Narrative Research
This research task will involve me looking into various different existing narrative structures to learn what makes them unique.
If I am able to learn of and understand a wide range of narrative structures I feel as though I will be able to come to a conclusion to the narrative structure that I will want to use for our groups game/story. As currently I face the problem of not knowing what narrative to use for our game.
A section of narrative research was carried out for my last project, so I plan to revisit this and then expand the research by looking into more narrative structures.
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Narrative Structures Looked Into:
Limited Branching
Open Ended
Funneling Narrative
Critical Paths
Nodal Storytelling
Chronological/Linear
Fractured
Framed
Multiple
The research into these narrative structures is shown below.
Limited Branching
"Limited branching stories tend to revolve around a series of "yes/no" or "black/white" objectives" (Dille and Platten, 2007). This effectively means that
this narrative structure (which is also sometimes referred to as zipper structure) is where there are one starting point and end point to a story. However in between these two points are multiple different 'branches' in
the story. These are points where the player/reader is given two different options, with the story/narrative soon after connecting to a single point once again, with this process continuing until the end of the story. Due to the fact that the player/reader is given multiple different options, the player most likely feels as though their choices are affecting how the game will end. However, this is not the case, as there is only one endpoint to the story.
Example - The Walking Dead (Telltale Games, 2012)
Open Ended
Open-Ended Narratives make use of a narrative where there is one starting point but then expands to have many different narrative 'branches' that the player/reader can follow. Due to the fact that there are multiple different
branches, the player/reader isn't limited for choice. However, this type of narrative does have a downfall. "This type of game can get quickly out of hand. Another major problem with this type of story is that often you are devoting
creative energy, time and money to elements of the game and story that will not be seen by the player (he takes another branch and entirely misses it)." (Dille and Platten, 2007). However, since the player misses a lot of the game, this could also be a strength to this type of narrative, due to the fact that the player is more likely to go back and keep playing, if presented the option to pick different story routes, which in turn leads to an almost different game to what was first played when following an alternate route.
Example – Skyrim (Bethesda Game Studios, Iron Galaxy, 2011)
Funneling (Chokepoints)
Funneling Narrative is a narrative that is commonly used for games of an open world genre. At the beginning of the story there is one starting point, but then there are a number of narrative
routes that the player can follow (these would often appear in the form of side quests). This narrative does have a number of strengths. "First, you have a controllable and definable way to set the player back on the narrative arc of the game. Second, you give the player more freedom to explore, but ultimately, you can, you can elegantly determine where and when you will allow
the story and game progression to take place." (Dille and Platten, 2007). This effectively means that as they are continuing down a narrative branch isn't the main narrative; there are interactions that lead them back to the main narrative.
Example - World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment, 2004)
Critical Paths
Critical Paths – Critical Paths Narrative is one of the more basic narratives with a distinguishable narrative route. "Similar to limited branching, a critical path game has one success path, and allows the player to deviate from it in very small ways." (Dille and Platten, 2007). These small ways that the player can deviate from the structure have little impact on the narrative of the story, as the events that take place are often inconsequential. "Nothing of consequence in the game or story happens outside of a predetermined path that winds its way through the experience." (Dille and Platten, 2007).
Nodal Storytelling
Nodal Storytelling – Nodal storytelling is a narrative that is often made use of by games of an open world genre. This narrative is effectively where there are multiple nodes (e.g. a level or area). "Each node of the game story is a self-contained piece, with a setup, midpoint, and payoff. In totality, each of these
story nodes may lead to a larger reveal, or they may be just cool things that you can play and see on your journey through the game." (Dille and Platten, 2007) In the example of nodes different islands, the
(Nintendo, 2017)
player would need to complete all (at least the main narrative of the island) before moving onto the next island (or node). As the player progresses through the nodes, the story also progresses.
“Each section of the story is a self-contained piece, with a set-up, midpoint, and payoff.” (Dille, P. and Platten, J., 2007)
“In totality, each of these story nodes may lead to a larger reveal, or may just be something cool things you play and see on your journey through the game.” (Dille, P. and Platten, J., 2007)
As shown by the image, an example of this is Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo, 2017)
What makes it relevant to the Final Major Project?
