情节。维基百科对情节的解释是：用于描述组成故事的事件的文学术语，这些事件可能以某种样式相互联系，比如存在因果关系或一致关系。动作和冲突是情节中的两大类别。

复杂性/简单性。细节产生复杂的故事。有些故事有着丰富的角色、地点和阐述所有内容的背景故事。有些故事这些元素中的某些方面格外出众。

主题。普遍或抽象想法、信息或道德。中心思想（游戏邦注：不断出现的象征性元素）能够使主题得到发展。

执行

故事不仅仅是细节的集合体。无论采用线性或非线性的形式，事件呈现的方式就是故事讲述或执行。如果执行过于缓慢、过于明显、过于混乱或过快，即便最棒的故事内容也不会 产生好的结果。

效能。花较少的精力实现较大的效果。用较少的场景、对话、地点、动作、事件来传播更多的故事内容。情节重复较少便是有效的故事讲述方式。

条理性。可以采用极为简单和直观的故事呈现方式，风格故事并将其重新安排会让故事很难以理解。因为故事讲述是呈现叙事性事件的过程，事件发生的顺序和传播的方式决定了 故事的条理性。

步调。短诗歌有情感波动点。短故事通常也有阐述、动作、高潮和结局等小波段。电视剧、小说和其他长篇故事通常包含有数个“波段”。简单地说，步调就是这些波段来去的快 速程度以及对剧情的影响程度。

风格/语言。这里所说的最为明显的想法是像英语或日语之类的口头语言。但是，语言还包括会话短语、专业词汇、肢体语言、文化标志、冷笑话以及其他修饰性语言。风格的分类 很广，包括所有你认为能够对故事讲述有益的信息传播方式。

媒介。每种媒介都有利有弊。所以，每种媒介都根据自己的优势形成特别的故事讲述方法。尽管这些方法在每种媒介中都能发挥很棒的效果，它们却无法在其他媒介中起到同等作 用。

诗歌最著名的是其浓缩性的文字，其中每个标点符号、文字和格式都有其作用。韵律和结构能够创造出分层化的对比和并列。

短故事擅长于呈现亮点和叙事片段。通过对某些关键时刻的选择，可以在相对紧凑的篇幅中传达出丰富的故事波段。

小说是充满许多细节的大型作品。因为有着这么多的文字，小说可以达到诗歌和某些短故事无法实现的高度。小说中的传播会更加直接。通常来说，书写的语言善于勾起人的内省 ，因为阅读文字可以引发内心的思考。

图片小说、漫画和连环画使用图片的结合来传递信息，并用大量的文字来弥补图片的短处。此类媒介总是能够平衡通过图片呈现和文字讲述的信息。

戏剧和音乐剧使用大量的对话和舞台表演。富有表现力的可视故事讲述很重要。但是，解释性的文字很少使用。

电影和戏剧相同，都专注于可视信息和对话。在视觉呈现方面，电影更具灵活性。多镜头、特殊效果和后期编辑给电影提供了更大的空间。

电子游戏经常借助来源于其他媒介的技术。有些采用的是诗歌、短故事、小说、图片小说化的呈现、戏剧化的表演和类似电影的场景。但是，最强大的媒介来源于各种媒介优势的 相互作用。

动态。动态故事讲述并非只存在于电子游戏中。从对冒险书籍的选择到让观众得到发泄的戏剧，动态指的是故事中的可变和互动元素。

讲述

虽然我们可能没有意识到，但是我们总是将故事与我们经历过的其他事情（游戏邦注：尤指其他故事）相比较来评估质量。换句话说，我们正在不断寻找原创故事。一方面我们因 熟悉的内容而感到厌烦，另一方面我们渴望得到新的内容。

创造性。许多人对复制产品不厌其烦。好像我们对创造性的价值评价越高，我们就越贬低复制品。所有的艺术都可以被看作是对生活的反映和重组并赋予其新的含义。我们很难对 原创性只有10%的故事表示欣赏。我们对故事设计的理解更深，我们就能更好地判断出某个作品的独特性。

系列。许多系列都是由较小的完整故事（游戏邦注：这些故事属于相同的媒介）组成的。我们很自然地以是否与系列路线相符来评估故事的质量。但是，单独考虑某个故事的度量 也非常重要。

跨媒体。跨媒体故事讲述是个首先由大学教师Henry Jenkins提出的概念，他在自己的书籍《Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide》中用此来定义多种媒体形 式中的故事讲述。这个想法的核心是各种形式的媒体相互支持，通过为读者提供不同的视角来整体化解释文字。通常来说，这些类型的文字有着丰富的内容和艺术风格，用户需要 投入更多的资金理解整个叙事网络。从这点上看，构建跨媒体专属作品就像是在构建包含万物的宇宙。

回响（和谐）

回响/和谐。这可以衡量故事的不同方面（游戏邦注：上文所述故事的组成部分）相互提升的程度。比如，有个名叫“循环”的故事的主题是循环，那么就可以出现以下这些和谐形 式：未来的世界不断循环回到之前的时代里。场景是个巨大的正在旋转的空间站。角色是那些害怕重新回到他们已经逃离的生活的罪犯。角色使用飞镖作为武器来战斗。步调和场 景进程中含有日夜循环。所有这些元素都与主题很相配。

如果某个故事都不含有上述元素，那么就不是个好故事。我们必须去除寻找那些铸就“差劲故事”细节的习惯。正如游戏设计那样，故事真正的冲击来源于所有小碎片。因为这个 过程很复杂，所以关注或把握单一细节或忽略细节只把握整体都不可行。讨论“劣质”故事的更好方式是解释故事的各个层面如何影响或摧毁其优秀品质。

