[{“id”:859,”date”:”2016-11-26T13:20:54″,”date_gmt”:”2016-11-26T19:20:54″,”guid”:{“rendered”:”http://narrativedesign.org/?p=859″},”modified”:”2016-12-30T12:42:54″,”modified_gmt”:”2016-12-30T18:42:54″,”slug”:”the-drama-of-friends”,”status”:”publish”,”type”:”post”,”link”:”http://narrativedesign.org/2016/11/the-drama-of-friends/”,”title”:{“rendered”:”The Drama of Friends”},”content”:{“rendered”:”
I first encountered Zuckerbergu2019s Friend function in about 2004 while doing research as a graduate student in interactive media.n
It was unique, but I failed to see its brilliance.n
To me it felt like a retreat to the social habits of high school and, to some extent, I suppose it was for us all. Or at least about a billion of us.n
The Facebook platform had yet to hit campus at The University of Southern California, and it seemed ripe to be exploited by it. So I sent a note to Mark and stated he should expand to other campuses, an idea he was probably already on top of.n
I never heard back.n
Over the years since, Iu2019ve stepped in and out of the Facebook scene. My current account and series of pages being the latest edition. Most recently over the course of the past two years, my casual research has turned into performance. I call it u2018transmedia storytellingu2019.n
You see, Iu2019m an interactive dramaturge. I started working in interactive drama at USCu2019s Annenberg Center under one Marsha Kinder in 2003.n
I design interactive systems to convey meaning, and so that a user might speak of their experience as a story, one well told.n
It took me by surprise recently to realize the Friend function may be the most dramatic function in interactive media today.n
More so than the flame wars of internet trolls, or the recoil on a virtual rifle in Call of Duty, Friending (and Unfriending) is so powerfully dramatic it echoes into real life. Itu2019s now taken so seriously people have a hard time differentiating between real friends and social media Friends.n
Iu2019ve learned this through a series of experiments using social media for performance, culminating in a crowdfunding campaign I ran a little while backu00a0and the subsequent product development.n
Though I understand why say, my niece or twenty-something cousin might take it all too seriously, I find it compelling even my professional associates do.n
My performance was so on-point that they were like putty in my hands, even when Iu2019d explain that it was a performance, a game, a story, a system, theyu2019d cower, call me crazy, or even yet worse assume I was some hacker bot.n
I didnu2019t intend to be malicious or hurtful, but Iu2019ve had several old real-world friends tell me off as a result. Such is life.n
Part of the beauty I believe is the simple binary of Friend and Unfriend. Iu2019d like to see Facebook implement a system like Google Plus. The Circles function is/was helpful in disseminating content unto targeted social groups. Sure Facebook has u2018securityu2019 measures, but again with limited variability.n
To some extent this realization has humbled me, Iu2019ve worked really hard to create interactive opera, but it seems Zuck might have me beat.n
We once thought that interactive media was moving into the creation of synthetic worlds, what in fact it has done is made the world more synthetic. The two now bleed together and for the most part people have a hard time cognitively differentiating between the screen and real life. The study of mirror-neurons in this context I imagine would only reinforce such a thesis. Read mine @ NarrativeDesing.orgn
Though I remain skeptical of the commodification of u2018friendu2019 and friends. The u2018Unfriendu2019 has become one of the most dramatic functions in social media.n
What Disney did to fairy tales and fables, Zukerberg has done to our social lives.n”,”protected”:false},”excerpt”:{“rendered”:”
I first encountered Zuckerbergu2019s Friend function in about 2004 while doing research as a graduate student in interactive media. It was unique, but I failed to see its brilliance. To me it felt like a retreat to the social habits of high school and, to some extent, I suppose it was for us all. Or … Continue reading The Drama of Friendsn”,”protected”:false},”author”:1,”featured_media”:0,”comment_status”:”closed”,”ping_status”:”open”,”sticky”:false,”template”:””,”format”:”standard”,”meta”:[],”categories”:[5,7],”tags”:[],”_links”:{“self”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/859″}],”collection”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/posts”}],”about”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/types/post”}],”author”:[{“embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/users/1″}],”replies”:[{“embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=859″}],”version-history”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/859/revisions”}],”wp:attachment”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/media?parent=859″}],”wp:term”:[{“taxonomy”:”category”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/categories?post=859″},{“taxonomy”:”post_tag”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/tags?post=859″}],”curies”:[{“name”:”wp”,”href”:”https://api.w.org/{rel}”,”templated”:true}]}},{“id”:544,”date”:”2011-09-14T08:05:24″,”date_gmt”:”2011-09-14T13:05:24″,”guid”:{“rendered”:”http://narrativedesign.org/?p=544″},”modified”:”2017-02-10T15:46:42″,”modified_gmt”:”2017-02-10T21:46:42″,”slug”:”what-is-a-narrative-designer-3″,”status”:”publish”,”type”:”post”,”link”:”http://narrativedesign.org/2011/09/what-is-a-narrative-designer-3/”,”title”:{“rendered”:”What is a Narrative Designer?”},”content”:{“rendered”:”
