Here's why Beacon Pines' branching structure is brilliant
Branching narrative can be a double-edged sword in narrative design. On the one hand, being able to track player choice means you can deliver interesting narrative payoffs that reflect the journey they've set out on.
On the other hand, branching narrative can be a production nightmare, as a scaling number of player choices can give birth to tertiary problems across development. And then there's the nagging question all narrative designers face: are these different narrative pathways worth it? Will the player feel rewarded if they play again and take a different path?
If you need to spice up your narrative branching, drop everything you're doing and go play Beacon Pines. This tiny game from Hiding Spot Games has some of the best branching narrative I've seen in eons, especially from a small developer.
The secret ingredient? Dramatic irony. While you wait for the game to download (if you aren't getting it right now, what are you doing?) let's discuss why this age-old writing tool works so well in Beacon Pines.
In case you slept through 11th grade English class, dramatic irony is the literary idea of giving the audience narrative information that the characters don't have. It's primarily a great tool for raising tension, but it can also be used to sell tragedy, loss, longing, and more.
I don't want to spoil Beacon Pines right off the bat, so let's go to The Bard for an example. In Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors, the audience is immediately introduced to the fact that two pairs of separated twins have arrived int he same city. Shenanigans ensue, but the characters don't have any idea what's going on until the back end of the third act.
Shakespeare milked this theatrical conceit for the sake of comedy, but he also got plenty of
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