Narrative Mechanics: How Games Speak Through Gameplay

What the talk is about

Maria Kochakova argues that narrative design is not about text, dialogue or cutscenes, but about how the player perceives and experiences a game. Games have their own language, gameplay and mechanics, which film and literature lack. She builds on the idea that action produces emotion, and shows through ancient board games and an arcade game about nuclear threat how a mechanic can carry meaning without a single word. She separates a story written in advance from one the player creates, as in Minecraft. She names two kinds of narrative mechanics: coherence, where gameplay matches the story (examples from The Witcher), and metaphor, which adds meaning on top of a mechanic (an example from Inside). Useful for writers, game designers and narrative designers, especially on indie teams.