ChapterPDF Available

Abstract and Figures

In the design of interactive media, various forms of intuitive practice come into play. It might prove tempting to use templates and strong narrative structures instead of developing the narrative directly for interactive media. This leads towards computer implementation too swiftly. The narrative bridging method focuses on the initial design phase, in which the conceptual modeling takes place. The purpose is to provide designers with a non-intrusive method that supports the design process without interfering with its creative elements. The method supports the sentient construction of digital games with a narrative, with the ultimate goal of enhancing the player’s experience. A prototype test served as a first evaluation, and two games from that test are showcased here for the purpose of illustrating the hands-on use of narrative bridging. The test demonstrated that the method could aid time-constrained design, and in the process detect inconsistencies that could prevent the design team from making improvements. The method also provided teams with a shared vocabulary and outlook.
Content may be subject to copyright.
Design Computing and Cognition DCC’10. J.S. Gero (ed), pp. xx-yy.
© Springer 2010
Narrative bridging
Katarina Borg Gyllenbäck1 and Magnus Boman2
1DSV, Stockholm University, Sweden
2KTH/ICT/SCS and SICS, Sweden
In the design of interactive media, various forms of intuitive practice come
into play. It might prove tempting to use templates and strong narrative
structures instead of developing the narrative directly for interactive me-
dia. This leads towards computer implementation too swiftly. The narra-
tive bridging method focuses on the initial design phase, in which the con-
ceptual modeling takes place. The purpose is to provide designers with a
non-intrusive method that supports the design process without interfering
with its creative elements. The method supports the sentient construction
of digital games with a narrative, with the ultimate goal of enhancing the
player’s experience. A prototype test served as a first evaluation, and two
games from that test are showcased here for the purpose of illustrating the
hands-on use of narrative bridging. The test demonstrated that the method
could aid time-constrained design, and in the process detect inconsisten-
cies that could prevent the design team from making improvements. The
method also provided teams with a shared vocabulary and outlook.
Introduction
The canonical story format and dramaturgy from the film medium have
dominated game development and analysis for a long time. The benefits of
this approach have been realized at the expense of learning precisely how
to apply the narrative to interactive media. There is nothing inherently
wrong in using strong structures or templates. The main problem resides in
being unaware of these structures or categories and in applying them too
quickly. This can lead to the creation of stereotypes, lack of depth, and to
not exploring what lies behind the strong structures [1], [2]. In particular,
the aesthetics of digital games have been studied [3], [4], and [5]. The so-
K. Borg Gyllenbäck and M. Boman
2
called structural perspective (which includes canonical story formats, and
structures, as used in other media) has lead to intense discussions about the
terms story and narrative. A story represents a fixed event that can be re-
ferred to, and a story can be retold. Problems usually occur when using the
term to allude to the process of construction, i.e. to the practise of cogni-
tion-based construction of causal, spatial and temporal links which include
the interpretation of the receiver (i.e., the person listening to the story).
This process can in fact be explained by other terms: the syuzhet (plotting)
and fabula (interpretation as made by the receiver) [6], and adapted to the
media at hand. A reason for seeking to understand and take seriously the
narrative process is that within game studies and design, various forms of
tacit knowledge and intuitive practice are employed. While everyone
knows a good story by heart, to iterate its narrative components is a differ-
ent matter. Preconceptions can, in the case of complex game worlds, push
an idea towards manuscript, systematization, graphics, and computational
issues too quickly. This might result in increased costs, due to the difficul-
ties associated with the detection and late adjustment of inconsistencies.
Moreover, making the most of the capacity of the media involved may
prove difficult.
In game design, the use of genre is popular because it helps and engages
large teams to focus on a joint target [7]. Genre is also used as a contract of
sorts between the producer and the publisher, and as a bridge between the
audience and their expectations [8]. Deciding upon a genre early on frames
the possibilities for how to construct an idea and to see its full potential
with respect to conventions, structures, familiarity, expectations, and inter-
pretation [9] by classifying the idea as, e.g., adventure game, first person
shooter, or crime story. Although genre can be an excellent guide for
communication, it may produce a bound on creativity if adopted too early;
the contract must not be breached. We take a constructive approach to the
problem of making the narrative more prominent in the creation of interac-
tive media, in order to provide the process of design with a possibility to
model a game with a narrative. Narrative Bridging is a method that sup-
ports the design process with a narrative, throughout creation, organiza-
tion, control, and generation of information for interactive media. The
method is not restricted to digital games, but can also be used to guide the
design of interactive installations, narrative characters (agents), and perva-
sive games. The primary purpose of the method is to aid the initial design
phase, in which the conceptual modeling [10] takes place. This is a tiny
part of the process, but perhaps the most critical as it is here that all the
components are set that constrain the end product.
