Storytelling for Interactive Digital Media and Video Games

The evolution of story-telling is as old as the human race; from the beginning, when our ancestors first gathered around a campfire to share wondrous tales through oral traditions, to today, with information and stories being shared through waves and filling screens with words and images. Stories have always surrounded us, and united us in ways other disciplines can't. Storytelling for Interactive Digital Media and Video Games lays out the construct of the story, and how it can be manipulated by the storyteller through sound, video, lighting, graphics, and color. This book is the perfect guide to aspiring storytellers as it illustrates the different manner of how and why stories are told, and how to make them "interactive." Storytelling features heavy game development as a method of storytelling and delivery, and how to develop compelling plots, characters, settings, and actions inside a game. The concept of digital storytelling will be explored, and how this differs from previous incarnations of mediums for stories

Key Features:

• Explores the necessary elements of a story (setting, character, events, sequence, and perspective) and how they affect the viewer of the story
• Discusses media and its role in storytelling, including images, art, sound, video, and animation
• Explores the effect of interactivity on the story, such as contest TV, web-based storytelling, kiosks, and games
• Shows the different types of story themes in gaming and how they are interwoven
• Describes how to make games engaging and rewarding intrinsically and extrinsically

Chapter 1 What is a Story? Fundamental Components of the Story

Chapter 2 Who is Telling the Story? Teller/Audience Relationship

Chapter 3 How Do We Tell Stories? Formats of Storytelling

Chapter 4 What Are Stories About? The Content of Stories

Chapter 5 Why Do We Tell Stories? Functional Storytelling

Chapter 6 Activities For Storytellers

Chapter 7 Conclusion

Chapter 9 The Moving Image

Chapter 10 Memes and Symbols

Chapter 11 Audio

Chapter 12 Exercises

Chapter 13 Conclusion

Chapter 14 Interaction Basics

Chapter 15 Interactive Media Types

Chapter 16 Games

Chapter 17 Stories and Games

Chapter 18 Activities

Chapter 19 Conclusion

Nicholas B. Zeman is an assistant professor in media informatics at Northern Kentucky University.