Design Principles Related to Narrative Design in Games

As a requirement in my latest class, a classmate and I (Daniel Lima) created a document outlining design principles directly related to Narratives in video games so I thought it would be an interesting thing to share with you all.

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Introduction

One of the biggest challenges of conveying a compelling narrative in games, as opposed to a book, movie, or show, is that the director or writer has control over how the story is going to be experienced by the user. In games however, the user has control over how he or she will experience the story. On top of that, a typical movie will last around two hours, while a game could last anywhere from a couple minutes to hundreds of hours. Games don’t have a fixed length, and a story that is experienced by a user in eight hours could be experienced by another user in fifty hours. Players can get lost and not know how to continue the story, and they can get distracted and pursue other goals and side quests within the game world. In summary, the ability of the player to progress through the game, as well as their intentions and preferences while playing, are all determining factors on how the narrative will be experienced.

Those factors and differences that games show in comparison to other forms of storytelling mediums have posed a series of challenges for designers throughout the years. This paper aims to present some concepts and design principles that can be studied and used by designers in order to minimize some of these issues, and allow for more captivating stories in games. All the principles presented were extracted from the book Universal Principles of Design (Lidwell, Holden & Butler, 2010).

I. Storytelling

What is it?

A method of creating imagery, emotions, and understanding of events through an interaction between a storyteller and an audience.

Storytelling is comprised of the several fundamental elements:

●       Setting  - Orients the audience, providing a sense of time and place for the story

             

Creating a “good” setting for a story can be quite challenging as it is often easy to fall into “cliche” or “overdone” settings that players have experience time and time again. A good way to circumvent creating “generic” settings is to combine aspects of different settings together (like Horizon: Zero Dawn) or have a setting in mind and throw in some “malevolent or mysterious force”. It is also important to mention that people have a wide range of preferences, so it important to keep your target audience in mind. Providing well-written and fleshed-out backstories for characters and the world they inhabit is another way to create an interesting setting.

●       Characters - Allow for players to identify with, and get involved in the story, and how the story becomes relevant to the player

Creating “good” characters is even more difficult than creating a “good” setting. Designing characters to have “realistic” emotions and “realistic” interactions with other characters is often noted as the “best way” to create “good” characters. Characters need to be the vessel in which the story progresses. A good way to create “good” characters is to utilize the framework of the “Hero’s Journey” in which a character progresses through “12 steps” throughout their journey in the plot.

●       Plot  - Ties the events in the story together, and is the channel through which the story can flow.

It is often times hard to separate plot from characters as the plot of a story is told through the actions of the characters. As such, Sikora (2002) identifies two ways that plots and narratives can be told, “Plot-based narratives” and “character-based narratives” (as cited in Dickens, 2005). . Plot-based narratives involve a series of “complex scenarios with a broad scale and a multitude of characters”; while character-based narratives involve “the development of detailed characters… [as well as allowing] players identify and take on the role of a character within a game”. Plot-based narratives focus largely on the plot itself, rather than the characters themselves; the characters are a vehicle in which the plot is able to progress (Character Driven v. Plot Driven, 2014). Whereas in character-based narratives, the characters are the main focus while the plot is shaped by the attitudes, and decisions of the characters (Character Driven v. Plot Driven, 2014). Like previously stated, the use of the “Hero’s Journey” can be a very useful framework to organize a video game’s story off of.

●       Invisibility - The awareness of the storyteller fades as the audience focuses on a good story. When engaged in a good movie or book, the existence of the medium is forgotten.

The concept of “Invisibility” is quite similar to concept of “immersion” or how players can become so engrossed in a medium that they consciously or subconsciously believe they are “in” the medium. Some of the best ways to increase “invisibility” is to reduce the number of breakages or pauses in gameplay, leading to a seamless experience for players.

●       Mood - Music, lighting, and style of prose create the emotional tone of the story

Creating a “good” mood in a game can be quite challenging as it requires the combination of a variety of elements from a variety of disciplines on a video game development team. However,  when these elements combine they can create drastic effects in users.

