As I crafted this analysis for The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, a game released 11 years ago in 2014, I recognize that its art design, narrative structure, and mechanics have been extensively discussed since its debut. Yet, I chose to revisit this title rather than chase contemporary trends for several reasons. First, as an aspiring game designer, this exercise sharpens my critical thinking and allows me to construct a thorough critique of others’ work. Second, as an indie game, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter offers a concise framework that distills game design principles with clarity, unlike the sprawling complexity of commercial titles. Finally, for someone eager to create their own game, indie titles like this serve as an ideal starting point, making the study and absorption of their innovative techniques highly valuable.
This article will analyze the game from a design perspective, beginning with an introduction to key design concepts and the inspirations shaping its creation—crucial for understanding its elements in later sections. I’ve reviewed extensive materials and am confident that the game’s design philosophy aligns with these principles. Let’s start with its creator, Adrian Chmielarz, a renowned figure in Poland’s gaming industry and co-founder of The Astronauts, the studio behind this debut work. Drawing from his 2014 speech, “Holy Grail of Narrative Games” (GDC Vault), and blending insights from Adrian Kash’s lecture on narrative game design, I will frame the analysis around a compelling framework that integrates narrative and interactivity to foster a player-driven experience.
Adrian Chmielarz’s idea of game narrative design takes“The player is the author of the story” as the core goal, and advocates that the player should actively construct the narrative experience through interaction, rather than passively accept the preset plot. Inspired by Thomas Grip’s idea of narrative experience, the concept emphasizes that narrative is the sum of character, plot, atmosphere, and play, with the player’s subjective journey at its core. Kash draws on Scott Rigby and Richard Ryan’s Self-determination theory PENS model (Player Experience of Need Satisfaction) , based on the self-determination theory (SDT) , through the sense of Competence, Autonomy and Relatedness, this paper explains why players desire to“Write” their own stories in the game from the psychological level. To achieve this, he proposes a“Trinity” experience framework-through the synergy of immersion, presence, and engagement, translate player needs into a design dimension that can be implemented. This framework echoes the Film Crit Hulk’s view that the ultimate goal of narrative is to alleviate loneliness through connection, and that games transcend traditional media through interactivity. To this end, Kash provides two sets of design tools: 1. The four building blocks (puzzles with/without explicit solutions, choices, filters of consciousness) , as play archetypes, ensure that interactions serve the narrative, and provide the context for the narrative, for example, Eth an Carter uses environmental cues (e.g. , letters, bloodstained tools) to construct“Unsolved puzzles”; 2. The four-layer Design Model (playplay layer, narrative target layer, narrative background layer, mental modeling layer) , refined by Kash and Grip in the GDC 2014 exchange, is used to transform mechanical playplay into emotional narrative, and to create a narrative model of the game, for example, the detective perspective in Ethan Carter is both a gameplay mechanism (looking for clues) and a character projection (mental modeling) . These tools dynamically collaborate through implicit design techniques: manipulative narratives (such as light guidance) and negative spatial narratives (fragmented cues) that reinforce a sense of connection while satisfying autonomy; Experiential themes (gameplay transfer themes, such as detective identity) and dynamic rhythms (tension-release cycles, such as alternating exploration and puzzle solving) maintain the integrity of the Trinity. In the end, games are no longer“A patchwork of stories and play,” but an indivisible stream of players’ subjective experience-the essence of Ethan Carter’s blend of open exploration, environmental narrative, and supernatural puzzle-solving, by volunteering to piece together Ethan’s tragic story, players experience what Kash calls“Transcendence.”.
