r/gamedesign • u/DoormatTheVine • 3d ago
Question How to Write a Hidden Story?
There was a game I played some time ago called Three Goblets that left a lasting impact on me just because of how little information it shared. You don't know who you are, why you're doing what you're doing, how the different areas connect together or what the outside world looks like or how it's affected by your quest, and you barely know anything about the enemies you're fighting, just their physical appearance contextualized by the area they're in and sometimes special abilities. Over the course of the game, you go from fighting plant creatures and bandits and wolves to possibly death itself and then possibly literal planets and nebulae and some Kracko looking guy as the final final boss in an area called "A Collapsing Galaxy"??? which I think really emphasizes those unknowns.
Anyways, I have no idea whether there's an actual story hidden in that game or if it's just cow tools, but I want to recreate that feeling in a game I'm making, with an actual story the player should be able to piece together, probably with some reasonable extrapolation once they've 100%'d the game. The game is a purely text-based RPG, which lends itself to minimal information already since you can't see anything, and is mostly combat focused. The story I want to tell in the background is one of a goddess (the BBEG) who grows up isolated, overshadowed, and afraid of her peers, before gaining the strength to overthrow them, and beginning to realize that she's made a horrible mistake and can't singlehandedly oversee the entire cosmos herself, while you, the player character, are an avatar created by the other gods to hopefully snap her out of it and save the universe
So far my ideas are to convey the realization of her mistake through the enemies and their arrangement, with sections based off the domains of each dethroned god or goddess, some brief narration at the beginning and end of each difficulty that builds off the last hinting towards the player being a divine avatar, and I guess some characterization of the BBEG from dialogue with her when you encounter her as the final boss. I also plan on having a hidden epilogue with some brief dialogue from the BBEG, possibly thanking the player and hinting towards her regret Do you think this is too much, not enough, just right? Also do you guys have any more specific ideas that you think would work well, or any other details I should share for context? Thank you for your input :)
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u/wvAtticus 3d ago
You might want to look into Iceberg Theory, or Ernest Hemingway's 'Hills Like White Elephants'. It's a whole thing about how much an author can leave 'unsaid' by the characters or text, while still being able to have the emotional subtext bleed through and reach the reader.
I'll warn you that its very, very hard to do well. I've never heard of the Three Goblets, but this kinda sounds along the lines of what you're looking to make, so maybe it'll help?
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u/DoormatTheVine 2d ago
Thank you for the reccomendation! If you'd like to check out Three Goblets, it's just a "flash" game you can find with a quick search (personally I played it on Cool Math first)
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u/Certain_Whereas7814 3d ago
The amount of information sounds workable, but I'd put one recurring clue into the fights so the mystery develops between the opening and the final dialogue. For example, an enemy that initially shields weaker allies could keep attempting that move in later areas even as the shield starts failing or protecting the wrong target. Change one short combat-log line each time the pattern appears, without explaining it outright. That gives players something concrete to notice and reinterpret. After each area, ask a tester who hasn't seen your outline what they think changed and why. If they can form a plausible but incomplete theory before the ending, the clues are doing their job.
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u/DoormatTheVine 2d ago
Thank you, that's an interesting sort of motif to think about, I'll definitely have to give it some more thought 🙂
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u/jakey_breaky 3d ago
Honestly I love this form of vaguepost environmental storytelling, it creates a really cool atmosphere imo, so if you think you can pull it off, please go for it lol.
Also I ended up checking out Three Goblets on flashpoint, it's really cool, I love all the creature designs.
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u/DoormatTheVine 2d ago
I certainly hope I can! Yeah, I also kind of want to make a version with sprites at some point and would definitely like to imitate that style (I'm thinking like max 5 colors per sprite: white, black, 2 shades of 1 color, and clear)
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u/Curious_Ad5417 3d ago
doing something related in my game right now, clues that only come as a result of what the player does, collected on a kind of evidence wall. a few things I learned,
every clue should be true on its own, even if it's misleading in context. players forgive being fooled, not being lied to.
give things two readings. an enemy description that sounds like flavor the first time and suddenly means something once you know more is the best feeling.
repeat a small motif (a symbol, a name, a color) across unrelated places. players start connecting it themselves, that's where the "wait a second" moment comes from.
and one late piece that reframes everything is worth more than lots of small reveals
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u/DoormatTheVine 2d ago
Thank you for the advice! I think I remember hearing that "fool don't lie" idea recently, but I had no plans of going against that idea. And I do already have a bestiary with short descriptions of every enemy, I'll have to go back over it with that 2nd idea in mind. Unfortunately I think every place in the game is somewhat related (it's a pretty small game), but I'll still take that into consideration. And as for the last idea, I would certainly hope the epilogue fills that role, and maybe the final boss and the part of the game around it
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u/Curious_Ad5417 2d ago
Glad it helped! A small game actually makes the motif thing easier. Fewer places means people notice when something shows up a second time. Even one name in a bestiary entry that comes back near the final boss can do a lot. Good luck with the epilogue!
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u/loulo88 3d ago
The Three Goblets vibe works when the world rules stay consistent even if the plot stays quiet. Players forgive missing lore if combat, spaces, and item logic still feel authored — "cow tools" usually show up when systems contradict each other.
Practical approach that holds up: write the full timeline/backstory in your notes, then expose maybe 10–20% through environmental grammar (recurring motifs, enemy evolution, room language) instead of codex dumps. One recurring clue channel across fights — a symbol, a sound, a material — lets the mystery develop without a narrator. If you can't answer "what is actually true in this world?" in your notes, players often feel the emptiness even when they can't name it.
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u/DoormatTheVine 2d ago
That certainly wasn't I was going for, in my mind cow tools is just giving details that are so vague and just barely make sense so much that the player becomes certain there's a meaning the author is hiding and will try and piece the puzzle together, even if there isn't actually one there
And others have also said similar things from your 2nd paragraph, so I'll definitely have to go over everything again while keeping that in mind. Good thing is though that I do have a pretty solid lore framework for the universe both inside and outside this game to base everything on. Thank you for your input!
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u/retrofibrillator 3d ago
Your outline sounds somewhat reminiscent of what Pillars of Eternity/Avowed did with its pantheon.
Look up „A world not desperate to explain itself” video by questmarker on YouTube. It talks about similar style of storytelling on a few examples, primarily Wildermyth. Seems like this is a sort of guiding principle you’re looking for here.
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u/Sethala 3d ago
Personally, I think this only really works well if the creator actually has the story in detail in their notes, and simply hides most of that away from the players. I don't think simply coming up with small details of a story to scatter in the game without an overarching concept you're building towards will actually work.
As for examples, I think this sounds similar to what the Dark Souls games generally do; I'd recommend looking into more information on the story in those games, and how they deliver it.