Storyteller’s demo exceeded my literary-loving expectations

destructoid.com:

Ever since it was announced at the Annapurna Interactive Showcase last year, Storyteller has been pretty high on my list of most anticipated games. The trailer also let us know that there was a playable demo up on Steam, and for reasons that would take far too long to explain, I didn’t get around to playing it until this week. I may be late to the party when it comes to the demo, but the game still doesn’t have a release date yet, so at least I didn’t miss out there.

Let me tell you, as someone who loves both narrative design and puzzle games, Storyteller is an absolute delight. I only got about half an hour with it before I exhausted the demo content, but I can already tell you that this is one of my favorite indie games ever. When I first heard that Annapurna was publishing Storyteller, I knew it was going to be great because they never seem to miss, but I was still pleasantly surprised when I sat down to play.

Gameplay-wise, it’s simple, but so addictingly fun to figure out. You’re presented with a prompt you have to complete, a series of empty panels to create your stories in, as well as settings, characters, and plot devices to choose from. From there, you just drag and drop different elements to create a story that fits the prompt that the game gives you. Like I said, simple, but it’s a puzzle game format that feels really unique and refreshing. It’s a story game, sure, but the stories are so beautifully married with the gameplay and emerge so naturally from how the player chooses to interact, that this is one of the more creative examples of narrative design I’ve ever seen.

What really puts Storyteller over the top for me, though, is how polished and well-themed it is. The whole game takes place in one giant