It was January, and I was sitting on my couch having just finished playing GRIS. I was crying, and I found it difficult to explain why. GRIS is a game with no dialogue and almost no text, yet it is easily one of the most poignant games I’ve played. Even just thinking about this game still causes an emotional feeling to swell up in my chest. So why is this game so moving?
At its heart, GRIS is a story about grief, but the story easily captures the experience of depression and mental illness. The storytelling in GRIS is largely visual, and the emotional core is supported by a quiet ambiance and musical swells. To play GRIS is to be a character in a multisensory piece of art. If you haven’t played GRIS yet, there will be some spoilers moving forward (and also seriously, you should play it).
In the beginning of the game, you are sitting in the hand of a statue as it begins to crumble, sending you tumbling into a colorless world. This statue reappears throughout the game in various states of disrepair, but who is the statue? Is it the person you lost? A god? You?
If you discover all the places hidden within the game, the game suggests that this statue is your mother. At its most concrete, GRIS is a story about a young girl grieving the loss of her mother. But that was not the experience I had playing the game. I was playing as a person grieving herself.
Because GRIS focuses on emotions rather than the events that caused them, there’s freedom in how you experience the story. Scenes are colored by your own experiences and emotions. Sometimes, you want a game to tell a specific story, but sometimes, you want to capture a feeling.
The game is a journey through your mind, a space turned gray and lifeless, filled with monsters born from the experiences that hurt you. As you wander through the environment, you slowly return colors to the world around you. As a story about grief, you wander a world left ruined by the loss of your mother. As a story about depression, that loss could be anything. To me, the crumbling statue felt like a destruction of self.
Each stage in the game is labeled with one of the stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. In reality, there is no linear progression of grief, no direct path for healing. Each of these stages focuses on an environment, but the emotional trajectory of the game is far from linear.
In the anger stage, you discover a newfound ability to turn into a heavy block, crushing the objects beneath you. You use this ability to break through the environment, crushing the rocks that block your path. As you do this, you startle a small spider, and it runs away from you afraid. Its movement creates a path so that you can progress further ahead, but it momentarily dampens the catharsis of anger.
In the bargaining stage, you befriend a small creature that mimics your actions and helps you to solve puzzles. You then find bright red birds who act as your wings, launching you upward to otherwise unreachable platforms. But even as these creatures in your mind help you, others seek to thwart your process. You also encounter monstrous birds that push you backwards with their shrieking caws.
From there, you move into the depression stage, where you swim through murky water barely able to see anything in front of you. When an eel bursts threateningly through the water, you race quickly away. The search for a way out in this stage feels different from standard exploration. You’re moving toward an exit that you cannot see.
Eventually, though, you find that exit, and you reach the acceptance stage of GRIS, and an already emotional game turns the level up even higher. You climb further and further upward until you find yourself in the hand of the statue, but this time, the statue is whole again. Color fills the world around you, and somehow, this scene perfectly captures what healing feels like.
GRIS is the sort of art that causes an emotion to swell up in you, so vast and indescribable, that you feel as if your heart might just tear loose from your chest in an effort to express itself. Sometimes, you want to play a game that tells a specific story, but sometimes, you want to play a game like GRIS.
Whenever I search for story-driven indie games, there are some recommendations that I inevitably come across: Firewatch, Kentucky Route Zero, Oxenfree, Night in the Woods, and What Remains of Edith Finch, just to name a few. They’re all fantastic games, but if you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’ve already played them. (And if you haven’t, check them out, too!)
There are mountains of other indie games with great stories, but finding recommendations can take a bit more digging. So to give you a jumping-off point, here is my list (in no particular order) of lesser-known indie games with great stories. If you haven’t played these story-driven games, you should check them out now!
Mutazione
Mutazione is a quiet adventure game where you play as Kai, a teenager who travels to the island of Mutazione to care for her sick grandfather. Over the course of the game, Kai befriends the islanders and helps them with their problems. She also tends to a garden: As the garden blooms, her relationships with the islanders deepen.
