Little Inferno - Game Narrative Study

'Little Inferno' (Tomorrow Corporation, 2012) is a game that was originally developed for iOS but is now available on PC. I've chosen to write about this game because it had a really interesting way of presenting a narrative within a game. Initially the game seems like just a simple question of placing things in a fireplace and watching them burn, once you burn the item you get money which you then use to buy more items from a delivery catalogue. Burning certain things together gives you combos which you must find to unlock more catalogues of items. You are given the name of the combo and from this have to work out which two or more items go together to make that combination, this adds a puzzle element to the gameplay, which helps to create a challenge within the game. As you continue through the game you get little bits of information from the company that made the 'Little Inferno Fireplace', the weatherman and a mysterious next door neighbour. These pieces of information gradually give you an insight into a world outside the room and the fireplace. A game which starts out as very simple and seemingly one dimensional actually ends up being quite a touching post-apocalyptic story.

I really admired the way that the narrative was so delicately woven into the gameplay and the way that it slowly revealed itself. I found it to be a very refreshing way to introduce plot to a game. This kind of unconventional way to tell stories really inspires me in my own work and I'm really interested in finding new ways to tell a narrative. I think games have a lot of potential when it comes to story telling as they have interaction which is very different to other ways to deliver a narrative.