The Narrative Designeru00a0is a role in contemporary video game development first seen in 2006 when the video game publisher THQ began hiring for the position I wrote based on talks with THQ Canada dba Relic Entertainment.u00a0 While the strict definition may vary from team to team, andn

production to production, the core of this role is to champion story, craft compelling narrative elements, and define the systems through which they will be delivered to the player.u00a0 Interactive Narrative Design is a new craft waiting to be further defined and explored.n
While writers to some extent have been engaging in narrative design for linear storytelling arguably since Aristotle, it is wholly new to the field of interactive entertainment.u00a0 Since working with the team at THQ to create the “Narrative Designer” position in 2006, the industry has seemed to watch the development of this new role with a skeptical eye.u00a0 Many writers have falsely taken on the self-appointed title of ‘Narrative Designer’ and as a result there has been a watering down of the term and a general sense that the role is for nothing more than an relabeled game writer. This assumption is false. Narrative Designers are a new breed of hybrid talent for interactive entertainment industry, specifically the AAA-games sector.n
I recieved a good head check fromu00a0Mary DeMarle, Lead Game Writer at Eidos Montreal. Apprarently she first heard the term at the Austin GDC in 2004, supposedly the contreversy began then (I look forward to hearing the complete story)!n
When I wrote the job description (JD) for THQ Global I hadn’t heard the term.u00a0You can see the JD I wrote belowu00a0prior to taking the role in 2006, followed by a 2009 version by Monolith, and the most recent JD posted by Microsoft (2011). One can see clearly that, even in these first attempts to define the role, it is wholly different from other roles in interactive entertainment.n
Narrative Designeru00a0(THQ JD 2006)n
Job Description:
nRelic Entertainment is looking for a Narrative Designer. The Narrative Designer will focus on ensuring that the key elements of the player experience associated with story and story telling devices, script and speech are dynamic, exciting andu00a0 compelling. Working collaboratively with other design oriented team members, the Narrative Designer will be the primary contact with external writing resources for the duration of a production, and will be responsible in ensuring we get the mostu00a0 out of those external resources.n
Responsibilities:n
- n
- Act as the champion of the story, script and speech for the productn
- Act as the central resource for all things narrative related, as well as write content and edit copyn
- Apply and adapt externally written materials, as a representative of that writeru2019s story vision, as it applies to the gamen
- Understand story requirements and deliver on ultimate story/script goalsn
- Manage own schedule to accommodate the deliverables of each project and propose solutions for conflicts that arisen
- Edit, compile and develop outlines, narrative synopses, treatments and script content and be responsible for revision and approval submissionn
- Assembles and edits prototype story components such as storyboard animatics, ripomatics, sound and musicn
- Conduct research to obtain factual background information relevant to story/design goalsn
- Work with external writing resources to help translate their material to become game relevant, as well as translate gamen
- concepts to external writersn
- Work with the sound department on emotional tone of the sound design, including music selectionn
- Articulate industry trends, innovative solutions and cutting edge styles that meet the goals of each projectn
- Support/assist Producer and Design team in other duties, as requirednn
Requirements:n
- n
- Proven ability to provide content across a full array of interactive media platforms including PC and mobilen
- Understanding of the balance between narratological and ludological theory in computer games and proven ability in the integration of story and game play into finished software productn
- Exceptional writing ability and ability to develop visual theory into production-ready concepts as well as logical and physical specifications for interactive media software productsn
- Understanding of the theory of, and experience in, game design including the use of sound, animation, graphics and special effects software to maximize game play experiencen
- Comprehensive production experience in the development of interactive media software products and web sitesn
- Good knowledge of standard software and hardware used to create, edit, animate, display game sequences, including, but not limited to Flash, Photoshop, Studio Max and Finalcut Pron
