Narrative Games 101: How Stories Work Here

You've read novels and watched films, but a game that tells a story plays by rules nobody spelled out for you. Using a beginner-friendly title as the example, this explains player agency, environmental storytelling, branching narratives, and ludonarrative dissonance, in plain language, defining any jargon it has to use. For newcomers to story-driven games.

I am new to narrative-focused video games and want to understand how they tell stories differently from books or films. Using {BEGINNER_FRIENDLY_GAME} as your main example, explain: what player agency means for storytelling, how environmental storytelling works, what a branching narrative is and why it matters, and what 'ludonarrative dissonance' means in plain language. Avoid jargon where possible, and when you must use a term, define it immediately. By the end I should understand why someone would choose a narrative game over a novel to experience a story.