Read/watch the following:
“History of Virtual Reality.” Virtual Reality Society, 2 Jan. 2020, https://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality/history.html.
Eic, Ksenia. “Spatial Design in Architecture and Video Games.” Game Dialogues. Hand Eye Society's Game Dialogues, 2016, Toronto, ON, CA, https://gamedevcafe.com/2016/09/01/spatial-design-architecture-video-games/.
Hall, Laura E. “Environmental Narrative: Telling Stories in Spaces Without Saying Anything Aloud.” Game Developers Conference. Game Developers Conference, Mar. 2019, San Franciso, CA, US, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXZTz3oR30A.
Lawardorn, Damien. “The Rise, Fall, and Place of Environmental Storytelling in Games.” The Escapist, The Escapist, 27 Jan. 2020, https://www.escapistmagazine.com/the-rise-fall-and-place-of-environmental-storytelling-in-games/.
Smith, Harvey, and Matthias Worth. What Happened Here? Environmental Storytelling. Mar. 2010, https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1012647/What-Happened-Here-Environmental, PowerPoint Presentation.
Hall, Michael. “The 15 Basic Elements to Know to Better Your Film's Mise-En-Scene.” Mentorless, Mentorless, 1 Nov. 2016, https://www.mentorless.com/2016/11/01/basics-elements-understand-mies-en-scene/.
Goins, Elizabeth. “Structuring Digital Game Stories.” Interactive Storytelling, Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2018, pp. 265–269. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, https://onesearch.library.northeastern.edu/permalink/01NEU_INST/87npqb/cdi_springer_books_10_1007_978_3_030_04028_4_27.
Play the following (Samantha will work on getting lab access to them):
Answer the following:
Give 2 short examples of “environmental storytelling” that aren’t as overused. [hints in the example here: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/environmental-storytelling]
If designing a game space with environmental storytelling elements which advice from the reading is most helpful for you? Why?
Respond to a point Elizabeth Goins made in her paper: “Structuring Digital Game Stories”
DUE BEFORE MONDAY 3/7
1. "Silent Hill: Homecoming" is a work that has had an unprecedented impact on me. It made me, who didn't know anything about games at the time, realize for the first time that the narrative style of games can be out of common sense and closely integrated with the scene and a series of external elements. In the prologue, masked medical staff pushes the game's protagonist tied to a hospital bed in a dimly lit corridor, passing three wards. At this time, the protagonist will see three images in a trance. Three children are killed in different ways on the operating table (the images may cause psychological discomfort, so I won't describe them too much here). This seems to be…
As Laura Hall pointed out in her GDC talk about environmental storytelling, environmental storytelling has become a bit of a meme at this point in time. However, environmental storytelling has been an important aspect of games for years, and it’s not just in games that can afford to drop millions upon millions of dollars on art assets and level design. Early video games needed to use environmental storytelling to convey information to the player that could not be easily conveyed otherwise due to the lack of graphical capabilities of old computers. Dun Darach, a game from 1985, is set in a city that was unprecedentedly large for games of that time. In order to help players navigate the city, they…
1.
Example1: In the game called TouhouNiandaiji, there is a route that well describes the storytelling part by using the environment. Every chapter reached a bad ending in this route because of the wrong selection or actions. The characters in the chapters are mostly dead. The main characters joined the other side. After the main characters return to the original base from the long journey, they find the room for them is old and dirty. Bed, mirrors, and broom can not be used anymore. The flower was also withered. Everything functional before is not working. They found red portions on the cabinet. And finally found 20 coins on the table.
Example2: A recent game called blue reflection2 also contain a…
1.Two short examples:
In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, there is a level in the mission mode called “Clean House”. The player is first in a dark roadway in a residential area with shabby road and dimly lit street lamps. There is no sound but some dog barking.
The protagonist wakes up from faint in a strange room. There is smoke from something burning and some fitful horrible roars from unknown creatures from outside.
2. To construct the game space fitting in the background story. In Damien’s article “The Rise, Fall, and Place of Environmental Storytelling in Games”, he talks about how game contents support narrative in walking simulator games with several examples. I think the main idea is to…
1. Recently I was playing Miyazaki’s new game, Elden Ring. There was a lot of environmental storytelling in this game. The decorations in the buildings tell a lot of stories without saying a word. For example, in the castle Stormveil, there was a place full of broken arms. And there was also a boss wandering on the first floor (I killed it so it was not in the picture). The broken arm suggested that some bloody events had happened in this room. And maybe the boss in the room had some relationships with these broken arms because it had many arms on itself. Also, the castle was owned by Godrick the Grafted. The room also resonated with his title …