Tension Unleashed!

Game designer Justin Gary’s latest Substack wisdom bomb offers his take on crafting tension in game design to engage players. When scribbling for TV and film, I endeavor to employ similar principles.

I’m constantly layering conflicts, raising stakes, and pacing resolutions to keep audiences from looking at their phones. Let’s look at how Justin’s insights on tension resonate beyond the boundaries of gaming, offering value to how we craft our narratives for TV and film.

While games rely on player interaction and choice to create engagement, storytelling for TV and movies must engage a passive audience by weaving tension into every scene and plotline.

The best games thrive on frustration—not the kind that alienates players, but the kind that challenges and rewards them. The limitations of placing one tile per turn in Carcassonne or the strategic decisions in SolForge Fusion compel players to think critically and anticipate consequences. This gives players agency within a structured framework of rules and restrictions.

The key to gaming is the player’s active participation. Choices—and their outcomes—are central to sustaining engagement. Players are constantly navigating obstacles to achieve a satisfying resolution. The strategic tension of building a deck in Magic: The Gathering or the battlefield tactics in Warhammer.

TV and movie audiences are observers, not participants. Scribblers create tension through techniques that hold attention and evoke emotional investment.

Unanswered Questions: Who will win? What happens next? Will they hook up? These questions compel viewers to stay invested.

Character Stakes: The audience cares because the characters care. Their struggles, goals, and relationships create emotional tension.

Conflict and Obstacles: Like the rules of a game, conflicts and obstacles define the journey and make resolutions resonate.

Pacing: Alternating moments of high tension with quieter personal beats mirrors the layers of tension Gary describes when playing a game. It gives audiences room to breathe while keeping them hooked.

The tension in Lost or Breaking Bad doesn’t just come from the central goal (surviving on an island or evading law enforcement). It’s the layers of interpersonal conflict, moral dilemmas, and escalating stakes that create an irresistible pull. And asking who will hook up.

Player Agency vs. Viewer Passivity: Player decisions are the core of the experience. The tension arises from weighing options and dealing with consequences. In TV and film, the audience experiences tension vicariously. Scribblers must anticipate and reverse audience expectations, delivering twists and turns that feel earned.

Multi-Layered Tensions: In Magic: The Gathering, players must balance immediate gains with long-term strategies. Likewise, Stranger Things balances supernatural mystery with character-driven subplots. Eleven’s struggle to find a place in the world or Hopper’s grief. These layers enrich the experience, offering multiple points for engagement.

Timing and Resolution: Games often have a clear end goal: checkmate in chess or the final boss in a video game. The player partially controls the pacing. In TV and movies, the pacing is dictated by the creators. Scribblers craft scenes and arcs with timed climaxes and resolutions, designing the tension to flow organically.

Game Design Lessons for Scribblers

Embrace Frustration: Just as players feel satisfaction from overcoming challenges, audiences find catharsis in seeing characters struggle before achieving their goals. Don’t shy away from making your characters face setbacks.

Layer Your Tensions: Use multiple sources of tension to keep the audience invested. In a thriller, the immediate tension might be a ticking clock, while the underlying tension stems from fractured relationships or hidden agendas.

Focus on Stakes: Games derive tension from the player’s desire to win. For TV and movies, stakes must be personal and relatable. The audience must feel the characters have something meaningful to gain or lose.

Create Choices (Even for Viewers): While audiences can’t directly influence the story, you can craft the illusion of choice by presenting moral dilemmas or ambiguous situations that invite them to mentally engage with the narrative. Providing space for them to anticipate outcomes and consequences.

For game designers, the challenge is crafting rules and mechanics that offer meaningful choices and satisfying frustrations. For scribblers, the task is weaving tension through character stakes, pacing, and conflict. By grokking the value of tension in both mediums, scribblers and game designers craft experiences that resonate and engage.

Check out Justin Gary’s Substack and podcast for more brilliant insights and interviews. Here’s a link to his original post - Think Like a Game Designer

Remember, you’re not facing the blank page alone. You have your scribbler’s toolbox. So, ABW. Always. Be. Writing.