- Excellent communication skills, both verbal and writtenn
- Proven ability at successful multi-tasking under great pressuren
- At least 3-6 years of previous experience as a game industryn
- Art Director, Story Designer, Narrative Designer or otherwise similarly tasked positionn
- A terminal degree in interactive media, either a MFA or PhDn
- Previous cinematics and script writing for film on a formalized basis an assetn
- An avid game player with a deep interest in creatively advancing the story mediumnn
Narrative Designeru00a0(Monolith JD 2009)
nnSummaryn
Reporting to the Lead Designer, the Narrative Designer is responsible for creation and implementation of the game story. The Narrative Designer will also be relied upon to collaborate with other designers to assist in design and implementation of game world systems and mission/quest design, using game editors and scripting systems as part of the iterative process to maximize player immersion within the game play experience.n
Job Responsibilitiesn
- n
- Under supervision of Lead Designer, design and document interactive narrative systems to facilitate story and emotional delivery to player.n
- Collaborate with other designers to assist in design and implementation of game world systems and mission/quest design, using game editors and scripting systems.n
- Collaborate with design team and external talent to create and maintain game dialogue documentation, NPC character information, world back story, and cinematic direction.n
- Assist when needed with actor voice direction.n
- Collaborate with art team to develop fully fleshed-out characters and locales.nn
Work Experiencen
- n
- Three years game writing, game design, and cinematic experience.n
- Preferably shipped at least two titles.nn
Education, Professional Training, Technical Training or Certificationn
- n
- B.A. degree preferred, or equivalent game writing and design experience.nn
Knowledge/Skillsn
- n
- Superior writing abilityn
- Understand techniques to elicit player emotion.n
- Familiarity with concept art creation and storyboarding.n
- Knowledge of cinematic creation tools.n
- Experience working with art team on cinematic development.n
- Strong understanding of fostering a community and fan base for our games.nn
Other Requirementsn
- n
- Strong interest in computer and video games.n
- Ability to work well under pressure and with deadlines.n
- Excellent communication, interpersonal, and organizational skills.n
- Passion for action games.n
- Excellent Communication and Collaboration skillsn
- Experience with game editors and scripting systemsn
- Excellent Organizational skills; self motivatedn
- In-depth knowledge of industry trends in interactive storytelling
nPassion for games and gamingnnNarrative Designeru00a0(Microsoft JD 2011)n
Summary:
nReporting to the Creative Director, the Narrative Designer is responsible for the implementation of the game story; his/her role is to enforce the notion that the most important story in any game is the story that the player can actually play and can determine the course of through low, mid, and high-level actions and choices.nThe Narrative Designer will be relied upon to collaborate with other designers to assist in design and implementation of game world systems and mission design to maximize player immersion within the game play experience. The core of this role is to champion story, craft compelling narrative elements, and define the systems through which they will be delivered to the player.n
Responsibilites:u00a0n
- n
- Under supervision of Creative Director, design and document interactive narrative systems to facilitate story and emotional delivery to playern
- Act as a champion of the story, script and speech across the game and game teamn
- Collaborate with other designers to execute on narrative goals within the design and implementation of game world systems and mission design – this may include working in the game editor and script systemn
- Collaborate with the cinematics team and story team to create and maintain game dialogue documentation, NPC character information, world back story, and cinematic development plansn
- Act as a central resource for all things narrative relatedn
- Work with the story team to ensure narrative synopses, treatments and script content and story blend seamlessly with cinematic and design directions and be responsible for revision and approval submissionn
- Work with the sound department on emotional tone of the sound design, including music selection; may assist with actor voice direction as neededn
- Manage own schedule to accommodate the narrative deliverables of the project and propose solutions for conflicts that arisenn
Requirments:n
- n
- Ability to develop visual theory into production-ready concepts as well as written and physical specifications for game narrative implementationn
- Understand techniques to elicit player emotionn
- At least 3-6 years of previous experience as an Art Director, Story Designer, Narrative Designer or other similarly tasked position in the game industryn
- In-depth knowledge of industry trends in interactive storytelling with a deep interest in creatively advancing the story mediumn
- Excellent communication, collaboration, interpersonal, and organizational skillsn