Music, or lack thereof, can cause physiological and psychological changes in listeners and therefore alter emotional states in individuals, especially as they relate to specific events and characters in media (Bartlett, 1999; Scherer & Zentner, 2001; Scherer, 2004). Hoeckner et al., found that thriller music in films can significantly lower the likability of characters, the certainty about characters’ thoughts, increase anger, and lower sadness compared to melodramatic music, and no music (2011). Writing music and triggering that music at the appropriate times can go a long way in eliciting the desired emotions that a designer wants a player to experience during gameplay.

Lighting can also play a huge role in conveying mood, tension, and emotions, and thoughts to players (El-Nasr et al., n.d.; Grodal, 2005; Lindgren, 1970; Light up your world, 2014). The use of shadows and different lighting can create “ominous” moods and can let players know that certain characters are “mysterious” or “evil”. Designing games to take advantage of these effects in imperative and can better engage players in a story.

Lastly, style of prose is not all too relevant to video games themselves, however the way certain characters speak, can enhance player’s feelings about them, and/or provide them with more context on who this character is and where they came from.

●       Movement - In a good story, the sequence and flow of events is clear and interesting. The storyline doesn’t stall.

This is possibly the hardest thing to do in video games as players are the ones who set the pace of the video game. As this is so difficult to do, there is not a “right” way to keep players moving through a story, however many techniques can be utilized. Having characters or UI elements “remind” the player that “they should really get moving” can allow players to continue forward with the story.

Why is it important?

Storytelling is the way games entice the player to play the game. Games that are not able to engross players into the story mean that players will not finish the game and move onto something else

Who does it well?

Life is Strange does an excellent job at structuring a story for players to experience. While the setting is not the most innovative thing about the game, the character interactions, pacing, and plot is where this game shines. There is plenty of foreshadowing, the characters act in realistic ways to the events of the game, the music pairs perfectly with what is currently happening and enhances the player’s experience.

The game chugs along at a steady pace, and whenever the player is “sitting around doing nothing”, Max, the main character, will remind the player that “you should really get moving”. When I was playing Life is Strange I simply could not put the game down, I was in completely immersed and wanted to see how the game would progress. I easily connected to the characters in the game due to my age, and interests, but it was mainly due to how they were written, and reminded me of people I had met while still in high school myself.

Who does it poorly?

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s story is a good example of how a poor plot can disengage players from a game. The plot in Modern Warfare 2 is a confusing mess that is difficult to follow what is going on. You and your squad travel to different areas of the world to do complete tasks that do not seem very well connected at all.

You go to the Tian Shan mountains to recover a tech module, then are sent on an undercover mission in Moscow where you massacre innocents at an airport, you then go to Rio De Janeiro, followed by going to a Russian gulag, and then you defend Washington D.C. from a Russian invasion. All throughout which, characters betray you, plot twists that are poorly foreshadowed and seem like they came out of nowhere, and character deaths don’t have the effect they should as there was not enough character development to feel attached to them at all.

Takeaway

Making sure a game has a coherent plot, and interesting characters is extremely important when designing games. Utilizing frameworks such as “The Hero’s Journey” is a great way to structure a plot in a video game and can inspire character interactions and plot twists that can better engage players. Making sure the game flows smoothly from one section to the next is imperative to keeping player’s interest in playing the game; if a game becomes too slow or too fast, players might become bored or confused and quit playing.

II. Archetypes

What is it?

Universal patterns of theme of form resulting from innate biases or dispositions.

Archetypes are are commonly found in storytelling as utilizing these allows for users to identify with characters and/or the plot across a variety of cultures. The Utilization of the “Hero’s Journey” is one prominent archetypal plot. A hero is called to adventure that he or she refuses, a meeting with a mentor occurs and hero meets the call. The hero then faces various trials, often including the death of a mentor by the “ultimate enemy”, the hero then faces the “ultimate enemy” and defeats it and returns home to a great celebration.

