Dynamic Syuzhets: Writing and Design Methods for Playable Stories

Wood, Hannah (2017) Dynamic Syuzhets: Writing and Design Methods for Playable Stories. In: Interactive Storytelling: 10th International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, ICIDS 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 10690 . Springer, Cham, Switzerland, pp. 24-37. ISBN 978-3-319-71027-3

Text (Published version of paper given at International Conference on Digital Interactive Storytelling (ICIDS) 2017) Wood H. Dynamic Syuzhets Writing and Design Methods for Playable Stories.pdf - Published Version Restricted to Repository staff only Download (267kB) | Request a copy

Abstract / Summary

The holodeck vision of the future of Interactive Digital Storytelling (IDS) assumes a world that reacts around players as story protagonists; but, we have seen how this approach faces challenges in negotiating the delivery of narrative affect and player agency within current technological and Artificial Intelligence (AI) realities. By approaching the field through creative writing practice, this paper argues that casting players as experience—rather than story— protagonists, has proved an effective alternate means of writing and designing for Playable Stories. Through close analysis of the growing Story Exploration Game genre and comparison with interactive theatre, four new terms—the dynamic syuzhet, authored fabula, fixed syuzhet and improvised fabula—are introduced to show how writing and designing for players as experience protagonists can negotiate the needs of narrative and player agency, provide means to combine mimetic and diegetic player experiences, pair self-directed and empathic engagement, and offer opportunities to use dramatic irony—a corner- stone of narrative drive in other storytelling forms that is unexploited in interactive storytelling. The study that formed the basis of this paper was driven by the question of how writers can develop practice within the current constraints of the form and informed the development of my own indie video game Underland.

Item Type:	Book Section
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Playable stories Creative writing Video games Story Exploration Games Interactive theatre Immersive theatre Dynamic syuzhet Fixed syuzhet Improvised fabula Authored fabula Dramatic irony Experience protagonists Experiential narratives Interactive narrative design Interactive storytelling Players Player agency Player roles Mimetic Diegetic Narratology
ISBN:	978-3-319-71027-3
ISSN:	0302-9743
Subjects:	Research Computing & Data Science Computing & Data Science > Game Design Communication > Creative Writing Communication > Journalism
Courses by Department:	The School of Communication
Depositing User:	Hannah Wood
Date Deposited:	01 Nov 2019 13:34
Last Modified:	18 Nov 2024 15:06
URI:	https://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/id/eprint/3649

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