CRE342 · Game Mechanics & Gameplay Design · Week 4

Stories, worlds
& the player's hand

Crafting compelling player experiences: narrative, world, level and interaction design

BSc (Hons) Game Design & Development

Think · 30 seconds

Tell me a story that happened to you in a game.

Not the plot. Something nobody wrote: a near miss, a betrayal, a lucky escape.

0:30 click to start · tell the person next to you

Today

By the end of today you can…

Structure a game story

with acts, an arc and beats, both scripted and emergent.

Choose a narrative structure

linear, branching, branch-and-bottleneck or open world, and say what it costs to build.

Build a coherent world

where characters, lore, places and levels all express one theme.

Design the interaction

using Norman's principles and affordances, balancing agency with guidance.

The route

Six stops

Player stories

Told and played, acts, arcs, beats

Linear or not?

Structures, a story you vote on, tools

Characters & worlds

Lore, places, thematic coherence

Levels & pacing

Tension, layout, theme

Interaction & agency

Norman, affordances, guidance

Design task

Five concepts, five-minute pitches

Recap · Weeks 1–3

Mechanics, feelings, rewards… and now a world

Week 1

Agency is a need, and guiding cues (light, colour, sound, shape) steer players without telling them.

Week 2

Schell's tetrad added Story to MDA. Flow needs clear goals and immediate feedback.

Week 3

Rewards and feedback loops: every input needs an answer the player can read.

Today

Story was one corner of Week 2's tetrad. Today it gets the whole week: the story, the world it happens in, and the interaction that lets the player live it.

Player stories

People love a good story. Players want to be in one.

Jenkins (2004) · narrative architecture

Stories told, stories played

	Traditional storytelling	Game narrative design
Structure	Fixed	Dynamic or branching
The audience	Is told the story	Experiences, and performs, the story
Pacing	Set by the author	Partly in the player's hands
Emotion from	Empathy with characters	Empathy, plus agency and consequence

Embedded

Written in advance and placed in the game: cutscenes, dialogue, notes, ruins.

Emergent

Comes out of the systems while you play: your warm-up stories.

GDnD wiki · Narrative Architecture

Classical three-act structure · worked example: Portal (2007)

Three acts, one game

Act	Function	Typical beat	In Portal
I · Setup	World, characters, tone, the central conflict. Often the tutorial.	Inciting incident: normality breaks	Test chambers teach the portal gun. GLaDOS seems helpful… "the cake"
II · Confrontation	Rising action. Obstacles grow; the protagonist grows or fails. The main loops.	Midpoint: a twist or escalation	Chamber 19 ends in an incinerator. You escape behind the walls.
III · Resolution	Climax; consequences revealed; back to stability.	Climax & denouement	The GLaDOS fight, then the song over the credits.

The acts map onto play: tutorial, main loops, final challenge.

GDnD wiki · Narrative Design

Freytag's pyramid, played

The arc and its beats

Beat

A deliberate shift in tone. Action beats ("the door bursts open") and emotional beats ("she realises she's been betrayed").

Scripted beats

Placed by the designer: a cutscene after the boss.

Emergent beats

Arise from play: the companion you lost through your own choice.

Linear
or not?

How much freedom is too much?

One road

Linear narratives

How it's built

Events fire in order: a state machine or a timeline (Unity Timeline, Unreal Sequencer).

Strengths

Tight pacing, strong characters, the same experience for everyone, easier to polish.

Costs

Less agency, limited replay value.

God of War (2018) tells its whole story in one continuous camera shot, with no cuts.

Branching · two shapes

Trees, and branch-and-bottleneck

Tree · many endings

Detroit: Become Human, Until Dawn, The Witcher 3's endings.

Branch-and-bottleneck · paths reconverge

Mass Effect, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Telltale's The Walking Dead.

Three yes/no choices make 8 endings. Ten make 1,024. Bottlenecks keep the story buildable.

GDnD wiki · Player Agency

Non-linear substructure · open world

Freedom, with anchors

Key story missions

Must be done; often unlock areas or powers.

The Witcher 3 main quests

Side quests

Optional depth: lore, characters, rewards.

Red Dead Redemption 2 encounters

Barriers & unlocks

Natural, artificial or ability gates pace the world.

Hollow Knight's Mantis Claw

World changes

The world remembers what you did.

Mass Effect's galaxy state

Guidance

Markers, compass, NPC hints, landmarks.

Skyrim's compass · BotW towers

In Breath of the Wild you can walk to the final boss straight away. Almost nobody does.

GDnD wiki · Open-World Design

Class vote · hands up for A or B

The Last Lighthouse

McIntosh, Cohn & Grace · combining linear and non-linear

The illusion of free will

Every path met in the same lamp room. What changed was what the story remembered: a name, a wet coat, a ringing bell.

