The “Nilssen test” is shorthand for a critical design principle that many video game developers—especially those chasing cinematic prestige—still get wrong.
Games fail that test immediately by frontloading narrative before the player earns any agency. Five-minute cold opens, with minimal interaction, are a holdover from PS2-era thinking, and they betray a lack of trust in the medium’s core strength: player-driven meaning.
Look to Half-Life 2, Outer Wilds, or even INSIDE—games where every narrative beat is wrapped around input. Those games understand that the player’s presence is the medium, not a passive screen in front of a lecture.
If a player can put the controller down and miss nothing of consequence, that’s not storytelling in a game; that’s a cutscene wearing a game’s skin.
It’s the difference between watching a story happen and causing a change in the game’s world. It’s the game design equivalent of “show, don’t tell”: play, don’t say.
Some modern games want the prestige of film while still asking for vast stretches of your precious time. And when games posture like that, they often end up pleasing neither audience. The result: shallow interactivity stapled to overwritten monologues.
Games that pass the Nilssen test understand narrative and gameplay should be braided, not bolted together.
2025.06.14