"Gameplay: The most underrated storyteller"
The unique narrative power of games and the small moments that matter
Nothing beats a good story: be it in a game, movie or book, anytime you’re entrenched in a good narrative is a great time.
But, as someone who designs games, I think many underrate the power that gameplay has to create stories that are as powerful and lasting as traditional narrative approaches mentioned above do, just by the virtue of what the game enables.
I may sometimes don’t remember the narrative of a game, but I sure will never forget…
- Hitting that insane, 60-chain combo on a fighting game after hours of practice and figuring out it’s mechanics (and then even more to execute them on a match)
- Figuring out the roles of everyone you’re playing with in a social deduction game and being able to use that to snatch victory on a game that was basically lost
- Fighting a Bokoblin and launching it next to your horse, launching it into the stratosphere, defeating an enemy just to have it’s drops fall off a cliff and you desperately racing to get them before it’s too late…
- Exploring the fantastical world you just entered in, only to bonk into a Lv. 90 end-game boss and start desperately running away to safety once you realize there’s boss music playing
- The adventures of my pirate crew in Sea of Thieves, trying our hardest to not get our ship sunk for the 11th time (when we’re not jumping off and being left behind by it because we jumped at the wrong spot)
- Making a perfect chain on a rhythm game
- Getting your first victory in a Battle Royale
- The A-ha! that comes from figuring out a difficult puzzle after being stuck hours on it
- Defeating a Super Boss after thousands of attempts, only to find out that was only their first phase and be completely wiped out in seconds by the second one
- Breaking the rules of the game in unexpected ways (that never gets old…)
- Making the perfect strategy, only to see it fall apart (and wonder how you survived as well as you did when you somehow still win)
The list goes on and on…
Sometimes the designer had that experience in mind when making it, maybe it’s unexpected and just enabled by the game’s rules, could be just about who you’re playing it with, the state of mind you are on it…
These experiences can leave us happy, sad, angry, frustated, relieved, stressed, pensative… No matter what emotion it drives, they shape us: just like a story written by an author, with all it’s wrinkles, twists and caveats.
In gameplay, we’re the protagonist and the writer: they’re our stories to tell.