Setting
What kind of world does the game take place in? Consider the time and place, what kind of society this is, and what different cultures reside there. Also think about the geography and geology, as well as what plants and animal life exist. What are the rules of this universe? For example, is this a place close to mundane reality, or somewhere more magical and fantastic?
The game is set in a contemporary board game shop in a small town / suburban setting. The shop consists of a welcome area with a customer service point and automatic toy dispenser machines, and a small labyrinth of shelves and tables which divide the area into themes:
- Family games (inspired by Ludo, Connect Four, Scrabble, Monopoly, Settlers of Catan)
- The Classics (inspired by chess, checkers, go , backgammon)
- Casino games (inspired by poker, roulette, craps)
- Military/conquest themed games (inspired by wargames such as Tactics and Risk)
- Role Playing Games (inspired by Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer, Pathfinder)
The game begins during a daytime event in which customers are invited to participate in a “collector’s event”, the exact rules of which are not explained, but it is hinted that it would involve completing a collection and receiving mysterious rewards from the shop. Like a typical business, the shop closes at night.
As focus shifts to the playable areas of the shop, the player enters a magical reality setting where inanimate objects – dice, game pieces and figurines – can move on their own, produce sounds, and even channel personality traits. The terrain traversed is built out of table tops and game boards matching the level theme. Throughout the gameplay loop of completing levels in the playable areas, and organising their collection in the shop, the player will dip in and out of this magical reality setting.
Characters
Who are the main protagonists and antagonists in this world? Do they follow or contradict established archetypes, such as the hero, the mentor, the villain, the monster or the princess? What do the characters want that motivates them to take actions within the story? Who or what is the ‘mascot’ that features prominently in the game’s marketing?
Game shop reality
No human characters are visible on-screen; their presence is implied by the environment – i.e. the game shop is in business and information about ongoing events is displayed on posters and cards scattered across the levels, and ultimately is the one that awards the player upon completion of the main quest. Since the game shop staff communicates mostly through those printed messages, a consistent branding is maintained throughout.
The player is also implied to be human; they are given a prompt to enter their name at the beginning of the game via a sign-up form. This name is then referenced when the shop recognises the player’s achievement upon completing the game.
In Gameplay
The Player 🎲
The player’s avatar in the magical reality is a 6-sided classic Western (of clockwise chirality) die. The die is a vessel that the player drives to fulfill their fantasy of collecting, and can be customised itself through a combination of six designs and six materials.
Proposed designs include: Standard Western, Standard Eastern, Arabic numbers, Fantasy/Elven, Futuristic neon, Words, Pixel pattern
Proposed materials include: White solid resin, Green acrylic, Red acrylic, Aluminium, Stone, Monolith black, Fuzzy pink
Standard enemies
The enemies are (usually) plastic game pieces, inspired by those found in real-world games. Many of their pieces can move in pre-set patterns, and they are tied to their environment (e.g. a plastic ship sails through a game board that represents the sea).
Enemies, when defieted by the player, become “collected” and can be viewed (as inanimate models) in the player’s storage outside of the level gameplay.
The pieces, grouped together, form “sets”, with six pieces to each set:
Escaped Heroes
The last ‘Hero’ set contains a group of five humanoid-shaped figurines inspired by tabletop roleplaying character archetypes, and a sixth piece called the Game Master – the final obstacle of the game represented in the magical environment by a D20 die (it does not have a counterpart in the “human” world).
Those heroes are explicitly mentioned in the game shop posters as missing from the shop’s collection, with a reward for finding them. At the end of each stage, upon completion, the player can see one of the heroes – however, the figues flee and the player is unable to collect them. Those elements make the figures attempt to have more agency than the abstract non-humanoid game pieces.
The heroes then return and are collectible as the final set of enemies in the last level. Each have movement patterns inspired by their archetype and are more challenging to collect or avoid than other enemies. The D20 Game Master “boss” represents the greatest challenge.
Note to address later: Whereas in classic Western storytelling there is often a theme of a “good” protagonist breaking away from an “evil” order, here the player appears to “hunt down” pieces imbued with individuality, and act in line with the collector’s fantasy to bring order to the world. The player may question why the heroes are escaping, and the player’s right to stop them, which challenges the morality of their quest.
