Game guide: narrative, themes & ideas

It could be argued that as a medium, videogames have a larger spectrum of storytelling depth than say film or novels, because videogames can be almost completely narrative free, or they can tell in-depth stories that are possibly enhanced by the player’s interactive role in not just experiencing the story, but also driving it.

Because of this large spectrum, you might hear some games described as ‘story-driven’, a preface we never need to apply to films or novels.

As we have come to expect more and more in terms of story and character from the games we play, it’s important to acknowledge the role ‘narrative designers’ play. Narrative designers are the equivalent to screenwriters for film, but the reason this title came to be was because ‘videogame writer’ didn't quite fit. This was for several reasons, some being: narrative designers are often using story to teach the player the mechanics of the game as well as ‘tell’ the story; they are often writing adaptive or non-linear dialogue, so lines and lines of dialogue that may depend on in-game events, random occurrences, and player actions.

Of course ‘cut scenes’ in games are most likely scripted in a similar way to a film or TV scene, but a majority of a narrative designer’s work must consider the world of the game, its mechanics, gameplay etc.

Brooke Maggs, an Australian narrative designer who has worked on games such as The Gardens Between and Control, explains what narrative design is below:

With heavily narrative-driven videogames like The Last of Us, it’s relatively easy to delve into theme because the story is rich, there are numerous cut scenes where important moments take place, those events are linear (in the sense the player cannot necessarily change the outcome). It’s easier because there are lots of similarities between this type of game and the way we analyse a film, its themes and ideas.

There is a wealth of video material analysing The Last of Us, but our favourite is from Lessons from the Screenplay and features the game’s director Neil Druckmann, warning, spoilers:

Games sitting elsewhere on the story-driven spectrum still explore themes and ideas, but it might be more necessary to consider the visual and audio elements, game mechanics and gameplay, and how they contribute to this exploration alongside the more traditional storytelling elements we recognise in other mediums.

Like a film or novel, we can ask: what is the game saying, and how is it saying it?

Considering the actions that the player is invited to take part in is a great place to start.

This War of Mine is a survival-themed strategy game where you control a small party of civilians taking shelter during winter as a war rages on around them. The particulars of the war are never discussed, but the gamemakers drew inspiration from conflicts in Eastern Europe from recent memory.

Players can sneak, steal, and kill if necessary. The aim of the game is to survive, but surviving in the game puts the player in morally precarious situations. Do they steal from other civilians who are also struggling? Is killing an opposition soldier justifiable?

Through the game mechanics and gameplay, players are forced to question the lengths they will go to, to keep their playable characters alive.

You can watch this video on YouTube as a player describes the morally dubious decisions players are faced with in the game (start at 6:23 if time poor).

This War of Mine cleverly subverts player expectations by muddying the waters around the 'aims' of the game, making survival extremely difficult and in the process, bringing across an anti-war sentiment - a far cry from games like first-person war shooters like Call of Duty which makes 'playing soldier' fun.

Analysing the game world and its preoccupations can also give subtle and not-so-subtle hints as to the game’s themes and ideas it’s trying to convey.

The Grand Theft Auto games are much maligned but do provide an interesting example of how a game world can be populated in a way that reflects the game's tone and themes. Take Grand Theft Auto IV – it’s a third-person, open world, crime/action game. But it is also a heavily satirical look at Hollywood, commercialism and capitalism, and American culture (including gun culture). But how does it explore all this? Through storyline yes, but also through the myriad of radio stations players can listen to whilst in vehicles, through NPCs and their dialogue as players move about the streets on foot, through the gun stores players can visit (called ‘Ammu-Nation’), and more.

This is in no way condoning the game and some of its more questionable game mechanics and plot points. Because, although the game is satirical, the player is still invited to partake in behaviours the game seems to be satirising and critiquing, and at times, it’s hard to tell if the makers want us to laugh at or with characters when they engage in violent, misogynistic, transphobic behaviour or language.

Still, much that players encounter whilst moving around and within the game world (as in, outside of set missions, plot points, cut scenes etc) point to game’s overall satirical look at facets of American and contemporary culture.

We call this ‘environmental storytelling’ and this kind of storytelling can build on themes and ideas in a way that can be subtler than writing directly into character dialogue, cut scenes and the like.

Many games do this (including The Last of Us but let’s not keep mentioning that game over and over), particularly larger, open world types games as items can be scattered or hidden throughout for players to find an engage with if they like.

A nice example from Mad Max (an incredibly underrated game) adds some pathos to what is essentially a dystopian action-adventure game where you drive around fighting, killing, and smashing up other vehicles with your own car.

Max stumbles across photographs from the ‘before times’ with personal messages. Max even comments on many of these photographs, and in doing so reminds the player of what was lost, that there was a habitable world with families and normality, before water and fuel became scarce, and everyone reverted to wearing studded metal and leather body gear and went a bit loopy.

You can watch a video of a player’s collection of history relics collected within the game – language warning for some of Max’s commentary in this video:

Invite students to think about any environmental storytelling they might notice in the game they're studying.

Videogames, through the fact they are interactive, enable gamemakers to create scenarios that present players with ethical conundrums, that make moral choices a theme explored in many games.

Take Shadow of the Colussus, a game that sprang to mind for this writer, but is arguably much better explained and explored in this video:

As pointed out in the video, the game begins with recognisable videogame tropes: a male ‘hero’ trying to rescue (or in this case, resurrect) a loved one. The aims and goals are presented to the player, and off the player goes, bringing down colossi to get what they want. But the character (and player) is tricked, and the morality of the player’s actions is brought into question.

In a way, through interactivity, game mechanics, gameplay and goals; videogames can hoodwink players into thinking what they are doing in the game, is right. Because, if these are the goals set out for us, they must be correct.

Arguably, with a film (note: we will use the word ‘passive’ here to separate the more ‘interactive’ experience of game playing, we are not suggesting watching a film is passive...) the more passive experience of watching a character engage in morally ambiguous actions will lead to the viewer being more critical of that character’s actions. By putting the player in the shoes of the character though, and encouraging the player to achieve the aims and goals of the game, viewing the character’s behaviour objectively and critically can become harder.

On the flip side, by ‘forcing’ players to engage with actions that don’t feel right, that feeling of wrongness can also be heightened.

The Last of Us Part II (2020) took this phenomenon to the extreme, players went beyond the threshold so to speak. Players don't just question their actions as they play as Ellie, but eventually actively make the character perform actions and violence they no longer agree with but have no other choice if they (the player) want to advance through the story, which in a narrative-driven game series like The Last of Us, is the aim.

If analysing a videogame that explores morality in some way, it’s worth:

• Identifying the difficult decisions the game asks the player to make
• Trying to define the way morality is being explored, as in, is it about violence, revenge, human rights, sexism, racism – what exactly is the ‘moral’ conundrum at play
• Considering how the game is exploring morality. Is it about decisions the player is faced with,? Is it tied in with the aims and objectives of the game? Is it through a lack of choice (i.e forcing the player to do things they know aren’t right)?

In Ghost of Tsushima (2020) the gamemakers designed the world’s weather system to gradually reflect the playable character’s journey, as they turn their back on Samurai tradition and embrace fighting enemies as a ‘ghost’ - killing from the shadows rather than confronting foes face to face.