International Game Developers Association

Full name:

Games Education
Course

Contents 1 Teachers 1.1 Instructors 2 Course Background Information 2.1 Location 2.2 Classification 2.3 Student background needed 2.4 Course prerequisites 2.5 Time periods 3 Course Structure 3.1 Course description 3.2 Course learning objectives 3.3 Week by week topics 4 Course Materials & Facilities Used 5 Analysis of learning methods 5.1 What worked 5.2 What didn't work

Teachers

Instructors

• Alex Mitchell

Course Background Information

Location

University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore, http://usp.nus.edu.sg

Classification

See: Areas for classifing for your course.

Primary classification:

• Interactive Storytelling

Student background needed

None.

Course prerequisites

None.

Time periods

Offered in semester 1 each year; 4 hours of seminar/week

Course Structure

Course description

This module will look at interactive media from the perspective of narrative and play. Through hands-on experience playing, critiquing, and designing interactive systems, this module will explore how these two potentially contradictory concepts can be employed within interactive media to create meaningful and engaging experiences. Issues addressed will include: traditional and contemporary theories of narrative and storytelling; hypertext, intertextuality and non-linear narrative; interactivity and play; and recent theoretical developments in the area of game studies.

Course learning objectives

The aim of this module is to teach students about the relationship between narrative and play in interactive media, and to enable them to use these concepts to design meaningful and engaging interactive experiences.

Upon completing this module, students will:

1. Understand the concepts of interactivity, narrative and play
2. Be aware of the traditional structure of narrative storytelling, and how this relates to interactivity
3. Understand the concept of non-linearity and hypertext, and the theories behind intertextuality
4. Understand the elements of gameplay, and how these relate to play and storytelling
5. Be aware of the ways in which games, play and narrative can be used within interactive media
6. Have experience creating an engaging, fun interactive experience

Week by week topics

Week 1: Introduction
Seminar Topics

• Module overview, introduction to key concepts; hands-on exposure to interactive narrative and game systems.

Readings
No readings.

Week 2: Narrative and storytelling
Seminar Topics

• Exploring various definitions of narrative; the dramatic arc, the role (and death) of the author.

Readings

1. Chatman, Seymour, “Chapter 1: Introduction”, in Story and Discourse. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1978, p. 15-42.
2. Martin, Wallace, “Narrative Structure: Preliminary Problems”, in Recent Theories of Narrative. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1986, p. 81-106.

Week 3: What is interactive media?
Seminar Topics

• Exploring and defining: interactivity, games and play, storytelling and performance.

Readings

1. Manovich, Lev, “Chapter 1: What is New Media?” in The Language of New Media, MIT Press, 2000, p. 18-61.
2. Ryan, “Peeling the Onion: Layers of Interactivity in Digital Narrative Texts”, http://lamar.colostate.edu/~pwryan/onion.htm (accessed 18 July 2006).

Week 4: Cybertext
Seminar Topics

• "Potential" narrative; configurability and text as a machine; pre-computer "interactive" stories.

Readings

1. Aarseth, Espen, “Introduction: Ergodic Literature”, in Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature. John Hopkins University Press, 1997, p. 1-23.
2. Excerpts from Motte, Warren, Oulipo: A Primer of Potential Literature, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986, pp. 140-162.

Week 5: Visual/database stories
Seminar Topics

• Sequence as story – filling in the gaps; creating narratives using visual sequences; application to interactive media; story as database.

Readings

1. McCloud, Scott, “Time Frames”, in Understanding Comics, Harper Paperbacks, 1994, p. 94-117.
2. Legrady, George, “Modular Structure and Image/Text Sequences: Comics and Interactive Media”, in Comics and Culture: Analytical and Theoretical Approaches to Comics, Museum Tusculanum Press, Copenhagen, 2000, p. 79-90.

Week 6. Hypertext fiction
Seminar Topics

• Hypertext and non-linear narrative; media-specific analysis.

Readings

1. Hayles, N. Katherine. 2004. “Print is Flat, Code is Deep: The Importance of Media-Specific Analysis.” Poetics Today 25 (1): 67-90.

Week 7: Interactive fiction
Seminar Topics

• Interactive fiction; narrative and puzzles; critique of classic adventure games.

Readings

1. Montfort, Nick. “The Pleasure of the Text Adventure”, in Twisty Little Passages: An Approach to Interactive Fiction. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2005, p. 1-36.

Week 8: Narrative and games
Seminar Topics

• Can games tell stories? Are games a form of narrative? Does play negate narrative? Discussion of ways to create stories from play.

Readings

1. Neitzel, “Narrativity in Computer Games”, in Raessens and Goldstein, Handbook of Computer Game Studies, MIT Press, 2005, p. 227-245.

Week 9: Narrative and Space Seminar Topics

• Telling a story through space; museums/exhibitions, Happenings.

Readings

1. Jenkins, “Game design as Narrative Architecture”, in First Person: New Media as Story, Performance and Game, Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan, eds., MIT Press, 2004, also available online at http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/games&narrative.html (accessed 18 July 2006).

Week 10: Emergent narrative
Seminar Topics

• Emergence and storytelling.

Readings

1. Jesper Juul: "Game of emergence and games of progression". In Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds, Jesper Juul, MIT Press, 2006, p. 67-92.

Week 11: Procedural content
Seminar Topics

• Procedural content; balancing player agency and designer control.

Readings

1. Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern, “Procedural Authorship: A Case-Study Of the Interactive Drama Façade”, Digital Arts and Culture (DAC), Copenhagen, November 2005, http://www.interactivestory.net/papers/MateasSternDAC05.pdf (accessed 2 July 2007).

Week 12: Embodied Narrative Seminar Topics

• Boundaries and breaking the “magic circle”; pervasive and immersive games and stories.

Readings

1. Jane McGonigal, "The Puppet Master Problem: Design for Real-World, Mission Based Gaming", in Second Person, Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan, eds., MIT Press, 2007.

Week 13: Project Presentations
Seminar Topics

• Project presentations

Readings
No readings.

Course Materials & Facilities Used

Here you can link to and/or describe books and other materials you used for this course. Feel free to create new pages for each item here if a page for it does not yet exist.

Books

Book Example 1

Book Example 2

Other materials

Papers, magazines, videos (add links to online materials)

Software (engines, tools)

This could me a mix of external links to software on other servers and links to other wiki pages outlining those tools, which could be useful.

Syllabus

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Slides

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Assessment materials

e.g. tests, quizzes, assignment requirements, project requirements

Digital media used in class

e.g. Video, Multimedia sources, Audio

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Case studies

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Tutorial files

(link to each file's storage location)

Other materials

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Analysis of learning methods

What worked

Please discuss what techniques worked well

What didn't work

Please discuss what techniques didn’t work as well as you had hoped

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