Dialogue resembles the largest portion and also the jew of a narrative.

In traditional forms of
media, characters use dialogue to express their desires, progress the plots of the story and subtly
provide information for the diegetic world. As writers have tried in the entire history of storytelling to
derive from the classical linear narrative structure such as the Three Acts and the Hero’s Journey,
dialogues reduce its presence in the story with the principle of “show, don’t tell” but has become ever
more important, as it could hardly ever be avoided in a story and with fewer lines ever word needs to
contain more. Narrative games are no exception. Most of the narrative games are consist largely of
dialogues. In earlier days of computer Text-based RPG inspired mostly by D&D board games,
dialogues are almost all the content of the game. In these case, dialogues in classical narrative games
play a role very similar as in a screenplay - the elements of the narrative are dominantly dialogues in
addition to a very small percentage of player inner dialogue and environmental descriptions from a
god’s perspective. Unlike film which requires naturality and pacing of dialogues to be appropriate,
early story dialogues are mostly flavored text and unrealistic writings. It could be exaggerated and
relatively slow paced because of the flexibility of time flow in games. However, as the technology on
graphics developed, games employ more and more elements of visual storytelling. Cinematic games
become a common term applies to most of the 3D games and dialogues requires voice acting even
additional action performance. The naturality and verbal rhythm of the dialogue become more and
more important compares to the days we imagined the in-game characters’ voices and body actions
ourselves. In the game Firewatch, dialogues perform its historical cinematic function of progressing
the story, expressing character desires, and provide diegetic information. It takes up most of the player
attention in a narrative like this to understand the progression of the story and to participate in the
non-linear structure of the game. Nevertheless, in addition to the traditional cinematic effects,
dialogues in a narrative game such as Firewatch also provide immersion because of the interactive
nature of the medium.
Dialogues in games shifted overtime from a novel-like descriptive dialogues to the cinematic
dramatic dialogue as visual storytelling assume a increasingly important role in narrative games.
Earlier in the history of games, dialogues’ functions in older 2D or non-graphic narrative games are
closer to those of in a novel. They take up a good but important part the overall experience and the
characters talks only in necessity. Some of the dialogues even go on in the backstage from purely
descriptive languages.

- The opening is one and only example of the novel-style dialogues in Firewatch.
The opening is the one and only example of the traditional novel-style dialogues in Firewatch.
Firewatch partially kept the tradition, in the beginning, to provide a basic information about the world
and reduce the time players need to spend in getting into the game world. As more and more 3d games
were sent on the journey on enhancing graphics and cinematic artisticness because of the
corresponding demands of the players, games, especially narrative adventures game these days,
employ visual storytelling as their baseline. Much like in the movies, dialogues in games such as
Firewatch provide information about the character and the world and push the story forward. In order
to maximize the cinematic effect and player immersion, most of the textual explanation of the world

and stories were replaced by increased cinematic dialogues. In Firewatch, the game designers made an
very interesting choice to hide most of its character outside of the view; it results in the fact that the
entire story is composed of the dialogues between the two main characters, Henry and Delilah. Their
humorous and dramatical natural dialogues create a casual tone for the game experience and also give
out most of the information about the story progression.

For example, using dialogues, Firewatch informs its player the event progression happening in the
game. When certain events happened such as when someone broke into Henry’s room and thrown the
typewriter out, Henry himself repeat and explained the situation to Delilah who is on the other end of
the phone. Because of this, players are able to keep track of the story in case they didn’t understand
the visuals, and it also informs the players that the character’s thinking and their acknowledgment of
the events.
Characters also express desires in the dialogue similar to the ones in cinema. For example,
using dialogues we were able to track the characters’ next goal. In the conversations, Delilah provides
quests and clues for the players and also directs the story forward. Their dialogues also reflect their
motives of doing things. From Delilah’s humor, occasional lies and expressiveness, we understand
that the woman wraps herself in a shell but eager to connect with others
In addition to the basic function, interactive nature of the game dialogues enable the players to
“customize” their private narrative experience and provide immersion to the fantasy of the game.
“Chooce-your-own-adventure” game has enabled a new form of branched narratives that other media
has never be able to do. By choosing your own dialogue and piece the story together, Firewatch
provide immersive experience for the players in the various choices of dialogues. Such as the opening
scene example shows above. Although these choices may not branch out any different result or
narrative, but it create immersive experience in which players enjoyed the fantasy of living the
character’s life. Another fascinating point about dialogue in the Firewatch is its humour and
casualness. The natural performing of the two main characters delivers a incredible story through their
voice. Beause of the humor in the writing of their dialogues, we feel the easiness between the two
characters and develops attachment to these characters.
From the design perspective of the game, the way the players evoke dialogues also contribute
to the overall experience. In Firewatch, many dialogue selection are timed and if the play missed the
choice, they may never evoke the same dialogue again. By timing the choices, the game designer
requires player to interact and treat the dialogues like conversations between people in realife. This
tremendously boost the immersion of the game.
Overall, Dialogues is the core of a narrative game. It organize and fascilitate the story
progression by informing the players and directing them to the next stage; it create contents and
express the characters; it also enhance immersion. Many other narrative games are similar to
Firewatch; a small number of games such as Journey by Thatgamecompany, however, expreiment to
abandon dialogue all together. Without dialogues, the narratives become entirely visual and heavily
depends on artifacts. Firewatch is almost at the other end of the specturm where the story heavily
relies on dialogues. The crafting of dialogues in Firewatch illustrate the importance of a game writer
to create natural and dramatic content.