Module UXS-2/3412: Playable Fiction

Dr. Lyle Skains, Coordinator & Instructor, Creative Studies and Media, Bangor University, Wales

Course Type: Design and Narrative-focused

Keywords: narrative, story-games, playable, fiction, analysis.

University Department Level Credits Length Medium
Bangor University Creative Studies and Media Undergrad 20 11 Weeks In-person

Course Description

The creative writer is constantly challenged by the evolution of literary form, striving to create fresh and original narratives that depart from the conventional. Modernism, postmodernism, and now digital media are all avenues of exploration and experimentation. This module focuses on the latter domain, as writers approach narrative through the creation of games. Story-games, such as hypertexts, interactive fictions, and visual novels, necessitate unconventional, and even unnatural, structures and perspectives. By creating playable narratives, students on this course will open their writing up to new expressions, forms, and genres. Students will discuss and explore critical and creative responses to these texts, applying new techniques and awareness to their creative writing practice.

Weekly Outline

Part I: Narrative Evolving

Week 22 (1): Intro

Week 23 (2): Story

Week 24 (3): Character & Storyworld

Week 25 (4): Digital Experimenting

Week 26 (5): Interactivity

Part II: Narrative & Cognition

Week 27 (6): Reading Week

Week 28 (7): Evolution of Narrative

Week 29 (8): Writing Spaces

Week 30 (9): Narrative (Re-)Construction

Week 31 (10): Reader-Player

Week 32 (11): Narrative Analysis

Week 33 (12): Narrative Futures

Course Objectives ​

2412:

By the end of this module you should be able to:

  • Analyse fiction from a foundation of narrative, gaming, and literary theory, as well as from a creative and/or practice-related research perspective.
  • Interrogate the effects of experimenting with unconventional/unnatural forms on conventional or commercial writing practices.
  • Write a piece of playable fiction in a chosen medium, demonstrating an understanding of media, narrative structure, and experimentation with conventions.
  • Analyse the processes and features of writing unconventional and/or unnatural narrative fiction, and apply that to a self-directed, practical project.

 

3412:

By the end of this module you should be able to:

  • Apply advanced analysis to fiction from a foundation of narrative, gaming, and literary theory, as well as from a creative and/or practice-related research perspective.
  • Interrogate the effects of experimenting with unconventional/unnatural forms on conventional or commercial writing practices.
  • Write a piece of playable fiction in a chosen medium, demonstrating a significant understanding of media, narrative structure, and experimentation with conventions.
  • Apply advanced analysis to the processes and features of writing unconventional and/or unnatural narrative fiction, and apply that to a self-directed, practical project.

Reading

  • Unnatural Narratives – Unnatural Narratology. Alber, J. and Heinze, R. eds., 2011 (library/pdf)
  • The Possible Worlds of Hypertext Fiction. Bell, A., 2010 (library/pdf) 
  • On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction. Boyd, B. 2010 (library/pdf)
  • The Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature. Bray, J., Gibbons, A., and McHale, B., eds., 2012 (library/pdf)
  • Paper on Evolution of storytelling in primates. Dautenhahn, K (library/pdf)
  • Literary Gaming. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Ensslin, A. 2014 (library/pdf)
  • Cognitive Narratology. Herman, D (Selected texts) (library/pdf)
  • Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. Ong, W., 2005 (1982) (library/pdf)
  • New Perspectives on Narrative and Multimodality. Page, R. ed., 2010 (library/pdf)
  • Unnatural Voices: Extreme Narration in Modern and Contemporary Fiction. Richardson, B., 2006 (library/pdf)
  • Narrative Across Media: The Languages of Storytelling. Ryan, M.-L., 2004. (library/pdf)
  • Avatars of Story. Ryan, M.-L., 2006. (library/pdf)
  • The Game Narrative Toolbox. Heussner, T., Finley, T.K., Hepler, J.B., and Lemay, A., 2015. (library/pdf)
  • “The Garden of Forking Paths”, in Labyrinths. Borges, J., 1962 (1941) (library/pdf)
  • Composition No. 1. Saporta, M., 1961 (2011) (library)

The Unfortunates. Johnson, B.S., 1969 (1999) (library)

