The Game Should React to the Player

In writing, we know that audiences prefer proactive characters to reactive ones. Likewise, in game design, we want to frame players in a proactive rather than a reactive role. Practically, this means they need to feel like the game is responding to them rather than the other way around.

The first way to frame players in a proactive narrative role is to let them choose their own goals as much as possible. This does not mean you cannot set goals for the player; it means you want to do so indirectly. Giving them specialized resources is one way to do this. For example, in Catan, if you give a player a brick, you indirectly create a goal for them to acquire wood, since their brick would otherwise be useless. Because they come up with this goal themselves, it feels more proactive than being given the explicit goal to collect wood.

If you must give players an explicit goal, for example via a quest, giving them choices helps reduce the feeling that the game is dictating their strategy. In Ticket to Ride, players decide when to draw new tickets and how many to keep. Because incomplete tickets subtract from their score, this adds a push-your-luck element to goal scoring, making it feel like risk-taking rather than just being assigned new chores.

Another thing to consider when designing a proactive framing is where the obstacles in your game come from. Ideally, you want players involved in creating obstacles so it feels like the obstacles arise from the game responding to the player rather than a preset script ignoring the player's choices. For example, in Factorio, building your factory creates pollution, and when that pollution reaches biters, they attack. This makes it feel like the world reacts to the player's actions rather than the player responding to the world.

Some of the best obstacles reflect the downsides of the player's choices. In Unrailed!, train cars block player movement but also grant new abilities. Every car you add gives you new abilities, even as it increases the challenge. Obstacles created by player actions feel fairer, and the player feels more in control of the arc of play.

Proactivity means putting the player in charge of the narrative whenever possible, allowing them to choose their own goals and obstacles. Reactivity means throwing gameplay at the player and watching them react. Just as proactive characters in stories have more agency, proactive players feel they have more agency, too.