Word.ws English Dictionary

environmental storytelling

environmental storytelling noun: the art of conveying narrative elements through the game's environment rather than direct exposition; the method of using a space's design, objects, and subtle details to create a story that players can piece together on their own, making them active participants in the narrative.

Noun

environmental storytelling (uncountable)

  1. The art of conveying narrative elements through the game's environment rather than direct exposition; the method of using a space's design, objects, and subtle details to create a story that players can piece together on their own, making them active participants in the narrative.
    • Environmental storytelling is less direct. Instead of explicitly describing events, environmental storytelling shows the final outcome of a sequence of events, then it invites players to make up their own stories about what happened to cause that outcome.2015 November 12, Stewart, Bart, “Environmental Storytelling”, in Game Developer

Phrase

environmental storytelling

  1. (Internet, humorous) Accompanying a photograph or screenshot, noting that a preceding event, or sequence of events, can be easily inferred or imagined.

Origin of environmental storytelling

From environmental + storytelling. The phrase gained prominence as an internet meme and caption for images on Twitter in the early 2020s. (See KYM.)

Questions about environmental storytelling

What does environmental storytelling mean?
Environmental storytelling means the art of conveying narrative elements through the game's environment rather than direct exposition; the method of using a space's design, objects, and subtle details to create a story that players can piece together on their own, making them active participants in the narrative.
What part of speech is environmental storytelling?
Environmental storytelling can be a noun or a phrase.

Words near environmental storytelling in the dictionary

  1. environmental refugees
  2. environmental science
  3. environmental sciences
  4. environmental scientist
  5. environmental scientists
  6. environmental storytelling
  7. environmentalism
  8. environmentalisms
  9. environmentalist
  10. environmentalists
  11. environmentally

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: environmental storytelling (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “environmental storytelling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/environmental_storytelling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.