Players invest when they feel their choices matter. Designers keep the story coherent and affordable.

"Clementine will remember that." Is the illusion of choice enough?

Industry tools

Twine to prototype, Ink to ship

Twine · twinery.org

Free, visual, node-based, exports HTML. No programming needed. Fast for mapping choices; hard to scale or put inside Unity.

Ink · inkle

A scripting language with variables, conditions and state, and a Unity plugin. Built for 80 Days and Heaven's Vault. Less visual for beginners.

Also: Yarn Spinner for Unity dialogue (Night in the Woods).

// The lamp room, in Ink
VAR read_journal = false

=== stairs ===
The old keeper's journal lies open.
* [Read it]
    ~ read_journal = true
    -> lamp_room
* [Keep climbing] -> lamp_room

=== lamp_room ===
Someone is already inside.
{read_journal: "Elias," you say. He flinches.}
* [Light the lamp] -> light_holds
* [Stop him]       -> keepers_trial

GDnD wiki · Yarn Spinner

Pair · 90 seconds

Pick a story game you both know. Draw its shape.

Which structure?

Linear, tree, branch-and-bottleneck or open world? Or a mix?

Find a bottleneck

Where do all players end up in the same place?

One remembered choice

What did the game remember, and when did it show you?

1:30

Characters
& worlds

Who the story is about, and where it happens

Create relatable characters

Emotional anchors

Develop

Depth & complexity

Motivations, flaws and a growth arc. Kratos learning to be a father.

Craft

Unique traits

Distinct personality, speech and behaviour. GLaDOS's polite cruelty.

Build

Emotional connection

Shared experience and relationships. Ellie and Joel; Clementine and Lee.

Design

Visual & audio cues

Silhouette, costume, colour, voice. You know Pac-Man in one shape.

In games you don't just watch a character grow. You help them, or you are them.

GDnD wiki · Character Design for Games

World design

A world players can read

Familiarity

Relatable and navigable: fantasy balanced with things players already understand.

Narrative integration

The world reflects the story's themes, history and current state.

Cultural evidence

Norms, traditions, architecture and artefacts make cultures feel real.

Topology

Landscapes and structures arranged into a coherent, navigable space.

Interactive worlds respond: destructible objects, weather that changes play, NPCs with routines who react to you. Cohesive worlds sound and look like one place: architecture, palette, soundscape.

Lore & environmental storytelling

Let the world tell the story

Integrate

Weave lore into the world, dialogue and discovery. Avoid the info dump.

Artefacts & relics

Letters, books, ruins, objects: history the player finds.

Interactive

Quests and missions that reveal the backstory as you play them.

Game	What the world says
Hollow Knight	Ruins and statues of a fallen kingdom; almost nothing is explained
What Remains of Edith Finch	Each bedroom is a family member's story, and how it ended
BioShock	Rapture's posters and corpses tell you the utopia failed before anyone speaks
Dark Souls	Lore lives in item descriptions; players piece it together online

GDnD wiki · Environmental Storytelling

Thematic coherence

Everything speaks the same language

Inside (Playdead, 2016)	How it says control and isolation
Visuals	Grey, near-monochrome world; one small boy in a red shirt
Sound	Muffled, oppressive, no music for long stretches
Mechanics	You take control of mindless bodies to solve puzzles: the player is a controller too
UI & text	None. No HUD, no words, no explanation

Theme is the glue between narrative and gameplay. Cheerful music in a horror scene breaks the spell.

GDnD wiki · Thematic Coherence

When the parts disagree

Tonal whiplash and ludonarrative dissonance

Duke Nukem Forever (2011)

Intended: an overblown macho hero, played as satire.

Mechanics said otherwise: a two-weapon limit, long vehicle sections and slow puzzles undercut the power fantasy.

Tone: 1990s crude humour beside attempts at serious storytelling read as dated, not self-aware.

Ludonarrative dissonance · Hocking (2007)

When what the game asks you to do contradicts what the story says about you.

The usual example: Uncharted's charming, joking hero, who shoots hundreds of people between cutscenes.

Your turn: name one game where the music, mechanics or story pulled against each other.

GDnD wiki · Ludonarrative Dissonance

Levels
& pacing

Turning the arc into a space you move through

Pacing

Tension, then release

Rhythm

Mix action, exploration, puzzles and story. Vary the intensity to prevent monotony.

Tension & release

High intensity, then calm to breathe and prepare. Each peak a little higher.

Guidance

Lighting, sightlines and landmarks give direction without constraint (Week 1's cues).

GDnD wiki · Interest Curves

Layout and theming

Steer the player, theme the challenge

Flow & navigation

A logical route from area to area, using landmarks, pathways and geometry.

