Tuesday 26 February 2013

Interactive Narratives Meetup, Festival Hall, Green Room, South Bank (26 Feb 2013)

presentation by Robert - from TStoryteller

Describing Interactive Stories
Mission - to bring stories to life
Bring the fictional world into the real world

Storytelling and gaming space
StoryGame Engine - anything to generate an event
ie.receive a text/tweet from a character in the game

Narrative - plot events, sequence.
Story - plot

Interactive Storytelling - end user who is driving the narrative

Flowcharts do not reveal the story.
user experience is linear

one view
Interactive Layer - if this happens
Narrative Layer -
Presentation Layer -
Experience Layer -

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Three Pigs example
Straw > Sticks > Bricks

tweet pig - run
tweet wolf - blow

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Describe the story in terms of scenes

Situation 1 > Event + Data > Situation 2

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Narrative layer
- story material

Interactive layer
- interactions

Presentation layer
- visuals

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could write events on the fly, from a condition
create and publish story parts in real-time

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approach of breaking by scenes, branches along the vertical.

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Tools for storytelling
Authoring tool to write stories / Write conditions / Publish
Build in dreamweaver/etc.

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Crafting stories

- theme (story trying to say) *

- fiction
- locations
- characters
- stories
- scenarios
- moral view of people/user reaction *

user experience

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world building
interactive narrative

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world without oil - is it a story framework / or is it a forum

who is contributing the interactive stories

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is the aim:
to explore - adventure
to win/lose - game

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feedback
linear / sandbox
skyrim - exploration

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transmedia - the spectacle of breaking the fourth wall
going from one medium to another.

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transmedia - that doesnt break the 4th wall - N64 -
there wasnt a goal for the narrative
taking away the fourth wall, lured in. - thinking the character is real.

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hitchhikers guide to the galaxy

immersive - ness
transmedia
interactivity

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about the active creation of belief - not a suspension of disbelief
have to care about the story

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can check emails
can check emails on goggles

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problems with interactive stories - writers are not familiar with user engagement

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choose your own adventure film - people wired with EEGs
bbc - last year.
watching emotional response - emotional cues
stories based on emotional reactions
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danger of player agency - if you give them a way of interacting
you do not want the players to break the theme of the story

how do you increase the dramatic potential of a world/story

reddit - post - ripping off stories - copy and paste.

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gameplay/story - game engine - push the boundaries, break the rules.

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in/out experience - can be disjointed - any game - ie.watching lord of rings
immersiveness-flow/versus/interactiveness-mechanics

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guy - tai chi - asks people to go towards the screen - gestures - wii kinnect - then story is guided. dont need control if you have the illusion of control.

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meta-narrative on top of games

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fighting fantasy - about physical actions in physical places. exploring game mechanic.
not exploring the emotion or dialogue.

films are about characters

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Pure games

chess/go discussion/strategic play
football - metanarrative of teams within the league, heroes, villans, back-story
Pure narratives

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looking for a narrative experience
chess - inherent story

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in transmedia storytelling
4 quadrants
actor - give people the tools to explore the world

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some games are experienced as the second person, some as the first person.

complexity is differentiated by the complexity of the understanding the player
can be deep, can show surface.
- 42 - inverted pyramid, surface layer, mid layer - websites+blogs, point layer - deep content

Revenue triangle - is the same shape. like Clay Shirkey's long tail/inverse curve.
long tail - ie.I feel rather sad and I think the weather is grey today.

Play by moving in the real world. - geo-location. - it doesnt go anywhere. use AR to interact with real world objects. Google Plus+. Future world of achievements - point scoring.

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mention of Roberts interactive narrative game - New Tokyo

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Connectivity/Distraction
App - that shuts the internet down.
Transmedia - how do you stop characters from emailing you online, when you are working in the real world !!!!! specially if the game world is given permission to opt in to contact you.

Majestic - 'the game that plays you.'

Personal life - game- dishonoured

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Donagal - 'Games for Change' - not good games or good narrative

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Gamification - linking to feedback loops - testing the boundaries

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Interactive narrative does not always come from game mechanic
- dont get one because you have the other
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Personalisation
VS
Powerful stories - about people who are different from you

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Jim Monagal - Self-help. / 'Self-improvement'.

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Depression Quest - interactive fiction - play the experience of someone who suffers from depression. A narrative not a game. Identifying emotions. Learning to have sympathy.

- issue. Is it hard to act as the player, without understanding the experience. Do you know or learn how to act. As the agent you are guided.

- can play an intelligent or stupid agent. - different responses depending on reaction.
- put together a matrix database. written in a spreadsheet.
.ie.you either convince the ranger, or not convince the ranger.

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how do visualise storytelling?
what is the most useful structure. logic can have different forms.
some structures do not map to each other.
can you find a logic to explain any story.
describing stories goes beyond implementation.
markup language for stories? - universal language of narrative logic.

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what group is someone in? check condition/state.

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Scenes - you meet the guy, you fight the guy, etc.

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cloudatlas - interesting
is the start before the start?

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can you take an example of classic, and adapt it into an interactive story.

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kindle - most peoples experience of reading - is turning the page.

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post-it notes

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structure to contain creativity - chart

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outputs - at the end of story
- poem
- personality profile

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parallel world, did not want people to think about the gameplay

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fail created - by player who is trying to work out the gameplay.

one chapter - green - requires detail
one chapter - orange - requires

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1984 - amazon

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how to sell it - as a game/

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multiplayer interactive narrative

sanjib – game/story about re-incarnation

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mapping timelines – ie.two storyworlds – 1882 + 2012
interactions between events in an area.

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go to a place, where 100s of people have stepped.
What is the naviational mechanism – moving through places physically with a mobile.
Texts sent to phone.

look at the why? You need to have a purpose for the player, aside from curiosity.

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Offer from Robert - of using the Conductr platform.

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