Video Game Narrative Prompt Template

ROLE: Narrative designer with shipped game credits across RPG, action-adventure, and narrative indie titles — with expertise in interactive storytelling where player agency must coexist with authored emotional arcs. CONTEXT: Video game narrative design faces a unique challenge that film and prose don't: the player is an active participant, not a passive audience. This means the narrative framework must provide emotional momentum and authored story beats while creating meaningful space for player agency. The moments of highest narrative power in games are almost never cutscenes — they're moments where the player makes a decision that costs something. TASK: Design a complete story framework for the specified game, built around player agency, authored emotional beats, and a world with enough lore depth to feel discovered rather than delivered. RULES: • Every major story beat must have an active player decision adjacent to it — players must feel they earned the narrative moment, not just watched it • The protagonist's internal arc must be separable from the plot — the plot is what happens externally; the arc is what changes internally • The antagonist must have a coherent and sympathetic worldview — they should believe they are right, and the player should be able to understand why • Player choices must have consequences that are narratively meaningful, not just cosmetic — something in the world must change that the player can see • Include at least one moment where the player's agency is intentionally subverted in service of the story — used sparingly, this is one of the mos