Interactive Storytelling Summer 2022

Interactive story telling in games

Before I took this course, if I I was asked what an interactive story was, I would only think of just plot points/ decisions that affected the end of the game, and if it did not affect the game, then it did not matter. But now I have found a new respect for all forms of interactivity in a game after actually trying to implement one myself. So, I would like to use this post to point out interactive story telling in some games and why I feel like they are interactive.

Finding letters in the last of us

In The Last of Us, you find a farewell letter from Bill's late partner. If you give to him, he'll crumple it and toss it away. When you pick it up again,
Last of us image from

I feel like this is interactive because sometimes these letters aren’t placed in places that players would see, and the player would have to interact with the world, and go off the main path to find them, and these letters tend to have stories about other characters in the game, or what it was like before the infection started.

Dialog options in the ghost of tsushima

Ghost of Tsushima DIRECTOR'S CUT - Samurai's New Groove | BGeek
Ghost of tsushima from here

Whike the dialog options don’t change anything story wise, it does help provide some more context on characters in the game, and it also helps you understand their lore more depending on what you pick.

Blue dialog in cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077: Conversations with NPCs, dialogue options - Cyberpunk 2077 Guide | gamepressure.com
Cyberpunk 2077 from here

In the game cyberpunk 2077, when given dialog options, they usually come in two colors, where the yellow one affects the game/story, while the blue one is more lore based, and does not change anything.

These are some of the games I can think of that I have played where at first I did not appreciate the interactive story telling, but now I do.

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umar.hassan

If you’ve lost your way in the IFStravaganza, you can always go back to the beginning.

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One response to “Interactive story telling in games”

  1. sean.bayansan Avatar
    sean.bayansan

    These are great examples of interactivity in games. I’d also like to mention another from a game called Tyranny. It has a heavy interactive element to it with the ability to make important decisions that impact the direction of the story. However it also has another element to add to the game’s immersion and make the player’s choices really matter. Characters will not only actively mention decisions you’ve made in the past, but there will also be green text which you can hover over that will detail what certain characters are talking about to remind the player about certain pieces of lore, or decisions they have made during the prologue and throughout the game.

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