dynamic three-act structure
There is something that has me thinking daily: the three-act structure.
On one hand, the escape from linear narrative makes us visualize our stories as interconnected rhizomes; narrative elements affecting each other.
On the other hand, we know that our players experience our stories linearly: one possible combination at a time.
Therefore, the three-act structure still remains relevant in some way.
To tell a good story, we still need to guide the player through the three acts, introduce the world, guide through the conflict, and resolve it.
It is not appropriate to think that because we have dynamism now, the old structures are no longer useful.
Furthermore, the Lindy effect almost assures us that the three-act structure will continue to be dominant.
Therefore, I think that in some way we have to factor this into our narrative design, at least as long as the majority of the population continues to consume stories in this way.
It remains to be seen if TikTok manages to burn a generation’s brain enough for the three-act structure to become irrelevant.
The first thing that comes to mind is the obvious: use the three-act structure and suffer from exponential growth:
We use the introduction to present the narrative problem and the special narrative mechanics of our game, where we may give the player some options.
We will have as many second acts as possible combinations of options in the introduction.
And we can converge on a third act with a single ending, or have multiple third acts with several endings taking into account the possible combinations of first and second acts.
Here is where we see that the effect is exponential if we are not careful.
So far, this is the obvious solution that came to mind when thinking about this problem.
But well, little by little we will experiment and find other answers.
Do you have anything in mind?