让我们从我在本博文中经常提到的例子——NES游戏《超级马里奥兄弟》开始。通常，人们认为这款游戏中没有故事，这种想法是错误的。有人声称游戏中确实存在故事，但是故事 显得很无力，根本没有给游戏玩法提供背景。认为这款游戏中的故事很无力也是不准确的。无论你是否喜欢这款游戏，最好还是在这里剖析下各个部分以及如何相互配合。

《超级马里奥兄弟》（游戏邦注：下文简称SMB）的故事内容很直观，而且也是个相当简单的故事。游戏发生在蘑菇王国中，玩家在陆地、海洋、天空和城堡中冒险（游戏邦注：这 些是游戏的场景）。其中的马里奥、敌人和公主分别扮演着人们熟悉的英雄、对手和急待拯救的人（游戏邦注：这些是游戏的角色）。游戏主题是冒险、营救和英勇之举。故事情 节设置在动作平台之上，不断打通关卡并进入下一关，马里奥历经艰难险阻到达World 8-4。

游戏的执行更为复杂。游戏中的文字很少，大部分内容通过视觉效果和游戏玩法来传达。所有无法操作的屏幕都是次要的，主要关注点是游戏场景。正因为其简单化，SMB不存在有 效性和连贯性的问题。毕竟，游戏中最为复杂的状况只是“我们的公主在另一个城堡里”。步调围绕8个难度逐渐增加的波段来设计。每个世界的波段分为4个关卡来呈现。然而在 这种鲁多叙事性结构中，变化程度也很大。不仅游戏中许多关卡有不同的通关方法，而且还有可以进一步改变游戏进程的弯道。某些玩家可能通过跳过游戏中多数关卡的方式在数 分钟时间内打通游戏。游戏玩家可能要花上很长的时间，因为要打通所有32个关卡。

在这款游戏发布之时，没有其他电子游戏采用类似的做法。所以，游戏无疑具有很高的创造性。回到20世纪80年代，电子游戏故事通常是在操作指南手册中阐述。你可以自行决定 要将游戏操作手册中的故事视为游戏的一部分还是只当做产品的一部分。如果你认为故事不属于游戏的一部分，那些位于游戏外的文字就可以算作是跨媒体元素。阅读下面的操作 手册，我会在下文中阐述其中最棒的部分。

“有一天，和平的蘑菇王国遭到库巴的侵略，这是个以黑魔法而闻名的海龟部族。爱好和平的蘑菇人民被变成了石头、砖块和农场中的植物，蘑菇王国支离破碎。唯一可以解开蘑 菇人民所中的魔法咒语并使他们恢复如初的人是Toadstool公主，她是蘑菇国王的女儿。不幸的是，她现在被库巴海龟国王关押了起来。英雄马里奥听说了蘑菇人民遭受的苦难，接 受了从邪恶的库巴手中救出蘑菇公主的任务，重建蘑菇人民被摧毁的王国。你就是马里奥！你需要从库巴的黑魔法中救出蘑菇人民！”

从根本上来说，SMB高度精确地阐述了相对简单的故事，因为讲述是电子游戏传达信息的最佳方式，随后是玩法（游戏邦注：即相互作用）和视觉效果。绝妙的玩法也对故事有所帮 助。对于那些忽视游戏故事的人来说，我敢说他们不可能尽情享受到游戏可玩性，也不会欣赏故事。简单地说，让马里奥从1-1到8-4是个故事和可玩性兼有的过程。

所以当你想要从整体上讨论游戏故事时，因为甚至连SMB中这么简单的故事都如此复杂并且含有多个层面，你应该像我这样进行综合性的描述。如果你没有耐性像我这样，你的分析 至少也应该触及所有内容和执行层面。如果你没有做足进行如此分析的准备，那么关注1到2个层面也能够得出很棒的结果。只是要注意，不可声称或暗示你的观点覆盖的是整个故 事。

举例说明

下文将列举在某些方面表现的格外出众的部分游戏。

内容

场景。许多游戏设置在有趣的世界或地点。大家应该都记得，Gameboy版本的《俄罗斯方块》设置的场景是俄罗斯。《生化危机》、《传送门》和《侠盗猎车手》系列游戏的场景很 丰富，并且整合至叙事和游戏可玩性等其他部分中。还有些在这部分做的较好的游戏，包括《超级大战争：毁灭之日》、《旺达与巨像》和多数《塞尔达》系列游戏。事实上，我 们基本不会忽略游戏中的场景。如果场景确实很棒，就会引起我们的注意。如果场景不佳，我们就会关注故事的其他元素。

角色。相比其他媒介而言，视频游戏中的角色化会更为复杂。除了不同的角色风格之外（游戏邦注：比如圆滑或者有丰富的心理思维等），还需要考虑忽然出现的问题。游戏角色 可能具有可玩性，也可能不具可玩性。玩家的互动行为会以全新的方式影响角色化。《质量效应》中的Commander Shepard是个好人还是叛徒？或者两者都有？确实，这取决于玩家 的选择，但是这对我们的分析意味着什么呢？我们是否考虑玩家的所有选择？是否有可能做到这样呢？

可变性和玩家决定并不总是游戏主角才会面临问题。还存在某些极端的例子，比如在《RO9》中玩家需要同时控制9个角色，在《Poto & Cabenga》中玩家需要控制2个角色。在某些 游戏中，玩家会依此控制多个角色。

