One opportunity afforded by putting the digital in storytelling is to distribute a story widely while maintaining interactivity. This week, we explore interactivity as game-based stories created for the web. Interactivity has long been central to storytelling — the audience doesn’t sit passively, but engages with the story and performer. What does this mean online? What’s gained? What’s lost? What’s new?

WEEKLY DEADLINE: Monday, February 22 @ 8pm

Read + Chat

Never Alone game ($4.99 in App form, $14.99 on gaming platforms) *expect to dedicate at least 3 hours to playing this game this week*

Rebuilding Haiti, The Pixel Hunt – Florent Maurin, Jean Abbiateci, Pierre Morel, Perceval Barrier, Dotify – Gilles Boisson & Jonathan Fallon, Bérénice Froger

“Gaming: Storytelling on a Small Scale” (The New Digital Storytelling, ch 6) by Bryan Alexander (login info in Drive)

“Video Games are Better Without Stories” by Ian Bogost in The Atlantic

[optional] “The evolution of video games as a storytelling medium, and the role of narrative in modern games” by Chris Stone

Daily Create

Complete and post on Twitter at least 4 “Daily Creates” this week.

More about the Daily Create practice here.

Activity:

Return your Travel Blog post on “What does a story need to be good?” Review comments from your peers as well as Kendell’s feedback. How are your ideas connected to the others?

Please revise your post and link to at least 1 other post. This may mean you quote a peer and link the reference, suggest further reading, or do something more creative. How would you help a reader navigate between these posts?

Weekly Declarations

Please fill out this this form to declare your progress in our explorations together this week.