The Character of Play

What the talk is about

Matthew Turner argues that character and gameplay should not be treated as separate parts of a game. He compares games to 1930s film, which still copied theater before finding its own tools. His central idea is ludonarrative harmony: what the player does should match who the character is. Strong examples include Mario, Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2, The Last of Us, Inside and Breath of the Wild, while Kate Diaz in Gears of War 5 is a weaker fit. He advises defining a project's fixed constraints and the experience you want to give players, then deciding whether character or mechanics comes first. He closes by looking ahead, using the early survival phase of Minecraft as a model. Useful for game designers and narrative designers.