我喜欢像GlaDos和Linebeck等有着复杂心理活动的角色，也喜欢像马里奥之类平凡的角色。优秀的故事可以整合任何风格的角色。

情节。故事是一系列某时在某地发生的事件的集合，其中蕴含着角色（游戏邦注：包括某些类似角色的东西）。事件由各种各样的动作组合而成。事件如何连接可能非常复杂，但 是我们必须考虑情节如何发展并达到高潮。诸如《最终幻想6》之类的RPG很好地将许多角色和时间融入到史诗般的情节中。《塞尔达》系列游戏也是个很棒的例子，在情节推进中 像林克之类的小孩子逐渐变成了勇敢的英雄。有些游戏的情节从头到尾都很清晰，比如说《旺达与巨像》。如果你需要杀死16个巨像方能救下那个小女孩，那么每个巨像的死亡都 会引导你挑战下个巨像。

复杂性/简单性。这个层面需要做些许解释。在复杂的这个极端，有《质量效应》、《塞尔达》系列和《魔兽世界》等MMO游戏。这些游戏都有着大量角色、背景故事和其他细节内 容。在简单这个极端，有《超级马里奥兄弟》以及《索尼克》等老游戏。这些游戏的细节内容很少，也很少有丰富的背景故事。

主题。最贴近故事核心含义的是故事的主题。我们从学校的学习中得知，故事更多的是交流而不只是简单的含有角色的事件。我知道如果没有了连接故事各个层面的主题，这样的 故事并没有多大价值。或者说没有了含义的故事仅仅是一堆相互独立的细节而已。但是对我来说，这种看待问题的方法不是很恰当。

一旦你意识到所有的文化都有着抽象的想法而且人类会将自已的文化灌输到所有他们创造的事物中，你就会明白每个艺术作品都有着更深层次的含义。而且，我们每个人在分析时 都带有这自己的偏见和文化概念，使得观察事物带有内在的复杂性。我们应该关心的是如何找到含义，而不是找到其来源。

我会列举某些有着明显主题的游戏实例。《塞尔达传说：幻影沙漏》有着死亡、梦想和抱负和勇气的力量等主题。《超级大战争：毁灭之日》的主题是反对彻底的荒凉以及生存和 人性。《口袋妖怪：黑与白》大胆引进了个人真理、个人选择和混合现实的主题。《神秘海域2》的主题是寻找财宝。《银河战士：另一个M》的主题是自然与角色培养。《超级马 里奥：银河》系列游戏的主题是以损失、诞生和改变宇宙的力量。

执行

效能。一般来说，电子游戏的故事效能主要受到了故事场景和游戏设置的影响。为了不把这一元素与步调元素混淆在一起，我们只需要考虑故事内容的设计空间，艺术设计等等元 素。如果故事中反复出现相同的地点，定位，人物角色或场景等，那么可以说，这个故事的效能大大降低了。如果你已经感受到一个故事开始重复一些情节，主题或者场景，那么 你可以考虑缩减这些重复内容的出现。《仙乐传说》就是一款在功能角色（即游戏设置）和叙述角色中充斥着太多类似地点，角色和场景的游戏。所以，我们可以看到那些过于重 视于游戏设置的电子游戏，经常会出现故事效能的大大流失的问题。

条理性。一个故事中的任何细节都不能有相互矛盾问题出现。而“ludonarrative dissonance”（游戏邦注：ludonarrative是由原LucasArts创意总监Clint Hocking提出，这是一 个合成词，由ludology和narrative两个单词组成，意指游戏故事与玩法之间的冲突）便是防止电子游戏故事丢失其条理性的一大广为人知的方法。与效能元素一样，我们知道游戏 的故事内容必须与游戏设置紧密结合在一起，但是因此却可能会影响，甚至破坏故事内容的呈现。因为电子游戏的设计始终围绕着一些抽象且非和谐的因素，而随着游戏的进行， 这些因素可能会不定期地发生变化。例如在游戏《最终幻想7》）中，士兵在游戏的一开始就朝玩家扮演的角色发射子弹。但是这种出击却未对玩家的生命值（HP）造成太大的影响 。是否说这些枪弹的威力太弱了，或者这些游戏角色太坚不可摧？这些都难以判断。事实上，在很多电子游戏中，任何角色都有可能从一系列的暴力对抗中幸存下来。因为对于玩 家来说，我们宁愿接受游戏中的抽象因素和解释，也不愿意接受游戏主角因为一颗小小的子弹就毙命。在像《光晕：致远星》等游戏中，也同样出现了这种带有故事性的“子弹” 。

步调。对于每一个波段来说，故事的高潮都是随着故事性和戏剧化的能量或者说是一种紧张感的形成而产生。在游戏设置的步调方面，同样也需要借鉴一些类似，或者是更有难度 的游戏设置理念。与执行元素的其它方面相同，我们同样也必须考虑如何做才能让故事的步调与游戏设置相匹配。《魔法门之英雄交锋》便着重于突出多个不同的游戏章节。而在 每一个章节中，都会出现一个新的角色，并且从级别“0”开始执行游戏任务。这些章节在一开始难度都很低，但是随着游戏的进行，玩家将会面临更多更厉害的敌人，甚至是最后 的终极对手。当整个游戏故事完全形成时，游戏设置的难度级别也会经过多次重置而最终形成。而且这种不协调在游戏的最后一章会变得最为明显。在最后一章节，玩家并非投入 最后的战斗，而是重新操纵一个新的角色，进行一场相对简单的战斗。