Knights and Bikes
Knights and Bikes is an action-adventure game where you play as two new friends, Nessa and Demelza, as they explore a British island in search of a lost treasure. You can play this game in a solo mode, switching between characters, or in a co-op mode, where each player controls a character.
Wandersong
Wandersong is the sort of game that will make you feel like your heart has grown three sizes larger. It’s a musical puzzle platformer where you are a bard on a journey to save the world through song. It’s a game about kindness and joy in the face of a pending apocalypse and about small people doing their best to change the world. If that doesn’t immediately win you over, well, there’s also a great cast of characters to interact with as you travel. And you can dance!
The Gardens Between
The Gardens Between is a puzzle game where you explore dreamlike islands as best friends Arina and Frendt. As you move through each island, you manipulate time to solve puzzles. This game is a bit of a standout on this list in that it doesn’t include any dialogue at all, and tells its story entirely through the environment. The game is an atmospheric experience about childhood, friendship, and nostalgia that will likely stick with you.
Blackwood Crossing
Blackwood Crossing is an emotional adventure game that explores the relationship between two orphaned siblings, Scarlett and her younger brother Finn. As Scarlett, you wake to find yourself inexplicably on a moving train populated by magical creatures. In this game, you navigate the mysteries of the train ride while also examining your relationship with your brother Finn.
Have you added any of these games to your “must-play” list? What do you think of any you’ve already played? Leave a comment below and let me know!
Some factors, like memorable characters and an engaging plot, are important to great storytelling no matter how you tell your story. Writing a great game narrative relies on the same techniques as other stories, but add a whole new dimension: interactivity. While in most stories, the audience is an observer, in games, the audience is part of the action.
When you incorporate game interactivity into your story, you unlock the ability to tell stories in a completely new way. You can give the player more flexibility in how the story unfolds and provide opportunities for exploration that just aren’t possible in traditional storytelling.
Games provide limitless options for creativity, so there are plenty of ways you can incorporate interactivity into your story. For this post, though, I’ll be focusing on the two most important: leaning into the player-character dynamic and creating an explorable game world.
Lean into the player-character dynamic
The player-character dynamic covers the relationship between the player and the character they play. A strongly defined player character can introduce the opportunity for friction between what the player wants to do and what the character (and the writer) wants to do. Even more importantly, players will chafe if you force the character to perform actions that they don’t believe the character would do.
Getting the player-character dynamic just right is a balancing act between creating a compelling character and letting the player maintain agency. The options available to the player also need to make sense within the context of the character. This can be a tricky needle to thread and may explain why, even in games with overarching stories, the player character is frequently one of the least interesting characters.
There are two main ways that games handle the player-character dynamic, with most games falling somewhere in between. On one side of the spectrum, games use a blank slate character as a stand-in for the player. On the other side, games create a well-defined character who the player inhabits. While creating a blank slate character simplifies the player-character dynamic, most story-driven games have well-defined player characters. It’s much easier to emotionally invest in a story if you care about the main character.
Can you tell a compelling story with a blank slate character?
Although blank slate characters work better for some stories than others, you absolutely can. As an example of this, consider Gone Home, a first-person exploration game where the player character returns to her empty childhood home. We know next to nothing about her, but the story isn’t about her anyway. As you explore the house, you unlock what happened prior to the start of the game. In parallel, the character herself also learns what happened.
This is a perfect example of leaning into the player-character dynamic with a blank slate character. Since the player’s story and the character’s story align, there is no friction between what the player wants and what the character wants. In this game, you become the character.
Blank slate characters can be used to tell compelling stories, but it’s important to consider the story you’re telling. This approach works best if the character is an observer, rather than an active participant in the events, or if the player’s personality is a crucial part of the game (as in some choice-based interactive fiction). Don’t use this approach, however, if the emotional crux of your game rests on this character. Your player won’t feel it.
Tell a story with a well-defined character
Having a well-defined player character is the more common approach for story-driven games. In general, players are more likely to emotionally invest in a story if they care about the characters. If the player character is interesting on their own, it’s easier for the player to align themselves with their story. Night in the Woods is a great example of this, where you play as Mae, a 20-year-old cat who is returning to her small town after dropping out of college. Playing this game, you don’t become Mae, but you do become empathetically aligned with her.
