“Storyteller”, the intelligent puzzle game developed in 15 years by an Argentine who could have sunk when it was launched

( Spanish) — The story of Argentine video game designer Daniel Benmergui and his work, “Storyteller”, shows that launching a video game is not a breeze. It has been a work of 15 years and its launch, in March 2023, has been a hard birth. “Storyteller”, distributed by the prestigious Annapurna Interactive, is one of the most superlative puzzle video games of the year thanks to its excellent design. Its premise consists of creating stories in vignettes modifying characters, settings and actions using the collective imagination that we have of stories like Romeo and Juliet or Dracula. A nice, simple and intelligent proposal with which they intend to reach people who do not usually play video games.

Despite his benefits, he had a difficult reception. A symptom of how the video game community operates on the internet. The title received hundreds of negative reviews on Steam, the queen platform for PC games, for its short duration. Many users commented that the ideal thing was to complete it and request a refund (Steam allows this in titles that have not been played for more than two hours). Due to the system used by said platform, if a work receives a percentage of negative reviews, a title may be left without visibility. “Storyteller”, after 15 years of work, could end up in the virtual cemetery of video games.

However, the fate of “Storyteller” has not been that. It has resurfaced with positive reviews and they are already working on an update to expand content and launch editions for mobile devices.

The explanation for the resurgence may have to do with the conception of the game itself, as Benmergui explains to : “We work a lot to make it accessible to people who don’t play video games. We try to stay as far away from the concepts that drive games as possible. overall. For us, part of making the game accessible to people who don’t play was not making a ten-hour game.”

The developer affirms that the priority was to create quality puzzles: “If we want to make a ten-hour version, I need several years because what we publish in ‘Storyteller’ is already the best of the best. If I am going to enlarge it, I would have to be up to date. level of what I already published”. However, he acknowledges that they didn’t handle the release well and that they should have “put a huge banner up on Steam saying ‘game is short'” so as not to confuse gamers.

Benmergui admits that one of the challenges of “Storyteller” is that it does not have any other reference game: it did something different. “Nothing that ‘Storyteller’ does existed before ‘Storyteller,'” he notes.

The creator also counters that there is no free play or sandbox mode (a claim that was echoed in critics of the game) because they couldn’t come up with a “winning idea that was worth the amount of effort it would take to implement it.” They appreciated the possibility, but the title would never allow the creation of any type of stories, but only those that are already contemplated in the elements of the game.

In an interview with en Español, Benmergui explains more about the launch and development.

How was the launch of the game?

The release of “Storyteller” was a bit stressful in the early days because the gut reaction to the game was that it was short by the people on Steam’s perception of standard game length. It was a bit controversial at launch and we were on top of it trying to figure out how to handle it.

At the end of the day we now have 73% positive reviews on Steam, but the first few days the very vocal people were making a lot of noise and it sent the game into a magic line that Steam has, a magic number of negative reviews, in which you they go to a category that is mixed (varied). When the game falls into that category they remove it from all public lists. They basically sent you to the graveyard. There was a bit of a panic the first few days but it eventually leveled off in a positive place.

We knew there was going to be a bit of controversy regarding the length of the game but we didn’t imagine that it was going to cause us problems in the first few days. Now everything is fine. It’s solid on Steam’s puzzle section, right up there in the top spot. The truth is that I am happy with the release. What is happening now is that we are very busy with an update.

Screenshot from the video game “Storyteller” with a falling in love scene between Adam and Eve

How did Storyteller start, what is the origin of the project and what did you want to contribute?

The genesis of the idea was that I wanted to be able to give you the possibility to modify known stories. When I was little I had these children’s story books that always told you the same story. I remember looking at the illustrations and thinking ‘what if I could intervene this; what if I can let the protagonist know what the witch is doing; what if I can help the witch achieve whatever she wants so she ends up winning.’ “Storyteller” started there: what happens if I give you the power to change the course of things?’

As a matter of ethics and what my aesthetic is as a game designer, I didn’t want to do a traditional thing. Because traditionally games like “Heavy Rain” or “The Walking Dead” from Telltale, are like little movies and you make decisions at key points and then you have another piece of movie that reacts to what you did. Or like Netflix’s “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch” experiment. A lot of games are based on that, but I wanted this to be faster. I wanted you to try and see right away what the consequences of what you did are and be able to come back and try something else.

When I said ‘I need it to be immediate’, that’s where the idea of ​​them being cartoons came up. The good thing about the comic is that you can see the past and the future, all at the same time. So every time you change the past, you instantly change the whole future for everyone.”

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced in development?

There were very structural challenges in the design of “Storyteller.” There are many variables within the game. The biggest of all is the fact that when you do an abstract puzzle game like a crossword puzzle or a sudoku puzzle, what those puzzle games have is that they have a very small set of very abstract rules that tells you ‘you can’t repeat the number, neither row, nor column’. Arbitrary rules that come out of nowhere. So those games consist of you learning those abstract rules and developing an instinct for how to navigate those rules. This is how you learn to play better and eventually solve more difficult problems.

The problem with “Storyteller” is that it starts with the assumption that you come with a background of common sense about stories. And what happens is that people come in with their own expectations of how the stories are, how the characters work, Romeo and Juliet… You are bringing a huge baggage and the game has to deal well with what you bring so that you do not feel that the game is contradicting what you expect to happen.

“If “Storyteller” were an abstract puzzle game like Sudoku, it would be impossible to play because there are hundreds of rules (in the game) for how love works. The characters fall in love, except that one dialogues, except that they are not compatible with the another, except that this character really likes people who have power and this person has no power. So if I start to accumulate, I have hundreds of rules and they would be elusive. If you have to learn them, it would be impossible for you. It works. due to the fact that you already have them built in before. We’re playing with everyone coming with their own set of rules for how things work and we’re starting to tweak so that everyone is going the same way on Storyteller.

Screenshot from the video game “Storyteller” with a story of detectives and murderers

What will the new update include?

We are thinking of expanding. Small improvements or better ways to solve the levels we are already doing it silently and adding it periodically. The update consists of putting several new things. New characters, things to do after beating the game. We’re completing some ideas that weren’t ready on launch day. We’re closing them down and shaping them up and they’re going to make the game feel more complete.”

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.