A secondary purpose is to provide researchers, students, and the game
design business with a means to a controlled use of narratives for interac-
N
arrative Bridging 3
tive media. Narrative bridging has its origin in a situation where we found
ourselves short of helpful tools (cf. [11], [12]) for analyzing and explaining
narrative processes, in creation of a meaning within the interactive media
that support a design process involving a narrative [13]. Grünvogel [14]
considers the drawbacks of formal models to be that they force designers
into a standardized workflow that they need to learn; one that is not inte-
grated in language. A method should instead give designers insights into
their practise, and to allow for them to decide when to use it [15]. Upon re-
alizing that our method could be useful to others, helping how to commu-
nicate about narrative in design, and providing designers with a possibility
to consciously work with narrative process, work began to offer the
method to others. Narrative bridging uses the strong cognitive impact that
the narrative has on a user by assigning a meaning to an experience. The
will to interpret is so strong that even when a receiver is not given any in-
formation at all, the need to create meaning will still take place via patterns
[1], [16], and [17]. Therefore, narrative bridging builds on cognitive vehi-
cles that bring logic and rules to a game world, for a receiver to take action
upon. Balancing an interactive media with a narrative is about creating
meaning so that the receiver can create patterns and strategies for choices.
The following section describes the key elements of narrative bridging,
at a high level of abstraction. The practical use of the method is made more
concrete in the third section, and then initial empirical tests are described.
In the penultimate section, we present lessons learned from the tests, be-
fore concluding and describing our next steps in the final section.
The key elements of narrative bridging
In order to achieve meaningful play, the elements of character, world and
action form a base for causal interplay, given a premise and a goal. The
character represents the user’s position for interaction and the perspective
from which the construction is set. Meaningful play occurs when the
causes and effects of possible events and user actions are consistent with
the set premise, and support the goal.
Media
As narrative is not media-specific [6], it is important to determine which
media the narrative construction could be applied to. Narrative bridging
works on the supposition that the interactive medium has a user and that
there is a piece of software that embodies the user experience. The choice
to take a user’s perspective is derived from the mimetic theory of narra-
K. Borg Gyllenbäck and M. Boman
4
tion: how an object is perceived and presented to the beholder. Interactiv-
ity can be seen as an exchange of input and output between user and digital
artifact, presenting a space of possibilities that represents the user’s options
to influence the diegesis: the fictional world and how it is presented to the
user [18]. The most important elements will be expressed here as charac-
ter, world and action (cf. [1]), and the method also captures relevant as-
pects of game play and mechanics. The game play is the interactivity
shaped by what the space offers the player while the mechanics, in short,
provide the visuals and audio supporting the narrative and the game play.
Premise
A premise is a realization of an idea with an identified situated subject and
predicate. The fabula consists of the bits of information linked together
and read by the receiver (to ultimately sum up to fit the overall goal of the
receiver) [6]. The minimum of information needed to construct a fabula is
a premise and a causal relationship referred to here as cause-and-effect.
The premise can be anywhere on the scale from a piece of an event, a beat,
or a sequence, to a whole concept. It initiates a process by which causes-
and-effects are plotted towards the premise, and it includes the setting of
time, place, the main characters, as well as the goal and the activities that
propel the story [19]. The term premise should not be confused with the
term genre, as the latter is not an idea, but a classifier of ideas.
Goal
To set a goal means to decide what the receiver shall experience. Fullerton
[19] refers to the goal as the experience the designer likes the player to
have, and stresses the importance of keeping the mimetic perspective in
mind throughout every single stage of the development. Within digital
games, it is important to remember to set the goal so that the player will be
able to carry out activities, create mental patterns, and devise strategies for
choices and even empathy, if well established. It is in turn important to es-
tablish the diegetic world and its logic, rules and relations, so that the
player can read the conditions for action and see the consequences of it.
Syuzhet
The diegetic world does not generate itself. The role of the syuzhet (i.e.,
the creation of the plot) provides three principles for this process: narrative
logic, time, and space [6]. These principles are used in the plotting of
causes and effects, given by the setting of the premise, goal and media (cf.
[18], [19], [20], [21], and [22]). The suyzhet creates consistency, allowing
N
arrative Bridging 5
the diegetic world to make sense, and creating a relational vehicle between
the elements in the system. Another system, connected to the syuzhet, is
the style. The style is the means by which sound, audio, text, graphics and
related techniques support the syuzhet. In the narrative logic, events are
arranged and the relations between events are established. In games, this
governs how the player learns about the world. The syuzhet can cue events
in any sequence, and these can occur in any time span and frequency
through repetition. The syuzhet can block the receiver’s construction of the
fabula, as in genres like crime stories in which the fabula is known to the
receiver, or in those genres where one has to stay in a predefined cueing of
the syuzhet because this is what the receiver expects. In an emergent sys-
tem, for example, a frequency or value might increase to assure that the
player comes across a certain piece of information in the open space. If a
canonical structure is used, however, the receiver might experience re-
straint as a side-effect. The syuzhet also helps to create a spatial environ-
ment by describing surroundings, positions, and paths, but it can also hin-
der comprehension delaying, puzzling, and even fooling with the
receiver’s construction of the fabula. This principle is highly relevant to
games because of how the player experiences how to move about in the
world, what to avoid, how to access the world, what to control, etc.
