Recipient-oriented playful design in Daniel Benmergui’s <i>Storyteller</i> (2023)

Abstract Proposing a conceptualization of playfulness as a primarily “appropriative” attitude, this article explores how narrative works can invite playfulness. After arguing that works that afford significant ambiguity and agency may encourage playfulness on the part of the recipient, the article focuses on such “recipient-oriented” playfulness in Daniel Benmergui’s narratively innovative puzzle-based comics game Storyteller . Against the background of Storyteller ’s unconventional combination of the medial features of comics and videogames, the article proposes two features of Storyteller ’s design that are likely to facilitate playfulness: multiple solution pathways and instant reactivity. While the former may encourage the player to experiment or “play with” the possibilities of each level, the latter ensures that they will not be “punished” for their experimentation. As a result, the player has very little to lose by following their whims and deviating from each level’s goals, testing the system’s possibilities, and attempting to determine which (imagined) outcomes the Storyteller system has anticipated.