Additionally, there are many “archetypal” characters that are often included in plots based around the “Hero’s Journey”. Some of these include: The Mentor, The Ally, The Herald, The Shadow.

Why is it important?

While it is not necessary to build a plot structure around the “Hero’s Journey” the inclusion of archetypal characters or events can help progress a story further and can create interesting dynamics and plot points between the Hero and the other characters in the story. Archetypes are also prevalent across cultures meaning that players from a variety of cultures will be able to appreciate and understand character’s motivations, purpose, and interactions during the plot.

Who does it well?

In Horizon: Zero Dawn, the main character, Aloy, serves as “The Hero” of the story, while her father, Rost serves as “The Mentor”. During “The Proving”, Aloy’s first trial on her journey, she and her fellow tribespeople are attacked by a group of cultists from afar who serve as “The Herald”. With her life on the line, Rost appears and sacrifices himself (Death of the Mentor) to save Aloy, setting her on the path to discover the origin of these cultists who wield unnatural power.

Who does it poorly?

Duke Nukem Forever is a good example of how the lack of character depth and an over the top “Hero” can detract from a gameplay experience. The game barely had any character development or character interactions, making me feel extremely unattached to the character and the world Duke inhabits.

Takeaway

Including archetypal characters is a great way to create interesting character dynamics and ultimately interesting narratives.

III. Progressive Disclosure

What is it?

Progressive disclosure is a strategy for revealing information to users little by little so they don’t feel overwhelmed. This technique helps users manage complexity without becoming confused, frustrated, or disoriented.

Typically, only information that is necessary or expected by the average user should be displayed at any given time. Extra information can be made available through other menus or provided to players later in the game as a reward for exploring or mastering the information that’s already available.

Why is it important?

Revealing a lot of information at once can confuse the player and discourage them from playing the game. However, it’s important to have extra information for advanced players who may be pursuing more details beyond the core story.

The use of progressive disclosure also greatly benefit learning efficiency, as information that is progressively disclosed to a learner as they need it, request it or look for it is interpreted as more relevant and better processed.

Who does it well?

A lot of games use progressive disclosure in tutorials to present players with the mechanics of the game and properly teach them how to play it. In terms of storytelling, some games start with a very basic and easy-to-understand storyline before delving into deeper lore, backstory, environmental details, etc.

In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the story is uncovered through flashbacks from Link’s past as he revisits locations he’s been to 100 years prior. In the Assassin’s Creed franchise, information between two stories (one in the present and one in the past) is disclosed and experienced slowly by moving the player between present and past.

In Metroid Prime, by Retro Studios, while some of the lore and narrative is presented through cutscenes and gameplay, a lot of the extra information is unveiled by scanning the environment and looking for extra information.

Who does it poorly?

Game franchises that already have an established player base who knows the history and gameplay mechanics of the installments in the franchise often don’t do a good job in implementing progressive disclosure to ease in newcomers to the series. Long-running Massively Multiplayer Online games tend to suffer from that, being very daunting for players who are not used to them.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots throws the player in the middle of a convoluted storyline that’s hard to keep track, expecting them to know of past story elements and previously introduced mechanics that a newcomer would have a hard time grasping.

Takeaway

The assimilation of information about a game’s narrative, setting and characters, as well as mechanics, can be made easier by gradually disclosing the most required information, and allowing players to pursue the extra details.

IV. Wayfinding

What is it?

Wayfinding is the process of using spatial and environmental information to navigate to a destination. 

The four main factors for successful wayfinding are:

●       Orientation: Determining one’s location relative to nearby objects and the destination. This can be achieved by using landmarks, which provide strong orientation cues and give memorable identifiers to specific locations, and signage, one of the easiest ways to tell a person where they are and where they can go.

●       Route decision: Choosing a route to get to the destination. In order to make sure the user won’t have a hard time deciding their routes, minimize the number of choices, and always provide signs or prompts. For very large or complex spaces, maps are also a good option, as they provide a more robust representation of the space.