graph TD
A[Player as<br>Story Author] -->|Goal| B[PENS Model<br>Competence<br>Autonomy<br>Relatedness]
B -->|Psychological<br>Foundation| C[Trinity<br>Immersion<br>Presence<br>Engagement]
C -->|Implementation<br>Framework| D[Immersion<br>Mental<br>Transportation]
C --> E[Presence<br>Physical<br>Transportation]
C --> F[Engagement<br>Mental/Manual<br>Effort]
B -->|Relatedness| D
B -->|Autonomy| E
B -->|Competence| F
F -->|Mechanisms| G[Four Building<br>Blocks]
G --> G1[Puzzle with<br>Confirmed Solution]
G --> G2[Puzzle without<br>Confirmed Solution]
G --> G3[Choice<br>Branching<br>Optional Content]
G --> G4[Awareness Filter]
C -->|Design Tools| H[Four-Layer Model]
H --> H1[Gameplay Layer]
H --> H2[Narrative<br>Goal Layer]
H --> H3[Narrative<br>Background Layer]
H --> H4[Mental<br>Modeling Layer]
D --> H3
E --> H1
F --> H1
F --> H4
style A fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:16px,min-width:600px,min-height:400px
style B fill:#bbf,stroke:#333,stroke-width:16px,min-width:600px,min-height:600px
style C fill:#bfb,stroke:#333,stroke-width:16px,min-width:600px,min-height:600px
style D fill:#ffb,stroke:#333,stroke-width:16px,min-width:600px,min-height:400px
style E fill:#ffb,stroke:#333,stroke-width:16px,min-width:600px,min-height:400px
style F fill:#ffb,stroke:#333,stroke-width:16px,min-width:600px,min-height:400px
style G fill:#dfd,stroke:#333,stroke-width:16px,min-width:600px,min-height:400px
style H fill:#dfd,stroke:#333,stroke-width:16px,min-width:600px,min-height:400px
style G1 fill:#dfd,stroke:#333,stroke-width:16px,min-width:600px,min-height:400px
style G2 fill:#dfd,stroke:#333,stroke-width:16px,min-width:600px,min-height:400px
style G3 fill:#dfd,stroke:#333,stroke-width:16px,min-width:600px,min-height:400px
style G4 fill:#dfd,stroke:#333,stroke-width:16px,min-width:600px,min-height:400px
style H1 fill:#dfd,stroke:#333,stroke-width:16px,min-width:600px,min-height:400px
style H2 fill:#dfd,stroke:#333,stroke-width:16px,min-width:600px,min-height:400px
style H3 fill:#dfd,stroke:#333,stroke-width:16px,min-width:600px,min-height:400px
style H4 fill:#dfd,stroke:#333,stroke-width:16px,min-width:600px,min-height:400pxTo sum up, narrative games attract players by meeting the core psychological needs – self-confidence, autonomy and relevance – listed in the “PENS” model. Whenever players overcome challenges through their own efforts, such as solving puzzles or completing tasks, their self-confidence will be demonstrated. Every success – whether it is solving mysteries or advancing the plot – brings players a sense of achievement and progress, making them feel that they have become smarter and more capable of shaping the story. This self-empowerment enhances their commitment to the narrative. Autonomy gives players control over their own experiences, allowing them to freely choose the exploration path, action sequence or the way they interpret the story. This feeling of “My choice matters” transforms players from passive observers to active narrators, thereby establishing a personal connection with the narrative. By exploring various possibilities, players will feel that the story is unique to them, thereby deepening their sense of engagement and belonging. Relevance establishes an emotional connection with the game’s world, characters or story, providing a profound connection that can deeply touch people’s hearts. This emotional investment – that is, the understanding or resonance with the characters – meets the human need for a sense of belonging, prompting players to explore the story more deeply in order to obtain a richer emotional experience. These internal psychological driving forces form the basis of Adrian Kash’s “Trinity” framework, which transforms the requirements of the PENS model into tangible game design through immersion, presence and stickiness. Next, let’s take a look at how The Vanishing of Ethan Carter utilized the Trinity model to meet these psychological needs and immerse players in the mysterious world of Red Creek Valley.