- Proven ability at successful multi-tasking under great pressuren
- Experience with game editors and scripting systems.nn”,”protected”:false},”excerpt”:{“rendered”:”
The Narrative Designeru00a0is a role in contemporary video game development first seen in 2006 when the video game publisher THQ began hiring for the position I wrote based on talks with THQ Canada dba Relic Entertainment.u00a0 While the strict definition may vary from team to team, and production to production, the core of this role … Continue reading What is a Narrative Designer?n”,”protected”:false},”author”:1,”featured_media”:0,”comment_status”:”open”,”ping_status”:”open”,”sticky”:false,”template”:””,”format”:”standard”,”meta”:[],”categories”:[5,7],”tags”:[],”_links”:{“self”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/544″}],”collection”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/posts”}],”about”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/types/post”}],”author”:[{“embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/users/1″}],”replies”:[{“embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=544″}],”version-history”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/544/revisions”}],”wp:attachment”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/media?parent=544″}],”wp:term”:[{“taxonomy”:”category”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/categories?post=544″},{“taxonomy”:”post_tag”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/tags?post=544″}],”curies”:[{“name”:”wp”,”href”:”https://api.w.org/{rel}”,”templated”:true}]}},{“id”:499,”date”:”2011-08-19T21:59:48″,”date_gmt”:”2011-08-20T02:59:48″,”guid”:{“rendered”:”http://narrativedesign.org/?p=499″},”modified”:”2016-12-19T19:56:31″,”modified_gmt”:”2016-12-20T01:56:31″,”slug”:”narrware-storyworld-conference-expo”,”status”:”publish”,”type”:”post”,”link”:”http://narrativedesign.org/2011/08/narrware-storyworld-conference-expo/”,”title”:{“rendered”:”NarrWare Officially Sponsors StoryWorld Conference + Expo”},”content”:{“rendered”:”
NarrWare today announced it is a official sponsor of theu00a0StoryWorld Conference + Expo, starting October 31, 2011 at the Parc 55 Wyndham San Francisco u2013 Union Square.n
Chief Wizard Stephen Dinehart said, u201cWe are really looking forward to engaging with the transmedia storytelling community at StoryWorld. Itu2019s going to provide and unparalleled glimpse and access to the movers and shakers of this exciting new form of storytelling. Come out and meet us. Itu2019s a conference you shouldnu2019t miss.u201dn
Entertainment is on the verge of new. and exciting era. Not 3D, but a new generation of transmedia story experiences. Story worlds that are developed to cross from media to media to provide players with new ways to experience, and immerse themselves in, an authored interactive world. In the past, this was done solely for purposes of merchandising and franchise expansion, but in its present form, itu2019s being used to create fantastic story experiences.n
Learn more online atu00a0http://www.
storyworldconference.comn”,”protected”:false},”excerpt”:{“rendered”:” NarrWare today announced it is a official sponsor of theu00a0StoryWorld Conference + Expo, starting October 31, 2011 at the Parc 55 Wyndham San Francisco u2013 Union Square. Chief Wizard Stephen Dinehart said, u201cWe are really looking forward to engaging with the transmedia storytelling community at StoryWorld. Itu2019s going to provide and unparalleled glimpse and access … Continue reading NarrWare Officially Sponsors StoryWorld Conference + Expon”,”protected”:false},”author”:1,”featured_media”:0,”comment_status”:”open”,”ping_status”:”open”,”sticky”:false,”template”:””,”format”:”standard”,”meta”:[],”categories”:[1],”tags”:[],”_links”:{“self”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/499″}],”collection”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/posts”}],”about”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/types/post”}],”author”:[{“embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/users/1″}],”replies”:[{“embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=499″}],”version-history”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/499/revisions”}],”wp:attachment”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/media?parent=499″}],”wp:term”:[{“taxonomy”:”category”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/categories?post=499″},{“taxonomy”:”post_tag”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/tags?post=499″}],”curies”:[{“name”:”wp”,”href”:”https://api.w.org/{rel}”,”templated”:true}]}},{“id”:435,”date”:”2010-10-28T08:31:10″,”date_gmt”:”2010-10-28T13:31:10″,”guid”:{“rendered”:”http://narrativedesign.org/?p=435″},”modified”:”2017-02-10T13:21:29″,”modified_gmt”:”2017-02-10T19:21:29″,”slug”:”riomarket-transmedia-panel”,”status”:”publish”,”type”:”post”,”link”:”http://narrativedesign.org/2010/10/riomarket-transmedia-panel/”,”title”:{“rendered”:”NarrWare at the RioMarket Transmedia Panel”},”content”:{“rendered”:”
