The story stack as a concept was presented by Jesse Schell during his GDC 2019 presentation, it is a framework used to craft compelling narrative experiences. The story stack as a concept emphasizes on the inter-connectivity between the layers of a story and how they work together to create a cohesive and engaging narrative experience for the player.
Using this tool, I have analyzed the story stack in Bethesda’s latest epic “Starfield”. While Starfield is a massive RPG with many quests and different outcomes. I am applying story stack in relation to Starfield’s main story line.
STARFIELD STORY STACK
Player Fantasy
Being an explorer and having the freedom to explore a vast galaxy while discovering new locations and having interesting encounters
Actions
Explore freely and discover new worlds, engage in ground combat, dogfight in space, collect the artifacts and access their power, interact with strangers and companions, make choices that can have repercussions down the line, join any faction and complete their quests and encounter strange events and entities.
Economy
- Players level up as they explore, complete quests, engage in combat or when discovering new locations. As they reach a new level, players are rewarded with skill points with which they can acquire new skills.
- The skills are further classified into ranks, which provides players with a new layer of progression. Players can move through the ranks of a skill by completing set of challenges associated to that rank
- Player progression is also shown through the main quest line and this helps to strongly reinforce the player fantasy, as it encourages exploration
World
- Settled Systems is the main world of Starfield that has over 100 systems that can all be explored. The settled system is filled with worlds that allow the player to fulfill their fantasy of exploration and discovery.
- By exploring the settled systems and interacting with its many elements players are able to level up their characters (eg: surveying planets, taking down hostiles, exploring derelict ships etc).
- In the settled systems, the player is not alone, from time to time they engage in dogfights in space, engage in combat on the surface, interact with NPCs and in many other ways this world supports the actions necessary to fulfill the player fantasy.
- Both space and planetside are populated with locations and encounters that the player can explore and engage with this creates a sense of satisfying exploration
Story
In Starfield you start as your own created player who gets involved with the constellation after a brief mining incident. With constellation on your side, you are tasked to explore the settled systems in search of the mysterious artifacts and unlock their secrets. Soon the hunt for the artifacts turns into a deadly race against the mysterious entities known as starborn who wield strange powers. After learning about the artifacts and their link to the strange temples, the player gains access to the powers and a gateway to other universes (Unity).