Watershed Bristol 2013

The 4 Elements

Narrative Mechanics

How Games and Film Intersect into New Storytelling Formats

The 4 Spaces

Stories are Told

So where is this

all Going?

The Elements and Spaces of Interactive Storytelling

@pmstudiouk

@danielburwen

Deep mechanics keep me out of emotional availability

Interactive

Passive

Who I Am

Cinematic Maximum

- High Production Value

- Deep Mechanics

- Complex Emotions

Work Related Activities

- Crafting

- Farming

- Asset generation

- Tools of work used for play

- Deepest mechanics

Personal

- Audience of 1

- Puzzles

- Books

- Focused Attention Span

Another

World

Communication Oriented

- Quick Bursts

- Cheap Content

- Light on Emotional Depth

Depth of

Emotion

Depth of

Agency

How does my experience look?

How does it feel to

interact with?

How do I build

my experience?

What happens in

my experience?

What other interfaces

do we now have and what is their implications

- Tools

- Publishing Options

- Platforms

- Medium

- Presentation

- Motion

- Sound

- Characters

- Plot

- Pacing

- Narrative structure

- Will the audience care?

- User Interface

- Information Architecture

- Game Mechanics

A Lens and Context for Understanding

Interactive Stories

Value Determines Coherence

2013

10$ - 60$

The Longer Our Attention Span

Feeling

The Spectrum of

When the 4 elements

are in balance to serve the

overall experience

Attention Economies

Film

The Higher the Value

Hearth

Reading Nook

10$ - 60$

Passive

Interactive

1983

The Gamepad is Built for Mechanical Depth

Games

1993

Dragons Lair

1991

Workbench

Anywhere

Last of Us

Mechanical

Depth

Emotional

Complexity

3D Games Emerge

Analog

Digital

Why can't we have both

Another World

Doing

Digital

vs

Layer of Agency (Interface)

2006

Thanks!

Emotional

Complexity

Mechanical

Depth

+

Press Button to Not Die

Highly Abstract

Great for Doing

Run, Jump, Stomp, Kick, Shoot, Etc

Unified Aesthetic Between

Film and Game

1978

operationajax.com

Agency in a Film Experience

vs

at the same time?

On Top of a Linear Passive Story

Doing

1985

hello@danielburwen.com

Camera Language

Vast Amount of Data

Cut Scenes Appear in a Game

Mechanical Depth

For Interactive Storytelling to evolve, we need

Hearth

Reading Nook

=

+

Seamlessly Interwoven

The Less Abstraction in Interface

Natural Interfaces

with High Mechanical Depth

Coherence

63 years

Workbench

Anywhere

Jesse Schell

Can our Emotions

Affect Agency in Interactive Stories?

The more Emotional Connection We Feel

1994

2010

2006

2010

2011

2013

1972

LOTR Return of the King

Emotional

Depth

Below the neck verbs

- shoot

- run

- jump

- crouch

41 years

Abstraction of Interface

Above the neck verbs

- empathize

- laugh

- cry

- yell

Dragons

Lair

Another

World

More

Abstract

Less

Abstract

Emotional

Complexity

Narrative Mechanics

Mechanical

Depth

Emotional

Complexity

Cutscenes Appear in a Game

The Spectrum of

Narrative Mechanics

1993

Mechanics

Story

Mechanical

Depth

Emotional

Complexity

Mechanical

Depth

Alma

Interactive

Operation

Ajax

Human Attention is a

Scarce Resource

Reading Nook

Hearth

Anywhere

Workbench

Games

Book

Our Tool Needs

for Ajax:

- Timeline Control

- Sound Triggers

- Publish to iOS

- Translate

- Rotate

- Scale

- Alpha

- Tint