# “Choice, Consequence and Complicity”

These are my notes for the [2016 GDC Talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FfITxaXeqM) by Alexis Kennedy, the creator of _Fallen London_, a narrative game with a delightful gleefully dark setting. For a few months in the early 2010s I was really engrossed in it.

## Notes

- Failbetter Games' central idea: nonlinear narrative with handcrafted prose (and great 2D art).
    * There is a continuum between really procedural (_Dwarf Fortress_) and really scripted (Twine games, _Choose Your Own Adventure_). Failbetter is 75% of the way to scripted.
- Tools and techniques for building interesting, emotionally resonant choice and consequence.
- What is "complicity"? It is the emotional experience you have when making a choice.
    * In _Sunless Sea_ one can face the choice of whether to cheat on one's spouse with an officer. This has consequences: narrative (increased understanding between characters), gameplay (the Terror statistic is reduced), and deferred (what happens upon your return home). If one chooses to cheat, a bit of narrative is an immediate emotional reward.
- A good, well-crafted interactive narrative has many things in common with a mixed cocktail.
- Theme. What is on the player's mind?  You want to find choices that comment on, elaborate on the theme. (E.g., light, darkness, loneliness, survival, terror, coming home in _Sunless Sea_.)
- What is going on?  Could the player explain the choice in one sentence? Quality over quantity.
- Mechanical significance. Nonlinear narrative is more than just branching. Choices can tie into game mechanics. (Example of a bad choice: to go left, right, or straight ahead. The player has no idea what this leads to. Better: go through Mirkwood, the Gap of Rohan, or Moria. It's understandable and a resource, or mechanical, choice.)
    * The number of choices: two (dramatic, elegant), three (asymmetrical; allows commentary), or five (generous; you can lock off one or two).
        * Breaking the rule: a 47-option choice in _Fallen London_. It seems very generous.
- The road not taken. (E.g., you've romanced the Doctor; you can't romance the Navigator.)  Show unavailable choices. People are afraid it breaks immersion. To a degree it does, but it shows the consequences of a prior choice. It is a reason to replay the game.
- Player motives: show, don't tell. Convey the different motives in the description of the possible actions, don't state them. This adds more color.
- Complicity. Vivid flavors: "vengeance feels good", "I'm so smooth", "poor doggie", "what have I done", etc.
- Some of the choices that get the strongest response are fantasies of failure. E.g., "Seeking Mr Eaten's Name" in _Fallen London_.
- "Go screw yourself, developer". Allowing the player to rebel against the things you appear to be imposing. Devious.
- Living with consequences.
    * Visibility:
        * If the player doesn't notice it, it didn't happen. (Game mechanics useful here.)
        * Corollary: The more the player notices it, the more it happens.
        * The more happens, the less the player notices the individual things.
    * Surprisingly effective tricks:
        * String token replacement. "A \[title] of your quality."  A cheap trick.
        * Widely applicable text.
        * Underspecified narrative.
- Story + Concision + Design.
    * Emily Short: "Whatever you can communicate sufficiently in game mechanics, you should put there instead of in text."
    * For a writer it is tempting to fix a design problem by throwing words at it.
    * Your player:
        * Isn't paying you by the word;
        * Wants to cooperate with you in having an experience;
        * Can cooperate through mechanics.
    * Indicate the value of a resource through writing.
- Why?
    * Players crave **attention** and **self-expression**.

## Page metadata

URL: <https://dbohdan.com/choice-consequence-complicity.md>

Published 2021-03-07, updated 2021-08-21.

Tags:

- game design
- notes
- talk
- video games
- writing

Index: [Notes and reviews](/notes).