How do you measure the impact of your game narrative?

1 Define your objectives

Before you can measure the impact of your game narrative, you need to define what you want to achieve with it. What is the purpose of your story? What are the emotions, messages, or actions that you want to elicit from your players? How do you want them to relate to your characters and your world? These questions will help you set clear and specific objectives for your game narrative, such as increasing player retention, satisfaction, loyalty, or advocacy.

2 Choose your methods

Depending on your objectives, you can choose different methods to measure the impact of your game narrative. Surveys and interviews can help you ask players directly about their opinions, feelings, and behaviors related to the game. Analytics and metrics can be used to track and analyze how players interact with the narrative, such as completion rates, playtime, replayability, choices, branching paths, engagement, retention, and monetization. Additionally, user testing and observation can be employed to evaluate the game's usability, accessibility, and appeal. Online tools or platforms may be used for all of these methods to create surveys, collect data and statistics, conduct tests, and record results.

3 Analyze your results

Once you have collected your data and feedback, you need to analyze them and draw conclusions. You need to compare your results with your objectives and see if your game narrative is meeting them or not. You also need to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your game narrative, and the opportunities and threats that it faces. You can use tools like SWOT analysis, gap analysis, or sentiment analysis to help you with this process.

4 Implement your changes

Based on your analysis, you need to implement changes and improvements to your game narrative. You need to prioritize the most important and urgent issues and address them first. You also need to test and measure the effects of your changes and see if they improve the impact of your game narrative. You can use tools like A/B testing, prototyping, or iteration to help you with this process.

5 Repeat the cycle

Measuring the impact of your game narrative is not a one-time activity. It is a continuous cycle that requires constant monitoring, evaluation, and adaptation. You need to repeat the steps above regularly and consistently to ensure that your game narrative is always aligned with your objectives and your players' expectations. You also need to keep up with the trends and innovations in the gaming industry and the game narrative field, and learn from the best practices and examples of other games.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?