Narrative Spaces

“Game designers don’t simply tell stories; they design worlds and sculpt space”

When talking about games people will often remember the spaces more so than the narrative, basically saying that even though most games will come with great storylines and themes but the majority of players will look back at the playable environment like its cities and outer worlds.

A good example would be Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim as regardless of its huge tree style narrative where the player can follow the linear storyline and complete the game, or they can follow that path later or in between doing other series of story paths in the game. This gives the player almost complete freedom to roam throughout the game and to choose when to go back to work on quests.

This example of game play is my absolute favourite kind of gaming as I love the feeling of freedom to explore a virtual world that is not bound to linear pathways.

In my opinion an opposite of this would be games from the Kingdom Heart series as the Player is mostly limited to selected pathways within each level. The only flexibility out of these linear paths in the game is being in the world map which allows the player to pick places to visit, but this places are still limited to the pathways made in each level.

The game Enchanted arms is an example that while the storyline makes the pathways very limited, the environment art and design work in my opinion can be considered unforgettable for its imagery is beautiful and well made.