Nodal narrative could be an effective narrative structure to use as it could allow the game to be played differently for each player. With nodal narrative, the player could rush to defeat the mini-bosses/collect the item to allow them to progress to the next level, or take their time and adventure around each level or node (finding secrets or side tasks they could carry out).
My Opinion on the Narrative
I feel as though this would be one of the better narrative structures to use for our game's story this project. I feel this because of the object dependent dynamic for the nodes/level would work quite well with the current concept we have for the game, where the player can proceed to the next level once they've collected a specific item, but they still have the option to go back.
Chronological/Linear Narrative
What is it / What is its style?
Chronological/linear narrative is a common type of narrative structure. As stated in its name, it is linear, which means the events included are portrayed/told to the reader in chronological order.
Usually, in stories that make use of a linear narrative, dreams or flashback are not used.
“Most linear short stories do not include flashbacks or dream sequences, but relate the story as it is happening.” (Layfield, 2017)
Example: Spider-Man PS4 (Insomniac Games, 2018)
Spider-Man PS4 is a good example of chronological/linear narrative. The main events that take place within the game are carried out in the set order (side missions can be carried out whenever, but main missions/objects have a set order).
The game follows the protagonist, Peter Parker, as he lives his daily life working his job, but also living his life as Spider-Man. As well as playing as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, there are also two other characters that the player gets to play as during set events of the game, being Mary Jane and Miles Morales. Although there are multiple characters and the game’s open world. The game's narrative still remains linear and chronological.The main narrative of the game cannot be skipped (main objectives/story events), meaning
the player is required to follow the main narrative path if they wish to continue with the game/story. The events of the game have relevance to each other, being that previous events are used as a set up for later events.
What makes it relevant to the Final Major Project?
Chronological/Linear narrative is a structure that could be used for our game due to various reasons.
The narrative structure itself isn’t too complex as it portrays different events in a set chronological order, with a start and end point.
One of our current concepts is that the protagonist sets out on his journey (start point), to find the different pieces of a map, which eventually leads him to the antagonist. Upon defeating this antagonist, the protagonist saves his dad (who was either being mind controlled by the mechanical shark or being held captive there), with the game/story ending with the shark being destroyed and the protagonist reuniting with his dad (endpoint).
Chronological/linear narrative could suit this story concept as there would be a set order of events, with the protagonist finding one piece of the map at a time. Additionally, this concept also has a clear start and end point, meaning chronological linear could be effective to use for this project.
Additionally, since the PEGI rating we have been given is 7, it might mean our target audience (which is still undecided) could be around that age. Because of this, it might be a good idea to use this narrative since it is one of the more basic structures.
My Opinion on the Narrative
Since Chronological/Linear narrative is a straightforward narrative structure that audiences are common with, I feel like it could be a rather effective narrative structure to use for the project.
The main reason for this being that confusion towards the story/narrative could be avoided, as the events that are occurring are happening in chronological order, with one event leading to the next.
Additionally, I feel as though this narrative would be more complimentary to myself as a writer as it is a more simple/basic narrative structure. I say this due to the fact that I have never carried out a task like this before (narrative writing), and my writing is still rather weak.
After looking into this narrative structure, I feel as if this might be one of the structures I will decide to use for the story of our game.
Fractured Narrative
What is it / What is its style?
Fractured narrative is a non-linear narrative structure where the events of the game aren’t shown in the chronological order in which they occur. The events shown/played through during the game will jump back and forth between past and present.
“If you think about scenes in films where there is a flashback, you'll get a sense for how time can be fractured or bent to alter or intensify a story.” (Jones, 2017)
Fractured narrative is a non-linear narrative structure. The main reason for this being that a fractured structure will portray events in an order that is not chronological.
This could be due to the inclusion of flashbacks or dreams within the story, which then means the events explained/shown to a reader/play are not in chronological order.
Fractured narrative can also make use of flashbacks, meaning it could be classed under a flashback/stream of consciousness narrative. “This technique often portrays stories of one’s youth, such as personal growth or innocence lost, using flashbacks and time-altering devices.” (Layfield, 2017)
These events are able to be portrayed due to the fact the events shown are not required to follow a chronological order.
