The art of make believe: emergent narrative in games

The truest form of Choose Your Own Adventure

I think at this point it’s pretty clear that my favorite thing about games is how they can tell stories in whole new ways. That usually means games that put narrative design front and center, with cinematic cutscenes or branching storylines that let you choose how characters progress through the plot. One type of narrative design that I don’t think about as often as I should, however, is the idea of emergent storytelling in games, which has been around for years.

What is emergent narrative?

It’s a bit of a complex topic, mainly because emergent storytelling has a ton of crossovers with game systems design. The idea is that emergent stories aren’t plots that have been put there by developers to you find them, but rather stories that you create yourself based on how you play.

These stories happen in just about every game genre, with the only real criteria being that they’re stories the developers didn’t put there intentionally. They might have the tools in place for you to create your own narrative, but you’re the one who has to put the pieces together.

Totally, I didn’t cross half of Hyrule for that Star Fragment… from Breath_of_the_Wild

One of the best ways I’ve heard of to tell if something has an emergent narrative is to tell your friends stories of your time playing the game. You know, the classic “you had to be there” story. “. It’s like trying to tell someone about something great that happened in your Dungeons & Dragons game, or a really cool dream you had. We love sharing these stories regardless – you see them all over Reddit and Twitter.

Stories are written

I recently started playing Pokemon for the first time as an adult, and the way the gameplay is designed, it’s so perfect to make you feel like you’re on your own adventure. I had one of those classic narrow breakouts where I was about to get wiped out by the team, but then one of my bench warmers stepped in to save the day triumphantly, and it was awesome.

The list of video games with these types of stories is endless, open-world games like breath of the wild to punctuate games like beat the saber. While I find conversations about the more structured, traditional types of stories in games can be just as rewarding, there’s something so special, so electric about creating your own stories from the elements that developers have given you. When we give in to the fantasy of the game we’re playing, whatever it may look like, it empowers us to pretend in ways we haven’t done since we were kids. I also love that no one goes into a game thinking “I’m going to make a really cool story”. Instead, those meaningful moments are a direct result of us playing and trying to have a good time.

Gayle, stealing is wrong. by Animal Crossing

Trying to tell other people about our efforts can feel a bit like trying to tell something that happened in a dream – you kind of had to be there, but that’s kind of what makes it important. It was a singular moment where you were the only one there, where you really felt something based on how you chose to interact with a virtual world. Sometimes it’s thrilling, other times it’s dark and emotional, and some of the most enjoyable moments in emergent gameplay are when you’ve accidentally thrown yourself off a cliff, and suddenly you burst a gut. to what ridiculous and futile end the hero of the game has just suffered.

The freedom to explore

There’s a lot of great literature that explains how we can use games to explore new ways of seeing the world. It’s a very low-stakes environment, because no matter what, you can always restart the level, or create a brand new save file, or just stop the game for good. Even with the heaviest in-game consequences, there will never be any real consequences for what we do in a video game, barring obvious exceptions. In a world that demands perpetual perfection of us, being able to step into a space where we can just throw ourselves against the wall to see what sticks without any fear of judgment, I think, is one of the most liberating things we can do. That’s why I like to pick the average dialogue choices in games – it’s not something I do in the real world (or at least try not to).

I’ve invaded someone’s swamp… from Eldenring

Then there’s the world of multiplayer, which offers a whole new set of emergent narrative possibilities. the soulsborne games are an amazing example of emerging multiplayer gameplay, and if you need convincing, go watch any transmitted by blood invasion compilation on youtube. Epic sagas of betrayal, humiliating moments of crushing defeat, genuinely touching moments of unspoken friendship – it’s all there, and all because these situations arise naturally when players interact with each other online. It’s amazing, and it’s so unique to games.

I think that’s what really draws me to all of this. Games can do their best to replicate film or television, or even forge their own path by taking well-known story conventions and reimagining them for the interactive medium, but the kinds of stories that stem from the act of play itself? Only games can do that, and at the risk of sounding so corny, I think it’s beautiful.

This feeling is one of the hardest things to convey to non-gamers, and yet it’s one of the most important things to telegraph if you want them to see why we not only love the art of games themselves, but the art that comes from playing them. Despite my best efforts, there will always be important people in my life who can never understand the gratification and artistic autonomy that comes with the act of acting, and honestly, that makes me really sad for them.

Story Beat is a weekly column covering everything and nothing related to storytelling in video games.

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