Plot
What happens in the story? Does the plot follow an established structure such as the hero’s journey, or murder mystery? If so, how do the different elements of those structures translate to gameplay? What conflicts drive events forward? How can the overarching plot be broken down into smaller gameplay segments? How does the plot resolve – does the hero save the day, or is life never that simple?
The plot elements aim to complement the game in an unobtrusive manner. Therefore, the plot can be completely ignored. However, for interested players, the aim is to provide a bit more dramatic impact as they progress through the game, and reinforces the fantasy of being on a quest to complete a collection and chase after rare pieces.
Dan Harmon’s Story Circle influenced the design of the plot, although the story beats don’t necessarily strongly correspond to each of its eight stages (Schoder 2016).
| What is going on? | How does the environment change? | How do the mechanics change? | Which level/theme can be played? |
|---|---|---|---|
| YOU. You are a player with nothing but a plain die. | Game shop posters welcome all board game enthusiasts to the event. | Player is prompted to enter their name | |
| NEED. You play through the first, ordinary level | The game shop promotes a mysterious reward for completion. You encounter The Warrior, but he gets away. | World 1 – ‘Family Friendly Fun’ | |
| GO. The shop gifts you an accessory holder | You can now access your inventory between levels and see your collection | ||
| SEARCH 1. You work through the themed levels | Game shop posters advertise for missing Hero pieces | World 2 – ‘Friendship Destroyer’ World 3 – ‘The Classics’ | |
| SEARCH 2. The shop is closed for the night, you are locked inside | The lighting and environmental sounds in the shop change | World 4 – ‘Dirty Money’, World 5 – ‘In Love and War’ | |
| FIND / TAKE. You fight through the last level to collect the Hero figurines | World 6 – ‘The Fate of the World’ | ||
| RETURN. The shop reopens | The lighting and environmental sounds in the shop change. | ||
| CHANGE. You have finished the hunt of your life | There is now a diorama displayed in the shop with the player’s name on it. It contains all the figurines collected. Bonus: completing all items enables fancier lighting in the diorama. | You can view a diorama in the shop. |
Mood
How should the player be feeling while they play through the game and experience the story? Perhaps they should be scared, excited, awed, relaxed or amused at different points. How do you establish these moods? Is the gameplay in harmony with the story: how can you avoid ‘ludonarrative dissonance’?
The game, at various points, creates excitement for the player.
During the gameplay in levels, excitement is created as the player encounters new types of previously unseen obstacles, which can be added to the collection. As levels progress, stronger enemies will appear and more navigational challenges will be presented. The strongest pieces (value 6) cannot be collected without a time-limited, respawning power-up that doubles the player’s attack power.
In between levels, points from collecting sets can be redeemed for a random polybag containing a die design. The process of redeeming it is suspenseful. Unlocked pieces fall into the player’s storage box with physics enabled, so unlocking many pieces at the same time while traversing the level is extra satisfying.
Initially the mood of the game is bright – the player spends time inside of a shop full of cheerful family games laid out on wooden tables. After World 3, the murmur of others quiets down, and ambient daylight is replaced by dimmer, night-time spot lighting with more drastic shadows. This change happens as the player enters a level themed after casinos and murder mysteries. Therefore, the atmosphere for the later levels becomes more mysterious, maybe a little scary.
The overarching plot of chasing after the Hero set is meant to inspire the player to progress. The Heroes behave like prey – flee at first, and when finally encountered in their native world – agressive and dangerous to the player.
When the player emerges from the magical world after their final quest, the world is sunlit, bright, and contemporary again – the same as when the game started – reinforcing the idea that the player is back in the ordinary world.
Narrative Structure
At what point do we enter the story? For example, do we start from a position of stability, which is later disrupted, or do we jump straight into the action, and fill in the backstory later? Remember the power of mystery to keep the audience engaged. Does the game take place in one continuous flow of time, or does it jump around? Are there multiple protagonists or narrators?
The player enters the story with no collection – or even a means to store a collection. Throughout the game, we not only have an opportunity to complete a set, but we are also rewarded with recognition from the game shop. Therefore, the game enables us to experience the entire ‘Heroes’s Journey’.
The flow of time is uninterrupted, and the events leading up to the final challenge take place over a single day-night cycle.
