At this year’s Austin Game Developers Conference, Matt Costello of Polar Productions addressed the need for story and gameplay to work in concert, Gamasutra reports. Costello used his experience writing for Doom 3 and the upcoming games Rage and Pirates of the Caribbean 3 to show how the plot can shape the game.

“Add the parameters from the beginning of the session — something at stake, something dangerous,” said Costello. “It changes the tenor. It can be a dangerous and exciting puzzle. Think of an interaction that fits that world, and then think of storytelling parameters from story and books and movies.”

Pressure from the plot is an influential aspect of almost any game, whether you’re pushed into rushing forward to save the princess or stop the villain. Even in simple shooting games, shooting alien invaders becomes that much more pressing when mankind’s survival is at stake.

The plot in these situations adds something to the gameplay, making it a necessary and pointed goal rather than an arbitrary task to be methodically completed. Far too often are they developed separately and one becomes an excuse for the other.

Interestingly, Costello said that player interaction in games is only an illusion: “If you think you’ve impacted things, you’ve impacted things. The illusion of interactivity is what you want to deliver.”