On September 27th 2010, I had the honor of speaking on the Transmedia Panel at the RioMarket portion of theu00a0Festival do Rio, an international film festival in Rio deu00a0Janeiro. The event was quite spectacular, well organized and full of the kinds of creative folk that insure great discussion, a good time and challenging perspectives. Little did I realize that Brazil was such a hotbed for transmedia storytelling. The audience was lively and the panelistsn
RioSeminar Transmedia Stories Paneln passionate.u00a0Overall it was a higly compelling experience full of adventure, though the panel itself did little more than wet theu00a0palate of audience and panelists alike.n
Mediated by Tania Yuki, Senior Director of Product Management atu00a0comScore, panelists included:u00a0u00a0Mauricio Mota director of The Alchemists, Daniel Pierra,u00a0director of the Convergence Culture Consortium (C3), yours trulyu00a0Stephen Dinehart, Director of NarrWare,u00a0andu00a0Leonardo Su00e1, head of multimedia for the u00a0Brazillian oil giant Petrobras. Last but not least was Rene Santos da Silva,u00a0a favela based teenageu00a0entrepreneur, whom has had much sucess with his local newspaper “A Voz da Comunidade” (The Voice of the Community). Rene was an interesting one, frankly I’m not sure why he was on the panel. Not to knock his talents, but it seems his newspaper, and its trials, isu00a0story so compelling it deserved its own space.n
The panel was dominated by a MIT-centric perspective of the transmedia storytellingu00a0universe. It goes something like this:u00a0“In the beginning there was Henry Jenkins . . . he watched the Matrix . . .said let there be transmedia storytelling . . . and wrote a book.” Very similar tou00a0Transmedia Hollywood, put on by Henry Jenkins at USC last spring, the event felt like a packed waiting room sure a child would be born, but not one was quite sure who the parents were.n
I was ready to die at this point having been saved by theu00a0prescribedu00a0salvation of the Jenkins consortium (C3) and his thought police. Mr. Pierra was kind enough to add a note on my mentor Marsha Kinder, but I realize now I should have fought the C3 propaganda machine with all my intellectual might, but I simply sat and smiled. Pacifism I suppose. Tania did her best at trying to createu00a0discussion, but I’m afraid the panelists went a little wild. When it was said and done I believe I had two chances to speak. u00a0My message was short and sweet:n
“Don’t believe these guys, transmedia storytelling has yet to be defined by a truly seminal work; feel free to forge your own definition, adapt the coreu00a0tenantsu00a0to your ownu00a0storytellingu00a0pursuits and use these new tools to enrich your viewer/user/players in a world of your design. These worlds can deliver hope like never before. Together we stand on a fleet of ships far flung into the depths of storytelling; seeking a new world, it’s been a long time coming, though the end of our voyage grows near. The look-out can see land in the distance, and I have long seen birds, but we need your help to settle this new world! Won’t you come join us?”n
In the end I had to run out the door and make my way to the airport, as I had to get to Geneva foru00a0TEDxTransmedia rehearsal. Theu00a0journeyu00a0out of town was bittersweet. Rio is both beautiful and ugly, more so than most. I couldn’t help but imagine a better Rio, one where the socialu00a0stratification wasn’t so strong. Many thanks to my gracious hosts including: Ilda Santiago, Walkiria Barbosa, Philipe Rocha, and Daniel van Hoogstraten, and many more. You made my journey fantastic. Be Blessed.n”,”protected”:false},”excerpt”:{“rendered”:”
On September 27th 2010, I had the honor of speaking on the Transmedia Panel at the RioMarket portion of theu00a0Festival do Rio, an international film festival in Rio deu00a0Janeiro. The event was quite spectacular, well organized and full of the kinds of creative folk that insure great discussion, a good time and challenging perspectives. Little … Continue reading NarrWare at the RioMarket Transmedia Paneln”,”protected”:false},”author”:1,”featured_media”:0,”comment_status”:”open”,”ping_status”:”open”,”sticky”:false,”template”:””,”format”:”standard”,”meta”:[],”categories”:[1],”tags”:[],”_links”:{“self”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/435″}],”collection”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/posts”}],”about”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/types/post”}],”author”:[{“embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/users/1″}],”replies”:[{“embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=435″}],”version-history”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/435/revisions”}],”wp:attachment”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/media?parent=435″}],”wp:term”:[{“taxonomy”:”category”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/categories?post=435″},{“taxonomy”:”post_tag”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/tags?post=435″}],”curies”:[{“name”:”wp”,”href”:”https://api.w.org/{rel}”,”templated”:true}]}},{“id”:475,”date”:”2010-08-31T21:35:17″,”date_gmt”:”2010-09-01T02:35:17″,”guid”:{“rendered”:”http://narrativedesign.org/?p=475″},”modified”:”2016-12-19T19:57:49″,”modified_gmt”:”2016-12-20T01:57:49″,”slug”:”narrware-at-the-gdc-game-narrative-summit”,”status”:”publish”,”type”:”post”,”link”:”http://narrativedesign.org/2010/08/narrware-at-the-gdc-game-narrative-summit/”,”title”:{“rendered”:”NarrWare at the GDC Game Narrative Summit”},”content”:{“rendered”:”
