We’re trying to tell a story with Aethermon. Most of this is done via visual assets and writing. But fundamentally Aethermon is a game, and if the game doesn’t tell that same story we’re faced with what is known as ludonarrative dissonance.
Ludonarrative dissonance occurs when there is a disconnect between the mechanics of a game and the story that game is trying to tell. An extreme example of this might be a surgery themed game with a frantic Hungry Hungry Hippo style mechanic – the game is asking you to imagine suturing a wound with delicate precise movements, but the rules are you to frantically take as many actions as possible.
A great check against ludonarrative dissonance is to imagine playing the game without any art assets or flavour text; then guess what story the game is trying to tell.
If play through the two main chapters of Aethermon whiteboxed in this way, we are left with this experience:
- Players move around a board from bottom to top completing quests and defeating enemies along the way
- As players defeat enemies they grow stronger
- Eventually all the players come together to fight each other
- After this big fight a winner is crowned
- After a winner is crowned, players collectively need to fight an enemy too strong for any one player to defeat
- Players travel around the board from the top to bottom this time, collecting power ups
- All players come together at the bottom of the board (where the adventure began) to defeat the strongest enemy yet, using the power-up they collected along the way
So there is a lot there; but if I had to guess the narrative from those mechanics I would imagine I was playing a game where players first to compete in a large friendly competition. After that players must come together, put aside any rivalries to defeat a larger enemy at their collective home.
This admittedly completely loses the “‘mon” theme, but otherwise I think tracks fairly well with the story we’re hoping to tell with Aethermon.
I can’t wait until we can start sharing our online playtests to get your feedback to see if you have the same experience.
Stay wise AetherRen