Narratives in Interactive Systems

Luis Emilio Bruni, Associate professor, Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology, Technical Faculty of IT and Design, Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark

Nele Kadastik, Research Assistant, Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology, Technical Faculty of IT and Design, Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark

Course Type: Design and Technology-focused, Humanities-Cognitive Science-focused 

Keywords: Interactive Digital Narrative, Media Technology, Extended Reality, Immersion, Interaction, Narrative Studies.

University Department Level Credits Length Medium
Aalborg University Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology Graduate Master of Science 5 ECTS 6 weeks In-person 

Course Description

The course introduces state of the art frameworks, concepts, and techniques to enable students to design, implement and evaluate Interactive Digital Narrative products that involve the use of storytelling in the latest emerging technological platforms. It presents key concepts and issues relating to Interactive Digital Narrative and Storytelling from IDN, narratology, media technology, cognitive science, semiotics, UX, and ethics. Students get the chance to work with projects and cases from different domains of applications, such as extended reality (XR) technologies, games and serious games, edutainment, interactive storytelling, interactive documentaries, museum science, cultural experiences, performing arts, social media, healthcare apps, immersive journalism, and art installations.

Course Objectives ​

  • Gain knowledge about state-of-the-art frameworks and methodologies for Interactive Digital Narratives (IDN) and immersive storytelling.
  • Understand the design implications of narrative structures and storytelling in state of the art immersive and interactive technological platforms (e.g., working with haptic devices, tracking technologies, avatars and artificial agents, embodied interaction, etc.). 
  • Gain knowledge and skills to combine IDN frameworks with emerging technological platforms in specific domains of application. 
  • Gain skills and knowledge on design processes to develop effective IDN rhetorical strategies in specific domains of application. 
  • Learn how to implement appropriate concepts and frameworks for evaluating user-experience in interactive digital narratives.
  • Understand the socio-cultural context and the ethical implications of interactive and immersive narratives in digital culture.
  • Consolidate the knowledge gained in the course in the production of a working prototype.

Weekly Outline

The course is developed throughout six weeks, one full day per week (a 3-hour morning session and a 3-hour afternoon session). In the morning sessions lectures and theories are presented. The afternoon sessions consist of workshops that lead towards the elaboration of a project and the implementation of an interactive narrative prototype.

Week 1. Introduction to Narratives in Interactive Systems (NIS) 

Morning Session

1.1 Welcome and general introduction to the course
1.2 Introduction to Narrative studies
1.3 Introduction to IDN
1.4 Examples of IDNs in different domains and previous Medialogy projects

Afternoon Session

1.5 Guidlines for the course-project
1.6 Workshop 1 + Class-assignment

Week 2. Interactivity in Digital Narratives 

Morning Session
2.1 Interactivity in digital narratives
2.2 Frameworks for interactivity in IDNs
2.3 Agency, inteligibility and closure in interactive narrative systems
2.4 Game mechanics and gameplay in IDNs

Afternoon Session

2.5 Workshop 2 + Class-assignment



Week 3. Immersion, presence, engagement, and the likes

Morning Session
3.1 Theories of immersion in interactive media
3.2 Narrative Immersion in representational and interactive systems 

Afternoon Session
3.3 Workshop 3 + Class-assignment

Week 4. IDN in XR and future perspectives

Morning Session
5.1 Virtual reality as narrative and as technology
5.2 Narration and Focalization with POV technologies

5.3 Embodiment and agency in XR IDNs
5.4 Agents and AI

Afternoon Session
Workshop 4 + Class-assignment

Week 5. All-day workshop on major interactive narrative works

During the workshop, the students collectively experience a series of interactive narrative applications which are divided into four sessions. The students are provided with an analytical framework in the form of a worksheet that incorporates the concepts and frameworks previously presented in the course. After each session the students complete and discuss their analysis of the selected works.
Session 1  – Interactive documentaries and films
Session 2  – Interactive drama and cinematic games
Session 3  – Serious/transformative games
Session 4  – Mixed realities and novel approaches to interaction

At the end of the workshop the students reflect on their own implementations.

