Narrative Theory Series
Storyworlds
Designing Games & Interactive Stories
The Least Developed Area of Narrative Theory
It is probably true to say that the least theorized aspect of narrative is storyworld. Aristotle’s Poetics focused on Time (beginning, middle, end), Character (consistency of traits) and Action (the primary dramatic representation). In the ~2500 years since the Poetics, these are still dominant themes in narrative understanding, research and commentary, to which the 20th century added important new areas of exploration, such as cultural codes (e.g. semiotics, post-colonialism), audience reception and identity (e.g. feminism, queer studies).
Perhaps the reason that storyworld has been so under-theorized is that it is literally the background — the settings, spaces, objects — amongst which characters enact their conflicts in their dramatic arcs or episodic moments. The storyworld is often ‘just’ the background, and these other elements are foregrounded in our attention. So, to think about storyworld is literally to bring the background into the foreground of our focus and consideration. Also, it is far more important than that ‘just’ might imply.
To add some empirical evidence to the claim that storyworld is vastly under-theorized compared to almost any other aspect of narrative, let’s look at the article frequency search results in the JSTOR academic database under some key terms:
Action: ~2,300,000
Character: ~1,800,000
Story: ~1,500,000
Narrative: ~782,000
Virtual Worlds: ~141,000
Feminism: ~121,000
Postcolonialism: ~68,000
Semiotics: ~37,000
Story World: 1232
Storyworld: 385
This gives a sense as to the relative interest in storyworld in a major arts and humanities academic database compared to other items often associated with narrative in general, and interactive narrative in particular (note, for example, that the comparison term ‘virtual worlds’ returns more hits than ‘feminism’! That’s a bit of a shocker). So while this is not the most sophisticated or rigorous method for measuring researcher interest in Storyworlds, it does paint in broad strokes rather accurately the relative uncovered terrain of storyworld in narrative and media theories generally.
So while much content in the preceding online lectures have focused on temporal aspects of narrative — the sequencing of events (linear or multi-linear), Three Act structure, peaks and valleys of emotional tension, decision trees — or character conflicts that drive narrative progression — with storyworld we have to set our sights firmly on the background and surrounds of narrative actions and events. All events happen somewhere, and space is rich in symbolic meanings, structures, principles and details of narrative organization, and as most media are spatial in some way, connects to perceptual and material dimensions of mediated content.
Thus space is also not only represented in the narrative (e.g. a house, a spaceship, a cockpit, a barn, a restaurant, a police station), but the narrative media also has its own spatial configuration: a living room with a coffee table full of game controllers, a dark theater with recliner seats, a dining table with role playing gamers sitting around it, a mobile device accessed on a subway platform, a VR arcade, or just a comfy chair to sit in for reading a novel or comic book. This ‘media space for narrative’ is not the storyworld per se, though it can be activated by a narrative (e.g. through Direct Address.) or simply presumed to be there for the narrative to unfold in the first place.
Storyworld can refer to the specific Locations, Positions, Arrangements, Directions, Orientations and Movements of Environments in which Characters Live & Act. Storyworlds can be composed of the transitory spaces that surround characters at particular moments, or may be made up of multiple worlds that constitute a whole narrative universe. Also, sometimes the real-world situations of audiences can come into consideration, e.g. viewing distance of film goers, virtual reality headgear, controllers and UI interfaces, etc.
Unpacking Storyworld
The notion of storyworld in many ways is a term in search of a concept, or a noun in search of a formal definition. Many people use this term but it can be used to mean so many things that it tends to default into being a kind of word that defines itself. Storyworld by itself makes sense– it means the world of the story! But that says both too much and too little at the same time.
Storyworld can also mean the internal logic of space and time in a narrative. Fictional universes after all can have alternative physics, so that what is cause and effect in our world may be different in a fictional one. The short film The Man Without a Head is interesting in this regard, because the world it depicts is in most ways perfectly normal– the only thing ‘off’ is that the protagonist is lacking a head. Other than that little detail, its storyworld is pretty normal and straightforward: old world Europe, Victorian era etc. described online as “a big industrial city by the sea.”
Storyworlds allow you to perform certain kinds of actions in that world. These can be the actions of your avatar or the actions of NPCs (non-player characters). Many virtual environments surround you with things that do things in the storyworld that you have to figure out. The world is everything that surrounds the actions of the character(s), and often offers specific affordances in the objects of that world to support new actions.
Let’s dig into this list a little bit. Mise-en-scène is a term used in film and theater, which means “placing on stage.” Here’s an interesting historical anecdote: the Greek word for “scene” means “tent” and some historians think that the original backstage area of ancient Greek theater was the famous Tent of Xerxes. captured during the Persian Wars, which you can also see in the film 300.
Probably many of you have seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens. But how many of you know that the big snow planet of Starkiller base was the gutted out, rehabbed & repurposed snow planet Illum originally located in the Unknown Regions and home to the Kyber Crystals which are the key ingredient of lightsabers?
