Iterative Narrative

Ludic Pattern (named combination) interactive · interactive

The agent lives through the same time period or space repeatedly. What changes is not the world but the agent’s knowledge. Each pass reveals new connections that are carried into the next.

Design question – What do players discover on each pass that changes the next one?

Reference example – Return of the Obra Dinn: looking at the same death scenes again and again – with every look something else stands out. Undertale: on the second playthrough the game remembers the first. T.I.M.E Stories: if the run fails, you start the same mission over – and this time you know where not to go.

Compatible with

• Spiral (DU-05) – Rising competence across passes.
• Eruption (DU-04) – Many loops at low progress, then a sudden breakthrough.

Tension with

• Cyclical Structure (NA-07) – Distinction: temporal repetition vs. thematic recurrence.

Consists of

• Ludic Narrational Structure (ludic-narrational-structure) – The narrative framework: the same period of time, told repeatedly.
• Ludic Temporal Structure (ludic-temporal-structure) – Repetition with carried-over state: persistence and reversibility of time. The knowledge carried along lies with the agent and is not a component.