Oliver\u27s Rumination: A Short Video Game About Failure

Studying and working in a creative field requires designers and artists to produce consistently high-level, novel work. In some cases, taking risks to pursue new concepts, methods, or products is highly valued. At the same time, not all companies, students, or individual artists have the resources to risk should their exploration fail. What remains is a crossroad: creative professionals and students are rewarded for taking risks, but are often unable to do so because the possibility of failure carries too much weight. Changing the way creators see failure could revolutionize the way they work. By accepting and incorporating failure into the beginning stages of a creative project, designers and artists can free themselves to think beyond the expected and create stronger work. They stand to lose less time, money, and quality than if that failure happens in the later design or production stages. For some designers, even this early failure is still daunting, because the way some creators view failure is purely negative. In order to avoid negative feedback and pain, failure is avoided altogether by pursuing weaker concepts, simpler methods of execution, or it can result in a project being abandoned altogether. What remains is a situation where many artists and designers would benefit greatly from a change in the way they view their own personal creative failures, in order to improve their working process and overall performance. Currently, the video game industry is expanding to include more experimental titles which allow for contemplative gameplay and emergent gameplay. These new games often tackle complicated themes, and can offer players a space in which to experience trauma, struggle, or moral dilemmas without real-world consequences. In doing so, these games introduce coping mechanisms to players in a low-stress way, and there is research which suggests this experience can translate to real-world skill development. This thesis project aims to combine visual design principles and simple gameplay into an interactive experience which provides players an environment to experience failure without real-world consequences. The goal of this experience is to provide a cathartic experience for the player, with the game acting as a reminder that failure and iteration are common, and that they can be used strategically for creating stronger end results

La construcción de la soledad a través del gameplay en Silent Hill: Homecoming

This essay considers the development of the topic of loneliness through the gameplay of Silent Hill: Homecoming. We examine the endogenous elements of the game and analyze how they are diegetically implemented to produce the fictional world. The concept of simulation in games (as opposed to representation, which is typical of traditional media) will be the key to understanding how rules work and how they can transcend from the endogenous frame into the diegetic frame, providing the game with a layer of meaning.Este trabajo contempla el desarrollo del tópico de la soledad a través del gameplay de Silent Hill: Homecoming. Para ello, se parte de los elementos endógenos del juego y se analiza su puesta en diégesis a través de su aplicación al mundo ficcional. El concepto de simulación en los juegos, frente al de representación, típico de los medios tradicionales, será clave para poder entender el funcionamiento de las reglas y como estas pueden pasar del plano endógeno al diegético, adquiriendo el juego, de esta manera, su significación

Connecting Narrative Worlds

Report on the 6th International Conference for Interactive Digital Storytelling: “Connecting Narrative Worlds”, Bahçeşehir University Istanbul, November 6-9, 201

Silent Hill 2 and the Curious Case of Invisible Agency

This paper outlines the concept of agency in interactive narratives and focuses on the video game Silent Hill 2 as a successful example that defies the very concept. In what ways agency was deemed as an essential part in interactive narratives and narrative video games are summarized. Then the method of agency in Silent Hill 2 is proposed as an alternative to our familiar understanding of the concept agency and is entitled as invisible agency

Lecture Notes on Interactive Storytelling

These lecture notes collect the material used in the advanced course 'Interactive Storytelling' organized biannually at the Department of Future Technologies, University of Turku, Finland. Its aim is to present the key concepts behind interactive digital storytelling (IDS) as well as to review proposed and existing IDS systems. The course focuses on the four partakers of IDS: the platform, the designer, the interactor, and the storyworld. When constructing a platform, the problem is to select an appropriate approach from tightly controlled to emergent storytelling. On this platform, the designer is then responsible for creating the content (e.g., characters, props, scenes and events) for the storyworld, which is then experienced and influenced by the interactor. The structure and relationships between these partakers is explained from a theoretical perspective as well as using existing IDS systems as examples.</p

Player Agency, Decision-Making, and Morality in Cinematic Choice-Based Adventure Games