Adrian Chmielarz defines immersion as ‘teleporting the mind in space and time’. From my perspective, this game masterfully blends warmth (rustic valleys, golden sunlight) with eeriness (crow caws, mutilated corpses) to create a paradoxical sense of nostalgia and dread. Crucially, this immersion is deepened by the game’s literary DNA, drawing from weird fiction – a genre that straddles horror, fantasy, and sci-fi to unsettle through the inexplicable. As revealed in the designers’ blogs, Edgar Allan Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death and Shakespeare’s The Tempest provided significant thematic inspiration for this work. Poe, as a pioneer of weird fiction, imbues his works with an atmosphere of gloom and oppression. The central theme of The Masque of the Red Death – the inevitability of death and the futility of human resistance – finds striking parallels in Ethan Carter’s narrative, where the detective’s relentless search ultimately culminates in the tragic revelation of Ethan’s death. Moreover, In Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, Prospero, who is trapped on his magic island, manipulates magic, creates illusions, reflects on fate and maintains family ties. These actions are manifested in the game through the solitary exploration of the protagonist detective Paul Prospero, the closed stage of Red Valley and supernatural retrospection. Each presents a complex theme of isolation, control and futility that leads to the same destination by different paths. Apart from the influence of the above works on the overall game atmosphere and conception, the narrative structure of the game also refers to Ambrose Bierce’s short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. As an early weird fiction, it is renowned for its non-linear narrative and psychological depth. The story depicts Peyton Farqual, a civilian during the American Civil War, who was sentenced to death by hanging for attempting to damage the Owl Creek Bridge of the Union Army. At the moment of the execution, the rope seemed to break, and Faqual fell into the river, embarking on a thrilling escape, crossing the forest and attempting to return to his family. However, the ending of the novel reveals that all this escape was merely an illusion just a few seconds before his death. In reality, he has already been hanged. The non-linear narrative and illusionary theme of this story directly inspired the plot in the game where Ethan, in the “four minutes” of being suffocated in the thick fog, imagined the protagonist detective coming to rescue him. This narrative, which jumps between reality, memory and illusion, challenges the traditional narrative where objective reality often serves as the benchmark for the narrative. It strengthens the feature that the boundary between reality and fantasy in the genre of grotesque literature is completely blurred, and presents a epistemological dilemma: when facing the ultimate boundary such as death, what changes will the consciousness of the brain undergo? From a child’s perspective, the game offers the answer that he will use his limited life experience and imagination to transform the traumas in reality into a series of fantasy narratives full of symbolic meanings.
The fantasy scenes in the game also originate from the horror elements of diverse cultures, which blend to form a strange and unique psychological horror aesthetic. Players can emotionally resonate with Ethan’s broken heart, the relationships among his family members, and the story background of his loved ones. The fantasy scenes in the game include the sealed “sea-thing” in the underground mine, which is based on the Great Old Ones in H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. The plot of suddenly encountering an astronaut in the forest and flying into space is derived from the space fantasy in Werner’s science fiction novels. What is more notable is the various esoterical elements mixed in the game: The folk witch legends in the forest camp, the Solomon’s demon summoning ceremony in the church cemetery, the secret magic symbols in the alchemy room… These seemingly discordant supernatural Settings actually precisely simulate the chaotic stream of consciousness of a dying child. Just as memory fragments randomly discharge in an oxygen-deficient brain, the Gothic novels, science fiction books, and folklores that Ethan had come into contact with during his lifetime all lost their logical connection as death approached, and were re-encoded by traumatic experiences into a set of personalized symbolic systems. This narrative strategy enables the game to go beyond simple literary tributes and create a unique “traumatic Gothic” aesthetic. When players navigate through various supernatural scenes of different styles, they are actually traversing the inner world of an abused child – the Cthulhu-style deep-sea fear represents the father’s constantly suppressed and wanted to protect his dream of invention, the sci-fi elements carry the desire to escape reality, and the occult embodies the vision of relying on supernatural abilities to change family relationships. Ultimately, “The Disappearance of Ethan Carter” achieves the most profound interactive presentation of children’s psychological trauma through this highly literary narrative approach. Every supernatural setting in the game is not merely a decorative horror element, but a psychological defense system constructed by a child trapped in the implicit violent environment of the family with his limited cognitive resources. When players uncover the secrets of Red Valley, they are actually interpreting a childhood trauma diary written with bizarre literary symbols, where each fantastical scene is an encrypted expression of real harm. This makes the game not only an inheritance of the weird fiction tradition, but also a prominent practice of the manifestation of traumatic memory in the field of digital narrative