The player will complete many small cycles of ‘submerging’ and ’emerging’ from the ‘magical’ world of moving game pieces – once per level in fact. The game shop setting is an anchor to reality and opportunity to browse an ordered collection. While playing through the levels, the player is thrown into a world of chaos, with scattered and dangerous pieces.
Storytelling Techniques
What methods are used to tell the story? For example, narration, illustrations, comic strips, cut-scenes, FMV (full motion video), dialogue, quests, audiologs, environmental storytelling and level design. Does the player have to do a lot of passive reading, watching or listening? What is the balance between story exposition and gameplay?
Environmental storytelling will be responsible for delivering the bulk of the story. The game shop leaves plenty of branded posters, cards and fliers used to communicate with customers. These can give the player an idea of who they are and what they are doing in the game world (“Welcome all board game enthusiasts to our special event”), and present the player with goals (“Special reward for completing the challenge”, “Wanted: missing figurine set”).
Text content will be minimal with a clear design hierarchy, so that the player is able to read the posters while moving.
The lighting in the game store will change twice mid-game for dramatic effect and to signify the passage of time.
All of the above will create an experience where the mechanics of the gameplay come first, and the story comes second. The player will not be interrupted or restricted from playing the game by story events.
Interactivity
How much agency does the player have in how the story unfolds? Are they just going along for the ride, or can their decisions change the course of events? What is the relationship between the main protagonist or avatar, and the player? Is the protagonist a silent blank-slate for the player to project themselves onto, or are they a well-defined character with desires and motivations?
The story is entirely linear.
The protagonist is a blank slate for the player – they are given the choice to name themselves. Their main choice during gameplay is whether to collect sets or avoid enemies. It is possible to complete the entire game playing with just a the die from the beginning of the game; still the player will be rewarded with new dice after each level and some game pieces will be inevitably collected, so the player always ends up being a collector.
The player may choose to complete every set of enemies, which will result in a visual enhancement to the diorama display rewarded at the end of the game. The diorama is meant to feel like a personal achievement, emphasized by the prominent display of the player’s name.
Arranging pieces
A feature that will likely not make it into the prototype due to time constraints, but would resonate with the player’s fantasy, would be enabling the player to arrange the game pieces in their storage/diorama:
For some, the satisfaction comes from experimenting with arranging, re-arranging, and classifying parts of a-big-world-out-there, which can serve as a means of control to elicit a comfort zone in one’s life
(McKinley 2007), on motivations of collectors
Theme
Is there an overall theme or meaning to the game’s narrative? What is the player supposed to have learned by the end of it?
The themes of the game work in tandem with the main mechanics to deliver a cohesive experience. The three core mechanics of the game are:
- Controlling a 6-sided die
- Moving to the beat
- Rolling over obstacles
Controlling a die elicits a theme of tabletop gaming – traversing game boards, tables and shelves. Many board game-themed obstacles can be encountered. The player is therefore someone interested in board games and owning plastic, often collectible trinkets. Moving to the beat and rolling over obstacles are tied to performing quick, simple arithmetic in rule-based scenarios – such as winning RPG encounters and solving puzzles. The themes of conquering and collecting can be subsequently be reinforced by mechanics that push the player to seek out, collect, and enjoy their collection. This way, we arrive at three themes: collecting, tabletop gaming, and puzzle solving.
At the intersection of those themes is the player fantasy – the ‘thrill of the chase‘. It refers to the experience of working towards completing a collection (as opposed to bying complete sets upfront).
Fulfilment of this fantasy is enabled by many parts of the game:
- Providing the player with empty piece slots to fill and promising rewards to look forward to
- Teasing with the Hero set which can be obtained later in the game
- Being part of a special event in the game shop
- Designing shiny, aesthetically pleasing collectibles
- Being locked in the shop at night with nothing else to care about in the world
References
FALMOUTH UNIVERSITY. 2021. “Week 4 – Challenge Activity – Narrative Design Document.” flex.falmouth.ac.uk [online]. Available at: https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/921/discussion_topics/19925?module_item_id=49279 [accessed 20 Feb 2021].
MCKINLEY, Mark. 2007. “The Psychology of Collecting.” The National Psychologist [online]. Available at: https://nationalpsychologist.com/2007/01/the-psychology-of-collecting/10904.html [accessed 18 Feb 2021].
SCHODER, Will. 2016. “Every Story Is the Same.” YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuD2Aa0zFiA [accessed 7 Dec 2019].
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