on writing games

gameplay and plot devices

A plot device can make or break a story.

A well-written one can give you an unparalleled way to resolve a situation.

But a poorly written one, and there are many of these, can bring down everything you previously built, no matter how good it was.

That is why, as writers, we have to be especially careful when including them in our narrative.

And how is this affected when we talk about interactive storytelling?

As always, we come back to managing expectations: we have to be very attentive because a plot device can become a gameplay expectation.

In the interview I shared with you in the previous email, Aureus comments the following:

In Roadwarden, there’s an abandoned watchtower standing by the eastern road. I locked it behind wooden doors, but it made no sense to me that a player couldn’t enter it another way.

One of the options he added is that the player can destroy the door (a plot device that allows them to enter the tower).

Then he continues:

And since I make the door destructible, I then had to make similar choices whenever there’s another barrier of similar “destructibility.” One secret passage may be opened with a special amulet. But it can also be shattered with a set of tools if the player was to find them.

This level of attention is what interactive stories demand from us.

If a door can be broken, it becomes a gameplay element, breaking doors i a mechanic now. and we have to consider it in all the doors (literal or figurative) that we put in our game.

Did you feel betrayed by any game that built an expectation to not satisfy it consistently afterwards?