Common game structures
Games are a medium for interaction and storytelling. While both of these elements often go hand in hand, there are times in which the story crafted by the developer and the player’s personal story (as told by their actions and experiences) differ widely.
Our medium is great at creating interactive systems and letting players loose within them, yet the stories we tell in our games often fall back onto the tropes, conventions, and static structures found in books or movies.
While it’s possible to implement heavily interactive storylines with dozens of branching paths, and even systems that create and assemble the story procedurally (for example, Road 96 and 80 Days), it can be a risky endeavor, and the same development effort is often better placed with core gameplay mechanics.
After all, everyone will interact with gameplay systems, but only a small minority will explore all possible story branches. This is why, in most cases, games tend...
