Practical Game Design

Linear narrative

It is safe to say that a linear narrative is the simplest form of interactive narrative. A series of key events develops the story and the player advances from one to the other with gameplay actions. The interactivity is actually pretty limited. Have a look at the following image: the arrows are the story, presented in the form of cutscenes, animated sequences, images, or just plain text. The circles represent the player's actions. This visual representation is usually called the Strings of Pearls or Rivers and Lakes:

The String of Pearls storytelling method.

It is important to note how the story in a linear narrative is actually ...