Example: Persona 5 (Atlus, P Studios, 2017)
A good example of fractured narrative is Persona 5, as the game starts in the present, but is played in, for the majority, the past.
Persona 5 consists of gameplay where the player plays through the events (which themselves have a somewhat set order as the events have already happened/are set in the past) which the protagonist of the game has already experienced.
The whole concept of the game is that the protagonist is in an interrogation room, being questioned about different events which involved him (that happened in the past). In the game, when the character is being questioned about a particular case, the story jumps back in time to when that event occurred, and the player controls the protagonist throughout the whole event (the player playing through the event, day by day.)
What makes it relevant to the F.M.P?
Fractured narrative could be used
for this project for a number of reasons. Fractured narrative doesn’t require events to be shown in chronological order, which means flashbacks could be used throughout the narrative/story. This being something that could be linked with a few of our concepts.
All of our concepts (at the moment) revolve around the protagonist travelling around with the aim to find his dad who’s missing. One concept, being that the dad is being mind controlled, could make use of flashbacks, in the form of explaining how/why the father is being mind controlled.
However, this depends on how the flashback is shown since if the flashback is shown as a scene, and not a section of gameplay, the game would still be linear, and not fractured, meaning the game would still follow a different narrative. Whereas if the game has a playable flashback, the narrative would be fractured and non-linear.
My Opinion on the Narrative
Personally, I like stores that make use of the fractured narrative structure as it provides deeper insight into various events and characters that form the story.
For this project, I feel as though this narrative structure could be used, but I feel like it would be better to make use of a different narrative. I say this because I feel as though if we made use of a flashback in our game, it would be in the form of a cut scene, rather than a playable section of the game, meaning the narrative would be more like a linear structure.
Framed Narrative
What is it / What is its style?
Framed narrative is where a separate story/narrative is apparent within the main story/narrative of the game. This other story/narrative usually has the role of establishing context for something, whether that’s a character, place, or object.
“In Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," for example, the narrator Marlowe is on a boat out on the Thames with a handful of other seamen when he tells them the story of his trip into the heart of the Congo region. While engrossed in the Congo portion of the story, the reader might even forget that the narrator is actually finished with the Congo journey, retelling it to his fellow sailors on that boat.” (Jones, 2017)
Narrative Style – Mixed?
In the context of framed narrative structure being in a video game, it could be either linear or non-linear.
If the game makes use of characters talking about a story (e.g. in the form of a cut scene) the narrative would remain linear. However, if the story had playable aspects to it the story would then become non-linear.
What makes it relevant to the F.M.P?
Framed narrative could be used for the final major project in a number of ways. Since framed narrative is where a story is told within the main story, this could be portrayed by having a story of a particular island/level, or even character (such as the sidekick character) being told when interacting with certain characters (such as NPC characters).
This would also make the islands/game feel more realistic and immersive, as the game would have characters that form it that each, when interacted with, actually communicate with the protagonist. This communication between character being the key part of making the game/story more immersive.
My Opinion on the Narrative
Framed narrative structure is definitely a narrative structure to bear in mind when thinking of the narrative for this project.
Since the game we are making will be a fictitious, and the world/islands will likely seem like areas that don’t actually exist, NPC characters could be used to show talk about different stories that have occurred throughout history, or even used to explain why the islands look like they do (e.g. talk about an event that occurred that lead to the island, major past event?).
Circular/Epic Narrative
What is it / What is its style?
Circular narrative is a narrative structure where the story ends where it began. This could be where the character, at the start of the story, leaves home for their adventure/journey, and then at the end of their journey/at the end of the story, returns home.
Narrative Style – Linear
Circular/Epic narrative is extremely similar to chronological/linear narrative due to the fact that the narrative structure itself is linear, with the included events being shown in chronological order.
The difference is that the end point of the story/narrative in circular narratives is the same point that the story began (e.g. a character leaves home for an adventure. After a year, and upon the completion of their journey, the character returns home).
Example – Pokémon Platinum (Nintendo, 2008)
Pretty much all of the main series Pokémon games follow this narrative structure. These games start with the player character obtaining their starter Pokémon and then travelling the region to get stronger, obtain the gym badges, battle the elite four and the region champion.
