Game Design Commons^™

Predicting Subversion Impact In A Narratively Driven Quest, Jon Jon D. Matarangas

Level Design Theses and Dissertations

This thesis aimed to develop a methodology which can be used to quantify a narrative subversion’s memorability. The researcher formulated seven unique subversion categories: Action, Environment, Narrative, Betrayal, Genre, Stereotype and Pattern. The researcher created a single player video game level in Fallout 4. The researcher developed a quest incorporating seven subversions (two Action, two Environment, two Narrative, and one Betrayal). To evaluate each subversion, the researcher created a “subversion memorability” formula using four key variables (Impact, Severity, Time, and Number of Prior Subversions). The researcher then plotted the subversion memorability values on a line graph to examine whether …

Consequences Of A Dream: Interactivity And Agency Of The Reader/Player In Alice's Adventures In Wonderland And Undertale, Nicholas DáVila

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In this thesis, I analyze Toby Fox’s 2015 roleplaying game Undertale alongside Lewis Carroll’s 1865 children’s novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. My reason for doing so is to investigate the narrative structures of the two stories, how they use metanarrative, and their use of game as a narrative tool in order to showcase the narrative lineage video games like Undertale share with Wonderland. Through this investigation I wish to show that the use of games and play as a vessel for or a part of narrative structure do not exclude works like video games from posing interesting questions and challenges …

Player Exposition: Education And Immersion In Jrpgs, Callan Danenhower

Honors Theses

This thesis examines how the opening segments of Japanese role-playing games use different techniques to educate and immerse the player. Informed by game studies scholarship, I consider how games create exposition differently from other narrative mediums, coining the term “player exposition” as a useful heuristic for game analysis. The thesis will be divided into two sections—education and immersion—to identify the two significant aspects of player exposition. I argue that exposition in Japanese role-playing games draws on concepts from other mediums, specifically film and literature, while using educational and immersive concepts to introduce the player to the game’s fictional world. In …

Options, Matthew C. Mata

Graduate Artistry Projects and Performances

Difficult choices are a part of our everyday lives, and they only get harder as time goes on. Thankfully, we get to choose what those choices are in our lives. What we don't get to choose are the consequences that follow. To share what I mean, six interactive shorts were made so that people could watch and play with the storylines in an effort to show that we are all self-motivated and have agency within us.

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.

Afterlight: Game Design And The Power Of Narrative, Elio Hollenbeck

Undergraduate Research Symposium

In the last few decades we as a society have watched the evolution of games as a storytelling medium. From Candyland to The Last of Us, all games use some form of narrative to bring players into the world of the game. Over the course of the last six months, I’ve been developing a tabletop card game with the working title of Afterlight. In this presentation, I will be explaining my process as I’ve worked on designing and refining this game. I will also talk about why I feel game design can be an effective way to engage people with …

The Regenarrative: How To Change The Story In Order To Change The Future, S. Rose Bigheart O'Leary

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Abstract

In the era of Climate Change, many are concerned that the end of the Anthropocene, or the end of the era of human life on Earth, is upon us. Western European colonialism and its subsequent systems (settler-colonialism, colonial-capitalism, and globalization - sometimes termed “neocolonialism”) have all been implicated in contributing to unsustainable behaviors linked to accelerating climate change. In searching for possible solutions, some have called for listening to Indigenous Peoples, citing ethics of sustainability found among many Indigenous cultures. However, the cultural products of settler-colonialism are still dominant in ways that do not allow for Indigenous worldviews to …

Mfa Master Project, Owen Pierce

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

I am a storyteller.

I just happen to paint, draw and sculpt my stories more often than I write them. Thematically, I gravitate towards stories that speak about ecological and humanitarian concerns. Fantasy illustration is where I can create with the greatest freedom and indulge my love of crafting stories, and also as a form of escapism. As the author

Ursula K. Le Guin quotes, “If the direction of escape is towards freedom, what then is ‘escapism’ an accusation of?” Long running series of programs, films and books attest to this desire to be engaged at a deeper, more meaningful …

For|Rest, Jes Klass

College of Computing and Digital Media Dissertations

In for/rest, players navigate a world built around an interpretation of the liminal space of grief. Glitching, blinking roots are all around an otherwise grey, empty space and as players destroy these roots they gradually resaturate the landscape. Each time a root is destroyed, the player will watch it disintegrate in front of them while some form of animal or plant spawns in the root’s stead. On rare occasions, instead of a plant or animal, a human will phase into the world as a root disintegrates. This human, Charlie, roams around the forest and offers the player a chance to …

(Fun)Ction: Developing Games From A Narrative Standpoint, Julian Barocas

English and Creative Writing Presentations

My goal with this project has been to deepen my understanding of why people play games, how to make games narratively compelling, and what technical methods are effective in play. This has allowed me to investigate both the technical, scholarly assessments of board game dynamics while also exploring their real-world applications, successes, and weaknesses. Building on my research, my project has culminated in a full prototype of an original board game that has both narrative structure and an engaging gameplay structure. I have also produced a reflection paper on the experience and an annotated bibliography of my research texts and …

Plausible Expositions With Possible Expeditions, Nikolaus D. James

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Influenced by video games and cinema, in this body of work, Plausible Expositions with Possible Expeditions, I use objects to create scenarios that suggest a narrative. The scenes are then photographed and displayed through cathode-ray tube televisions and viewers use their own knowledge and ideas about the objects to create that narrative. Each of these objects has is own data set, and the most common have a universal data set—information surrounding the object that is widely recognized, much like how a crowbar is commonly associated with crime. Similar to playing a video game, an algorithm is used when viewing my …

Testing An Original Story In Multiple Artistic Mediums, Alexander F. Morton

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Story is one of the oldest forms of communication between humans. Various methods have enhanced and updated the Art in a variety of ways since the concept was created. In modern times, a story can exist in multiple mediums because of the variations that humans use today to tell stories. I present an artistic project that will show my development of an original universe, plot, and characters into a storyline introduction for enjoyable purposes. The belief was that these ideas I created could succeed in multiple formats, but I would need to narrow it down and test what I …