Unlike psychological immersion, Presence is defined by Adrian Chmielarz, “teleporting the body in space and time” places more emphasis on the physical sense of “Presence”, making players feel as if their bodies were also in the game world. For example, in The game, players feel that the surrounding environment, sounds, light and shadow, etc. are all like their own personal experiences. The following attempts to explore how “The Vanishing of Ethan Carter” constructs’ presence ‘through environmental design from three aspects: technology, art and personal experience. First of all, it should be noted that the real source of the scenes in the game does not come from the story’s setting, Wisconsin, USA. Instead, the production team carried cameras and spent several months on on-site shooting in the Karkonosze Mountains of Poland. Finally, through Photogrammetry technology, thousands of high-resolution photos taken on the spot are combined into a 3d model that is indistinguishable from the real environment. The landmarks such as the tunnel, the Bridges where the cable car stop, the dam and Vang Stave Church in the game are almost the same as the real scenes. This technical approach enables the environment to present a visual effect close to reality, providing players with a physical experience as if they were in the Karkonosze Mountains and strengthening the foundation of “Presence”. For the purpose of shaping the scene atmosphere and conveying the theme, while restoring the real scene, the development team was inspired by the Dutch Golden Age painter Herman Saftleven’s “Hunter Sleeping on a Hillside”, and integrated surrealist naturalism and Impressionist elements into the environmental design. The light and shadow in the game are soft, such as the dappled light reflected through the leaves or the blurred transition of the mist in the valley, creating a visual effect that lies between reality and fantasy. These artistic choices not only shape the atmosphere of the environment, but also echo the theme of the game’s exploration of the interweaving of reality and imagination, tranquility and death. In addition, sensory details and interaction design further construct “Presence”. In terms of the design of auditory elements, the game combines background music and environmental sound effects, and makes the background music dynamically adjust according to the changes of the scene to match the atmosphere of the space and narrative. For example, when exploring the forest near the platform, the background music is mainly low synthesizer sounds, creating an empty and oppressive atmosphere, echoing the theme of loneliness and the unknown in the game. After discovering the astronauts, the background music turns to rapid string and dissonance, with the rhythm quickening and the volume increasing, intensifying the sense of urgency in the narrative and guiding players to focus on the plot objective of tracking down the astronauts. The dynamic changes of this kind of music not only reflect the narrative function of the scene, but also guide players to adjust their attention to the plot through auditory cues. The design of environmental sound effects also pays attention to the combination of the scene and the theme. The crow, as the core image in the game, its cry intermittently echoes in the forest where we are exploring Red Creek Valley. For instance, when players piece together memory fragments in the cemetery scene to investigate the story clues, at the end, flocks of crows fly far away with their cries. And when players investigate the cause of the conflict between Dale and Travis under the dam, the intermittent crow cries coming from the environment all hint at the death of the characters during the story exploration. Other sound effects include the rustling of the wind blowing through the woods of the Karkonosze Mountains, the gurgling of the stream under the bridge, and the hissing of characters passing through the grass. These sound effects are dynamically triggered based on the player’s position, enabling the player to perceive the real-time changes in the environment, as if the body were moving in the real space, enhancing the “Presence”. The game also prompts players to actively establish connections with the environment through interactive mechanisms, deepening the “Presence”. Among them, the “supernatural perspective” is the core of the game interaction design, embodying the “awareness filter” mentioned by Adrian Chmielarz. Players need to adjust their perspective based on the clue text they find (such as beside the bloodstain of the cable car), and move to the correct direction to trigger the screen of the scene segment where the required item (such as a crank) appears. After that, players must carefully observe the environment and find the locations that match the visual cues based on the water flow, the placement of rocks, the traces on the ground, etc. This process requires players to continuously scan the scene details and transform the environment from a static background into part of a dynamic puzzle. This kind of active exploration makes players feel that their bodies are closely connected to the virtual world, as if conducting field investigations in reality. However, it should be noted that although this interaction mechanism effectively builds “Presence”, it mainly focuses on exploration and observation, and the interaction form is relatively simple. In the early stage when the story plot has not reached its climax, it may limit the initiative of some players in these scenes, thereby affecting their “Presence” experience.
