Abstract
Narrative puzzles feature prominently in story-based open world video games where they form part of the progression of a narrative and require exploration and logical and creative thinking to solve. Open world games use navigation aids to help players solve narrative puzzles located across the vast worlds they provide. Narrative puzzles offer designers one of the most interactive methods of conveying a game’s narrative, particularly in the action-adventure focused genre of open-world games. In this paper we discuss the interaction between narrative puzzles and navigation aids in open world games, highlighting in case studies of three different games how the amount of information a navigation aid provides impacts the intricacy and expansiveness of puzzles. Finally, we discuss the design implications of these interactions and suggest potential future analytical uses of the discussed framework.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ahmadpoor, N., Shahab, S.: Spatial knowledge acquisition in the process of navigation: a review. Curr. Urban Stud. 7(1), 1–19 (2019)
Aung, M., et al.: The trails of just cause 2: spatio-temporal player profiling in open-world games. In: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, pp. 1–11 (2019)
Bogost, I.: Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames. MIT Press, Cambridge (2010)
Capcom Production Studio 4: Resident Evil 4 (2005)
CD Projekt Red: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015)
Chittaro, L., Burigat, S.: 3D location-pointing as a navigation aid in virtual environments. In: Proceedings of the Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces, pp. 267–274 (2004)
Color Gray Games: The Case of the Golden Idol (2022)
Cosmos Computer: Courageous Perseus (1984)
Crowther, W.: Colossal Cave Adventure (1976)
Crowther, W., Woods, D.: Colossal Cave Adventure (1977)
De Kegel, B., Haahr, M.: Towards procedural generation of narrative puzzles for adventure games. In: Cardona-Rivera, R.E., Sullivan, A., Young, R.M. (eds.) ICIDS 2019. LNCS, vol. 11869, pp. 241–249. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33894-7_25
Donnelly, J.: GTA 5 estimated to be the most profitable entertainment product of all time (2018). https://www.pcgamer.com/gta-5-estimated-to-be-the-most-profitable-entertainment-product-of-all-time/
Fernández-Vara, C.: Introduction to Game Analysis. Routledge, Milton Park (2019)
Fernández-Vara, C., Thomson, A.: Procedural generation of narrative puzzles in adventure games: the puzzle-dice system. In: Proceedings of the The Third Workshop on Procedural Content Generation in Games, pp. 1–6 (2012)
FromSoftware Inc.: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019)
FromSoftware Inc.: Elden Ring (2022)
Garriot, R. and Origin Systems: Ultima 1 (1981)
Koenitz, H.: Understanding Interactive Digital Narrative: Immersive Expressions for a Complex Time. Taylor & Francis, Milton Park (2023)
MacCallum-Stewart, E., Stenros, J., Björk, S.: The impact of role-playing games on culture. In: Role-Playing Game Studies, pp. 172–187. Routledge (2018)
Min, W., Mott, B.W., Rowe, J.P., Liu, B., Lester, J.C.: Player goal recognition in open-world digital games with long short-term memory networks. In: IJCAI, pp. 2590–2596 (2016)
Mobius Digital: Outer Wilds (2019)
Motive: Dead Space (2023)
Moura, D., El-Nasr, M.S.: Design techniques for planning navigational systems in 3-D video games. Comput. Entertain. (CIE) 12(2), 1–25 (2015)
Murray, J.H.: Hamlet on the Holodeck, updated edition: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. MIT Press, Cambridge (2017)
Nintendo EAD: The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (1993)
Nintendo EAD: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017)
Nintendo EPD: Bowser’s Fury (2021)
Norman, D.: The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and expanded edition. Basic Books, New York (2013)
Playground Games: Forza Horizon 5 (2021)
Rockstar Games: Grand Theft Auto V (2013)
Rockstar Games: Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018)
Rollings, A., Adams, E.: Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on game design. New Riders, Berkeley (2003)
Ryan, M.L.: Emotional and strategic conceptions of space in digital narratives. In: Interactive Digital Narrative, pp. 106–120. Routledge (2015)
Spierling, U.: Interaction design principles as narrative techniques for interactive digital storytelling. In: Interactive Digital Narrative: History, Theory, and Practice, pp. 159–173 (2015)
Squire, K.: Open-ended video games: A model for developing learning for the interactive age. MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Initiative (2007)
T &E Soft: Hydlide (1984)
Ubisoft Montreal: Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla (2020)
Unknown Worlds Entertainment: Subnautica (2018)
Acknowledgments
This work was conducted with the financial support of the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Centre for Research Training in Digitally-Enhanced Reality (d-real) under Grant No. 18/CRT/6224.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Davern, S., Haahr, M. (2023). On the Interactions Between Narrative Puzzles and Navigation Aids in Open World Games. In: Holloway-Attaway, L., Murray, J.T. (eds) Interactive Storytelling. ICIDS 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14383. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47655-6_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47655-6_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-47654-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-47655-6
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)