And here we go!
"Matching Story and Mechanics", by Emily Short at London Southbank Uni.
"Matching Story and Mechanics", by Emily Short at London Southbank Uni.
Boom, right into the heart of narrative design. At first glance this is the skeleton key of ND. 
Too much goodness to summarise but Emily's tl;dr of the Odyssey takes the cake.
if starting with Story: 
(Provided without much in the way of comment because we're powering through it and I'd misrepresent it if I tried to explain before properly digesting it. Later.). 
What's "normal" for the pc, what are the player's assumptions about it (expectations, borne from character or game genre or story), and from there arise the mechanics (last bit mine). 
Cool stuff about this game's mechanics and how they fit with the story. 
Interviewing people, building up an inventory of statements, combine them to find contradictions. 
Loads of stuff. 
Idk how I ever passed high school exams.
Could it be that if the player plays perfectly they get the least interesting story? (Because they don't feel like the stakes are high.)
"And. That. Sucks."
"And. That. Sucks."
Orion Trail example: a roulette is more compelling than a % of success because it's more visual and feels less "cheaty".
Reigns 2 And how the precariousness of the mechanics feeds into the precariousness of the player's position as a woman in power.
More intriguing stuff stuff stuff intriguing stuff very intriguing a lot stuff intriguing very
Metamorphoses and tracking POO character personality according to how they choose to solve each puzzle. Implies multiples solution puzzles.
NSFW sheep, men 
Summary! 
And now for the other approach: starting with mechanics (e.g. Counterfeit Monkey). 
Hmmm. 
Opus Magnum as anti example of a huge variation in mechanics and possible solutions that has zero bearing on narrative outcomes.
Broooooooooom 
Right, this talk was super intense and quite a ride. A lot, and I mean a lot of stuff was covered, loads of notions were imparted and discussed and just the ways they tied into each other was overwhelming.
Felt like a great recap for a book you should have really read before the talk.
A book which Emily should totally write. Assuming she hasn't already. These two hours seriously had enough material for a thick volume.
