Exploring the possibilities of how narrative and games can be brought together is exciting and challenging in equal measure. Part of the difficulty derives from basic misunderstandings about how narrative works in other media, such as the idea of the passive audience, or the obsession with plot structure.
So let us shift our attention to world building, which is the key to integrating games and narrative. Through fictional worlds, we create opportunities for action, exploration and experimentation, which we can turn into game mechanics. As narrative designers, we can also leave gaps for the player to fill creatively, as well as provide tools for players to create their own stories. The opportunities for narrative design are as large as the universes that we can create for our games.
Please join NYU Game Center Professor Clara Fernandez-Vara for the March installment of the Lecture Series, “The Art of World Buidling”.