Breaking down a videogame level´s design: Deconstruction of the narrative in The Witcher III: The wild hunt

Abstract: This master's thesis aims to investigate the narrative components inherent in open-world games. In this thesis, we will extract the narrative part of a game,analyze it, and compare the narrative part with other game design elements. The focus will be on the game "The Witcher III: The Wild Hunt," with specific portions of the game studied using AutoCAD and in-game playthroughs to extract data relating to narrative components such as items, characters, and locales. Data such as buildings, cities and objects referring to main-quest, sidequest, random interaction, cutscenes-storytelling, object interaction, and recurring characters are generated from the open-world game The Witcher III:The Wild Hunt using AutoCAD. Objects are used to mark narrative components during gameplay, and these elements will be exported into Excel for analysis using Tableau. The results of the research will be coupled with other parts of the level design. The collected data will be evaluated with Tableau, and a comparative study between the narrative part and the game-level design part has been conducted to uncover patterns and trends in the open-world game. This study investigates the narrative components found in the game world, examining their importance on various scales and their relationships with other game mechanics. According to the research, item interactions become more significant on the third floor and in larger cities, whereas cut scenes and narration are more common in big cities and on the first floor of buildings. The study also emphasizes the connection between main quests and side quests, indicating their strong relationship to the game's overarching story. The use of side missions, which frequently entail interacting with city objects, becomes increasingly important for encouraging player exploration. The study emphasizes the need for game designers to tailor their use of narrative components to the scale and context of each gaming setting, ultimately helping them to possibly create more immersive and engaging game worlds.