Practical Game Design

Modular narrative

There are many ways to define a complex narrative; the term I like the most is modular narrative.

When a narrative becomes more complex, the design effort should focus on integrating the narrative into the gameplay harmoniously, allowing the player to experience each part of the narrative like it was written to be an actual part of the same story.

To build a modular narrative the story must be crafted in a way that can be cut into different forms, each representing different outcomes according to the player's actions. An important NPC might die (or not) at some point in the game, with a dramatic impact on the rest of the game. Building story modules means designing the story to go on in both cases: either with the NPC alive ...