Player-Computer Interaction 

NARRATIVE
DESIGN

UNIT 11:

Prof. Dr. Eike Langbehn

Department of Media Technology

Faculty of Design, Media and Information

Hamburg University of Applied Sciences

SECTION NAME

EXAMPLES

UNIT 2:

AGENDA

PLAYER-COMPUTER INTERACTION

UNIT 11: NARRATIVE DESIGN

1. INTRO

2. REQUIREMENT
ANALYSIS

3. GAME
DESIGN

0. ORGANIZATION

4. GETTING STARTED
WITH GODOT

5. USER
STUDIES

6. ANALYSIS OF
HUMAN FACTORS

7. INTERACTION
DESIGN

8. ADVANCED PROGRAMMING
WITH GODOT

9. EVALUATION
MODELS

10. MARKET
ANALYSIS

11. NARRATIVE
DESIGN

12. GAME ENGINE
ARCHITECTURE

LEARNING outcomes

• Understand how stories can be told in games interactively

PLAYER-COMPUTER INTERACTION

UNIT 11: NARRATIVE DESIGN

story

• Stories are linear in most media (Books, Films, etc.) 
• Difficult to integrate traditional storytelling in games
• Story resolved by the players

PLAYER-COMPUTER INTERACTION

UNIT 11: NARRATIVE DESIGN

3 Act Structure

• Exposition
  • Characters, Places, Conflict
• Confrontation
  • Progression of Conflict
• Resolution
  • Overcome Conflict

Exposition

Rising action

Climax

Falling action

Resolution

the hero's journey
 

• Joseph Campbell: “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”
• Common template for a lot of tales and myth
• Was used by George Lucas for Star Wars

PLAYER-COMPUTER INTERACTION

UNIT 11: NARRATIVE DESIGN

from novels to games

• First games were mainly text-based 
• Inspiration from novels

PLAYER-COMPUTER INTERACTION

UNIT 11: NARRATIVE DESIGN

from films to games

• With graphics and audio film influences became important
• Films and games inspired each other
• Example Lucasfilm Games (LucasArts):
  • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure (1989)
  • Rebel Assault (1993)
    • Real Film, CGI, Computer graphics
    • Helped the CD ROM to become popular

PLAYER-COMPUTER INTERACTION

UNIT 11: NARRATIVE DESIGN

from films to games

• Wing Commander
  • Developers tried increasing the level of realism of games

PLAYER-COMPUTER INTERACTION

UNIT 11: NARRATIVE DESIGN

from films to games

• Motion Capturing
  • The Last of Us

PLAYER-COMPUTER INTERACTION

UNIT 11: NARRATIVE DESIGN

from films to games

• Virtual Production
  • The Mandalorian

PLAYER-COMPUTER INTERACTION

UNIT 11: NARRATIVE DESIGN

ludonarrative dissonance

Ludonarrative dissonance is the conflict between a video game's narrative told through the story and the narrative told through the gameplay.

 

PLAYER-COMPUTER INTERACTION

UNIT 11: NARRATIVE DESIGN

- Wikipedia

Ludology = Game studies

Narrative = Sequence of events that tell a story

storytelling in games

PLAYER-COMPUTER INTERACTION

UNIT 11: NARRATIVE DESIGN

GAMEPLAY

STORY

EXPERIENCE

stories in games

PLAYER-COMPUTER INTERACTION

UNIT 11: NARRATIVE DESIGN

Story and gameplay are like oil and vinegar. Theoretically they don’t mix, but if you put them in a bottle and shake them up real good, they’re pretty good on a salad.

- Bob Bates

linear storytelling

PLAYER-COMPUTER INTERACTION

UNIT 11: NARRATIVE DESIGN

Gameplay

Story

Gameplay

Story

Gameplay

Story

Gameplay

branching

PLAYER-COMPUTER INTERACTION

UNIT 11: NARRATIVE DESIGN

emergent storytelling

PLAYER-COMPUTER INTERACTION

UNIT 11: NARRATIVE DESIGN

• Emergent Storytelling
• Stories emerge from
  • Gameplay
  • Interaction with systems of the game
  • Random events
• No author involved

environment storytelling

PLAYER-COMPUTER INTERACTION

UNIT 11: NARRATIVE DESIGN

• Environment tells the story
• Environment is interactive 
  • Gameplay
  • Audio
  • Books
• "You see what happened"

story through interactions

PLAYER-COMPUTER INTERACTION

UNIT 11: NARRATIVE DESIGN

• No break between story and gameplay
• Player has control all the time
• Story is pre-determined (has an author)
• Story is told in an “interactive” way
• Story is told through interactions

Player-Computer Interaction 

The contents of this Open Educational Resource are licensed under the Creative-Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)
Attribution: Eike Langbehn, Anh Sang Tran, Peter Wood