●       Route monitoring: Monitoring the chosen route to confirm that it is leading to the destination. Use paths with clear beginnings, middles and ends, and provide a clear line of sight to the user in between destinations.

●       Destination recognition: When the user has reached the destination, or is close to reaching it, it’s imperative that they understand and recognize that that’s where they should be going. Enclosing destinations such that they form dead-ends, or using barriers to disrupt the flow of movement through the space, are good ways to attain that effect.

Why is it important?

In order to tell a compelling story in games it’s important to keep the players on the right path. Even if they deviate from the expected or intended route, it’s important that they can still find their way back and move forward with the story.

Unless a game is designed to portray a sense of being adrift or disoriented, levels and maps should be planned in a way to facilitate player’s orientation and decision making, and their destination should always be made clear.

Who does it well?

On the topic of destination recognition and line of sight, few games have done better than Journey. Although most of the game may look like a character wandering aimlessly through the desert for someone who is not familiar with it, the final destination of Journey, and the main character’s goal, are determined in the very beginning of the game. After starting up the acclaimed title from That Game Company, it only takes a couple seconds to see the beacon of light in a mountain far away, that initiates the main character’s journey.

In a totally different example, Firewatch, the debut game of the studio Campo Santo, made use of a map and landmarks to help the player navigate through its complex and mostly repetitive environment.

Who does it poorly?

Due to the unpredictable nature of Minecraft , independent game developed by Mojang in which the whole world is procedurally generated and the player is left to explore with no instruction, guidance or visual representation of what the world around them is, it can be very challenging to find your way back to a certain location. The game expects the player to carve out and create their own waypoints, rather than providing them with it.

Takeaway

As mentioned in the introduction of this paper, one of the main aspects where game storytelling differs from movies and books is that of player agency. In order to tell a compelling story in a format where the audience has a level of freedom into how they’ll experience it, it’s important to pay attention to how the player will know where they’re going at all times. 

V. Nudge

What is it?

A method of predictably altering behavior without restricting options or significantly changing incentives. 

People prefer the path of least resistance when making decisions, therefore, the concept of giving users a nudge is to provide the least resistance, and potentially bonuses, on the path that’s intended to be followed.

Some of the ways to achieve this effect are through:

●       Defaults: Select defaults that do the least harm and the most good.

●       Feedback: Provide visible and immediate feedback for actions and inactions.

●       Incentives: Avoid incentive conflicts and align incentives to preferred behaviors.

●       Structured choices: Provide the means to simplify and filter complexity to facilitate decision making.

●       Visible goals: Make simple performance measures clearly visible so that people can immediately assess their performance against a goal state.

Why is it important?

By properly applying this design principle, players can be directed to acting as the director or writer intended, and navigate the story as it was meant to be experienced. Furthermore, it helps make players feel that they’re not being forced to do so, staying immersed in the narrative and feeling more connected to the character they’re playing as.

Who does it well?

Many games will nudge players in the right direction by using the placement of enemies, spawners, health packs, items, upgrades, collectibles, etc. As a player, if the path you’re going through has more “stuff” going on than where you were previously at, you are most likely going the right way. 

An example of that is Bioshock Infinite, title by Irrational Games on which the designers purposefully placed items and enemies to direct players to progress through the map in the direction they wanted.

Who does it poorly?

Open world games that have a lot of characters and side-quests often suffer from overusing the concept of nudging and leading the player to too many different directions. Games in the Grand Theft Auto franchise infamously have a hard time keeping players on track while going through the story, since there are a variety of different missions and small situations going on around the city that can easily distract from the main storyline.

Takeaway

One of the most important aspects of linear storytelling in games is making sure that players navigate through the path the designer has intended them to. Using invisible walls and blockades to force players into a completely linear and narrow path is a way to achieve this effect, though most would find that frustrating and not very interesting.

Instead, subtly nudging the player into the right direction through means that are not as noticeable is an easy way to make them behave in the intended way, while maintaining the illusion that they’re fully in control of the gameplay experience.

