Post
A story wrapped inside another story, giving the player two layers of narrative to unravel at once.
A framing device is a narrative structure where the main story is presented as being told, remembered, or experienced within a secondary context. In games, this often means you are playing through a retelling (someone is narrating past events), a simulation (the gameplay is a program within the game world), or a layered reality (dreams within dreams, stories within stories). Framing devices let writers control information flow, justify gameplay abstractions, explain respawning or failure states, and create dramatic irony between what the frame narrator knows and what actually happened. They also enable meta-commentary, where the frame itself becomes part of the thematic message.
Example
Assassin's Creed uses the Animus as a framing device, with the modern-day sequences contextualizing the historical gameplay as genetic memories being relived. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time frames the entire game as the Prince telling his story, which cleverly explains the rewind mechanic ('No, no, that's not how it happened'). Bastion's narrator comments on the player's actions in real time, making the framing device an active part of gameplay.
Why it matters
Framing devices solve practical design problems (why does the player respawn? why is this world structured like a game?) while adding narrative depth. They give writers a tool for unreliable narration, meta-commentary, and structural creativity that elevates a straightforward story into something layered and memorable.
Related concepts