The Evolution of Digital Storytelling

Game Design

Team FunTrove

August 8, 2022

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On this article, sport designer Sande Chen experiences on Sam Barlow’s presentation at PLAY NYC, by which he describes how the digital world is remodeling the artwork of storytelling.

Talking at PLAY NYC on August 11, 2020, Sam Barlow, the mastermind behind the award-winning video games Her Story and Telling Lies, defined the sweeping modifications which have occurred in storytelling in his presentation, “The Demise of the Container: What TV and Films Ought to Be taught from Video Video games.”

The road between tv and films is blurring, he stated, with the growing number of new program codecs. Content material creators can not bundle neatly wrapped story content material, i.e. a container, on this digital world. With sensible TVs and entry to streaming, customers do not tune in at a sure time to observe packages. As an alternative of Should See TV, the operative phrase is now “binging,” by which viewers watch by means of a number of episodes directly. That is lots like placing within the hours on a sport. Personalization, which was once restricted by style classes in a video retailer, is commonplace. NetFlix even personalizes thumbnails for you primarily based on algorithms.

However tv and movie are nonetheless restricted in decisions. The viewer alternative boils all the way down to: Do I proceed watching or do I cease?

Video video games are recognized for participant decisions in addition to self-expression and exploration. “Tales,” stated Barlow, “are data with emotion. Can we discover them?” Just like the digital newspaper that assumes its readers will not learn web page by web page, online game tales are unbounded, permitting gamers to replay, rearrange, and watch once more whereas on the lookout for new context. Video video games purposefully acknowledge participant participation. Gamers are allowed to discover with curiosity, often in an open world, and really feel immersed. Furthermore, gamers are the principle driver of the story. Gamers create a wealthy, full story of their heads and it is not solely because of the order by which they came across the story.

Barlow cautioned content material creators to not get too enthusiastic about branching narrative and common story alternative apps, which he stated solely offers an phantasm of a system with trigger and impact. He finds that gamers wish to go deeper, not broader, which is to say that the Why is rather more necessary than the What If. To him, emotion comes from particular emotional moments, which requires an understanding of the story, and never from exploring totally different story branches.

In abstract, Barlow supplied up this analogy. The viewers is saturated with storytelling. They’ve eaten a whole lot of pie. We should not provide them mini pies and suppose that is particular. A wise chef would provide a deconstructed pie. Equally, he stated, “To cater to the knowledge overload technology, we should deconstruct tales for them to allow them to expertise them totally once more.”

Sande Chen is a NYC-based author and sport designer whose work has spanned 10 years within the trade. Her credit embrace 1999 IGF winner Terminus, 2007 PC RPG of the 12 months The Witcher, and Wizard 101. She is among the founding members of the IGDA Sport Design SIG.

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