VI. Immersion

What is it?

A state of mental focus so intense that awareness of the “real” world is lost, generally in a feeling of joy and satisfaction.

There are also several concepts related to immersion that generally assess the same experience someone gets when immersed, including: Flow, Presence, Cognitive Absorption, and Engagement.

Why is it important?

Designing games to be immersive for players should be near the top of developer’s priorities when creating a game. Becoming immersed in a game not only means that “they believe they are in the game world”, but it also increase the amount of time played in a game, and the amount of enjoyment and satisfaction players get from a game.

Achieving immersion in a game can come from a variety of features within the game including:

1.  Comprehension– The extent to which players understand what they are doing, how they can do it, if they can do it, and why they are performing actions to accomplish goals and ultimately progress through the game.

2.   Intuitive Controls and Systems – The extent to which players have a sense of control over their actions in-game. Are the mechanics, systems and physical controls intuitive and naturally mapped?

3.  Engaging and Rewarding Gameplay - The extent to which a game motivates, challenges, and provides feedback to players. Is the game fun and rewarding to play? Do players find the game interesting?

4.  Emotional Engagement – The extent to which a game’s narrative or music causes a player to empathize with the game world and/or characters, and/or causes an emotional reaction in the player.

5.  Multiple Channels of Complete Sensory Information - Stimuli that allow for multiple senses to be activated allows for those senses to work together and give a player a better formed Spatial Situation Model, and therefore a heightened level of immersion. Additionally, the more “complete” a stimulus is, the less players must “fill in the blanks” in the environment, allowing for a better formed SSM.

6.  Cognitively Demanding Environments – The extent to which a game occupies a player’s mental resources. Do players have to focus their attention on the game to be successful?

7.  Believability of Objects in the Game World - The extent to which characters, objects, and other creatures in the game world look, behave, interact, and are placed in ways that are consistent with your conceptions of the real world and/or with the rules that the game has defined as true.

8. Realistic and Dynamic Environments- The extent to which everything in the game world is consistent with your expectations regarding the laws of nature, and/or your expectations of the laws that the game has defined as true. This can be broken up into Physics, Graphical Fidelity, Audio Effects, and Atmosphere.

9.  An Unbroken Presentation of the Game World – Refers to a game world in which spatial cues are consistent and do not disappear during gameplay.

10. Character Perspective Interfaces – The more a game simulates the perspective and perceptions of the player’s character, the more likely they will achieve higher levels of immersion. 

*These items were taken from my model of immersion I have created during my master's thesis. *

Who does it well?

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, is a great example of a very immersive game for a variety of reasons. The game has very high quality graphics with a sophisticated engine allowing for realistic physics, and weather systems. Additionally, combat is quite difficult and requires concentration to efficiently defeat enemies. Lastly, the environments you can travel to in the game actually feel like they are “real”. Townsfolk look like they are going about their day walking from location to location talking to each other; the game simply does not stop when the player stops moving. 

Who does it poorly?

Ride to Hell: Retribution is a great example of how constant breakages, technical issues, and unrealistic design can negatively impact gameplay and ruin immersion. In Ride to Hell: Retribution enemies run and try to punch the player despite the fact that the player is equipped with guns, allowing you to kill them with extreme ease.

Additionally, the game has a plethora of technical issues including disappearing models and textures, and broken functionality of gameplay elements. All of these issues cause players to lose any semblance that the game world is “real” and contain “believable” elements. 

Takeaway

Designers should keep in mind the different ways to immerse players through the previously listed items as doing so can result in greater levels of enjoyment and engagement in video games. Reducing the number of technical issues, implementing realistic AI programming, and including realistic environmental effects can go a long way in immersing players in a video game.

VII. Framing

What is it?

A technique that influences decision making and judgement by manipulating the way information is presented.

