referred to the game design. This is where the story is told in a linear fashion, but the story can be interrupted by the player sometimes. The reason why this structure is so unique to video games is because the interactivity required for the freedom of the player cannot be found in any other mediums. This type of structure is typically seen in role-playing games. With that being said there is another structure in video games where the story is fully branching, this means that the players play a major role in how the plot, the characters and the story develops and what is the ending of the story. In fully story-based games, this is the structure usually used. It is important to note that the fully branching structure is found before video games, in the form of interactive books. These types of books give the reader choices at the end of each chapter, each choice is sending the reader to a different chapter, which allows the reader to create their own story. The graphics below will show you a summary of all the three structures in video games.
There are also other ways that narrative can be shown to the player in game, such as short cinematic, dialogue, text and the storytelling through the environment and the world. Most video games use different combinations of these narratives to communicate the story elements to the player.
Game comparision
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f we compare the games from 40 years ago to the nowadays games, we can see the evolution of narratives in video games. Let’s compare Nintendo’s Donkey Kong and Life is strange. Nintendo’s Donkey Kong is considered to be the first game that actually had a story that players could see unfold on the screen. The game was released in 1981 and it was directed by Shigeru Miyamoto. According to an article about Donkey Kong’s history, ‘Miyamoto wanted to make sure the whole story, simple though it was, could be told on screen in a way that could be instantly
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