风格/语言。《Super Smash Brothers Brawl: Subspace Emissary》和《超级食肉男孩》的故事场景是以一种无声影片的形式呈现出来。没有对话或者文本，只有视觉上的叙述传 达。《最终幻想6》让玩家感受到了一种亲临电影院的真实体验。屏幕上的游戏角色不断地进行一些夸张的肢体语言，向我们这些观众们进行自我展示。而就像我们在剧本中会看到 的情形一样，这款游戏的每一个角色的出现都伴随着属于自己的音乐主题和个性化描述。而那些单纯借鉴日本漫画中故事模式的游戏，则只会通过呆板的对话场景像观众透露游戏 信息，例如《超级大战争》系列游戏，《仙乐传说》和《美妙世界》等游戏。当然了，还有一些是被认为拥有电影般完美效果的游戏，如《神秘海域》，《天剑》和《光晕：致远 星》等。

媒介。在这系列文章中的第一部分，我已经列举了一些带有其它媒介特征的游戏案例。因为电子游戏设计者能够自行挑选其认为合适的特定媒介元素，所以对于电子游戏的设计来 说，这一领域并未存在任何单一的媒介选择判断标准。换句话说，现代游戏既可以选择配音形式，也可以通过文本描述展现游戏。而且也未存在任何说法能够判断哪一种模式更好 。我为何如此强调解释这一观点，正是因为有太多人固执地相信电影模式表达方法才是所有游戏都必须遵循的唯一章法。

动态。有一些游戏强调区分不同的叙述途径，并鼓励玩家在游戏中努力探索各种可能性因素，这种游戏包括《光辉物语》，《奥伽战争：命运之轮》，穆修拉的假面和《质量效应 》。但是也有一些游戏开发者并不支持玩家去探索游戏故事中的多种可能性，如《暴雨》。虽然说这些游戏都是一些较为典型的例子，但是我们必须知道，像在《超级马里奥》这 种游戏平台中，空间的转换也会因此改变游戏设置的叙述表现。按照这种方法，大部分游戏将呈现出动态化/非固定的游戏设置，而因此表现出一些多层次的动态化叙述模式。所以 说这种类型的游戏是参考了动态化非游戏设置元素而制作出来的游戏。“支线任务”（游戏邦注：即详细流程）可以说是动态化游戏故事特征的显著表现。

讲述

创造性。不管我们是否喜欢特殊元素，所有的游戏在某种程度上都具有一定的创造性。我们很乐于看到自己的作品比其它作品更特别，且更具有创造性，然而实际上，这种比较却 是一件非常困难的任务。因为没有一个玩家能玩遍所有的游戏，甚至不可能精通特定某种风格的游戏。即便真有人不得不玩大量游戏，他们也总能通过深入研究一款游戏，找到其 故事内容之外的其他特点。所以，如果单纯依靠细节比较来决定一部游戏作品的创造性，那么你将永远得不到想要的答案。相反的，如果我们能够适当地审视我们的相关评价（游 戏邦注：即那些基于游戏系列或风格等评价），那么我们便能触及创造性这个话题，特别是当我们能够辨别一款电子游戏是否是拙劣的复制品时，我们便能够抓住创造性。 《Linear RPG》，《You Must Burn the Rope》以及《Super PSTW Action RPG》都是很好的例子。如果你一直执拗于这些游戏只是一些拙劣的复制品，那么你便不能感受到它们优 秀的游戏设置和出色的故事情节。我看过一个视频（链接：http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z2Z23SAFVA），该视频制作者可以说完全不理解我所提到的这种创造性，因此才会 制作出如此滑稽可笑的视频。在某种程度上，复制其它作品对于这些游戏来说并非完全是坏事。而且，幸运的是，这些游戏模仿的痕迹并不多，而且都能抓住重点以突出自己游戏 所要表达的亮点。

系列。游戏续集和游戏系列的魅力不可阻挡。在众多媒介中，故事系列和IP品牌在推动新产品的销售过程中都有着功不可没的作用。我们总是喜欢一些相同的事物，并且渴望知道 完整的故事情节。所以，当玩家在挑战一个游戏系列时，总是享受着游戏中贯穿始终的细节，同样地，如果系列游戏失去了连贯性，那么玩家便会因此感到失望。就像《塞尔达传 说》，虽然这并不是一款基于故事内容展开的系列游戏，但是却仍有很多玩家尝试着去把每一个游戏系列的故事串在一起。甚至有些玩家认为《银河战士》的故事内容必须与《银 河战士：猎人》以及《银河战士弹珠台》串联成一个完整的故事情节。这个元素能够将许多相对独立的游戏故事有条理地贯穿在一起。

跨媒体作品。《光晕》是一款很受欢迎的电子游戏系列。这部作品可以说是动画短片，漫画与小说的结合体。我们甚至还能在游戏中看到一部绯闻电影的影子。而这些元素都集中 在一起，汇聚着《光晕》这个巨大的宇宙。《死亡空间》和《银河战士》都是较为出色的跨媒体作品。

共鸣（和谐）

匹配游戏故事和游戏设置很难，但是如果能做好，将能为电子游戏带来不错的反响。然后，故事中的任何两个元素都能产生相互的共鸣作用。最为突出的便是主题元素，它能够轻 易地与其它元素产生共鸣。因为主题是一相对抽象的元素，能够灵活地与其它具体元素，如环境，角色和情节相呼应。我特别欣赏《时空幻境》中的诗歌文本和游戏设置所产生的 那种和谐感。游戏以诗歌的基调去描述主人公Tim的过去，流露出爱，失落与渴望的情感。而这些抽象的概念与游戏设置中的挑战和机制很好地结合在了一起。例如悔恨的情绪让 Tim想要重新回到过去，试着去解决并挽回一些事情。而游戏设置使得玩家能够回到过去，尽力做出挽救。通过这种和谐的共鸣，我们能够通过Tim在游戏中解决问题的行动而去思 考更多关于角色的问题，例如是否Tim比以前更加聪明了？或者我们是否真的能够回到过去挽救一些已经发生了的事情等等。

