Narrative Design - Terminology

Narrative Is the representation of temporally and causally connected events in a meaningful way.

Plot Is an account of dramatic tension, the organized experience of the game, created by a conflict and experienced as a result of a jeopardy or challenge.

Story Is a layer of narrative, the other being Text and Plot. It is a series of logically and chronologically related events caused or experienced by actors. Not to be confused with Game Story.

Game Story Is what happens in a game, the flow of events that can be described separate of gameplay. It is the mental image of events left with a player.

Pace Is the rate of escalation and release, of how often the tension is being increased and relieved within a story.

Game Is a “problem solving activity, approached with a playful attitude”. In the context of this work, game is to be understood as computer, console, handheld or mobile games.

Videogame Is a type of game which requires a device of some kind to be accessed and played. There are many kinds of devices; consoles, mobiles, handheld and of course the Personal Computer.

Traditional Media Within the scope of this work, is used to refer to literature, film and television, unless otherwise specified.

Interactive Fiction Is a genre of videogames in which most of the players’ interactions with the game world are through text or dialogue.

Emergent Narrative Is generally used to express that the narrative is generated via player interactions with the game, and isn’t pre-written.

In-engine Is generally used in the context of cut scenes which are created on the fly with the same game software as is experienced by the player.

Cut scene Is a brief cinematic story or character moment, often presented to the player at specific moments in a game and generally contain interactions not available to the player.

cRPG Is the acronym for computer Role-Playing Game. Common attribute of Role-Playing Games is the player playing a specific character and role of their own choice, and having the freedom to approach problems based on those choices.

Bullet Time Is a cinematic effect best known from The Matrix in which the very short duration of a bullet’s flight is stretched out and presented in slow motion. The first usage of Bullet Time in games was in Remedy Entertainment’s Max Payne.

The Golden Path Is the sum total, the optimal route, through a game required to complete the game, most often used in the context of games with a linear story structure. It is common for the player to be allowed to momentarily deviate from the Golden Path, but often these side paths are created so they quickly bring the player back to the main path.

Game World Consists of all the, often fictional, locations in which a game takes place.

Storyworld Is used to describe the world in which a game’s story and characters exist, but it is separate from Game World in that it is the players’ mental construction of the Game World as a response to making sense of the narrative space, and as such encompasses more than just the existing and interactable locations of the Game World.

NPC Is the acronym for Non-player character, a term borrowed from Role-Playing Games; a character in a videogame story not controlled by any player.

MMORPG Is the acronym for Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing game, a group of game genres where often hundreds of players are connected to a single world simultaneously and can interact with each other.