IDE and IDN Authoring Tools

Viewings

IDN Artifacts

Major Assignments (being assignments whose value is of 25% or more)

Playable Fiction Design/Portfolio (30%)

  • Platform: Blackboard
  • Purpose: A “playable fiction”: a narrative that incorporates elements of interaction and/or gameplay, or the playable fiction itself. Research log to date must be included as an appendix. Learning Outcomes: 2, 3
  • Requirements:
    • Project Length: 10 minutes
    • Project Size: 200 words
    • Project Aesthetics: the work itself should demonstrate an aesthetic understanding of digital media’s affordances and contributions to narrative, narrative structure(s) and their mutability in digital forms, and experimentation with narrative conventions
    • Coding Proficiency: minimal required coding is hyperlinks serving an essential function for the work
  • Evaluation: 
    • Interactivity: a minimum use of hyperlinks as an essential function of the work; marked on the interactivity’s contribution to reader engagement in the work and to narrative meaning
    • Story and narrative:  A shrewd understanding of narrative concepts specific to writing playable fiction, as shown through the creative work. Evidence of a considerable awareness of critical theory related to fiction, both post-textual and practice-based. Evidence of a highly developed awareness of issues relating to writing, reader reception, as well as cultural and ideological issues at play. A large degree theoretical and self-critical awareness.
    • Production values: as relevant to the work’s narrative meaning and contribution to reader engagement/immersion

Prose Fiction Portfolio (35%)

  • Platform: Blackboard
  • Purpose: A short story or novel chapter, written subsequently to playable fiction submitted in assessment 1. Research log to date must be included as an appendix. Learning Outcomes: 4
  • Requirements:
    • Project Length: n/a (prose work)
    • Project Size: 3000 words
    • Project Aesthetics: the work should demonstrate an aesthetic understanding of “play” and interactivity applied in a prose narrative, experimentation with prose narrative structure(s) and conventions, particularly as related to experiences from the first assignment
    • Coding Proficiency: none
  • Evaluation: 
    • Interactivity: adaptation of concepts of digital interactivity to prose projects, demonstrating an innovative approach to prose as influenced by engagement with digital creativity
    • Story and narrative: demonstrating an interrogation of narrative conventions in keeping with the story’s intended meaning
    • Production values: standard prose manuscript as applicable to the work

Critical Analysis (35%)

  • Platform: Blackboard
  • Purpose: A essay analysing the first two assessments in the context of narrative practice, gaming culture, cognitive approaches, experimental writing, the evolution of storytelling, reader response, and/or ergodic literature. Research log to date must be included as an appendix. Learning Outcomes: 1, 2
  • Requirements:
    • Project Length: n/a (written document)
    • Project Size: 2000 words
    • Project Aesthetics: clear written communication in academic and/or personal essay structure and style
    • Coding Proficiency: none
  • Evaluation: 
    • Interactivity: n/a
    • Story and narrative: n/a
    • Production values: standard essay and citation formatting as established by the department

Course Best Practices

  • Student handbook states that “[e]ach student is expected to devote 200 hours of study to each 20 credit module” (p3). This module meets 3 hours/week for 11 weeks. That means meetings account for only 33 hours of the expected workload for this 20 credit module. You are expected to do approximately 10-15 hours of module-related study per week.
  • The module meets twice a week for a 2-hour lecture and a 1-hour workshop. These sessions will consist of lectures on scheduled topics, in-class exercises, workshops, discussions of readings, and other activities related to the module topics.
  • Please see the Undergraduate Student Handbook on MyBangor for information regarding assessment criteria, essay presentation, how to request an extension, and plagiarism policy.
  • Failure to attend lectures/seminars without a legitimate reason (see your handbook) will adversely affect your performance in this module.
  • You will receive initial feedback and marks on your assessments within four weeks of the assignment due date. Feedback will be offered on the electronic copy on TurnItInUK, and may consist of comments regarding the quality of the writing, how well you’ve applied the concepts covered in class, adherence to formatting guidelines, in addition to other elements that may apply specifically to individual submissions.
  • You are also expected to check your university email on a daily basis.
  • All students are expected to produce work on a weekly basis. Attendance at all module sessions is therefore highly recommended and expected.