相关拓展阅读：篇目1，篇目2，篇目3（本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao）

Story Design pt.1

Richard Terrell

There’s something I highly respect and value that I need to make clear up front. It’s your opinion, your feelings, and your personal story. Seems like a strange way to open an article about the craft of stories in video games and other media. But, believe me, stories are perhaps the most important tool we have for understanding the world and each other.

I have a degree in English with a concentration in creative writing. So, story design is my area of study. Over the years I’ve found that many talk as if they understand what a story is and how its parts work, yet their statements are far from anything substantive. Before one can talk about what a story is, it helps to be clear about the parts of a story.

I started the Critical-Gaming blog by creating a bridge between the theories of literary critique and game design. I figured that starting with something familiar (stories) we could understand game design more easily. From there I created and defined many terms and explained why descriptors like “good” are utterly imprecise and unhelpful. The idea is by breaking down every facet of game design, we can be more clear about what’s happening design wise, which
would in turn shed light on why we like or dislike a particular aspect of a game. I think this is a solid approach. So it’s time to do it again with stories.

The following is a universal system to break down and compare all types of stories. While I’ve come up with some revolutionary and radical game design theories in the past, I believe tackling story design will be much simpler. Our intuitions about the craft of storytelling should go a long way here. So, be patient if it all seems somewhat obvious.

To best understand stories, we must understand three main categories: content, execution, and discourse.

CONTENT

A story is nothing more than a series of events. Before we worry about deeper meaning or execution, we must focus on the fundamental details or the content.

Setting. The place where the story is set. Everything from the universe, world, country, town, and time period make up the setting.

Characters. “The representation of a person in a narrative or dramatic work of art” wiki. Flat, round, foil, realistic, absurd, lead, support, human, animal, ethereal; Characters come in all varieties. Realism is not best type of character. Rather, being relatable or functional to the story are qualities that can be just as, or more, important.

Plot. “A literary term for which the events that make up a story, particularly as they relate to one another in a pattern, a sequence, through cause and effect, or by coincidence” wiki. Action and conflict are two categories that can fit inside plot.

Complexity/Simplicity. Details create complex stories. Some tales are rich with many characters, locations, and back stories about everything. Other stories do very well with very few of these elements.

Theme. General or abstract ideas, messages, or morals. Motifs (reoccuring symbolic elements) can develop the theme.

EXECUTION

Stories are more than a collection of details or a list of qualities. Whether linear or non-linear, how the events are presented is storytelling or execution. If the execution is too slow, too obvious, too jumbled, or too fast even the best story content can fail.

Efficiency. It’s all about doing more with less. Conveying more story content with fewer scenes, lines of dialog, locations, actions, events, and fewer repeated scenarios is efficient storytelling.

Coherence. It’s possible to take a completely simple and straight forward story, cut it up, and rearrange it so that it’s incredibly difficult to understand. Since storytelling is the process of presenting narrative events, the order and the delivery shapes how coherent the work is.

Pacing. Small poems can be like emotionally charged snapshots. Short stories tend to feature a small wave of exposition, action, climax, and resolution. Long running series, novels, and others large stories generally contain multiple “waves.” How quickly these waves come and go and how steep they are is a simple way to think of pacing.

Style/Language. On first thought, the obvious idea here is verbal languages like English or Japanese. But there are also colloquial terms, lexicon, body language, cultural symbols, inside jokes, and other examples that qualify. Style is very broad category. Any way you of conveying information that you can think of can contribute to the style of storytelling.

Medium. Every medium has pros and cons. As a result, every medium has developed particular methods of storytelling based on their strengths. While these methods work great for each medium, they tend not to work so well in others.

Poetry excels in concentrated text where every punctuation, letter, and formatting decision matters. Rhythm and form help to create layered contrast and juxtaposition.

Short stories do well presenting snapshots and slices of narrative. By selecting a few key moments, rich story waves can be conveyed in a relatively compact space.

Novels are large works filled with many details. With so much text, writing to the fine degree that poems and some shorts stories feature isn’t practical. The delivery in novels tends to be more direct. (In general, written language excels at introspection because reading text mimics inner thought).

Graphic Novels/Manga/Comics use a combination of images to convey information and blocks of text to where the images fall short. There’s always a balance between whether information will be shown or told.

Plays/Musicals use lots of dialog and staging (positioning). Expressive, visual storytelling is important. Also, explanatory or expository text is sparingly used.

Films/Movies are similar to plays in that they focus on visuals and dialog. Films have a lot more flexibility when it comes to visual presentation. Multiple cameras, special effects, and editing give films the edge.

Video games often borrow technqiues from other mediums. Some offer poetry (Braid), short stories (Lost Odyssey), novels (Wow? Halo? Mass Effect, Ni No Kuni), graphic novel like presentation (XIII, Metal Gear Acid, inFAMOUS), play like performances (Facade, FF6), and movie like scenes (Heavenly Sword, GTA4, Metal Gear Solid 4). Some pull it off better than others. But ultimately, the strength of the medium comes from interactivity.

