Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
The Monomyth
Having now become familiar with the Three-Act Structure and the (perhaps
surprising) reality that nearly all stories contain many of the same elements,
you are ready to level up to the
Monomyth
, or “Hero's Journey.” This is a
more recent and more elaborate analysis of story that covers not only
structure but also characters.
A Brief History
While the Three-Act Structure was first documented thousands of years
ago, the Monomyth was conceived less than a hundred years ago by le-
gendary American mythologist and writer Joseph Campbell, in his seminal
topic,
The Hero with a Thousand Faces
(1949).
Influenced mainly by the theories of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, Camp-
bell put forth the idea that many of our myths and modern stories incor-
porate certain recurring character types—or
archetypes
—that fulfill specific
story functions and resonate with us all on a very deep level. Additionally,
Campbell identified story beats that appear again and again in ancient as
well as modern tales, laying out a more detailed shared story structure than
the Three-Act Structure previously described.