The Narrative Design Explorer will be appearing at the upcoming GDC Online Game Narrative Summit in Austin Texas October 10-13 2010. Based on the Narrative Design Explorer’s “Creators of Transmedia Stories” series it will feature Jame Waugh, Senior Story Developer at Blizzard, Danny Bilson, EVP THQ Core-Games, Steve Danuser, Creative Director at 38 Studios, John Johnson, CEO and Creative Director of Smoking Gun Interactive, and yours truly Stephen Dinehart, Chief Wizard of NarrWare.n
Session Description: Transmedia storytelling is about immersing players in storyworlds that span across media formats, and its quickly gaining momentum, but is there more than a simple fad here? Just what is it, how does it work and why is it important to video games? Answers to these questions and more will be fielded by some of the biggest players in the game industry working on this new form of storytelling.n
Update: GameSpot covered the sessionu00a0http://www.gamespot.com/news/6280903.htmln
Update 2: You can now watch the session on the GDC Vaultu00a0http://www.gdcvault.com/free/gdc-online-10 n”,”protected”:false},”excerpt”:{“rendered”:”
The Narrative Design Explorer will be appearing at the upcoming GDC Online Game Narrative Summit in Austin Texas October 10-13 2010. Based on the Narrative Design Explorer’s “Creators of Transmedia Stories” series it will feature Jame Waugh, Senior Story Developer at Blizzard, Danny Bilson, EVP THQ Core-Games, Steve Danuser, Creative Director at 38 Studios, John … Continue reading NarrWare at the GDC Game Narrative Summitn”,”protected”:false},”author”:1,”featured_media”:0,”comment_status”:”open”,”ping_status”:”open”,”sticky”:false,”template”:””,”format”:”standard”,”meta”:[],”categories”:[31,5],”tags”:[],”_links”:{“self”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/475″}],”collection”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/posts”}],”about”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/types/post”}],”author”:[{“embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/users/1″}],”replies”:[{“embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=475″}],”version-history”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/475/revisions”}],”wp:attachment”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/media?parent=475″}],”wp:term”:[{“taxonomy”:”category”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/categories?post=475″},{“taxonomy”:”post_tag”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/tags?post=475″}],”curies”:[{“name”:”wp”,”href”:”https://api.w.org/{rel}”,”templated”:true}]}},{“id”:286,”date”:”2009-09-11T10:59:52″,”date_gmt”:”2009-09-11T15:59:52″,”guid”:{“rendered”:”http://narrator.narrativedesigners.net/?p=18″},”modified”:”2017-02-10T09:48:37″,”modified_gmt”:”2017-02-10T15:48:37″,”slug”:”what-is-interactive-narrative-design”,”status”:”publish”,”type”:”post”,”link”:”http://narrativedesign.org/2009/09/what-is-interactive-narrative-design/”,”title”:{“rendered”:”What is Interactive Narrative Design?”},”content”:{“rendered”:”
The Apex of ludology, narratology and game designn Interactive Narrative Design is a craft that meets at the apex of ludology, narratology and game design; turning the conjoining into functional synthetic experiences. Ludology being the study of play that has become very fashionable in the game design community within the past 2 decades. Narratology is the theory of narratives, of spectacles, cultural artifacts that ‘tell a story’.u00a0 Game design, as used here, is system design for the interactive experiences popularly called ‘video games’, or ‘computer games’, these interactive entertainment experiences allow the player to witness data as navigable, participatory, dramatic spectacles; unfolding before their eyes in real-time.n
The craft of Interactive Narrative Design focuses on creating meaningful participatory story experiences with interactive systems. Just as a designer of artificial intelligence crafts systems to give a viewer/user/player (VUP) the perception of intelligence in virtual beings. So too a narrative designer, working in a interactive medium, seeks to craft systems which deliver narremes to a VUP in such a fashion that the VUP may craft a story cognitively based on their navigation within said system. When interactive narrative design is successful the VUP believes that they are experiencing a story within a navigated dataspace, or played videogame.n
n
The aim is to transport the player through play into the video game by all means of his visual and aural faculties, so that he may forget the confines of reality and live and breathe in the video game which seems as life itself, and on the screen which seems the wide expanse of a whole world. The craft which is bringing about that paradigm shift, from the mechanical play-centric models of previous generations of interactive entertainment to story-centric play,u00a0 is Interactive Narrative Design.n
