Feedback Loop: Many choices, or none, make a game.

May 09 Comments Off on Feedback Loop: Many choices, or none, make a game. Category: Feed, Games, Nightmare Mode

Is just one choice all it takes to turn a novel into a video game? Before you say yes, consider when a game is created out of many choices and when we are left with none.

Richard Eisenbeis looks at Katawa Shoujo in an April 24 Kotaku article. Eisenbeis holds up the dating sim/visual novel as proof that one choice is all it takes to turn a novel into a game. It is a shallow analysis and the implication that one can stick a choice in a novel and have a game is just false.

If we step away from the screen with only Eisenbeis’s assertion, we lose out on understanding what developers have to do to take a story and turn it interactive.

Creating a good game means understanding the times when a million choices create an interactive work and the instances where no choices are required.

Story vs Narrative vs Plot

September 08 Comments Off on Story vs Narrative vs Plot Category: Feed, HackText

I’ve been using the two terms ‘Story’ and ‘Narrative’ very frequently on this blog. As I look back, I realize that I may not have done a very good job defining them, or more importantly, the difference between the two.

Related posts:

  1. Branching narrative schema and similar narrative structures
  2. Building structures inside of your story [Narrative Artifacts: 2 of 4]
  3. Story arcs beyond TV [Thinking]