Dynamic. Video games aren’t the only source for dynamic storytelling. From choose your own adventure books to plays that work off the audience, dynamics refers to how the variable/interactive elements of a story.

DISCOURSE

Though we may not do it consciously, we’re always evaluating the quality of a story based on how it compares to everything else we’ve experienced (especially other stories). In other words, we’re constantly looking for originality. On the one hand we’re drawn toward the familiar. Yet, on the other we crave the new. It’s a tricky line that most of us don’t realize we walk.

Creativity. Many people are turned off by copycats. It seems that the higher we value creativitiy, the more we devalue replicas. All art can be thought of as the reflection, repacking, and repurposing of life (which includes art). It can be hard appreciating a story for its 10% creativity when you’ve seen the other 90% before in another work. The better we understand the design of stories, the better we can determine how unique one work is to another.

Series. Many series are a collection of smaller complete stories (within the same medium). Naturally, we evaluate the quality of later entries by how they keep in line with the series. However, it’s important to consider the merits of a story as an individual entry.

Transmedia. Danielprimed puts it best: “Trans-media storytelling is a concept first put forward by academic Henry Jenkins in his book Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide to define storytelling told over multiple forms of media. The crux of the idea is that each form of media supports the others and provides the reader with different, medium-specific viewpoints in which to interpret the text as a whole. Naturally, these types of texts are rich in
content and artistic styles, commanding a dedicated user base who are required to spend more money to invest in the entire narrative web. In this regard, building a trans-media franchise is like building a universe.”

Resonance (Harmony)

Resonance/Harmony. This is a measure of how well different facets of a story (listed above) enhance each other. For example, if there’s a story called Cycles and the theme is cycles there could be harmony in the following ways: The conceit is of a futuristic world that slowly phases through time cycling back to previous years. The setting is a giant space station ring that spins in place. The characters are criminals afraid of relapsing back into the life they run away from. The characters battle with boomerangs like weapons. The pacing and scene progression runs on a cyclical day/night cycle. All of these elements would resonate or harmoize nicely with the theme.

If a story has one of these elements great. If it doesn’t, it’s no big deal. One habit that we must move away from is looking for the details that make a “bad story.” Like with game design, the real impact of a story emerges from all of the smaller pieces. Because this process is so complicated, it not very helpful or accurate to look at an individual detail, or lack of a detail, then judge the whole. A better way to discuss “bad” stories is to explain how various facets actually undermine or deconstruct its better qualities. More on this later.

Story Design pt.2

Richard Terrell

Let’s start with the example that I always turn to on this blog; Super Mario Brothers for the NES. Often, people dismiss this game for having no story. This stance is just ignorant. Others claim that there is a story, but it’s flimsy and barely there to give the gameplay a bit of context. It doesn’t say much to call Mario’s story flimsy. Whether you like it or not, it’s better to offer a detailed explanation of its parts and how they work together. Let’s use the CED system.

Super Mario Brothers’s story content is pretty straightforward adding up to a fairly simple story. Set in the Mushroom Kingdom, players travel through land, sea, air, and castles (setting). Mario, Bowser, Peach, the toads, and all the enemies take on flat, familiar roles like hero, villain, citizen, and damsel (characters). The theme is adventuring, rescue, and bravery. And the plot is focused on action platforming where beating one level flows into the next and the next until Mario makes his way to World 8-4.

The execution is more complicated. With little text in the game, the vast majority of the content is conveyed through visuals and gameplay. All non-playable scenes are seconds long keeping the focus on the gameplay. Due to the simplicity, SMB doesn’t have a problem being efficient and coherent. After all, “but our princess is in another castle” is the most complex statement in the game. The pacing is generally designed around 8 waves of increasing difficulty. One
wave per world presented in 4 level groups. Yet in this ludonarrative structure, there’s significant variation Not only are there alternate paths through many levels in the game, but there are warps that can alter the progression further. One player may get through the game in a few minutes by skipping most of the levels in the game. Another may take the long route by playing through all 32 levels.

As for the Super Mario Brothers Discourse, at the time of its release there was no other video game like it. So, it definitely scores points for creativity. Back in the 1980′s it was the norm for video games stories to start inside the instruction manuals. You can decide for yourself if you consider Mario’s instruction manual story as part of the game or simply a part of the product. If you think it’s not part of the game, then does the external text count as a transmedia element. Read the instruction manual here. I’ve pulled out the best part below.

“One day the kingdom of the peaceful mushroom people was invaded by the Koopa, a tribe of turtles famous for their black magic. The quiet, peace-loving Mushroom People were turned into mere stones, bricks and even field horse-hair plants, and the Mushroom Kingdom fell into ruin.

The only one who can undo the magic spell on the Mushroom People and return them to their normal selves is the Princess Toadstool, the daughter of the Mushroom King. Unfortunately, she is presently in the hands of the great Koopa turtle king.

Mario, the hero of the story (maybe) hears about the Mushroom People’s plight and sets out on a quest to free the Mushroom Princess from the evil Koopa and restore the fallen kingdom of the Mushroom People.

You are Mario! It’s up to you to save the Mushroom People from the black magic of the Koopa!”

Ultimately, Super Mario Brothers delivers a relatively simple story at a high level of precision because the telling focuses on conveying information the best ways video games can; gameplay (interactivity) and then visuals. It also helps that the gameplay is excellent. For those who dismiss Mario’s story, I argue that it’s impossible to enjoy the gameplay and not appreciate the story. Put simply, the actions of getting Mario from 1-1 to 8-4 is the story and gameplay simultaneously.

