Conflict: The Real Substance of a Story

Gamasutra: What Every Game Developer Needs to Know About Story by John Sutherland

"Story is a universal human experience"

"Story is conflict"

A classical story structure involves:

1) The hero/protagonist

2) His or her world is thrown out of order by an inciting incident.

3) Hero tries to live life normal, but the state of the world makes it too hard.

4) Hero then takes a risk to try to fix the problems stopping him/her to live his normal life. 

5) (This is a reversal) Something new happens, or the hero learns something new which drags him/her further into the problems in the world.

6) Hero takes bigger risks to overcome these problems.

7) (Another reversal) Something drags the hero into a position where he/she must deal with the core of the problem in order to reach whatever it was he or she desires. (ex: saving someone important or living a normal life)

3 Acts is a minimum, and a good goal for a game.

Reversals happen through actions or revelations which changes everything for the protagonist.

A good reversal adds new information to what you already knew, which flips everything upside down.

An example of a good reversal is: You initially had an enemy person or faction, but as the story unfolds, you find out that there is a new enemy which is threatening both you, and your initial enemy. This new information leaves you unsure where the real problem lies.


Another good reversal is where you were tricked into taking a wrong choice due to having limited information. And you have to deal with the consequences once the whole truth unfolds (ex: Metal Gear Solid 1, you activate metal gear yourself)


In the end Your hero has to cause the ending.

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The Character:

Character is what the hero chooses to do when given particular situations.

A good story must put pressure in the form of difficult decisions on the hero to bring out their character.

The rest of the characters should be designed around the protagonist in order to bring out more of his/her character as well.

The world should be designed to constantly oppose the player.

Whenever something is accomplished by the hero a 'reversal' should come into play to give the hero reason to keep on going.

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Types of Conflict:

conflicts are expressed with different levels of visuals and speech.

Personal: 

-conflict within the protagonist's head. 

-expressed naturally in novels.

Interpersonal: 

-conflict with another person.

-expressed through speech.

External: 

-conflict with society or the world.

-expressed through visuals and actions.

Usually, external conflict is more ideal for games as it brings out motive for actions you'd find in a game.

Bringing out empathy for the protagonist is easy in games because you are playing as that person.

This raises a new problem though, your ability to make choices (since you act as the protagonist) are limited.

Since the player is in action, unlike in movies, less dialog is needed. Something like a 3 minute action scene that you would find in a movie, can be stretched because as a player you are in action and thus won't get bored.

It is a good practice for games to have the player 'do' the story when possible, and only show it, if it is out of the player's control.

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Games Need a Writer

Story writer needs to be involved from the beginning of the game but the designer, the artist, the sound creator and the developer all play a part in how well the story is told as well.

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This has been a very interesting reading as it demonstrates a common structure that as game players we have seen used successfully over and over in the games that we play.