There are two ways information can be framed: positively or negatively. Positive framing tends to elicit positive feelings, and result in proactive and risk-seeking behaviors. Negative framing tends to elicit negative feelings, resulting in reactive and risk-avoiding behaviors.

Why is it important?

The use of framing in media has often been used to influence behavior and thinking about certain topics. Often times, a switch from a positive frame to a negative frame can cause conflicting opinions and emotions about the information in question. This has often been used in literature and films to create somewhat of a moral dilemma that characters are faced with. This shift can create for interesting plots and greater cognitive engagement from users.

Who does it well?

Spec Ops: The Line utilizes this shift in framing to elicit emotions in the player and question whether or not the player is actually the “hero” in the story. The game starts out as pretty generic shooter but slowly turns into a much deeper game exploring the psychological effects of being a soldier, and questioning his or her morality. 

Who does it poorly?

Nathan Drake in the Uncharted series is a great example of too much positive framing in video games. As Nathan, you are tasked with uncovering some long lost treasure and defeating the “bad guys” who are trying to stop you. However, despite Nathan killing hundreds if not thousands of people during each game, he never shows a glimpse of remorse or restraint against the people he is killing. I believe including this aspect would allow for his character to be further developed and make the player think more about his actions and effects that his adventures have done to him and those around him.

Takeaway

People remember Spec Ops: The Line, not for its great shooter gameplay, but because of its use of a shift in framing, allowing for the exploration of the “dark side” of war, and the ill effects that can come about from it. Designing games to include shifts in framing (from positive to negative, and vice versa) can elicit higher levels of engagement in players as well as provide opportunities for interesting character development and interactions (such as understanding motivations behind an enemy).

VIII. Depth of Processing

What is it?

Information that is analyzed superficially, through mere exposition, is not as likely to be recalled as information that is analyzed deeply and repetitively. This memory phenomenon is called depth of processing, also known as levels-of-processing.

The two ways through which information can more easily be assimilated are: maintenance rehearsal, which involves repeating the same kind of analysis over and over again, such as reading an excerpt of text multiple times, and elaborative rehearsal, which involves a deeper, more meaningful analysis of the information, such as reading an excerpt once, but then trying to explain it, define it, question it, research more about it, etc.

In order to make sure an user will recall the information you intend them to recall, it’s important to keep in mind the key factors for depth of processing: distinctiveness of the information, relevance of the information, and the degree to which the information is elaborated.

Why is it important?

When introducing players to new mechanics of a game, as well as story elements that will need to be remembered later, it is important to keep in mind how much and in which way the player will be exposed to that element or mechanic so that they can recall it later.

Who does it well?

In a variety of different games, players are required to go through extensive tutorials and sometimes repetitive and even boring side quests in order to get familiarized with the game’s controls, mechanics, setting, characters and lore. However, after going through this much processing of the information that’s available, players are more likely to recall what they’re there for.

In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword , the player had to use motion-controls in order to perform a series of actions in the game, from slashing through enemies with the Master Sword through remote-controlling a beetle that could be used to activate devices and pickup items. The player also had to visit the same locations of the game multiple times throughout the main quest, and had to participate in a flying race in the beginning of the game that introduced them to the controls of navigating with the Crimson Loftwing. Although some of those actions could have been perceived as repetitive, they were required to ensure the player would understand how to navigate the environment and how to behave in certain story elements such as the final fight against Ghirahim and Demise, the game’s main antagonists.

Who does it poorly?

When playing video-games, it is not uncommon to see a screen that displays the controller being used and lines coming out of each input option, with one or two words explaining what pressing that button will do. While that might be helpful to players in the case they forget how to perform certain actions in the game, and thus serves a purpose to “forgiveness”, certain games rely solely on those screens, as well as instruction manuals or in-game wikis, to introduce their players to the mechanics and story of the game.

That’s a good example of plain exposure to information, without incentivizing deep analysis of the information, and tends to lead to players either forgetting how to play or why they’re playing in between play sessions.

Takeaway

While a designer might not want to force players to spend too much time digging through a particular piece of information, that is the best way to guarantee that they’ll recall it when needed.