Well maybe you know this, maybe not, this is just one fan “theory” of what planet Starkiller base was made out of. However, we now know that US elections can be won just by spouting unproven conspiracy theories, so why not? I say it is, and that means that now there are no more kyber crystals to make lightsabers out of which, due to laws of supply and demand, will make the price for light sabers go up on eBay.
The point of this aside, of course, is that Storyworlds can have very elaborate made up fictional histories, even more convoluted than Middle Earth or the Infinity Stones, and that the elements of Storyworlds can be densely self-referential and intertextual.
Space has generally been neglected in narrative theory which, since Aristotle, has been preoccupied by Action. Increasingly narratologists are considering narrative from the perspective of world-building, no doubt in part due to all the immersive technologies that are now common for experiencing narrative.
Real spaces can be used to produce interactive narratives. This can range from haunted house style walkthroughs to escape rooms to theme parks. A great advantage of this format is that you don’t have to encumber your body with extensive technical apparatus. A downside of course is that you need the space! Economically, real spaces will have an entirely different business model compared to media that circulate, like games, books and films, because circulating media depends on sales by number of copies sold.
With blockbuster film franchises, there is usually an associated effort to ‘spill over’ into as many different types of experiences and products as possible. Thus we have Star Wars hotels and Spiderman roller coasters. The films and games that take in hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars in revenue have the resources to create their narratives at architectural and theme park real world spatial scales. This is a different kind of immersion, because the narrative world in essence takes over ‘the real real world’ and you can imagine you have actually been transported inside of the storyworld without needing the usual kinds of media technologies like screens, speakers and handheld controllers.
Related Articles
Narrative in Analog & Digital Media
Narrative Continuity vs Poetic Montage
The Structure of Narrative Time
The Fourth Wall & Direct Address
Fact, Fiction & Narrative Contestation
Character Interactions and Narrative Progression
Agency in Interactive Narrative
Bibliography & Further Reading
- A Game Design Vocabulary: Exploring the Foundational Principles Behind Good Game Design by Anna Anthropy and Naomi Clark
- A Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Koster
- Advanced Game Design: A Systems Approach by Michael Sellers
- An Introduction to Game Studies by Frans Mayra
- Basics of Game Design by Michael Moore
- Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made by Jason Schreier
- Board Game Design Advice: From the Best in the World vol 1 by Gabe Barrett
- Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design: an Encyclopedia Of Mechanisms by Geoffrey Engelstein and Isaac Shalev
- Character Development and Storytelling for Games by Lee Sheldon
- Chris Crawford on Game Design by Chris Crawford
- Clockwork Game Design by Keith Burgun
- Elements of Game Design by Robert Zubek
- Film Art by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson
- Fundamentals of Game Design by Ernest Adams
- Fundamentals of Puzzle and Casual Game Design by Ernest Adams
- Game Design Foundations by Brenda Romero
- Game Design Workshop by Tracy Fullerton
- Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design by Ernest Adams and Joris Dormans
- Game Writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames edited by Chris Bateman
- Games, Design and Play: A detailed approach to iterative game design by Colleen Macklin and John Sharp
- Interactive Narratives and Transmedia Storytelling, by Kelly McErlean
- Introduction to Game Systems Design by Dax Gazaway
- Kobold Guide to Board Game Design by Mike Selinker, David Howell, et al
- Kobold’s Guide to Worldbuilding edited by Janna Silverstein
- Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design, 2nd Edition by Scott Rogers
- Narrating Space / Spatializing Narrative: Where Narrative Theory and Geography Meet by Marie-Laure Ryan, Kenneth Foote, et al.
- Narrative Theory: A Critical Introduction by Kent Puckett
- Narrative Theory: Core Concepts and Critical Debates by David Herman, James Phelan, et al.
- Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative, Fourth Edition by Mieke Bal
- Practical Game Design by Adam Kramarzewski and Ennio De Nucci
- Procedural Storytelling in Game Design by Tanya X. Short and Tarn Adams
- Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing by Wendy Despain
- Rules of Play by Salen and Zimmerman
- Storyworlds Across Media: Toward a Media-Conscious Narratology (Frontiers of Narrative) by Marie-Laure Ryan, Jan-Noël Thon, et al
- Tabletop Game Design for Video Game Designers by Ethan Ham
- The Art of Game Design, 3rd Edition by Jesse Schell
- The Board Game Designer’s Guide: The Easy 4 Step Process to Create Amazing Games That People Can’t Stop Playing by Joe Slack
- The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative by H. Porter Abbott
- The Grasshopper, by Bernard Suits
- The Johns Hopkins Guide to Digital Media, by by Marie-Laure Ryan, Lori Emerson and Benjamin J. Robertson
- The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies by Bernard Perron and Mark J.P. Wolf
- The Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory by David Herman
- The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design by Flint Dille & John Zuur Platten
- Unboxed: Board Game Experience and Design by Gordon Calleja
- Video Game Storytelling: What Every Developer Needs to Know about Narrative Techniques by Evan Skolnick
- Writing for Video Game Genres: From FPS to RPG edited by Wendy Despain
- Writing for Video Games by Steve Ince
- 100 Principles of Game Design by DESPAIN
