Space Entropy: Emergent narrative through systemic game design

Abstract

This thesis explored emergent narrative techniques in game design and attempted to explain what is needed to create the potential for emergence in a game. Emergent narrative refers to stories that arise organically from player interaction with the game’s systems rather than being pre-scripted. Literature review and research showed many different ways in which unique narrative can emerge from systems in all kinds of games and research prototypes. Based on collected information from previous work on the topic, we developed our own prototype game, named Space Entropy, to test narrative emergence through systemic design with users in a first-person, sandbox game in a Sci-Fi setting. In this prototype, we utilized some of the techniques that we found most appropriate for our case. From the quantitative and qualitative data gathered from the playtests, we were able to establish the validity of the prototype as well as identify its weaknesses. Finally, our findings led us to formulate a set of guidelines aimed at other developers or teams that want to achieve unexpected, emergent narrative without explicitly designing for it.