TGDC 2021 · Talk
Creating Player Stories
Designing Player-Driven Narrative Experiences
How do we design experiences that players want to tell stories about?
An exploration of how player stories and self-directed experiences emerge, using five dimensions: identity, motivation, challenge, trade-offs and outcomes.
Research Question
Games can do more than deliver a prewritten plot. Their systems and situations can allow players to create stories of their own.
Analytical Framework
The framework organizes design questions around identity, motivation, challenge, trade-offs and outcomes, asking how players understand their situation, make choices and live with the consequences.
Design in Practice
The talk connects this framework to game design practice, examining why player stories are worth sharing and how experiences can be driven by players themselves.
Source: Creating Player Stories (TGDC), original presentation · Slides 1, 8, 11, 14 and 18–26