Analysis Writings
Written analysis of narrative in games
Summary:
Over the course of my Interactive Narrative classes at Champlain college, a common assignment type was to play a game and write a paper analyzing and deconstructing either a specific aspect of how the game conveyed narrative, or the game's narrative overall. The primary goal of this was to demonstrate understanding of narrative design, and how it could mix with other gameplay mechanics.
Example Excerpts:
"...Hollow Knight pulls one extra trick to guide this along: almost every major method you have of seeking out lore has a more direct mechanical reward. The Dream Nail refills your Soul Meter as well as sharing the enemy's thoughts, and Artifacts give both dialogue and money when sold. This helps both to coax unfamiliar players into interacting with the world’s backstory, and to make the players who already seek out lore feel as if their efforts are rewarded and recognized."
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"...The player is almost never taken out of a gameplay state for exposition, which does wonders for the paranoid horror of the game. You don’t have to be prepared for something with eight limbs and an antisocial personality disorder to come flying out of the vents towards your delicious neckmeat at mach 7 if you’re in a cutscene, so the game never puts you in one. This subliminally hints to the player that they are never safe, which really immerses them in the scary atmosphere of a derelict spaceship."
Reflection:
These assignments were quite fun for me, and I am proud of how well I was able to break down design and narrative decisions. In the process of thinking about these games, I was able to recognize the systems and choices they put into place, and in turn use those myself.
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More important than my own enjoyment of the writing work was that my papers were clearly understandable to others. I got an excellent grade on all of the assignments, and every point I made was conveyed to the readers, as evidenced by the positive feedback I got from my peers.