Environmental Storytelling

About

Environmental Storytelling is a technique in worldbuilding that uses the environment to convey stories to the audience or the player. The method involves placing meaningful objects and events into the environment, with players deducing information about the world and the characters in it from them. Online, the term "environmental storytelling" has often been used as a caption for images that hide a meaning which can be extracted from the environment and objects depicted in that image.

Origin

Environmental storytelling is a technique used in worldbuilding that involves using the environment to indirectly convey stories to the audience. The technique is most notably used in video games in which exploring players are able to deduce information about the world, events and characters.

Environmental storytelling has been a popular subject of articles about video game development at least since the early 2010s. For example, on January 23rd, 2013, level designer Jethro Jongeneel published a paper on environmental storytelling to his blog^[1] (extracts shown below).

Starting in 2016, the phrase "environmental storytelling" has been used as a caption for images that hide a meaning which can be extracted from the environment and objects depicted in that image. On October 5th, 2016, Twitter^[2] user @coolranchzaku posted one of the earliest such tweets, captioning two tweets that indirectly revealed that another Twitter user learned to use the Retrowave Text Generator. The post (shown below, left) gained over 2,100 retweets and 3,500 likes in seven years. On October 28th, 2017, Twitter^[3] user @MOOMANiBE posted a photograph of a dusty Wii U captioned with the phrase. The tweet (shown below, right) received over 1,800 retweets and 7,300 likes in six years.

Spread

The phrase gained more prominence as a caption for images in the early 2020s. For example, on February 17th, 2020, Twitter^[4] user @majimatron posted a photograph of a store shelf tagged "The anime titled 'Free,'" which implied that the previous tag "Free!" had been misinterpreted by customers (shown below, left). The tweet, captioned with the phrase, gained over 9,400 retweets and 30,800 likes in three years. On April 8th, 2020, Twitter^[5] user @joewintergreen posted a photograph of a toilet on display in IKEA with a protective film reading "Please use the customer toilets." The captioned tweet received over 4,300 retweets and 20,500 likes (shown below, right).

The phrase "environmental storytelling" maintained its prevalence as a caption for photographs that indirectly revealed that certain events had occurred in the past or conveyed certain stories.

Related Memes

Environmental Storytelling Skeletons

Environmental Storytelling Skeletons refer to skeleton NPCs or in-game models placed in specific poses and locations, particularly in Bethesda video games like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls, to subtly suggest their story to the player and make the world feel more "lived-in." Throughout the 2010s, storytelling skeletons became the subject of memes for their prominence in open-world games.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References