Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
There are countless other kinds of story-ordering devices. Time-based
games like
Dead Rising
make events occur in the world on the clock at
fixed times. A quest might open up when the player character reaches a
certain level of progression. Even simple arrangements of space can create
a soft story ordering, as players are likely to encounter the nearby pieces
before the more distant ones.
stoRy stRuCtuRes
There are countless ways to configure and combine story-ordering devices.
The most basic is the “string of pearls” structure. In this model, each pearl
is an arena in which the player may move around freely and interact with
game mechanics, while each bit of string is a one-way transition to the
next arena:
This is a classic linear game that proceeds from level to level.
Depending on how “big” the pearls are—how much internal freedom they
allow—this game can feel constrained to the level of pointlessness, or can
feel quite free. This string of pearls structure is how
Quake
,
Super Mario
Bros.
, and
StarCraft
single-player are laid out.
Another arrangement is the “hub and spokes” model:
