Storytelling for Interactive Digital Media and Video Games

The evolution of story-telling is as old as the human race; from the beginning, when our ancestors first gathered around a campfire to share wondrous tales through oral traditions, to today, with information and stories being shared through waves and filling screens with words and images. Stories have always surrounded us, and united us in ways other disciplines can’t. Storytelling for Interactive Digital Media and Video Games lays out the construct of the story, and how it can be manipulated by the storyteller through sound, video, lighting, graphics, and color. This book is the perfect guide to aspiring storytellers as it illustrates the different manner of how and why stories are told, and how to make them “interactive.” Storytelling features heavy game development as a method of storytelling and delivery, and how to develop compelling plots, characters, settings, and actions inside a game. The concept of digital storytelling will be explored, and how this differs from previous incarnations of mediums for stories 

Key Features:

• Explores the necessary elements of a story (setting, character, events, sequence, and perspective) and how they affect the viewer of the story
• Discusses media and its role in storytelling, including images, art, sound, video, and animation
• Explores the effect of interactivity on the story, such as contest TV, web-based storytelling, kiosks, and games
• Shows the different types of story themes in gaming and how they are interwoven
• Describes how to make games engaging and rewarding intrinsically and extrinsically

Table of Contents

Part I Story Fundamentals
Chapter 1 What Is A Story? Fundamental Components Of The Story
Chapter 2 Who’S Telling The Story? Teller/Audience Relationship And The Told
Chapter 3 How Do We Tell Stories? Formats Of Storytelling
Chapter 4 What Are Stories About? The Content Of Stories
Chapter 5 Why Do We Tell Stories? Functional Storytelling
Chapter 6 Activities For Storytellers
Chapter 7 Conclusion

Part II Media
Chapter 8 The Still Image
Chapter 9 The Moving Imaget
Chapter 10 Memes And Symbols
Chapter 11 Audio
Chapter 12 Exercises
Chapter 13 Conclusion

Part III Interactivity
Chapter 14 Interaction Basics
Chapter 15 Interactive Media Types
Chapter 16 Games
Chapter 17 Stories And Games
Chapter 18 Activities
Chapter 19 Conclusion