"The Story Game 2" workshop
Tue-Sat, 19th-23rd April 2005 Ernest W. Adams, Game Design and Production Consultant, working independently and as a member of the International Hobo game design consortium, former Lead Game Designer of Bullfrog Productions "Tamed" workshop, aleatoric game and storytelling: "Realizing the Game" -lessons and work that focuses on defining the games concept and developing the ideas into reality in the framework of applying chance elements. This workshop teaches its participants how to design an actual, story-based game that could in principle be built into a commercial product. It does not try to address storytelling in a broad, theoretical sense, but rather, shows how to design an interactive narrative in a practical way. The participants will work to create the essential elements of a single-player, non-linear, avatar-based narrative game. Among the subjects that they will address are character design, setting, plotting and pacing, theme, user interface design, backstory, dialog, and facilitating the player's emotional involvement with the game. The workshop begins with a two-hour lecture on game design and approaches to interactive narrative. The lecture establishes the basic principles on which the rest of the workshop is based. During the remainder of the week, participants will work together in teams to design their game and create a "pitch" - a short document intended to persuade a hypothetical publisher to develop the game. All activities are guided by worksheets that show the teams what questions to consider, and at the end of each day we will have a brief general discussion to assess progress and identify problems. On the last day, each team will present its work to the group, and we will critique the projects. Participants should be prepared for intensive work 9-17 on workshop days. |