“After the novel..the computer age introduces its correlate – database.” Manovich [1] As Manovich defines the database the fiction form of our age, I too argue that a videogame is a database of multidimensional arrays containing audio, visual, and gameplay elements which when experienced in a concinnity via narrative systems creates a believable storyspace in the mind of the VUP. The then living dataspace has a depth of content which directly correlates to the depth of the play experience. Similar to the definition of Narrative Design, “a narratological craft which focuses on the structuralist, or literary semiotic creation of stories. Narremes, or story elements, are formulated into a cohesive narrative structure in such a way as to create a metanarrative or archnarrative…” Dinehart [2]. Interactive Narrative design seeks to accomplish this via VUP navigated databases.n
While writing is a practice that is integral to interactive narrative design, developing interactive narrative systems is something that is clearly beyond the scope of a writer by any definition. It is like the craft of cinematography in film, in that interactive narrative systems are the conduit through which story is delivered to the VUP. Via a sort of synesthesia in which narremes presented as audio, visual, and gameplay stimuli are cognitively ingested by the VUP rendering a legible narrative. The quality of the narrative rendered will vary on the quality of the story as written, and the success of the narrative delivery systems. Which, again like the best cinematography, is transparent to the audience.n
Interactive Narrative Design is a craft which has it’s roots in the philosophy outlined in Richard Wagner’s essay The Artwork of the Future, Pen-and-paper Role Playing Games like Dungeons and Dragons, and the experimental works of groups like the Labyrinth Project. Wagner’s ideas began the revolutionary idea of removing the “fourth wall” and involving the audience in the play. Looking again at that sentence, but modifying the word play to be a signifier for interacting with video games rather than a sequence of stage craft reveals the true depth of this philosophy. Play is the method by which the audience is invited to participate and author within an interactive storyspace or video game. Therein the audience member becomes a player, or actor, in the video game or play.n
“Thus the spectator transplants himself upon the stage, by means of all his visual and aural faculties…forgets the confines of the auditorium and lives and breathes now only in the artwork which seems to it [the participatory audience] as life itself and on the stage which seems the wide expanse of the whole World.” Wagner [3]n
Building from this legacy video games are now the newest territory for the experimental craft of Interactive Narrative Design, or the future art, to spread it wings. Now is the time of the Gesamtkunstwerk [Total Artwork] which Wagner so elegantly described, that future artwork is modern video games. In time the term will die with the emergence of other better signifiers, but for now the story of video games lives and breaths through Interactive Narrative Design, the blended craft of fiction and play design which is surely producing one of the most innovative Arts of the digital age.n
1. Lev Manovich. Database as symbolic Form. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001.
n2. Stephen Dinehart, Defining Narrative Design, The Narrative Design Explorer 2008
n3. Richard Wager, The Artwork of the Future 1849n”,”protected”:false},”excerpt”:{“rendered”:”Interactive Narrative Design is a craft that meets at the apex of ludology, narratology and game design; turning the conjoining into functional synthetic experiences. Ludology being the study of play that has become very fashionable in the game design community within the past 2 decades. Narratology is the theory of narratives, of spectacles, cultural artifacts … Continue reading What is Interactive Narrative Design?n”,”protected”:false},”author”:1,”featured_media”:0,”comment_status”:”open”,”ping_status”:”open”,”sticky”:false,”template”:””,”format”:”standard”,”meta”:[],”categories”:[7],”tags”:[],”_links”:{“self”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/286″}],”collection”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/posts”}],”about”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/types/post”}],”author”:[{“embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/users/1″}],”replies”:[{“embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=286″}],”version-history”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/286/revisions”}],”wp:attachment”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/media?parent=286″}],”wp:term”:[{“taxonomy”:”category”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/categories?post=286″},{“taxonomy”:”post_tag”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/tags?post=286″}],”curies”:[{“name”:”wp”,”href”:”https://api.w.org/{rel}”,”templated”:true}]}},{“id”:22,”date”:”2008-05-14T23:03:47″,”date_gmt”:”2008-05-15T04:03:47″,”guid”:{“rendered”:”http://exploratorium.interactivenarrativedesign.com/?p=22″},”modified”:”2017-02-10T10:06:43″,”modified_gmt”:”2017-02-10T16:06:43″,”slug”:”transmedial-play-cognitive-and-cross-platform-narrative”,”status”:”publish”,”type”:”post”,”link”:”http://narrativedesign.org/2008/05/transmedial-play-cognitive-and-cross-platform-narrative/”,”title”:{“rendered”:”Transmedial Play: cognitive and cross-platform narrative”},”content”:{“rendered”:”