Cinematic choice-based adventure games (CCAGs) offer examples of complex decision-making and player agency through plot construction and player choices. These games are a perfect example and opportunity to explore players’ decision-making processes that impact the game narrative. These story-driven games normally focus on advancing the narrative, allowing players to experience the story from different contexts based on their decisions. There has been an increase in the popularity of these games and more complex mechanics are implemented, allowing the player to partake in the decision-making process of the narrative. Research in the human-computer interaction and games user research fields has indicated that player agency represents a core concept that affects how players experience a game. However, there is a lack of empirical research investigating the implementation of agency, decision-making, choice, and morality in CCAGs. This gap provides an opportunity to first understand diverse conceptualizations and theoretical analysis on these core concepts. As a result of this gap, my thesis presents a theoretical analysis and empirical research on player agency, decision-making, choice, and morality in games. In my thesis, I address the main research question: (1) What can be learned from previous theoretical and empirical work on CCAGs to identify research gaps that can help understand how elements such as player agency, decision-making, and morality are being implemented in these games, and how these elements affect player experience? To further clarify these main research question, my thesis is divided in three main chapters where I address the following research questions: Chapter 3 RQ1. How are the key factors of CCAGs (agency, decision-making, choice, meaningfulness) conceptualized across disciplines? RQ2. How might we apply these cross-disciplinary perspectives to study player experience in CCAGs? Chapter 4 RQ3. How does the decision-making process in CCAGs affect agency and experience? RQ4. How does player agency and sense of control over the decisions influence the motivation for players to make a decision within a CCAG? RQ5. How is agency perceived based on different conditions, such as playing the game (i.e., exerting agency) vs. watching gameplay (i.e., agency exerted by another person)? Chapter 5 RQ6. How do players’ real-life morality translate to in-game decisions, specifically in CCAGs? RQ7. Are moral decisions influenced by players’ connection with game characters? RQ8. How does Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) explain players’ morality based on the relevance of specific moral foundations? To address these research questions, I conducted a scoping review investigating key factors in interactive narrative games (chapter 3), a hybrid thematic analysis on player agency and decision-making analyzing a commercial game (chapter 4), and finally a reflexive thematic analysis on morality and moral foundations analyzing a commercial game as well (chapter 5). The user studies presented in this research were conducted in a pre-pandemic environment (chapter 4) and pandemic environment (chapter 5). The first user study was conducted in a laboratory setting while the latter was conducted remotely. A remote study presented challenges when conducting semi-structured interviews with the participants. These challenges and limitations are discussed in chapter 5. Although challenges were present, both studies provided the opportunity to contribute insights on player agency and morality in CCAGs. At the same time, opportunities for future work and to further expand the investigation into player agency, decision-making, choice, and morality in story-driven games were identified. Chapter 3 evidenced the lack of empirical research on player agency and new opportunities to expand this knowledge. Overall, my thesis focuses on understanding concepts found in games, specifically in CCAGs. I present an analysis of player agency, decision-making, choice, meaningfulness, and morality in games. In the first part of this dissertation, I present a theoretical understanding of these key concepts. The second part of this thesis presents empirical research on these concepts and the investigation of morality in games. This thesis can be of great benefit to game developers and designers because it provides an in-depth investigation that can help improve CCAGs while increasing player experience. Chapter 3 provides preliminary guidelines to expand on empirical research on key concepts such as agency and decision-making. Subsequent findings in chapter 4 and chapter 5 provide an understanding into perceived agency and moral dilemmas in games, which can help optimize mechanics behind player choices

Exploring effective storytelling guidelines for cinematic virtual reality

Content creators have been exploring ways to use virtual reality (VR) as an effective storytelling tool. The term cinematic virtual reality (CVR) was then created to describe the kind of VR experience that is produced using pre-rendered content with lengthier and complete story structures, with the interaction design that enables viewers to actively choose where to look. Initially, creators of CVR content began by transferring storytelling grammars and techniques from mature media, such as cinema and theater. However, specific challenges for CVR followed, including the narrative paradox (NP) (which is the conflict and tension arising between authorial control and viewer agency), the fear of missing out (FOMO), and the discrepancy between viewer expectations on agency and the system’s interactive capacity. Because CVR is a type of immersive experience, viewers are also inclined to interact with the story world freely. To achieve a final product that is a successful and engrossing storytelling experience, creators must address the NP and FOMO issues and establish a design balance between authorial control and viewer participation in terms of narrative progression. To investigate the issues raised above and assess potential solutions, several user studies were undertaken in this thesis. A human body-language-based attention guidance cue set called Action Units (AUs) was created to address the FOMO issue. It was then compared with two other commonly used synthetic cues for user experiences. According to the findings, the use of AUs in CVR content can boost viewer enjoyment and engagement with the story. The AUs were also favored by viewers for their diegetic qualities and by creators for the simplicity of use. Moving on to the NP issue, the second user study sought to identify the upper limit of a viewer’s desire to actively interact and participate in the narration. Results indicated that viewer control is advised for CVR projects. To handle viewer curiosity and motivate them to interact freely, creators must carefully set up the interactors. Based on the findings, a coherent framework was researched and developed by tying together previously acquired knowledge and rules that were dispersed to various components of producing CVR with the workflow that a creator uses to build the experience. The procedure resulted in a formalized framework called the Adaptive Playback Control (APC) for CVR. The APC starts by guiding content preparation by highlighting the need for applying diegetic attention guidance cues. It also includes guidelines for interactive design by emphasizing the need for design considerations regarding the harmony between viewer and creator roles in directing the narrative development, and raising the visibility of interaction affordances in the immersive storytelling experience. Then, a real-world case study of applying the APC to an immersive Māori (New Zealand indigenous people) storytelling experience was presented. The case study examined whether viewer-participatory design, including profiling viewers and the strategies to introduce narrative variations, was culturally appropriate. In this case study, personalized variations were added to CVR by taking into account both the unique demands of each viewer and their participation in the storytelling process. Insights from the case study showed that for creators to safely guarantee that experiences will live up to viewer expectations and be entertaining and diverse, individual users must also be taken into account from the very beginning of content design. Finally, this thesis offers the Adaptive Playback Control (APC), a novel frame- work for those who create CVR experiences. They can follow the framework’s instructions to create materials specifically designed for an immersive experience utilizing pre-rendered content, such as 360-degree videos. It intends to address the FOMO issue and help creators produce CVR experiences with correct viewer interaction and integrated viewer personalization, resolving the problem of NP and improving the overall experience. This thesis also employed a case study to show how adaptable the framework is and how it may be used in a larger context, in and beyond the cultural heritage sector