So when you want to talk about a story overall, because even simple stories lia comprehensive description like I just made. If you’re not in the mood to do all the work, your analysis should at least touch on all of the content and execution facets. If you’re not prepared to make such an analysis, then focusing on one facet or two will produce better results. Just be sure not to claim or imply that your statements cover the whole story.

More Examples

The following is a list of video games that are notable for the following qualities.

Content

Setting. Many games are set in interesting worlds or locations. Remember, the Gameboy version of Tetris is set in Russia. For the purpose of story analysis we must be careful to look for examples that are well crafted as opposed to being just unique. The creativity category is a different matter that falls under the discourse category. BioShock, Portal, and the Grand Theft Auto series are a few popular examples of games where the setting is rich and integrated into other parts of the narrative and gameplay. Other good examples include Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, Shadow of the Colossus, and most of the games in Zelda series. In fact, it’s hard to mess up a setting. When it works we tend to notice. When there’s not much there, we tend to look to other elements of the story.

Characters. Characterization can be more complex in video games than in any other medium. In addition to various character types (flat, round, psychologically rich, etc), there are new perspective and emergent issues to consider. Game characters can either be non-playable or playable. Whether by a little or a lot, player interactivity opens up haracterization in new ways. Is Commander Shepard in Mass Effect a paragon or a renegade? Is he both? Yes, it
depends on player choices, but what does that mean for our analysis? Do we consider the entire range? Is that possible? Do we pick an interpretation and focus on it?

The variable and player determined character isn’t always a problem for the main character of the game. There are extreme examples like RO9 where players control 9 characters at once and Poto & Cabenga for 2 at once. Then there are more common examples like taking control of multiple characters one at a time like in Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Zelda Spirit Tracks, the Advance Wars series, and the Professor Layton series.

As much as I love round characters with complex psychologies like GlaDos (Portal 1 & 2) and Linebeck (Phantom Hourglass), I also love the flat characters like Mario, Link, Donkey Kong, and the Prince (Katamari). Great stories can feature any combination of character types.

Plot. Stories are a series of events in place and time and they feature characters (or something like characters). Events are made of actions as simple as surviving to supernatural combat. Along with considerations of how events connect together, which can be quite complex due to non-linearity, we have to consider how the plot grows, climaxes, and resolves for both the gameplay and the story content simultaneously. RPGs like Final Fantasy 6 do a great job
weaving together many characters and events into an epic plot. The Zelda series is another great example that typically features a plot where little by little the child like Link fulfills the role of the courageous hero. Some plots are clear from start to finish like Shadow of the Colossus. If you need to kill 16 colossi to save the girl, then the death of each colossus leads right into the hunt for the next one.

Complexity/Simplicity. This facet needs little explanation. On the complex end there are games like Metal Gear Solid 4, Mass Effect, Animal Crossing, the Professor Layton Series, many games in the Zelda Series (Majora’s Mask, Phantom Hourglass, etc.), many MMOs like WOW, and the Resident Evil series. All these games feature lots of characters, backstories, or other details. On the simplicity end of the spectrum are games like the Super Mario Brothers series,
the Katamari series, Tetris Attack, BOXLIFE, Super Meat Boy, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Shadow of the Colossus, and many old school games including Sonic. The list goes on. There can be a lot of craft in a few details and little said in many.

Theme. No other facet of story content sits more closely to the core “meaning” and “about-ness” of a story than theme. Since the days of our gradeschool educations we’ve been taught to think about stories as communicating more than just simple events with characters. Uncovering the theme, (abstract, “big picture” ideas) is like finding that “ah-ha” Eureka moment. I know that without the theme that connects multiple facets of a story, some feel that such a story isn’t worth much. Or without that “extra layer” of meaning, a story is merely a bunch of independent details. To me, this is a strange and limiting way of looking at the issue.

Once you realize that all culture is steeped in abstract ideas and how humans cannot help but imbue whatever they create with their culture, you’ll see that any piece of art can be read for increasingly deeper meaning or commentary. Still, each of us carry our own biases and cultural lenses that make observing anything inherently complex. We naturally find patterns and we naturally see ourselves reflected in the world. We should worry about finding meaning, not
where it comes from.

I’ll list a few examples of games with obvious themes. Zelda Phantom Hourglass has themes of death, dreams/ambition, arrested development, and the transformative power of courage. Advance Wars: Days of Ruin features a struggle against utter desolation and themes of survival and humanity. Pokemon Black/White boldly introduces the themes of personal truths, personal choices, and a blended reality. Uncharted 2 plays with the theme of greed in the pursuit of treasure. Metroid Other M runs with themes of nature vs nurther and parenting roles. The Mario Galaxy series plays with the themes of loss, birth, and the forces that transend the universe.

In part 3 I’ll give more examples of video games that illustrate the facets of execution and discourse.

Story Design pt.3

by Richard Terrell

Continuing with examples for each facet of story design…

Pages from the DS game Ni No Kuni.

Execution

Efficiency. In general efficiency for video games is measured in both its narrative scenes and gameplay. To not confuse this facet with pacing, think along the lines of design space, art assets, and the number of elements of story content. If locations, set pieces, characters, scenes, etc. overlap in what they bring to the story, efficiency goes down. If you feel like a story begins to repeat its lessons, themes, or scenarios, consider if it could have gotten by with less. Tales of Symphonia is a game filled with many locations, characters, and scenarios that are very similar to each other both in their functional role (gameplay) and narrative role. Often in video games, a gameplay necessity will force a narrative inefficiency.

