Avoiding the Pitfalls of Interactive Narrative.
summary
Explains the concrete claim that big narrative choices get ignored when their implied consequences are out of scope, and shows the production tools that matter: planning, scoping, Gantt-style schedules and the arithmetic of branching versus replayability. Uses Mass Effect 3 (rachni, council, collector tech) to show large promises that don’t pay off, and RuneScape’s Sixth Age and haziling to show how choices are merged back into a single story. Argues for branching vs interactive structure tradeoffs, what was built and where it actually works.
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chapters (10)
- 0:00Interactive narrative pitfalls
- 3:22Games ignoring player choices
- 10:19Project management pitfalls
- 17:35Mathematics of branching choices
- 25:38Interactive structure vs branching
- 31:15Hazeling’s law and character death
- 33:42RuneScape’s Sixth Age experience
- 39:15MMOs and narrative choices
- 41:41Interactive narrative design tips
- 42:02Q&A
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