The game begins in a forest, where players enter through a long, surreal tunnel tasked with finding five traps scattered across the area. Discovering each trap triggers a hidden scenario, such as a memory fragment or event reconstruction, and reveals notes offering insight into the Carter family’s tragedy. The gameplay invites players to marvel at the stunning scenery, encouraging exploration with thoughts like, “This forest is beautiful; I’ll look around.” As players wander, they accidentally trigger traps and use the mouse to activate detective Paul Prospero’s supernatural “sense” ability, uncovering shards of specific scenarios. This surfaces the narrative goal: how many traps remain, and what visions will they reveal? After activating all five traps, players are teleported to a chilling field filled with skeletons and skulls beneath a tree, where they find a fantasy story by Ethan titled “The Sap.” Since this is a game analysis, I’ll clarify the metaphors to highlight their design. Later, we learn Ethan draws inspiration from his family experiences, and this strange story about an old man drinking sap sparks curiosity: Why did he drink it? Who set the fire? Returning to “reality,” players find a burned newspaper near the tree, revealing clues: Ethan’s grandfather, intoxicated, accidentally set fire to the house, killing his wife, Gayle. Additionally, we learn of the Vandergriff family, whose patriarch died in a mine accident, leaving their property to Ethan’s family, as no Vandergriffs wished to remain.
This scene engages the four-layer model effectively. The gameplay involves exploration and using Prospero’s sense ability to trigger traps. The narrative goal is to uncover all traps and their associated visions. The narrative background emerges through the newspaper and Ethan’s story, detailing the family tragedy and the Vandergriff connection. The mental modeling layer sparks limitless curiosity about the family’s story and the valley’s secrets, heightened by the contrast between the vivid countryside and unsettling elements. For example, the protagonist’s unnatural entry—teleporting through a tunnel rather than arriving by train—sets a surreal tone. A glowing halo flanked by two dots in the darkness creates a wormhole-like effect, symbolizing Prospero’s inevitable fate, drawn by Ethan to save him. The tunnel’s eerie atmosphere aligns with the game’s weird fiction style, establishing unsettling themes early. The narrator’s cryptic lines, like “Ethan Carter I didn’t know, but he knew who I was,” “There are places only a few can see; Ethan could have drawn a map,” and “I was too late,” deepen the mystery, framing the player’s mental image of an eerie, supernatural world.
Next, players cross the forest to a bridge, where the sophisticated scenic layout—a distant dam and buildings scattered on the mountainside—prompts curiosity about what lies ahead. Here, players find a discarded train with bloodstains, introducing new gameplay: using Prospero’s sense ability to reconstruct past events. Words indicating possible causes appear, and players must face the direction of the lethal weapon, a crank, to reveal surrounding scenery. While searching for the crank by the river, players encounter a body and collect clues like broken ropes, an oil tank, and a stone. Solving this case reveals that Ethan’s brother Travis and grandfather were influenced by “the Sleeper,” a supernatural entity requiring Ethan’s sacrifice. Travis tied Ethan to the tracks, hoping to appease the Sleeper, but their grandfather, retaining some consciousness, struck Travis with a stone, drove the railcar to dismember his legs, and killed him with the crank to save Ethan.
This scene’s gameplay requires navigation to find tools and clues, plus careful investigation of the environment to deduce the murder’s sequence. For instance, players notice withered grass, suggesting the railcar’s long-term position, a key clue to correctly place the railcar, sense Travis’s body, and sequence crime scene segments to replay the murder accurately. This demands inferential skills to restore the truth. The narrative goal is to uncover the murder’s details, while the narrative background reveals the Sleeper’s influence and the family’s tragic dynamics. The mental modeling layer reinforces the detective mindset, encouraging players to piece together clues to understand the valley’s dark secrets.
