{"id":564,"date":"2018-04-10T18:48:25","date_gmt":"2018-04-10T22:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fms321.olivialiccione.com\/blog\/uncategorized\/the-plot-thickens-narrative-architecture-in-rusty-lake-roots\/"},"modified":"2018-04-10T19:27:59","modified_gmt":"2018-04-10T23:27:59","slug":"the-plot-thickens-narrative-architecture-in-rusty-lake-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/2018\/04\/10\/the-plot-thickens-narrative-architecture-in-rusty-lake-roots\/","title":{"rendered":"The Plot Thickens! \u2013 Narrative Architecture in Rusty Lake: Roots"},"content":{"rendered":"

Henry Jenkins, in \u201cGame Design as Narrative Architecture,\u201d considers the relationship between games and story. \u00a0He examines the tension in the scholarly community between those who wish to privilege the mechanics of games in their studies, the Ludologists, and those who focus on the storytelling aspect, the Narratologists. \u00a0Jenkins proposes a middle ground, one that asserts that many games tell stories while acknowledging that they tell them in ways unique to the medium. \u00a0Rusty Lake: Roots, <\/i>is a highly narrative driven game, and I believe it departs from Jenkins\u2019s characterization of typical video game storytelling in its clearly linear and unchangeable narrative progression. \u00a0In doing so, however, it may limit the freedom and exploration players come to associate with games. <\/p>\n

Rusty Lake: Roots, <\/i>is an epic family drama, spanning across generations. \u00a0Each level contains its own narrative, telling the story of a key moment in the family\u2019s history. \u00a0These stories range from birth to death, marriage to betrayal, conspiracy to rescue. \u00a0Jenkins characterizes traditional video game storytelling as episodic. \u00a0He explains that \u201cEach episode…can become compelling on its own terms without contributing significantly to the plot development and often, the episodes could have been reordered without significantly impacting our experiences as a whole (7). \u00a0Rusty Lake: Roots <\/i>somewhat defies this description of video games. \u00a0The narrative of the game, while occurring in individual episodes, has a clear arc and could not easily be reordered without losing a great deal of coherence. \u00a0For example, in one early episode, Albert throws Emma\u2019s baby into a well. \u00a0In a subsequent level, Emma hangs herself due to the heartbreak of losing her child. Several levels later, the player finds herself in that well helping the now-grown child, Frank, to escape. \u00a0In another level, Frank kills Albert. \u00a0This sub-plot is but one of several narratives that follow a more traditional literary plot structure.<\/p>\n

This clear narrative structure is due in large part to the family tree structure by which the game is organized. \u00a0After each level, the player returns to the tree and a branch grows, displaying a new level to play that quite literally stems from the previous one. \u00a0The narratives, therefore, follow a clear chain of cause-and-effect, as I identified earlier with the Frank narrative. \u00a0While this structured approach to storytelling allows for a fascinating, easy-to-follow narrative, it certainly constrains players\u2019 freedom. \u00a0Jenkins identifies this concern, explaining that too much plotting can detract from the exploratory nature of games. \u00a0Rusty Lake: Roots<\/i> falls into this trap. \u00a0Players can solve the puzzle on each level, but ultimately have little to no control over the outcome of the narrative. \u00a0The choices the player makes have no impact on the story, which may be frustrating to players who prefer freedom within a game world.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The game’s family tree displays how each narrative episode progresses from the last<\/p>\n

Rusty Lake: Roots <\/i>is not a traditional game. \u00a0Everything, from its graphics (stylized two dimensional drawings), to its mechanics (simple pointing and clicking), to its structure (a clear narrative progression with little player agency), departs from the usual big-budget video game conventions. \u00a0However, as an indie game, Rusty Lake: Roots <\/i>is able to take risks and experiment with storytelling. \u00a0The result is a rich, sprawling story worthy of a Gothic novel enacted in a video game.<\/p>\n

<\/img><\/p>\n

Source: The Plot Thickens! \u2013 Narrative Architecture in Rusty Lake: Roots<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Henry Jenkins, in \u201cGame Design as Narrative Architecture,\u201d considers the relationship between games and story. \u00a0He examines the tension in the scholarly community between those who wish to privilege the mechanics of games in their studies, the Ludologists, and those who focus on the storytelling aspect, the Narratologists. \u00a0Jenkins proposes a middle ground, one that …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"item_id":"552ad15e08222cd824fd4916257ea642","pf_source_link":"","item_date":"Sat, 03 Mar 2018 00:52:44 +0000","item_author":"admin","item_link":"http:\/\/fms321.olivialiccione.com\/blog\/uncategorized\/the-plot-thickens-narrative-architecture-in-rusty-lake-roots\/","item_feat_img":"","item_wp_date":"Sat, 03 Mar 2018 00:52:44 +0000","item_tags":"","source_publication_name":"","source_publication_url":"","nomination_count":"1","sortable_item_date":"1520038364","item_description":"","pf_word_count":"610","pf_forward_to_origin":"no-forward","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[179],"tags":[13,171,172,173],"class_list":["post-564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-round-2","tag-free-choice","tag-narrative-architecture","tag-rusty-lake-roots","tag-storytelling"],"nominators":{"1":{"user_id":1,"nomination_datetime":"2018-04-10 16:00:55","nomination_unixtime":1523390455}},"archiveOrgStatus":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9xw5i-96","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":591,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564\/revisions\/591"}],"feed":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/pf\/v1\/feeds\/213"}],"nominator":[{"embeddable":false,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/user\/1"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564"}],"wp:term":[{"attributes":{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true},"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564"},{"attributes":{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true},"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}