Coherence. The details of a story shouldn’t contradict each other. One of the most well known ways for video game narratives to lose coherence is from ludonarrative dissonance. Like with efficiency, we know that the story content communicated through the gameplay can influence and conflict with the story content presented otherwise. Because video games are designed with varying levels of abstractions dissonant elements are very likely to occur. For example,
in Final Fantasy 7, at the beginning of the game soldier shoot guns at the player characters. The damage dealt is only a small percentage of HP. Are we to believe that these guns are weak? These characters are armored? It’s hard to say. In fact, many video games characters survive from a range of cartoon violence. Though we accept these abstractions and interpretations, it’s hard to turn around and accept the death of a main character from a single bullet shot in a cutscene. These narrative bullets are even in games like Halo: Reach.

Pacing. For every wave, the climax is the result of building narrative and dramatic energy/tension. In terms of gameplay pacing, there should be a similar building of gameplay concepts or difficulty. And like the other facets of execution, we have to look at how the pacing of the story content and the gameplay match up. Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes features multiple chapters. In each, a new character is introduced starting at level 0. These chapters start out easy. As you progress you’ll fight stronger enemies and eventually a boss. As the overall story builds, the gameplay difficulty resets several times throughout the game. This disconnect is most apparent at the final chapter. Instead of launching into the final battle, you pick up yet another new character and are forced to play through a long gauntlet of relatively easy battles.

Style/Language. The story scenes in Super Smash Brothers Brawl: Subspace Emissary and Super Meat Boy are presented in the style of silent films (see Brawl videos here). No dialog or text.

Just visual storytelling. Final Fantasy 6 has a strong theater like presentation. Characters turn to the screen to emote opening up their bodies to us, the audience, via the screen. Each character is also introduced with their musical theme and a personalized description like you might find in a playbook. Other games borrow from the Japanese manga/anime style of storytelling featuring somewhat stilted dialog scenes that divulge lots of information. Examples include
the Advance Wars series, Tales of Symphonia, and The World Ends With You. And of course there are the games that go for a movie like cinematic presentation from Uncharted, Heavenly Sword, to Halo: Reach.

Medium. I presented many examples of games that take features from other mediums in part 1 of this series. Because video game designers can basically pick and choose the kinds of medium-specific elements they want to incorporate, there isn’t anything close to a singular scale of craft/design all video games are measured by. In other words, a modern game can feature voice acting or text based dialog. One isn’t necessarily better than the other. I have to say this because many believe cinematic presentation is the singular standard that all games should aspire to.

Dynamic. Some games feature branching narrative paths and encourage the player to explore all the possibilities like Radiant Historia, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, and Mass Effect. Some developers have discouraged exploring a game’s story possibilities like Heavy Rain. These are well known examples. But remember even the warps in the Super Mario Brothers platformers dynamically change up the progression of the
gameplay narrative. Along these lines most games wil have dynamic/emergent gameplay and therefore some level of dynamic narrative. So this category tends to refer to dynamic non-gameplay elements. Side quests are probably the easiest example of a dynamic ludonarrative feature.

Another image from Ni No Kuni.

Discourse

Creativity. All games are creative in one way or other whether we like the unique elements or not. It’s nice to compare how unique and creative one work is compared to others, however this is an inherently difficult task. No one plays all the games out there, not even of a single popular genre. And even if one were to play many games, one can always study a work more deeply to uncover more of its story content. So, if understanding how creative a work is depends on
how its details compare, you’re quest will never end. Still, as long as we properly scope our comments (based on series, genre, etc.), we can talk about creativity. This is especially easy to do when identifying video game parodies. Linear RPG, You Must Burn the Rope, and Super PSTW Action RPG are all great examples. These games aren’t very good gameplay and story wise if you don’t understand that they’re parodies. This guy didn’t quite understand, and now we have a hilariously entertaining video based on his response. In some ways, being a parody gives these games a freebie. Fortunately, they’re all short and to the point (efficient).

Series. The power of sequels and series is undeniable. In many mediums, narrative series and IP brands have significant selling power over new products. We love the familiar and we love knowing the full story. So, when games continue in a series many gamers enjoy connecting the details. Likewise, many gamers get very upset when they don’t line up. There are some that try to piece together the story of all the Zelda games even though they’re not intended to be a narrative series. Some argue over Metroid canonical content even including odd games like Metroid Prime Hunters and Metroid Pinball into the grand storyline. This facet is basically coherence across multiple independent stories.

Transmedia franchises. Halo is a popular video game series. The franchise also includes a collection of animated shorts, comics, and novels. There was even a rumored movie in the works.

All of these products work to support the detailed overarching Halo universe. Dead Space, Pokemon, Zelda, and Metroid are also transmedia franchises.

Resonance (Harmony)

Aligning a game’s narrative and gameplay is the most difficult and effective way for a video game to create resonance. Still, one can create resonance between any two facets of a story.

Typically, theme is more likely to resonate with each of the other facets. Because themes are so abstract, there more flexibility matching it up with concrete elements like setting, characters, and plot actions. I particularly appreciate the resonance between the poetry text presented in Braid and its gameplay. The poems tell the story of Tim’s past filled with love, loss, and longing. These abstract concepts resonate with the kinds of challenges and mechanics in the gameplay. For example, regret is paired with the idea of wanting to go back and fix things; a do over. In the gameplay players have the power to rewind time to fix things with few limitations. From here the richness of the resonance invites us to consider Tim’s character through his gameplay actions of solving puzzles. Is he wiser now? Can we ever really get a do over?