Leveraging Players’ Needs for Stories

Emotional Needs

• The Desire to See Conflicts Resolved
• The Desire for Empathy
• The Desire for New Experiences and Knowledge
• The Desire for Closure

Leveraging the Story Reception Process

• The Resistance Stage
• A Convincing Setting
• A Breathless Opening
• The Need for Explanation
• Relevance and Extended Information
• Evaluating Results
• Continuous Evaluation

Show, Don’t Tell

• Show, don’t tell (Let characters reveal themselves through actions, not textual descriptions)

Game Stories and Gameplay

Is Story More Important? Or Is Gameplay More Important?

• Games that extremely prioritize gameplay without story, and games that extremely prioritize story but are not fun, are both unappealing
• You can first focus on the game’s gameplay design, then integrate an appropriate proportion of story and plot elements

From Traditional Stories to Game Stories

3W for Story Creation

• Who
• What
• Where

Characters and Plot

• Plot-Driven
• Character-Driven

Background Information

• Backstory
• Character Sketches

Story Archetypes for Reference

• The Capable Fear Nothing
• The Hero’s Journey
• Life’s Trials
• Lost Talents
• Love
• Hidden Virtues
• Song of the Wanderer
• The Spider and the Fly
• Not Unrequited, Just Not Yet
• Fatal Advantage

The Essence of Drama—Conflict

How to Generate Conflict

• Internal and External Entangled Conflicts
• Inevitable Conflicts
• Life and Death
• Responsibility and Duty
• Social Morality
• Obsession

How to Build Tension

• Tightening Dramatic Tension
• Selecting Good Story Tension
• Physical Tension
• Emotional Tension
• Gradually Raising the Story Stakes
• Using Plot
• Using Characters
• Using Social Pressure