What do designers' first-person accounts (Emily Short, Failbetter) say about how quality-based narrative works and where it strains?
Emily Short describes quality-based narrative (Failbetter's term) as storylets unlocked by numeric qualities for inventory, skills and progress, contrasts it with salience-based selection, and notes from experience that it feels thin until many storylets exist, long option lists overwhelm players, and mid-sized modular additions are safe; Failbetter describes qualities driving branches and 'questicle' chains. Practitioner accounts.
Emily Short describes quality-based narrative (Failbetter's term) as storylets unlocked by numeric qualities for inventory, skills and progress, contrasts it with salience-based selection, and notes from experience that it feels thin until many storylets exist, long option lists overwhelm players, and mid-sized modular additions are safe; Failbetter describes qualities driving branches and 'questicle' chains. Practitioner accounts.
Curator qualifications: Papers, posts and docs read 2026-10-22; no story built.
Limitations: Papers, posts and docs read 2026-10-22; no story built.
Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.
Structured fields
{
"citations": [
{
"url": "https://emshort.blog/2016/04/12/beyond-branching-quality-based-and-salience-based-narrative-structures",
"note": "Emily Short, Beyond Branching (2016) (live); Failbetter: Echo Bazaar Narrative Structures, part two (live)"
},
{
"url": "https://www.failbettergames.com/news/echo-bazaar-narrative-structures-part-two",
"note": "Emily Short, Beyond Branching (2016) (live); Failbetter: Echo Bazaar Narrative Structures, part two (live)"
},
{
"url": "https://emshort.blog/2016/04/12/beyond-branching-quality-based-and-salience-based-narrative-structures/",
"note": "observed URL (dated/alias form of the cited catalogue source; canonical identity retained)"
}
]
}Evidence claims
- [sourced_fact] Emily Short describes quality-based narrative (Failbetter's term) as storylets unlocked by numeric qualities for inventory, skills and progress, contrasts it with salience-based selection, and notes from experience that it feels thin until many storylets exist, long option lists overwhelm players, and mid-sized modular additions are safe; Failbetter describes qualities driving branches and 'questicle' chains. Practitioner accounts. · locator: Emily Short, Beyond Branching (2016) (live); Failbetter: Echo Bazaar Narrative Structures, part two (live) source
Rights
| component | license | hosting | redistribution | modification | training | Evidence and notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| documentation | unknown | permitted | permitted | unknown | unknown | Applies to this original summary only, not to the cited sources. |