For many games, dialogue choices are a core mechanic (sometimes the only core mechanic), and so they are a means to many different narrative ends. That they don't uniformly have the same level of stakes or "consequence" is, for those games, a feature and not a bug.

The first reveal of a game is the most uncomplicated enjoyment you'll ever have of a game, and to finally play that game when it is released is to play it in its worst, most vulnerable just-launched form, thinking of the game it could have been, the game you wanted and needed it to be.

Really good writing from Pat on games, game design, game development, reward loops, and self-improvement.

We are so used to making games for people who don't want to actually play them, that the idea that people could just play the game because they want to play it is considered naive at best.

According to Oyama, players in Japan and Asia tend to be quite vocal about what they perceive as “inconveniences,” while players in Europe and North America are more likely to view these same game elements as “friction” and welcome them.

Interesting finding that I am going to attribute to the prevalence of friction-free mobile gaming being a much bigger factor in the East Asian markets than the Western (American) market.

I play a game like Vampire Survivors, and I think… where is the “play”? where is the joy, the creativity, hell, the “series of interesting decisions”? The time between level ups is just the time the reels spend spinning. After the first few, every level up is as automatic as pushing “spin again.”

You know, finally enough I had the exact same feeling as this author when I played Vampire Survivors. I knew I wasn't losing money but after a while it still felt slimy. The game relies on a LOT of stereotypical Dark Patterns, specifically those in the gambling space, to work.

I think the formula is not entirely unsalvageable -- imo, Terratech Legion iterates on it quite well and much more interestingly. But the raw, simple nature of Vampire Survivors just left a bad taste in my mouth.

A textbook-like anthology of classic essays and articles about video game narrative design.

Amazing resource for games narrative and storytelling techniques.

Announcing a curated, thematic link page of important essays and articles about video game narrative.

Amazing resource from Bruno. Will link in upcoming post.

Thus the video game writer is by nature a very political animal, whose job involves not only writing story but advocating for it and adapting it to changing circumstances as the project evolves. Often the role of producers and team leads in video game studios is to shield their teams from having to throw out work because of iteration; narrative really is no different.

Great post from Bruno about game narrative and how it functions. Highly recommend reading if you're interested in any of this.

In this post, I’ll be discussing some games that pull off tragic storylines, with varying degrees of success, and how they fit into strategies for addressing the wrong ending problem.

I still think this is one of the best pieces on how endings function in games and narrative more broadly.

Bluntly speaking, Bachelard said back in 1958 that games are not just graphics. They are architecture that create an experience. He would have made an excellent level designer.

Agency and choice are slippery devils, and people are not always very good at pinning down and articulating their real concerns about them. Like ‘freedom’ in politics, I think that when people talk about ‘choice’ or ‘agency’ in games, they are often not talking about the same thing, or even about any single thing, and therefore don’t convey their concerns clearly enough to allow useful discussion.