The narrative/story portrays the events is a set linear and chronological order of beginning to end. Additionally, there is a main/prominent route the player takes throughout the game. There
are path leading from one town to the next, which usually only lets the player pass if they’ve beaten the previous gym/carried out a task for the main story (e.g. the player must go to the mines to find the first gym leader, Roark, and then defeat the gym to obtain the gym badge before being able to travel to the next town to battle the next gym). However, the end of the game is what makes it a game with circular narrative. Upon defeating the champion and completing the main story of the game, the ending credits are played. In this, we see multiple scenes of the character cycling. In between these scenes, a number of images are shown to the player (these images being locations of the game the player would have travelled to throughout the game, almost like different memories). Finally, the last section of the end credits is the player arriving at their home town on their bike, and then walking to their house and entering, which ends the story in the very place it started.
Multiple Narrative
What is it / What is its style?
Multiple narrative is a narrative structure where the stories of multiple characters/protagonists are told. The main use of this narrative structure is to show the perspective of multiple characters and show how the characters are linked/related.
This narrative is often used in plays and has also become a popular convention for movies. (Avengers? – Multiple characters worth the label of main character/protagonist being in one movie together, each having different scenes/screen time.)
Narrative Style – Mixed?
This narrative style mainly focuses on multiple characters and their perspectives, which allows the audience to see how the relationships between the characters are developing as well as how the narrative is being affected/influenced by the characters. Because of this, it could be argued that Multiple narrative could make use of both linear and non-linear narratives.
“In some cases, writers choose this structure to show the individual perspectives of characters in a larger "macro story" and how they relate to each other.” (Kori, 2018)
However, in some cases, there are time skips between events (e.g. when playing one character, the story jumps back in time to when a particular event with a certain character occurred), which means that the narrative becomes non-linear.
Example: Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream, 2010)
In Heavy Rain, it could be argued that Multiple Narrative is made use of. Throughout the game, the player will control four
different protagonists/characters, allowing the
game to be played in the different perspectives
of these characters. The biggest twist with this
narrative/story, however, is that the killer (the
detective) is actually one of the characters that
the player controls, just when they’re not being
killer, which leads to the plot twist becoming
more surprising (especially since the player has
been/controlled this character in the game).
The game makes use of quick time events and
also includes different story endings, making the game non-linear. However, It could be argued that not all multiple narrative games/stories need to be non-linear, as the use of multiple character/perspectives could be used throughout a linear story to build up a main narrative.
What makes it relevant to the F.M.P?
Multiple narrative could be an effective narrative structure to use for the project, as it could be the main unique selling point (USP) of our game.
This would be in the form of the inclusion of multiple protagonist, or at least multiple playable characters (Such as the main protagonist and even the sidekick, or, if there are any, the crew members).
My Opinion on the Narrative
I feel as though multiple narrative could be an interesting structure to use, since it is a narrative structure that isn’t used to frequently within games.
However I feel as though the main problem with this type of narrative is that this would require multiple main characters to be created (art and models for the characters, and the writing behind/for those characters) which would therefore mean a larger strain/workload for both departments (additionally, if dialogue is used, more sounds would need to be created for those characters, which also means that there’s a further strain on the sound design team).
Because of this, I feel as though this would be to much of a task for his project, as it would add quite a bit of work to almost all of the teams departments, and because of this I believe it wouldn’t be one of the most effective narrative structures to use.
Narrative Decision
After carrying out my research into different types of narrative structure, and also carrying out some brief experimentation (shown on experimentation page in the pre-production page of my blog) I have come to a conclusion for the structure I intend to focus on/use for our game/story.
Chronological/Linear Narrative is a narrative structure I want to make use of, as it is a commonly used, and easily understood narrative structure. However, as a group, we have already decided upon the games/stories concept, and have found that, additionally, nodal narrative would be extremely fitting, as the story could be shown in a linear fashion, but can be progressed only once the level (or nodes) objective has been completed. Because of this, these are the two narrative structures I intend to focus on for this project.
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After carrying out this section of research, I have been able to solve my current main problem of not knowing what narrative to make the game/story revolve around. Because I have now overcome this problem with research (looking into many different narrative structures), and have made a decision that I think will be the most effective for my group and I, I feel as I can now move onto my next task.