The third scenario involves activating a light pole, unexpectedly summoning an astronaut apparition. Players follow its trail to a floating UFO, which transports them through a wormhole into the cosmos—an odd, immersive experience. This reflects Ethan’s sci-fi imagination, inspired by Jules Verne, as evidenced by a book later found in the attic. Players discover Ethan’s story “Fangs,” about his brother Travis, found alongside a sci-fi magazine vandalized by Travis. The story depicts a beast (Travis) chasing a light into a forest, only to vanish when the ground disappears, symbolizing Travis’s desire to escape home and his bullying of Ethan. The gameplay involves following the astronaut’s trail, requiring minimal manual effort but significant mental effort to interpret the story’s metaphors. The narrative goal is to uncover Ethan’s perspective on Travis, while the narrative background ties to Ethan’s Verne-inspired fantasies and family conflicts. The mental modeling layer immerses players in a surreal, sci-fi-infused world, blending with the game’s weird fiction tone.
Afterward, players reach the dam, a visually striking area where the view of the valley’s lower parts sparks curiosity about potential stories. Beyond the dam lie two houses: Ethan’s family home and an abandoned house. In Ethan’s home, players overhear family conversations blaming Ethan for his fantastical stories. A family photo reveals varied emotions, and the attic contains books like The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym by Edgar Allan Poe, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain, From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne, and Juvenilia by H.P. Lovecraft. These explain the game’s fantastical elements as products of Ethan’s literary imagination. In the abandoned house, players find a letter invoking Focalor, a demon from The Lesser Key of Solomon, known for controlling seas, storms, and drowning. This suggests why Ethan’s family disapproved of his unconventional reading. The gameplay involves solving a portal puzzle, rearranging scenes behind doors to match Ethan’s house, unlocking a magician’s room. A note and newspaper reveal a story about a magician (Ethan’s uncle) who created a future-predicting potion, refused to share it, and fled to a fireproof room when villagers burned his house. The newspaper mentions a private wine distillery found after a forest fire, linked to the uncle, and NASA’s ATS-6 satellite launch in 1974, contrasting progress with dysfunction. The narrative goal is to uncover the uncle’s story, the narrative background connects to family conflicts, and the mental modeling layer prompts players to link these clues to Ethan’s troubled family dynamics.
On the way to the church, players trigger a witch encounter, transporting them to a forest. The witch, who seeks the past rather than the future, poses philosophical questions about morality, death, and identity, like “Who would you rather see die: your mother, father, or best friend?” or “Does evil stem from the heart or reason?” Players don’t answer but walk toward a distant light, arriving at a tent with lit torches. Here, they find Ethan’s story about a witch, a woman, and her son. The woman, told she’d have a child, loses her beauty; the child asks the witch to restore it, then disappears, and the mother regains her beauty. A scratched-out first draft suggests Ethan saw his imperfections in his mother Missy’s eyes, causing her “loss of beauty.” A note from Missy asks Ethan to remember her “snake tongue,” portraying her as both the story’s beautiful woman and harsh witch. The charred ground around the tent hints at a lingering tragedy. The gameplay requires walking toward the light, with mental effort focused on interpreting the story’s metaphors. The narrative goal is to understand Ethan’s relationship with his mother, the narrative background ties to family emotional conflicts, and the mental modeling layer creates a reflective, dreamlike state questioning truth and perception. [Note: All four layers were addressed, but I refined the narrative background and mental modeling for clarity.]
At the church, players notice its steeple from the forest near Ethan’s house, sparking curiosity. Two striking elements stand out: a bloody stump with dead crows and the dark Vandergriff mausoleum. The mental modeling layer immediately suggests something terrible happened, prompting players to seek explanations. Gameplay involves collecting clues—a broken lamp, crow figure, and crow dagger—to enter the mausoleum, where players find Chad’s corpse. Using Prospero’s sense ability, players learn Chad, influenced by the demon Malphas, bricked Ethan in the mausoleum. Crow imagery, like a blood sigil of the Corvus constellation and a crow’s foot made with crow blood and a dagger, symbolizes death and ominousness. Missy, seeing crows fly away, entered the church thinking Ethan was there, broke her lantern, and inadvertently caused his death. The gameplay loop of finding and interpreting clues achieves the narrative goal of uncovering Chad’s actions. The narrative background is enriched by crow symbolism and Malphas’s influence, while the mental modeling layer immerses players in a chilling, supernatural atmosphere through the mausoleum’s dark design.
