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How to Deliver a Compelling Interactive Narrative in Under Ten Minutes
I’ve just played Small Worlds by David Shute (thanks RPS). It’s a part of the 6th Casual Gameplay Design Competition, and demonstrates that games can be short, compelling and meaningful in a way that’s unique to the interactive format – without straying too far into the abstract hinterland of ‘art games’ like The Path.
The gameplay is simplistic, and the narrative linear – so what’s interesting about it? You control a three pixel man (or woman) exploring a large, pixelated platforming landscape, shrouded in fog of war. The first clever thing it does is that the perspective zooms out as you explore, from displaying at a meagre 25 x 25 resolution to start with, to finally incorporating the entire landscape.
There are only around ten words in the entire game, and this is what’s clever – the entire narrative is communicated by the exploration of the landscape. To explain is to spoil the perfectly judged pacing of exposition, but as you expand your perspective (literally and figuratively) you begin to understand exactly who / where you are, and what lead you to this point.
It’s not a message that couldn’t be (or hasn’t been) told in another medium, but the story’s conclusion is satisfying and thoughtful, and that this can even be said of a game with no traditional story telling mechanics should be praise enough.
Ultimately, what does it for me, more than anything else, is the way interactivity is employed to drip feed information; to carefully orchestrate a growing sense of understanding. This game demonstrates, in a small way, the narrative potential of interactive entertainment as a whole. Potential that’s barely beginning to be tapped.
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