IX. Forgiveness

What is it?

Forgiveness refers to the practice of creating designs that aim to minimize the occurrence of errors, and, when they do occur, minimize their consequences.

Common strategies for incorporating forgiveness include:

●       Good affordances: physical characteristics of the design that influence its correct use;

●       Reversibility of actions: allowing actions to be reversed if errors occur;

●       Safety nets: processes that minimize the consequence of an error if it occurs;

●       Confirmation: verification of user intent before performing an action;

●       Warnings: prompts that warn of imminent likeability of errors;

●       Help: information that assists in basic operations and troubleshooting.

When it comes to games, forgiveness can be implemented in many different aspects, and games have come a long way on this factor since their birth. Giving the player another try at a level, before forcing them to restart the game, is a good example of forgiveness. Another would be allowing the player to save the game often or whenever they wanted in multiple save files, so that they could easily go back to a previous save if someone went wrong.

Why is it important?

Forgiveness can be hard to get right when designing a game because the amount of forgiveness expected by players will be different depending on the game’s audience. In the case of a game with a large appeal, such as the Super Mario series, which attracts players of all ages, genders and gaming experience, it’s important to provide this in different levels, since an unforgiving game can lead novice players to frustration, but more experienced gamers will see a game that’s too forgiving as not challenging and therefore uninteresting or boring.

When it comes to interactive storytelling, one area where we can observe and analyze forgiveness is related to player choice. While some games will punish the player harshly based on their choices, some will allow them to either go back on their previous decisions, or take further decisions that will either confirm the previous one or balance it out.

Who does it well?

In Life is Strange, a well-reviewed story driven game developed by Dontnod Entertainment, the whole story revolves around player choice as well as a time-rewind mechanic. Since the player can rewind back and change most of their choices, they’re unlikely to lead the story to an unintended direction by mistake. 

Who does it poorly?

In most games of the turn-based strategy series Fire Emblem, the death of a character is irreversible, and changes the flow and the fate of the remaining characters’ story. Although the fans of the series believe that adds to the experience, some of the most recent titles have provided an alternative more forgiving game mode to attract casual players and newcomers to the franchise.

Takeaway

Different games, as well as different audiences, may require a different level of forgiveness. However, by allowing players to go back on their decisions, or give them the option of play games in a mode where their mistakes won’t lead to permanent outcomes, you’re more likely to reach a larger playerbase.

X. Legibility

What is it?

The concept of legibility is related to the visual clarity of text, generally based on the size, typeface, contrast, blocking, and spacing of the characters used. 

Although being different principles, it goes hand in hand with Readability, the degree to which the text can be understood, based on the complexity of words and sentences.

Why is it important?

Although written text is not as prominent in games as it used to be, due to the advancements in visual fidelity, audio quality and mainly voice acting, it’s still a very important part of storytelling for most games. Having text with appropriate font type, size, color and style is essential to guarantee an easy-to-understand gameplay experience.

Who does it well?

As in most other games in the franchise, the text in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is always presented within a text block that contrasts well with the environment behind it, with a clear identification of which character is speaking the text, and in a font size and type that is subtle, easy to read, and doesn’t distract from the visuals of the game. 

Who does it poorly?

Mass Effect: Andromeda utilized a flattened typeface for headers, as well as very small size for most of the text in the game, and a textbox that didn’t consistently contrast well with the environment. It made certain parts of the gameplay and menu navigation nearly impossible to read, especially when playing from a couch a couple meters away from the television. 

Takeaway

Since text remains an important aspect of game design and storytelling, it’s important to take into consideration how it is displayed and presented to the players. A game may have great plot, dialogue and lore, but it’s worth nothing if the players can’t read it.

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References

Character Driven v. Plot Driven Writing: What's the Difference? (2014, December 9). Retrieved June 27, 2017, from http://www.dorrancepublishing.com/character-driven-v-plot-driven-writing-whats-difference/

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