Space

Mix open areas with tight ones for scale, variety and tension.

Checkpoints

Placed so failure costs a little, never a lot.

Super Mario Bros. 3: each world's theme sets its challenge

Grass Land · learnDesert Land · angry sunWater Land · swimmingGiant Land · scaleSky Land · gapsIce Land · slipperyPipe Land · mazesDark Land · everything

GDnD wiki · Level Design

Interaction
& agency

The player–system dialogue

Norman (2013) · The Design of Everyday Things

Three principles, three games

Principle	Meaning	Example
Visibility	Possible actions and the system's state are clear	The Last of Us: light and paths show where you can go
Mapping	Controls and results match what players expect	Portal 2: logical cause and effect in every puzzle
Feedback	Every action gets a clear, immediate response (Week 3)	Hades: every hit lands with sound and animation

Players always know what they can do, what they did and what it changed.

GDnD wiki · UI Design in Games

Gibson (1979) · Norman (2013)

Affordance: it looks like what it does

Visual

Appearance

A glowing lever handle says pull. A cracked wall says break.

Auditory

Sound

A soft chime near a collectable says pick me up.

Spatial

Layout

Low walls and ledges say climb or vault.

Learned

Convention

Red barrels explode. Players bring this from other games.

Norman's refinement: the affordance is what you can do; the signifier is what shows you. Mirror's Edge paints the climbable route red. Week 1's yellow paint is a signifier too.

GDnD wiki · Affordance

From interaction to flow · a design audit

If a player breaks flow, what failed?

Input→Clear mapping→Feedback→Confidence→Flow

Clear goals

Ambiguity breaks immersion.

Intuitive controls

Consistent schemes, mapping that matches expectation.

Immediate feedback

Keeps the dialogue alive.

Balanced challenge

Not bored, not frustrated.

Accessibility & clarity

Remappable controls, subtitles, no clutter.

Thematic consistency

Every interaction feels at home in the world.

Sylvester (2013) · designing interactive experiences

Balancing agency and guidance

Player agency · freedom

Meaningful choices with consequences you can see
Freedom to explore at your own pace: side quests, secrets
Customisation of character, gear, play style: ownership

Guidance · direction

Clear objectives: markers, quest logs, prompts
Subtle direction: light, landmarks, NPC behaviour
Help on request: tutorials and tooltips you can skip

Too much freedom and players feel lost. Too much guidance and they feel herded. Mix linear missions with open play.

GDnD wiki · Player Guidance

Take away

Five things to remember

Players perform stories. Design story systems: embedded beats plus room for emergent ones.

Structure has a price. Trees explode; branch-and-bottleneck keeps choices felt and the game buildable.

Let the world tell the story, and make every part speak the same theme.

Pace levels like an arc: tension, release, each peak a little higher.

Visibility, mapping, feedback, affordance: then balance agency with guidance.

Design task:
press play

Five concepts. One world, story and set of choices each. Five-minute pitch.

Groups of 4–5 · concepts dealt at random

Your concept

Lost Memories

An amnesiac explorer on an island of a lost civilisation.

narrative adventure

Shattered Alliance

Advisor to a ruler as the kingdom slides into civil war.

strategic RPG

The Echoes of Eden

Survive where nature reclaimed the ruins; learn why we fell.

post-apocalyptic open world

Echoes of the Past

A historian with a device to travel a city's eras.

time-travel puzzle adventure

The Veil

A detective, a haunted town, and your own fears.

psychological horror RPG

Click Deal: every concept is used once before any repeats.

From the task sheet · build the deck as you go

Five steps, one pitch deck

Step	Time	Decide	Put on a slide
1 · Brainstorm	5 min	The overall feel. How do setting, characters and gameplay interact?	Nothing yet: talk
2 · World	15 min	Size and scope; how geography reflects the story; environmental storytelling	A map or sketch, key locations, visual theme
3 · Narrative	15 min	The arc and its beats; linear or not; endings and what leads to them	A 150–200-word plot summary (you'll say it, not read it)
4 · Agency	10 min	Where players make meaningful decisions, and what changes	3–5 key choices and their consequences
5 · Interaction	10 min	Mechanics that fit the theme and support the choices	3 mechanics: how each fits story and agency

Then add one line: our theme is ___, and ___ is the mechanic that makes you feel it.