Of course, this approach can produce friction when the player is decidedly not aligned with the character. The player may be pulled from the story if they’re forced into doing things that they don’t want to. That being said, this friction isn’t always a bad thing: Sometimes it can increase the emotional impact, especially if the player and the character both feel out of control. Night in the Woods, with its primarily linear narrative, also includes successful player-character friction.
So how exactly should you lean into the player-character dynamic?
There’s no one solution, but it’s vital that you don’t ignore it when writing your story. Not sure where to start? A good rule of thumb is to have a well-defined, multifaceted character, especially if you’re creating a third person game. In that case, you want to provide a compelling character while still giving the player opportunities for agency. You can absolutely write a compelling story where the main character is a player stand-in, but make sure it fits within the context of your story.
Create an explorable world
Okay, so you have an idea for how to handle your player character. What now?
The world surrounding your player is arguably the most important part of your game. After all, games are about interactivity, and the world contains all the elements that your player can interact with. Just as the setting is vital to a good story, your game world should be intrinsic to your story. To make your story more immersive, your game world should be tightly coupled to your plot.
An explorable world can cover anything from a linear side scroller to a massive open world game. Every game isn’t going to be Breath of the Wild with massive open worlds to explore. As an indie game developer, your game world is going to need to be smaller, and that can be a great thing! A smaller explorable world means that you can shape your environment more meaningfully without the need to fill massive spaces.
By creating a world that compels the player to explore, you can create stronger hooks that tie the player to the narrative. To make a more compelling game world, you can provide the player with opportunities for discovery and create a vibrant atmosphere.
Provide opportunities for discovery
Opportunities for discovery can cover anything from finding new characters, unlocking new areas, or uncovering small interactions. The small details the player uncovers can enhance the story you tell.
Night in the Woods also does a great job encouraging the player to explore. Each in-game day, the player can wander around Mae’s home town, talking to townspeople and exploring new areas. When I played, I explored every nook and cranny of the town each day, talking to every character. Then I played it again to unlock the interactions I couldn’t reach in a single playthrough. Those small but regular interactions caused me to grow attached to the characters. Checking in with characters each day often led to significant emotional payoffs.
All those little interactions were what made me love the game. Including engaging NPCs is a great way to deepen your game world. I know I’m not the only person who will wander through an entire game world and interact with every character until the dialogue repeats. It’s incredibly satisfying to steadily uncover individual stories and gradually piece them together. Small interactions make a game world feel real and multidimensional. They can also provide a way to drop powerful moments into your game.
Create a vibrant atmosphere
You can also deepen your game world by creating a vibrant atmosphere. The atmosphere contributes to the general tone of your story and can often be used to relay its themes. A great example of this is GRIS, a game with no dialog that still managed to hit me right in the chest. It’s also quite possibly the most beautiful game I’ve ever played:
In GRIS, you play as a young woman who is journeying through a colorless world as she recovers from depression and trauma. As the story progresses, the colors are gradually restored to the game. As a game with no text, GRIS relies fully on art and music to drive the story.
If you’re not an artist or a musician, there are still plenty of ways to create a vibrant game atmosphere. You can focus on using simple but consistent art, and then use the narrative itself to create the atmosphere. Coherency in style goes a long way in creating an immersive game world. This was the approach taken in Thomas Was Alone:
So how can you use interactivity to tell a great game story?
As you shape your game story, it’s important to consider how interactivity fits into your narrative. When you incorporate interactivity into your game story, you unlock a whole new way of telling stories. You can tell stories that can’t be replicated in other formats.
Take advantage of interactivity in your games to tell more compelling stories. As you shape your game story, pay extra attention to the player-character dynamic and the game world. Think about how all the components of your game can work together to tell the best version of your story.
Most importantly, don’t be afraid to explore. Games are one of the newest methods of storytelling, and interactivity provides limitless avenues for creative storytelling that we’ve barely begun to uncover. If you explore how interactivity can enhance your story, you’ll be on your way to telling a great game story.