Week 6. Narratives in Digital Culture

Morning Session
6.1 Intertextuality, cross-media and remediation
6.2 Transmedia storytelling, world building and the metaverse
6.3 Rhetoric and narrative persuasion in XR-IDNs
6.4 Responsibility and ethical issues in digital culture

Afternoon Session
6.4 Students’ presentations: work-in-progress of projects and IDN prototypes
6.5 Conclusion

Reading

  • “Narrative: Linguistics and Structural Theories”, Toolan, M. (2006). In: Keith Brown, (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics, Second Edition, volume 13, pp. 459-473. Oxford: Elsevier. http://primo.aub.aau.dk/desktop:Samlet:TN_els_bookB0-08-044854-2.00528-9.
  • “Toward a definition of narrative” (Chapter 2), Ryan, Marie-Laure (2007). In: Herman, David, ed. (2007). The Cambridge Companion to Narrative. 1st ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cambridge Companions Online. Web. 02 February 2014. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-narrative/45E41A6D74F9CB697D9668AC46D88397
  • “Defining Narrative” (Chapter 2), Porter Abbott, H. (2008). The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • “Digital Narratives in Extended Realities”, Bruni, L. E., Kadastik, N., Pedersen, T. A., & Dini, H. (2022). In Roadmapping Extended Reality: Fundamentals and Applications (1 ed., pp. 35-62). Wiley.
  • “Texts without Worlds: Dysfunctionality as a Form of Play” (Chapter 6), and “The Many Forms of Interactivity” (Chapter 7). In the textbook: “Narrative As Virtual Reality 2: Revisiting Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media” by Marie-Laure Ryan (2015).
  • “Toward an Interactive Narratology” (Chapter 5), Ryan, Marie-Laure (2006). In: Avatars of Story. Minneapolis: University of Michigan Press.
  • “Narrative Intelligibility and Closure in Interactive Systems”. Bruni, Luis E. and Baceviciute, Sarune (2013). In, Koenitz, H., Sezen, T. I., Ferri, G., Haahr, M., Sezen, D., Çatak, G. (Eds) ICIDS 2013, LNCS 8230, pp. 13- 24, Springer 2013 Berlin, Springer-Verlag.
  • “The narrative quality of game mechanics.” Larsen, Bjarke Alexander and Henrik Schoenau-Fog. In International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, pp. 61-72. Springer, Cham, 2016. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-48279-8_6
  • “Introduction” in the book “Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media.” Marie-Laure Ryan (In either of its two versions 2015 or 2001). 
  • “Virtual Reality as Dream and as Technology” (Chapter 2) in the textbook “Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media.” Marie-Laure Ryan (2015/2001). 
  • “Story, Rhetoric/ethics” (Chapter 14), Phelan, James (2007). In: Herman, David, ed. (2007). The Cambridge Companion to Narrative. 1st ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cambridge Companions Online.
  • “Cognitive Sustainability in the Age of Digital Culture”. Bruni, Luis E. (2010). Triple C: Cognition, Communication, Co-operation. Vol. 9, Nr. 2, 2011, s. 473-482.
  • “Transmedia Storytelling: Industry Buzzword or New Narrative Experience?” Marie-Laure Ryan. Storyworlds: A Journal of Narrative Studies, vol. 7, no. 2, 2015, pp. 1–19. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.5250/storyworlds.7.2.0001.
  • Every year we include a selection of state-of-the-art articles from important venues and journals in the field.

Viewings

  • Accenture develops VR app to better train social workers | eastwindmagazine (YouTube)
  • Zombies, Run! How Adrian Hon Turned a Daily Jog into a Zombie-Filled Adventure | Kickstarter (YouTube)
  • Honda – The Other Side | DigitalSynopsis.com (YouTube)
  • Curious Alice: the VR experience | Behind the scenes | V&A | Victoria and Albert Museum (YouTube)
  • The Quetzal (2011 IAEP Prototype) | cfcmedialab (YouTube)
  • Lacta – Make the move – case study | OgilvyOneAthens Archive (YouTube)
  • Freshers casevideo (Feuten) | SpektorStories (YouTube)
  • A Responsible Future for Immersive Technologies | Accenture (YouTube)
  • MIT Docubase
  • ARDIN
  • ICIDS
  • Etc.

IDN Artifacts

  • “Lifesaver”, an interactive film for learning CPR (PC IDN) | Director: Martin Percy, Produced by UNIT9 | https://life-saver.org.uk/
  • “Do Not Track” (2015), a personalized documentary series about privacy and the web economy (PC IDN) | https://donottrack-doc.com/en/
  • “Alice and Kev” (PC IDN) | https://aliceandkev.wordpress.com/
  • “Never alone”, an interactive, gamified documentary (PC IDN)
  • “Late shift”, an interactive film (PC IDN)
  • “Atomic Tree”, a 360-degree documentary (VR IDN) 
  • “Goliath: Playing with Reality” (VR IDN)
  • “L.A. Noire”, an action-adventure video game (PC IDN)
  • “Façade”, an artificial-intelligence-based interactive drama (PC IDN)
  • “The Stanley Parable”, an avant-garde interactive drama (PC IDN)
  • The McDonald’s Videogame (PC IDN)
  • “Notes on Blindness” (PC IDN)
  • “Before Your Eyes”, a narrative game using eye tracking (PC IDN)
  • Gnomes & Goblins (VR IDN)
  • Half-Life: Alyx (VR IDN)
  • Etc.

