Narratives don’t have to be exhaustive to be compelling – games from Hollow Knight to TUNIC have shown that a little mystery can go a long way. By creating a loose story that’s open to interpretation, you can generate a lot of interest from your community. They’ll work to fill in the gaps and make the narrative their own.
In one example from Inscryption, the player encounters a wizard whose head is on a spike. Mullins only ever intended for her to be a minor character, but players latched onto her and created a whole backstory. “I don’t know much about her as a writer… It was a sort of one-dimensional character because she was just a student at the wizard school,” reveals Mullins. “But then people invented why she’s there and what her personality is.”
Goobert, a green blob, now the game’s unofficial mascot, is another example of how players have taken a role in Inscryption’s worldbuilding: “I knew from the beginning this goo man had some good mascot character potential. And then when people embraced the goo man and gave it a name – the people on my Discord called him Goobert – that stuck. And I just loved that.”
Mullins’ love of fan culture is even having an impact outside the game. Inscryption players are already working to bring the twisted card game into the real world.
Source: Unity Technologies Blog