Select one example to outline the key concepts of the interactive narrative genre:

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is a Choose Your Own Adventure book released in 1982 and written by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson. The book is centred around 3 attributes assigned to the player: Skill, stamina and luck, which are related to swordsmanship, determination and overall fitness, and how lucky you are as a player, respectively. You use these attributes to fight enemies (or flee) and try to make the correct decisions to get the best ending possible. After making decisions you are told to turn to a specific page to continue that narrative, and eventually you will reach an ending, which may be bad or good depending on your actions. While typical fiction books are one-sided, as you can only watch a story unfold, in interactive narrative games such as these you are responsible for the character’s journey, making these very engaging books to follow along with. While there may be limits to the story you can create, the uncertainty that comes with making a decision means the story is never predictable.

Does the interactive narrative still have a role to play in video games today? Give exemplary examples

Yes absolutely, and I would argue that the role they play in video games is greater than ever, as the possibility for more immersive stories and worlds only increases as technology advances. Games such as Telltale’s The Walking Dead: Season One and Life Is Strange offer impressive and believable worlds for players to create their own story in; you feel like your choices make a difference. While often gameplay must be sacrificed for story, as game developers usually don’t have enough resources to focus fully on both, more recent games such as Life as Strange have a brilliantly structured interactive narrative but also fun mechanics, such as being able to turn back time. This balance has helped to keep the genre fresh at a time where gaming is at its most ambitious; recent open world games are bigger and denser than ever, but engaging games like Life is Strange are equally as appealing.

Another way that Life is Strange has revitalised the genre is through your choices actually seeming to make an impact. While Telltale’s The Walking Dead may make it seem like there are a string of different directions you can take the game in, inevitably they all lead to the same ending, and this is typical with all Telltale games. However, in Life is Strange, even the smallest decisions seems to have a weight on how the story will go, which eventually help to shape your decision at the end of the game. While the structure of the two games are very similar, Life Is Strange is different in that your story can feel very different to someone else’s because of how you choose the behaviour of the protagonist. I believe interactive narrative is still evolving in games and certainly has a big role to play.

Cyoa. (n.d.). One Book, Many Readings. Retrieved from Cyoa: http://samizdat.cc/cyoa

Green, J. (2014). You Are The Hero. UK: Snowbooks.

Nicholson, R. (1982). The Warlock of Firetop Mountain.

Dale North. (2015). Even the smallest choices matter in Life is Strange (preview). Retrieved from Venturebeat: https://venturebeat.com/2015/01/26/even-the-smallest-choices-matter-in-life-is-strange-preview/

Image 1: https://venturebeat.com/2015/01/26/even-the-smallest-choices-matter-in-life-is-strange-preview/