After having to restart the beginning of my narrative game on Twine, due to inabilities of the software to format players choice when it came to party members for setting out on the adventure with as well as a more researched set of opening paragraphs with descriptive details and an intro provided to the player I've almost finished what I can describe as the 1st chapter - not that its a novel with multiple chapters but if I break down the whole narrative game into sections where the player has a major circumstance to navigate with minor interactions with NPC's before ending in a major player choice it becomes more organised both on the player and designers end of the product.
So this initial chapter has all the aforementioned ingredients ending in a major choice, which NPC will not be part of the group whilst also telegraphing conversations and choices being a key component to the gameplay, hopefully allowing for the social behaviour of talking to people before making decisions starting to be developed within the player.
However discussions with tutors and peers around the implementation of this format of telegraphing the importance of conversation within the game has led to some takeaways that may result in further editing of the format and gameplay.
- Don't hide important things from the player, so the info provided by the tavern owner can't be important to the story but just additional info that could explain behavioural patterns or lore for that particular racer class type, an Easter egg for current players used to the D&D/fantasy background. For example the Kenku race can only imitate human voice so with this knowledge in mind the player will observe the NPC's actions rather than their word, this may lead to the player thinking the character is rude or obnoxious from just their interaction without speaking to the tavern owner first but this is partly the point that players should be interacting more with character both in game and in society - we can't just rely on one bit of information gathered through a singular interaction to base our ideas and conclusions of a person on.
- Keep the game short, people won't want to interact with NPC's for hours. A concise and well developed format can get the change across to players as well if not better than a novel which requires too much player investment and can put off some players thus denying the larger social impact that is intended.
- Make the choices impactful throughout the game, now that the initial choice has been made the following ones can be more impactful, play on the players emotions towards certain character to increase immersion and the emotional involvement towards the gameplay.
- "Show don't tell" allow the player to make their observations about the NPC's and what actions occur this will allow for more natural choices and decisions to be made and a more successful result when the player reaches their own unique conclusion at the end of the game.
To continue this story with the idea of setting it out in to chapters I looked once again at the structure of the other Twine narrative game 57 degrees North which was formatted with 5 chapters, the final one being a conclusion.
With this in mind I also want to utilise the story structure of the hero's journey to give way to. a basic structure to the game allowing for me to pay more attention to the conversations and players to NPC interactions. The basic Hero's journey principle is detailed as follows:
If I split this into the 4 chapters and keep the 5th one as a conclusion to the story it will keep things structurally simple.
Here we can see how I've given each section a brief annotation with the idea of how my games story progresses through this format, using the Tomb or adventure as the special world section with the idea that during the journey the player character has to change to adapt to the different thing that has occurred as they return to their normal life, this structure is something advanced upon by Dan Harmon as he scripted stories during his direction of both series' "Community and "Rick and Morty"
1. They are in zone of comfort - Player starts in the world in particular the village of Wyvernpond.
2. But they want something - Player needs money as their finances are dwindling.
3. They enter an unfamiliar situation - Having to work in a group / entering the tomb / feeling a connection to certain NPC's
4. Adapt to it - Overcome some form of puzzle or trap in the tomb through teamwork (this will rely lightly on who they chose to be part of the group and also who they team up with in the tomb)
5. Get what they wanted - They find treasure possibly the most so gain the position of treasure hunter guild member.
6. Pay a heavy price - They find out that they are the child from the opening paragraph that everyone is searching for to end the war or kill / they lose a member or more from their party during the adventure.
7. They return to their familiar situation - Arrive back in Wyvernpond
8. Having changed - They have a new place in the world with the info they learned / they have to deal with their loss / they understand the need to interact and work with others.
The hope is that if the player character goes through this process and learns the lesson that I as the designer want to bring about as the social change form this being a transformative game then with the player being immersed and involved with the decision making during gameplay they will also learn the lesson and a successful conclusion will be achieved.
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