While reading this excellent review of the hard to find fan-made AM2R videogame, I came across a term that intrigued me. It was a term I had seen before in Mark Rosewater’s articles about designing cards for Magic: The Gathering. That term was “environmental storytelling” and it is what makes it possible for a game like Metroid 2: Samus Returns, that has no dialogue or cutscenes, to tell a complete narrative. With this form of storytelling, you are using details within the setting itself to provide clues as to what is or has been happening. This is independent of any dialogue or interactions from your characters.
For instance, in Magic: The Gathering’s “Scars of Mirrodin” storyline, the land cards for each of the three acts in the storyarc are painted to show the once pristine environment gradually deteriorating over time as the world is infected by parasitic invaders. It is even deeper in Metroid 2, where each environment showcases how and why the ancient Chozo race created the deadly Metroid creatures before the monsters turned on their creators and destroyed them all. Everything is part of the tale, from the lack of creatures in rooms where a Metroid dwells, to the darkness and desolation of the abandoned factories, to the areas near the Metroid’s central breeding ground being completely devoid of life, to even little touches like the Chozo statue towards the end being broken with an icebeam upgrade lying at its feet to show that their advanced weapons weren’t strong enough to stop the Metroids from killing them. You can gain an understanding of what happened from paying attention to the details of the environment, without nary a word being said or any cutscene handholding you through the narrative.
I did something similar in Godmode. Elijah does a lot of exploring in that story, and each level of the building he is trapped in tells its own story as he discovers details about it. That includes exploring his old office, which was evacuated in a hurry for some reason, and coming across clues which show how hat occurred, and maybe even why. I tried to make it so Elijah and the reader are able to figure out the details, connect the dots and deduce what happened at the same time. I did cheat a bit with the triggered flashbacks, but the general gist is still there.
HOW TO INCORPORATE ENVIRONMENTAL STORYTELLING INTO YOUR NARRATIVE.
So now the question becomes how can you use that in YOUR story. Here are some simple tips:
1. The Devil is in the details. The biggest need is to make sure you pay attention to the details of your environment. Everything that describes where the story is happening can offer a clue to the narrative, whether it be the sights, or sounds or even smells of the setting. A place that smells of rotting flesh will tell you something died there. A place smelling of rotting flesh and bleach will tell you that someone died there…and someone else tried to cover it up.
2. Place key artifacts in the environment. Much like setting up a mystery, you can plant clues directly into the setting that tell exactly what happened or what is going on. It could be a television, still on, showing a news reporter speaking on a related event (something movies do a lot), or a trinket from some event that happened related to that event (say your story had something to do with a circus. You can have some circus peanuts laying around in your environment to allude to that).
3. Show the environment changing over time. Perhaps every time your characters go to a certain place, the lace has subtle changes to show that something is going on. Maybe something is out of place that was in place before, or the lighting is different, or something new has been added or taken away. This can denote that something in the story itself has changed, and this can add to the impact of that change.
If you incorporate the environment into your story, you should be able to make for a fuller, more immersive experience for your reader. I advise you give it a try for your next story.
BTW, if you haven’t played Metroid 2 yet, give the game a try and pay attention to the backgrounds to see what I’m talking about…
