Noam Knoller

Utrecht University | UU · ICON

Narrative is faced with a triple crisis: (1) the world is a hypercomplex mess that defies attempts to describe it narratively; (2) both traditional and new media are struggling to mediate this crisis, and (3) reading habits and skills are changing. Faced with this triple crisis, it is sometimes suggested that interactive simulations or games can "a...

What are interactive narrative simulations? In interactive narrative simulations, which can take different forms, learners actively participate by affecting the progression and outcome of a narrative. Co-creating their story-version shifts learners from the role of observer to that of active participant-especially when enacting a given or chosen ro...

In this theoretical paper we present a case study on political simulations and their interactive narrative design as means to explore different perspectives and decisions in complex situations. We propose using such artefacts in classroom settings for their potential ability to represent spaces of debate, including pragmatic aspects of argumentatio...

This paper outlines an approach to describing complexity representation in interactive narratives, in order to understand and evaluate how narrative serious games and similar forms might scaffold cognitive reduction of complexity. We adapt Yoon et al.’s media-agnostic framework for complexity learning to the interactive narrative context. Using the...

A high level model of the relations, in the field of interactive digital storytelling and narrative(IDS/N), between the world, the interactive narrative artefact and its subjective experience and representation, shows two processes of cognitive reduction: modelling (by an author/designer etc.) and userly performance (by a user). This is the complex...

While there have been many discussions about the purpose of game studies programs over the years (e.g., the GDC games Educator summit, the teaching game studies workshops at past DIGRA conferences1 ), relatively few of those discussions resulted in publications on concrete pedagogical strategies. In fact, despite the broadly shared aim of educatin...

Authoring tools are a crucial component in the practice and research of interactive digital narrative design, yet no recent meta-analysis or mapping of such tools exists that would make it possible to comparatively study their defining qualities and characteristics and their effects on the artefacts produced with them. As a first step towards this...

In recent years, game narrative has emerged as an area for novel game concepts and as a strategy to distinguish a particular title. However, innovation in this area comes primarily from indie companies and individual efforts by noted designers. There is a lack of trained specialists ready to produce interactive narrative experiences. Many existing...

In this paper, we describe narrative game design as an area for empirical research and aim to promote additional work in this area. The focus of our paper is therefore on the process. We start by discussing the relationship between the design of the narrative aspects of video games vs. non-narrative aspects, as well as in comparison to earlier narr...

This paper reports on an aspect of a long-term project to create a body of evidence-based interactive narrative design methods. In this context, we discuss aspects of formal design descriptions as a basis for a quantitative approach to verify the effects of design choices on the experience of audiences. Specifically, we discuss the notion of ‘desig...

This paper outlines a roadmap for interactive narrative research that integrates disparate parts while focusing on identifying and experimentally veri‐ fying IDN design conventions and on developing a pedagogy to further the devel‐ opment of a professional discipline of IDN creators. This effort connects several key areas, in which the authors have...

In iTV and online video, narrative interaction has long been a Holy Grail for both audiences and creators of these digital audiovisual works. On the one hand, interactive digital narrative promises interactors some exciting opportunities: to enter the world of the story, to affect the story and perhaps even to control its outcome, and in the proces...

In iTV and online video, narrative interaction has long been a Holy Grail for both audiences and creators of these digital audiovisual works. On the one hand, interactive digital narrative promises interactors some exciting opportunities: to enter the world of the story, to affect the story and perhaps even to control its outcome, and in the proces...

This chapter re-examines human computer interaction in Interactive Digital Narratives through a series of four Interface dispositifs. Centring on the relatively recent Post-PC dispositif, the chapter points out its shifting trends and effects, including the bodily and affective turns, ubiquitous, predictive and attentive interfaces, aligned with th...

This is a pre-print version of the call for participation.

Much of the research and development effort in the IDS community is guided by a design approach, according to which user desires, expectations and agency are central. This approach may place unnecessary limitations on the design space. I argue for the validity and significance of an alternative, expressive approach, which may be more appealing to a...

Taking seriously Andrew Stern’s aspiration that IDS become a premier art form for the 21st century, this paper re-examines agency, understood as the ability to freely control the plot, as a key concept in IDS aesthetics. Tracing the origins of this notion in IDS theory, this paper suggests that ”true” agency is a myth, and that even restricted agen...

The goal of this study was to gain insight into the user experience of a recent hypernarrative interactive movie. Turbulence is a feature-length interactive narrative video and emphasising low frequency interaction, simultaneous optional plotlines and seemingly counter-agency moves. Eight participants took part in a phenomenological study of their...

In this paper, I introduce the notion of communicative-expressive interaction with a character's mind, within an interactive fiction video. It is an interaction model that allows a participant continuous interaction with a story as a way of increasing the participant's agency and immersion and consequently both the sense of engagement and the meani...