n
In a transmedial work the viewer/user/player (VUP) transforms the story via his or her own natural cognitive psychological abilities, and enables the Artwork to surpass medium. It is in transmedial play that the ultimate story agency, and decentralized authorship can be realized. Thus the VUP becomes the true producer of the Artwork. The Artist authored transmedia elements act a story guide for the inherently narratological nature of the human mind (see illustration) to become thought, both conscious and subconscious, in the imagination of the VUP.n”,”protected”:false},”excerpt”:{“rendered”:”
In a transmedial work the viewer/user/player (VUP) transforms the story via his or her own natural cognitive psychological abilities, and enables the Artwork to surpass medium. It is in transmedial play that the ultimate story agency, and decentralized authorship can be realized. Thus the VUP becomes the true producer of the Artwork. The Artist … Continue reading Transmedial Play: cognitive and cross-platform narrativen”,”protected”:false},”author”:1,”featured_media”:0,”comment_status”:”open”,”ping_status”:”open”,”sticky”:false,”template”:””,”format”:”standard”,”meta”:[],”categories”:[14],”tags”:[],”_links”:{“self”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/22″}],”collection”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/posts”}],”about”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/types/post”}],”author”:[{“embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/users/1″}],”replies”:[{“embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=22″}],”version-history”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/22/revisions”}],”wp:attachment”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/media?parent=22″}],”wp:term”:[{“taxonomy”:”category”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/categories?post=22″},{“taxonomy”:”post_tag”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/tags?post=22″}],”curies”:[{“name”:”wp”,”href”:”https://api.w.org/{rel}”,”templated”:true}]}},{“id”:7,”date”:”2008-01-23T14:23:56″,”date_gmt”:”2008-01-23T21:23:56″,”guid”:{“rendered”:”http://exploratorium.interactivenarrativedesign.com/?p=7″},”modified”:”2016-12-13T20:43:44″,”modified_gmt”:”2016-12-14T02:43:44″,”slug”:”final-nominee-for-best-writing-for-a-game-production-for-company-of-heroes-opposing-fronts-at-the-2nd-annual-elan-awards-2007″,”status”:”publish”,”type”:”post”,”link”:”http://narrativedesign.org/2008/01/final-nominee-for-best-writing-for-a-game-production-for-company-of-heroes-opposing-fronts-at-the-2nd-annual-elan-awards-2007/”,”title”:{“rendered”:”Final Nominee for “Best Writing for a Game Production” for Company of Heroes – Opposing Fronts at the 2nd Annual ELAN Awards (2007)”},”content”:{“rendered”:”
I am honored to say Iu00a0was a final nominee for “Best Writing for a Game Production” for Company of Heroes – Opposing Fronts at the 2nd Annual Canadian Awards for the Electronic and Animated Arts, and the game won “Nokia Award for Outstanding Innovation in Gaming.”. While I may not have walked away with the writing award, I lost to a team of 20+ writers at Bioware, even knowing that my writing stood so close to such a wealth of talent makes me very proud.n
I would like to say I do wish the typo “Opposing Forces” never made it to press, but the ELAN organizers did at least change it for the ceremony. Thanks to everyone that made this possible!n”,”protected”:false},”excerpt”:{“rendered”:”
I am honored to say Iu00a0was a final nominee for “Best Writing for a Game Production” for Company of Heroes – Opposing Fronts at the 2nd Annual Canadian Awards for the Electronic and Animated Arts, and the game won “Nokia Award for Outstanding Innovation in Gaming.”. While I may not have walked away with the … Continue reading Final Nominee for “Best Writing for a Game Production” for Company of Heroes – Opposing Fronts at the 2nd Annual ELAN Awards (2007)n”,”protected”:false},”author”:2,”featured_media”:0,”comment_status”:”open”,”ping_status”:”open”,”sticky”:false,”template”:””,”format”:”standard”,”meta”:[],”categories”:[5],”tags”:[4],”_links”:{“self”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/7″}],”collection”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/posts”}],”about”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/types/post”}],”author”:[{“embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/users/2″}],”replies”:[{“embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=7″}],”version-history”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/7/revisions”}],”wp:attachment”:[{“href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/media?parent=7″}],”wp:term”:[{“taxonomy”:”category”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/categories?post=7″},{“taxonomy”:”post_tag”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”http://narrativedesign.org/wp-json/wp/v2/tags?post=7″}],”curies”:[{“name”:”wp”,”href”:”https://api.w.org/{rel}”,”templated”:true}]}}]
- B.A. degree preferred, or equivalent game writing and design experience.nn