GDC 2025 Session Viewer
'Frostpunk 2': Speaking in Systems
Jakub Stokalski (Game Director / Design Director, 11 bit studios)
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass - Get your pass now!
Track: Design
Format: Lecture
Vault Recording: TBD
Audience Level: All
This talk explores how Frostpunk 2 balances gameplay and narrative. It provides a detailed look at how to integrate gameplay mechanics with storytelling to create a moody narrative experience. It explores practical approaches to managing game complexity and difficulty, illustrating how these elements impact narrative delivery. It also examines how tuning gameplay to accommodate players' human values can enhance the overall narrative. Through concrete examples and design challenges encountered during the development of Frostpunk 2, this talk offers insights into crafting games that aim to tell meaningful stories in a language unique to games.
Takeaway
Attendees will gain insight into defining gameplay mechanics that support storytelling, manage game complexity in service of narrative perception of game events, and tune gameplay through player perspectives to create personalized, resonant narrative experiences. I aim for insights from Frostpunk 2 to offer actionable strategies for narrative-driven game design.
Intended Audience
This talk will be of interest to game and narrative designers who seek to blend complex systems with storytelling, offering a set of tools to tell stories in a language unique to games.