IDE and IDN Authoring Tools

  • Unity
  • Twine 
  • Unreal Engine 
  • CryEngine
  • Odyssey.js
  • Etc.

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

The students in this course are required to develop and submit a project as a prerequisite to take part in the final oral exam. The exam consists of a presentation and defense of the project followed by a discussion and questions on the course material. The project and its defense are evaluated according to the Danish 7-point grading scale.

Course-project: Design and implementation of a concrete case of interactive narrative application

Purpose

  • The purpose of the project is to design and implement a concrete case of an interactive digital narrative application. Students are free to choose the theme or topic for the narrative (e.g.: remediation of a literary work, the development of a historical event, presentation of a relevant social, cultural or political contemporary issue, development of a narrative game, etc.) Based on the concepts and frameworks presented throughout the course, the students should consider the design and implementation elements necessary to deploy an interactive narrative in a concrete case of media application or paradigm – e.g. (serious) game, interactive drama, edutainment, advertisement, gamification, interactive documentary, VR/AR narratives, etc. 
  • For students that are leaning towards theoretical work, the course offers the possibility of substituting the design and implementation of a working prototype with an academic paper elaborating on a theoretical framework (or essay) on a current state of the art problem in the field, or the evaluation of an existing interactive narrative application – e.g. a cinematic game, interactive drama, edutainment application, advertisement, interactive documentary, etc., in the form of a case-study.

Requirements

  • Besides the working prototype, the students must deliver a paper of maximum 10 pages plus references (for group work) explaining the rationale, purpose and context of the work. The paper should include the main design considerations, the creative aspects of the design, the tools and process used for the implementation, the key aspects of the narrative, including its goals and characteristics, the aesthetic choices and the rhetorical strategy (the paper may deviate from a canonical scientific paper in the sense that testing is not required).
  • The students that choose to pursue theoretical work are required to put together the theoretical and/or empirical framework for the given problem or for evaluating the chosen application. It should be based on state-of-the-art concepts and a comprehensive literature review in the field, utilizing relevant references. The concepts and/or the aspects and parameters for the evaluation have to be clear, coherent and rigorously defined, and measure in innovative and reliable ways, presenting a compelling case in interactive narrative. The framework, results and/or findings should be presented in an academic article format.

Platform

For the implementation of their projects, the students are free to choose the platforms, programming languages, game engines, and applications of their preference. These may include engines and apps such as Unity, Unreal Engine, Twine, CryEngine, Odyssey.js, implemented in PC, VR, AR, mobile phones, Web apps, and any transmedia combination of those.  

Evaluation 

  • Even though the project-work is usually conducted in groups, the students are evaluated individually in an oral defense, which entails a demonstration of the implemented prototype.
  • The prototype is evaluated based on a trade-off between the completeness and coherence of the design (as presented in the paper) and the quality of its implementation. For example, ambitious and well-developed designs may be justified to end up as a proof of concept of just a few scenes with high aesthetic quality, or, on the other hand, complete implementations of a whole narrative may have the emphasis on the completion, the dynamics and the coherence of the narrative, justifying lower levels of definition in the implemented assets. 
  • In any case the design idea and rationale have to be clear and well formulated in the paper. This includes the characteristics, needs, purpose and goals of the IDN. Design issues include, but are not limited to, the choice of interactive narrative structure, rhetorical strategies and devices, aesthetic choices and a sound interactivity framework.    
  • In the case of an academic paper, the canonical academic standards apply. 
  • The grade is computed with the Danish 7-point grading scale, based on a combination of the prototype, the paper, and the performance at the oral exam.

Course Best Practices

  • Always searching for a healthy balance between theory and hands-on approaches
  • Explicit relation between lectures, workshops and assignments 
  • Progression of project progress through the workshops and assignments
  • Student presentations and discussions of work-in-progress during workshops     
  • Continuous project supervision during the afternoon workshops
  • Encouraging interdisciplinary group work
  • Linking the course projects to larger endeavors (semester projects, master thesis, publications, student portfolios)
  • Encouraging and promoting publication possibilities and attendance to conferences
  • Promoting innovation and experimentation with new platforms and paradigms 
  • Promoting social responsibility and ethics.