“The Walk” is a new app for Android and iOS by Six to Start, the creators of “Zombies, run!”. It seems a very promising game mixing physical activity with mobile storytelling, I plan to try it soon
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sixtostart.thewalk
“Continue?9876543210” by Jason Oda is a indie art game exploring the themes of death and mortality. Read a review from Jesse Singal at the Boston Globe
http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/movies/2013/12/22/exploring-mortality-video-game-continue/FtYseqV8Wk0Gdi2k9VmJPP/story.html?s_campaign=sm_tw
http://bst.sagepub.com/content/32/5/393.short Jim Bizzocchi and Joshua Tanenbaum
Abstract. Digital games have matured substantially as a narrative medium in the last decade. However, there is still much work to be done to more fully understand the poetics of story-based-games. Game narrative remains an important issue with significant cultural, economic and scholarly implications. In this article, we undertake a critical analysis of the design of narrative within Mass Effect 2: a game whose narrative is highly regarded in both scholarly and vernacular communities. We follow the classic humanities methodology of “close-reading”: the detailed observation, deconstruction, and analysis of a text. Our close-reading employs a critical framework from our previous work to isolate and highlight the central narrative design parameters within digital games. This framework is grounded in the scholarly discourse around games and narrative, and has been tested and revised in the process of close-reading and analyzing contemporary games. The narrative design parameters we examine are character, storyworld, narrativized interface, emotion, and plot coherence. Our analysis uses these parameters to explicate a series of design decisions for the effective creation of narrative experience in Mass Effect 2, and by extension, for game narratives in general. We also expand our previous methodology through a focused “edge-case” strategy for exploring the limits of character, action, and story in the game. Finally, we position our analysis of Mass Effect 2 within contemporary discourses of “bounded agency”, and explore how the game negotiates the tension between player-expression, and narrative inevitability to create opportunities for sophisticated narrative poetics including tragedy and sacrifice.
Alex Cope published an interesting blog post on the narrative structures in The Last of Us. He writes: “By limiting what the player can do and see, it allows for a focus on the smaller details of its locales. Instead of roaming through the streets of a large city, exploring in The Last of Us takes place on a more personal level; for example, looking through the contents of a master bedroom in an abandoned home”.
Read the full post at http://gamesandimpact.org/news/blog/the-storytelling-series-narrative-mechanics-in-the-last-of-us/
Thanks to Hartmut Koenitz for sharing this in the first place.
From the game’s website: “In her mid-20’s, Kelly has moved back into her parents’ house. Back to the flat expanse of Nebraska, that seemingly endless sea of rustling cornstalks peppered by rusty silos and rustier towns. In Three Fourths Home, players assume the role of Kelly while she is driving home during this thunderstorm. The focus of the game is its narrative, conveyed through an extended conversation Kelly has with her parents and younger brother. The player must navigate the conversation while driving through a stylized representation of rural Nebraska set against rumbling thunder and the music playing from the car’s tape deck. The narrative touches on a variety of issues affecting Kelly and her family, including disability, adulthood, familial obligation, nostalgia, and loss.”
Browse the website for the game http://www.threefourthshome.com/about/ and read Nathan Grayson’s review on Kotaku http://kotaku.com/the-game-that-made-me-realize-i-ve-let-down-my-family-1663850730
“The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is unlike many other first-person adventure games you might have played. There’s no violence or combat, but rather, the story unfolds as the player explores the various environments, and discovers how certain bits and pieces work alongside other puzzles”. Its author Adrian Chmielarz says:”[The virtual world] allows the players to feel both as voyeurs and guilt-free intruders, and also forces them to build mental models of both the environment and the action. All of that results in the deeper sense of presence in the world, helping the trinity of presence, immersion and engagement.”
Read the full article here
Thanks to Ivan Girina for sharing
MA Thesis “The Cross-Media Journey of Muddle Earth: Design, Narrative and Brand Consistency in Game Adaptation”, by Claudio Franco, University of London
Abstract: A study of game production in the context of cross-media strategies, it follows the adaptation journey of the Muddle Earth IP from a book, into a TV series, and finally into a game.
Free download at: http://transmediabooks.wordpress.com/ma-thesis-the-cross-media-journey-of-muddle-earth/