Read & Mindmap Narrative Architecture

 

Mindmap for Game Design Narrative Architecture

Examples of Four Types of Narrative:

  1. Evocative Narratives – Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary in Super Smash Bros Brawl is a mode of a popular multi-player fighting video game. It allows players to enter into familiar worlds that have been seen before in other popular Nintendo games. The user controls multiple popular Nintendo characters throughout the adventure game, which takes place over a range of immersive, interactive, and worlds familiar to any Nintendo fan.
  2. Enacting Narratives – The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is an open-world adventure video game in which the player interacts with a narrative with a broadly defined goal, but also deals with localized incidents. The broadly defined goal is saving Princess Zelda from the antagonist, Ganondorf, while the player is free to explore aspects of the game and embark on small, optional side quests. Through the player’s movement across the map, the user “levels up” by defeating dungeons and bosses and upgrades by discovering new weapons and gaining access to new areas of the map. With each level-up, the player is closer to achieving the broad goal of the game.
  3. Embedded Narratives – Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is a horror video game in which the protagonist (whom the user controls) navigates a universe in which he tries to gather the remains of his “shattered memories” leading up to a car crash. Pieces of his memory are triggered and relived through intercepted phone messages and key objects and locations as he explores the abandoned town of Silent Hill in his quest to find his missing daughter.
  4. Emergent Narratives – The Grand Theft Auto series is based on an open world in which the player influences and shapes the narrative throughout the game. Its relatively open-ended structure allows for the user to engage freely in driving and shooting and effectively “write their own story” in order to achieve a loose broader goal.

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