I came across an article the other day by Julius Kuschke (of articy:draft fame), concerning narrative structure and games: Aristotle was not a Game Designer. Thought it was worth sharing.
His basic point (initially taken from Warren Spector) is that many (most?) game narratives attempt to follow a standard three-act structure, as found in other media, despite their (on average) comparatively far lengthier runtime.
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| The more 'conventional' narrative approach, often attempted by many game stories. (Image taken from Julius' article.) |
The problem is that, whilst the first and final acts tend to be handled with some competency, there is a great struggle in pulling off a fully satisfying middle act. This is all due to the length of the average game - even the greatest middle act will run stale when spread over 5/6 hours+ or so!
