Narrative Design - Structure

Narrative Components

Base Components

Videogame Components

Characters

Main Characters: Those on which the main plot is developed. These are:

Protagonist: It is the main character that appears in the beginning to the end of the story.
Antagonist: It is the character who opposes the ideas of the protagonist.

Secondary: Those of less importance than the previous ones, are part of the story and can accompany the main character. Some examples are:

Dynamic: It has little participation, this character also changes within the story.
Static: They are only mentioned, it does not change within the story.

Narrator - Character: When the narrator speaks in the first person, then he is known as a character narrator and is a participant in the story he tells.
Narrator - Witness or Objective: Relates the events in the third person as an observer.
Narrator - Omniscient: He is the one who speaks, in the third person, knows the feelings and thoughts of the characters as well as the facts.

Linear: The events are narrated from the beginning to the end. With beginning, middle and end.
Chronological: It is when the events are narrated in a logical or sequential way.
Atmospheric: It refers to the weather conditions of a place where the events occur.
Anticipation: It is a time closely linked to imagination and deduction, since it has the difficult task of telling what is supposed to happen in the future or what will happen long after the fact.
Prospecting or flash forward: It is a leap in history towards the future, the events that will happen are narrated.
Retrospection or flashback: It is a jump in history towards what happened, past events are narrated.
On point: Rupture of the temporal sequence.

Linear/Chronological: When the author tells a story in chronological order. This structure can include flashbacks, but the majority of the narrative is told in the order that it occurs. Most books tend to fall under this narrative structure. (Examples: Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Shrek).
Nonlinear/Fractured: A nonlinear structure tells the story out of chronological order, jumping disjointedly through the timeline. David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas is an example of this narrative structure, as it switches between multiple characters at different points in time (Examples: Dark, Star Wars, Others).
Circular: In a circular narrative, the story ends where it began. Although the starting and ending points are the same, the character(s) undergo a transformation, affected by the story's events. S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders is an example of circular narrative structure.
Parallel: In parallel structure, the story follows multiple storylines, which are tied together through an event, character, or theme. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby or the movie Finding Nemo are both examples of this structure.
Interactive: The reader makes choices throughout the interactive narrative, leading to new options and alternate endings. These stories are most prominent as "choose your own adventure" books.