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Southern Methodist University

Theses/Dissertations

Fallout 4

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Best Practices: Enhancing Narrative Communication Through Environmental Shifts, Xinyu Zhang Apr 2024

Best Practices: Enhancing Narrative Communication Through Environmental Shifts, Xinyu Zhang

Level Design Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to integrate traditional storytelling methods with environmental shifts to test the effectiveness in enhancing player immersion and narrative communication. The researcher created a custom single-player level in Fallout 4, which tasks players with investigating a case and finding out the truth of the quest’s narrative with the help of environmental shifts. The researcher collected data on the effectiveness of their researched, environmental shift best practices by observing testers’ playtests and their subsequent understanding of the story.


Best Practices: Using Semiotics In Environmental Storytelling, Conger He Apr 2024

Best Practices: Using Semiotics In Environmental Storytelling, Conger He

Level Design Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores an aspect of environmental storytelling known as “semiotics.” Semiotics conveys information and relevant interconnections to an individual through visual representations. There are diverse types of semiotic elements, including symbols, icons, and indexes. The researcher examined the use of semiotics in video games and derived seven best practices for conveying story beats and relaying aspects of a video game’s narrative. The researcher implemented these semiotic-related practices into a custom Fallout 4 level, gathered testers to play the level, and asked the testers to give their opinions on the experience. The researcher analysed the tester’s feedback to conclude whether …