Conflict is crucial to creating drama, and drama is really our #1 goal. Conflict is the intriguing, engaging heart of drama that we all connect with. Simple conflict can be created through external challenges which the protagonist must overcome. But importantly, conflict is also about the internal struggles that a protagonist or character needs to deal with while overcoming the challenges they face. The simultaneous combination of the two makes for dramatic and meaningful situations.
- Challenge is the external obstacle, barrier, fight, argument, puzzle, maze or hurdle to cross
- Struggle is internal, emotional, characterful, relationship obstacle that is often as big a hurdle as the challenge.
- Put the two together and you have meaningful conflict which will engage, demand attention and have the potential to be remarkable.
- As a bonus, leaving uncertainty in the resolution or outcome can create a sense of anticipation which will amp up the engagement.
Understanding Conflict by Janice Hardy or her blog fiction-university
Narrative advice isn’t always easy to apply directly to game design. Games often focus on the direct challenges and tend to leave the inner struggle on the table. Finding ways to includes more emotional struggle in your game could add stronger connections, hard choices, variation, personality, believability and depth. All things which will make your game better.
snippets of cloud 