Worked example · Steps 2–3

The Last Lighthouse

World	Small and intimate: one island, five places, one storm night and the three days after. Salt-grey stone, one warm light.
Environmental story	Ship figureheads in the cottage garden; the drowned village's bell, still hanging; the cove's dry "salvage".
Structure	Branch-and-bottleneck: three acts, every path through the lamp room, two endings coloured by flags.
Plot (start)	The new keeper's lamp fails as a ship nears the rocks. The old keeper, "drowned" last winter, is alive, and luring ships for their cargo…

Worked example · Steps 4–5 and the theme line

The Last Lighthouse: choices and mechanics

Key choices → consequences

Fix the lamp or row out → which clues you see first
Read the journal → you can name Elias, and talk him down
Warn the ship → the crew trust you in Act III
Light the lamp or stop Elias → two endings
Ring the drowned bell → the village's story, a third ending line

Interaction mechanics

Aim the beam: turn the lens; the beam sweeps to match (mapping). Light shows ships, paths and secrets.
Tide clock: low tide opens the village and the cove. Time is a gate, and pacing.
Lamp signals: talk to ships in long and short flashes; what you say changes who trusts you.

Our theme is a light can guide or lure, and aiming the beam is the mechanic that makes you feel it.

Step 6 · pitch

Five minutes, five slides

The world

Map, size, key places, visual theme.

The story

Your plot summary, told, not read.

The choices

3–5 choices and what they change.

The mechanics

3 interactions that fit the world.

The theme

One line: theme, and the mechanic that delivers it.

Audience: each group asks one question. Where's the bottleneck? Which mechanic carries the theme? Where do the parts disagree?

5:00 per group

Exit ticket

“In our game, the player …, and the world remembers it by ….”

One sentence each, before you leave.

References

Ashwell, S. K. (2015) 'Standard patterns in choice-based games', These Heterogenous Tasks [blog], 26 January.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990) Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: Harper & Row.

Freytag, G. (1895) Technique of the Drama: An Exposition of Dramatic Composition and Art. Translated by E. J. MacEwan. Chicago: S. C. Griggs.

Gibson, J. J. (1979) The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Hocking, C. (2007) 'Ludonarrative dissonance in Bioshock', Click Nothing [blog], 7 October.

Jenkins, H. (2004) 'Game design as narrative architecture', in Wardrip-Fruin, N. and Harrigan, P. (eds) First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 118–130.

McIntosh, B., Cohn, R. and Grace, L. 'Nonlinear narrative in games: theory and practice', Game Career Guide.

Norman, D. A. (2013) The Design of Everyday Things. Revised and expanded edn. New York: Basic Books.

Schell, J. (2008) The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses. Burlington, MA: Morgan Kaufmann.

Sylvester, T. (2013) Designing Games: A Guide to Engineering Experiences. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly Media.

Tools: Twine, https://twinery.org · Ink, https://www.inklestudios.com/ink/ · Yarn Spinner, https://yarnspinner.dev

Further reading on the GDnD wiki · gdad.wiki

Narrative Design · Environmental Storytelling · Character Design for Games · Level Design · Interest Curves · UI Design in Games · Player Guidance · Games as Systems vs Games as Stories · Ludonarrative Dissonance · Narrative Architecture · Signifier

Stories, worlds& the player's hand

Tell me a story that happened to you in a game.

By the end of today you can…

Structure a game story

Choose a narrative structure

Build a coherent world

Design the interaction

Six stops

Player stories

Linear or not?

Characters & worlds

Levels & pacing

Interaction & agency

Design task

Mechanics, feelings, rewards… and now a world

Player stories

Stories told, stories played

Three acts, one game

The arc and its beats

Linearor not?

Linear narratives

Trees, and branch-and-bottleneck

Freedom, with anchors

Key story missions

Side quests

Barriers & unlocks

World changes

Guidance

The Last Lighthouse

The illusion of free will

Twine to prototype, Ink to ship

Pick a story game you both know. Draw its shape.

Characters& worlds

Emotional anchors

Depth & complexity

Unique traits

Emotional connection

Visual & audio cues

A world players can read

Familiarity

Narrative integration

Cultural evidence

Topology

Let the world tell the story

Everything speaks the same language

Tonal whiplash and ludonarrative dissonance

Levels& pacing

Tension, then release

Steer the player, theme the challenge

Interaction& agency

Three principles, three games

Affordance: it looks like what it does

Appearance

Sound

Layout

Convention

If a player breaks flow, what failed?

Clear goals

Intuitive controls

Immediate feedback

Balanced challenge

Accessibility & clarity

Thematic consistency

Balancing agency and guidance

Five things to remember

Design task:press play

Your concept

Lost Memories

Shattered Alliance

The Echoes of Eden

Echoes of the Past

The Veil

Five steps, one pitch deck

The Last Lighthouse

The Last Lighthouse: choices and mechanics

Five minutes, five slides

The world

The story

The choices

The mechanics

Stories, worlds
& the player's hand

Linear
or not?

Characters
& worlds

Levels
& pacing

Interaction
& agency

Design task:
press play