Inkle's Jon Ingold on Crafting Replayable Narratives: 'The Point of Storytelling is to Engage Your Mind'

Games are designed to be replayed, but what makes a game replayable from a design perspective often conflicts with narrative. According to Inkle co-founder and narrative director Jon Ingold, 'As a narrative person, I'm not interested in compulsion loops or attention sinks, which make people disengage their minds. The purpose of narrative is to stimulate your mind.' Inkle is known for its highly replayable narrative-focused games such as 80 Days, Heaven's Vault, and Overboard. Ingold emphasizes that narrative doesn't rely on loops, but rather on setup and payoff, one-off special events, and surprises. He advises making narratives 'as skippable as possible' to achieve replayability. Ingold also stresses that AI is not the solution for richer narratives, as it can generate meaningless content. He identifies that game writers are limited by the constraints of games, and that narrative content is often restricted to justification and backstory. Ingold suggests making narratives richer and more complex by introducing ambiguity and nuance, but cautions that this can risk frustrating players. He cites Gene Wolfe's definition of good literature as 'that which can be read by an educated reader and re-read with increased pleasure.' Ingold applies this principle to games, arguing that the most important form of replayable storytelling comes from banter, or characterful dialogue that responds to gameplay. Inkle's games, such as 80 Days and Heaven's Vault, use banter to provide narrative nuggets without relying on cutscenes or audio logs. Ingold emphasizes the importance of synchronizing narrative and gameplay, and creating believable interactions between characters. He also warns that no amount of good banter or writing can solve the problem of repetition, which is a game design issue rather than a narrative one. Ingold concludes that the goal is to create games that can be replayed with increased pleasure, but notes that this doesn't require infinite narrative content or reliance on AI generation.