Narrative design

Module title:

Narrative design

Module overview:

The aim of the module is to familiarize students with the entire narrative part of storytelling by combining design thinking and storytelling, with the aim of creating an appropriate setting of the game and the location of the story it tells.
The module provides students with the knowledge and skills needed for jobs as game designers, technical designers, project managers, art directors, narrative designers, content creators, content designers, level designers, experience designers, etc. The skills learned in this module will significantly contribute to the student´s development as professional in the respective fields.
The module will be evaluated through individual student projects and homework
Students will learn:
- differences between storytelling in various media (film, TV series, books and computer games)
- transform the narrative from one medium to another, while maintaining quality
- assess the quality of the narrative and how to structure it into a balanced game experience
- using mechanics to create a narrative
- create a narrative using mechanics and all other building blocks of a computer game
- the role of story in various genres of computer games
- building elements of the narrative and how to use them
- differences between narrative and action.

Literature:

Required readings:
1. Dille, F., Zurr, J. (2008) The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design. Santa Monica: Lone Eagle.

Supplementary readings:
1. Skolnick, E. (2014) Video Game Storytelling: What Every Developer Needs to Know about Narrative Techniques. Danvers: Watson-Guptill.