Ian here—

The seventh episode of the ongoing Shape Up! series is posted. This one is about moments in a few games—2064: Read Only Memories, Unpacking, and Signs of the Sojourner are my main case studies—that have always stuck out to me in how they deliver narrative beats through somewhat unfair gameplay mechanics. I suppose you could describe all of them as moments of “forced failure,” but there’s a range of tactics on display here of varying subtlety, and I thought it best to coin a new, more inclusive term to describe all of these moments: a beat bottleneck.

Full script below the jump.

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