Multi Perspective Narrative

 How to make a story in game leaving an deep impression on player?

  As I said before, wordy text would make player tired, bored and forget the content easily. To solve this problem, I need to solve another problem first: What can leave a deep impression on memory of people?

  The answer is Associated Memory.

The video I had posted before briefly interprets the mechanism of people's memory:

  Indeed, How much information players encode and remember depends on both the time they took to learn it and how they made it personally relevant to them. Time is another question, while relevance is the key here. If we want to make play can remember the content in game firmly, we have to let them find the relevance of the story.

  

  Therefore, strong relevant content would leave player a deep impression, which can answer the title question.

  

  Based on this conclusion, I want to try a new way of Fragmented Narrative in game, which I call Multi Perspective Narrative.

  In my research, Multi Perspective means Multi Time and Multi Person. 

  Multi Time means the same scene are presented to player with multi time points, for example, present and past. At different time points, people, environment, items are different but relevant, which would create a strong comparison in player's mind. Comparison and relevance can let everything in story link to others, interweaving a network in player's mind finally.

  Example of Multi Time scene:

Past

Present

  Multi Person means that play could experience the story from perspectives of different people. Information from different perspective are different but also relevant. Comparison also can formed by this way, enhancing the memory of players.

  Example of Multi Person:

  

John Perspective

Alice Perspective

  

  For the same items, John and Alice could see different but relevant information. These information would become fragment of the whole story. Only player know both information from two perspective, they can know the truth of the story.

Highly recommend game with environmental narrative: Little Nightmares 2