In the mine, players uncover a tragic story about Dale, Ethan’s father, whose inventions were rejected by the Patent Office, leading to misunderstandings with his wife. Ethan imagines Dale as a miner guarding a forbidden “sea-thing,” symbolizing his unfulfilled dreams, opposed by four family members (represented by four dead miner bodies). The gameplay involves decoding an Enochian language puzzle to unlock a door, revealing the “sea-thing” named “Gnaiih.” The narrative goal is to understand Dale’s despair, the narrative background ties to Ethan’s imaginative reinterpretation of family conflicts, and the mental modeling layer deepens the sense of tragedy within the mine’s oppressive setting. [Note: Gameplay, narrative goal, and background were discussed, but mental modeling was implicit. I added the oppressive setting to emphasize the player’s emotional immersion.]
Emerging from the mine, players reach the lower dam, where they learn Dale committed suicide to stop the Sleeper’s influence. A scissor on a wire reel in an elevator connects to the first scene, where Travis cut ropes to tie Ethan to the tracks, aiding chronological understanding. The gameplay involves minimal navigation but requires mental effort to link clues across scenes. The narrative goal is to reveal Dale’s sacrifice, the narrative background ties to the Sleeper’s threat, and the mental modeling layer reinforces the detective mindset, piecing together the family’s tragic fate. [Note: All layers were addressed, but I clarified the mental modeling layer for emphasis.]
Finally, players cross a river, follow a creek, and reach the old Vandergriff house by a large pool. The gameplay requires rotating a roulette to spell “Corvus” to enter the basement, revealing that Ethan’s grandfather locked him in a secret room. Despite Ethan starting a fire, the grandfather chose to die with him. A round table mechanism reveals five grotesque statues with angry expressions, likely representing the five deceased family members. The grandfather’s dialogue with a statue resembling his wife, combined with his death pose, suggests remorse for killing her, aligning with the acceptance stage of the Five Stages of Grief by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, used here to reflect Ethan’s thoughts as he succumbs to smoke in the secret room. The narrative goal is to uncover the grandfather’s remorse and Ethan’s death, the narrative background ties the statues to the family’s emotional arc, and the mental modeling layer immerses players in Ethan’s perspective, blending psychological realism with supernatural horror.
The analysis of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter highlights its approach to narrative-driven game design, rooted in Adrian Chmielarz’s philosophy that players actively construct their own stories through interaction. By applying the Trinity framework—immersion, presence, and engagement—the game addresses players’ psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness, as outlined in the PENS model. Immersion is achieved through a blend of weird fiction-inspired atmosphere and literary influences from Edgar Allan Poe, Shakespeare, and Ambrose Bierce, creating a narrative that intertwines reality and illusion to reflect Ethan’s psychological trauma. Presence is constructed via photogrammetry-based environments, dynamic sound design, and interactive mechanics like the supernatural sense ability, grounding players in Red Creek Valley’s surreal world. Engagement is sustained through four design tools—puzzles with and without confirmed solutions, choices, and awareness filters—across nine distinct areas, each analyzed using the four-layer model of gameplay, narrative goal, narrative background, and mental modeling.
The game’s nine areas, from the forest to the Vandergriff house, systematically reveal the Carter family’s tragedy through Ethan’s imaginative lens, shaped by his literary influences and traumatic experiences. Each area employs environmental storytelling and supernatural elements, such as crow symbolism, occult rituals, and sci-fi fantasies, to encode Ethan’s perceptions of family dysfunction, culminating in a narrative arc that mirrors the Five Stages of Grief. This structure demonstrates how The Vanishing of Ethan Carter uses interactivity to deliver a player-driven narrative, aligning with Chmielarz’s vision of games as a medium for subjective, emotionally resonant experiences. The analysis underscores the game’s role as a case study in indie game design, offering clear principles for integrating narrative and mechanics in a concise framework.