The Story Stack of Split Fiction

Split Fiction from Hazelight Studios is undoubtedly a huge success, with compelling, ever-changing mechanics and numerous stunning environments. But I've seen many folks agreeing on the weakest link of Split Fiction: its story. So today, using Jesse Schell's story stack as a framework, I'll attempt to identify the weak points in the narrative and propose alternatives.

The story stack is a framework for analyzing elements of a game and the way they build upon each other, ordered from least flexible to most flexible. If you're unfamiliar with the structure, you can learn more about it in Jesse Schell's GDC talk from 2019 (his part begins at 51:00) but essentially, each element of the story stack builds upon the elements that come before it.

Player Fantasy

The player fantasy of Split Fiction is to explore and complete levels in two distinct settings with fast-paced and ever-changing co-op gameplay.

Split Fiction has an unusual player fantasy, at least compared to the games I usually analyze. I typically find that player fantasies have some connection to the game's overarching narrative; you can't talk about the player fantasy of something like God of War or Hades without using the phrase "be a god," which informs the kind of story the game is telling.

But, I would argue that Split Fiction has a player fantasy completely divorced from its narrative. The player is drawn in by the gameplay itself, not the fantasy of being a writer or taking down a corporation. This poses a challenge in creating an overarching story that feels essential to the game itself.

Actions

Player verbs come and go quickly in Split Fiction, serving their purpose for a specific level or gameplay sequence before being retired. But the consistent actions available to the player are running, jumping and grappling, which allow the player to traverse the various levels and discover new actions. The new actions generally complement each other; for example one player's ability to change their own gravity, and the other player's ability to change the gravity of items in the world.

Levels in Split Fiction also include combat, which varies for each level, but often involves some variation on shooting or throwing.

Progression

Split Fiction has no stats, skill trees or item upgrades; instead, it's progression is primary felt through completing levels and switching to new abilities. With no grinding for experience or choices to make, the progression is simple and linear, allowing the player to focus on the core fantasy.

World

I considered moving the world category higher in the story stack for this game in particular, implying that Hazelight may have viewed world as less flexible than actions or progression. After all, a core element of the player fantasy is the two distinct worlds that the player gets to explore.

However, upon further thought, I still think actions and progression belong above world in Split Fiction's story stack. While the game's distinct gritty, neon sci-fi and medieval fantasy settings feel deeply relevant to the actions given to the player in their respective levels, I'd argue that those actions could be transferred fairly easily to other worlds with basic retheming.

For example (spoilers!) we see toward the end of the game how the same actions can be re-interpreted in different settings when the two players are split between their respective settings.

Story

And now, we've made it all the way down to story, but very little of the story has been dictated by the earlier steps. The story must explain and support two protagonists working together to conquer environmental puzzles, combat, and platforming within contrasting sci-fi and fantasy settings.

The story Hazelight chose follows two writers, Mio and Zoe, invited by a publisher to try a machine that essentially converts their stories into playable VR experiences. The two accidentally end up in the same simulation, which switches them back and forth between their stories, and overloads the machine in the process. Mio and Zoe struggle to get along at first because of their conflicting worldviews and stories, but eventually team up to destroy the machine, which is not just using the stories they submitted, but also stealing ideas straight out of their minds. A cartoonishly evil CEO fights them from the simulation's control room while Zoe and Mio work their way through their stories in an effort to overload the machine.

The story concept is decent; it's a fun, if not over-the-top, allegory for generative AI, and it's a solid reason for the two protagonists to be exploring two distinct worlds. There's just one thing that would make the whole thing significantly stronger.

Create a real conflict between Zoe and Mio

At it's core, the conflict between Zoe and Mio is just an argument about conflicting worldviews. When playing the game, my partner and I often agreed that their interpersonal issues would be mostly negated if Zoe would simply stop asking Mio prying questions about the way her real life influences her story worlds.

Alternate Story Pitch

Instead of meeting for the first time at Rader Publishing, Zoe and Mio were rivals in their university creative writing program. In addition to not understanding each others' choices of themes and settings, they were the only two women in their cohort, and each had their own variation of internalized misogyny. Mio was "one of the guys,"and Zoe was girly and ditzy, and both thought the other was putting on their persona for the attention of men.

After graduation, Mio was offered an exclusive mentorship that both of them had been gunning for. But when Zoe hears that Mio had to drop out of the mentorship, Zoe assumes that Mio thought she was too good for it and spread that rumor among their fellow graduates. Mio actually dropped the mentorship because she needed to care for her sick father, but before she left, she told them not to bring on Zoe in her place, citing her "immature" story themes.

With this foundation for their relationship, Zoe and Mio aren't arguing over nothing; they're arguing over years of both misunderstandings and bad behavior. Therefore, traveling through the simulation together gives them the opportunity to understand each other more fully and challenge their own assumptions and biases. Additionally, with this feminist spin on the conflict, they come to an understanding of how the patriarchal structures around them exacerbated their rivalry.