The process of using narrative bridging
The method is divided into three non-consecutive and iterative phases. In
Phase 1, we set the premise and the goal. To set the premise at this stage is
to state a simple one-liner about what we are trying to construct, by setting
the causes and effects. To set the goal means to explain what the receiver
should experience, again in only one line. It is important to keep both the
premise and the goal in mind throughout the whole process.
Phase 1
Creation of the diegetic world can be described as follows, see Figure 1.
Fill in the information you have that fits into the categories: Character,
World and Action.
Look at the causes and effects between the values you have set to the
Character and World (CW). Continue this for WA and CA by asking
who, what, when, where, and most of all, why?
Compare how the three relate to each other in CWA to match the prem-
ise and the goal.
K. Borg Gyllenbäck and M. Boman
6
Iterate, adding the new information generated by the process to the ele-
ments of information, until you consider the diegetic world to be com-
plete enough to match the premise and the goal, without any loose ends.
Move the information to Phase 2 to generate, distribute, organize, and
control new and detailed information.
Fig. 1 An example of a diegetic world and its elements of information. Screen-
shots from World of Warcraft: courtesy Blizzard Entertainment.
Phase 2
One must decide where to start, where to go; and what, when, and how to
meet the world, and its objects and inhabitants. Here one can test if the
laws, rules, and relations constructed in the diegetic world (Phase 1) are
developed in such a way that they create clear conditions and conse-
quences for the receiver. The working process is as follows, see Figure 2.
With the premise and goal in mind throughout, bring in the information
from Phase 1 and focus on how the narrative is experienced from a user
perspective. Move through the elements Narration, Spatiality, and
Interactivity (NS, SI, NI, and NSI) and see what is generated asking:
N
arrative Bridging 7
Where? Think about the spatiality in the environment and where the in-
formation about surroundings, positions, and paths are. What informa-
tion would you like to delay, obstruct, or puzzle the receiver with, and
what shall be pushed forward as the first information for the receiver to
encounter?
When? Think about the time and cueing of the information: when shall
events occur, in what frequency, and in how many repetitions?
How? Think about how the information should be forwarded to the re-
ceiver. How will the receiver get to know and learn about the world and
its inhabitants? Events can be constructed as linear or non-linear by
blocking or complicating the construction of relations. How do these
blocks and complications appear?
Fig. 2 An example of the interplay between the elements of narrative, interactiv-
ity, and spatiality. Screenshot images courtesy Blizzard Entertainment.
Loop back into Phase 1 and add any new information to the elements of
the diegetic world. This process will in turn generate more information
K. Borg Gyllenbäck and M. Boman
8
that is fed back into Phase 2. Repeat until the information matches the
desired premise and goal. If this proves impossible, check if the premise
or goal has to be changed.
Find out what kind of causal chains create conditions and consequences
that motivate the receiver to create patterns and strategies for choices
and to take action upon them. This is done in the NSI interplay. Move
the new values to Phase 3, to set up a system for game play.
Fig. 3 The specifics of dying in the diegetic world, and how it is handled in the
user interface belonging to the style mechanics of World of Warcraft. Screenshot
images courtesy Blizzard Entertainment.
Phase 3
In order to get the complete picture of narrative bridging, the components
are organized, distributed, and balanced. The information retrieved from
the first and second phase is here used to shape the digital game, see Fig-
ure 3. In Phase 3, they will present a pattern of activities in the world for
governing game play, by the derived interactivity, modulo the diegetic
world. If one cannot set the game play in Phase 3, one needs to move back
to see what has been missed in the diegetic world. The organization of in-
formation will generate the possibility to enhance the narrative, the game
play, and the experience for the player by setting the style: the detailed in-
formation that governs sound, music, and graphics, and the mechanics: the
N
arrative Bridging 9
detailed information that governs the user interface (the health bars, hit
points, weaponry, etc.).
Fig. 4 An overview of the method and the iterative process.
Prototype testing of the method
Finding test subjects from within the game design industry for a prototype
study was deemed highly unlikely. The plan was instead to find a course in
game design, and to give a lecture and hold a workshop within that course.
A Swedish university was about to start a course in advanced design for
their game design undergraduate students (in their third year), and were set
on trying out different methods for rapid prototyping, so we seized this op-
portunity for putting together a test group, in the Autumn of 2008. We also
provided students with a chance to reflect upon narrative processes before
the method was presented to them. The intent was to develop interplay be-
tween narration and game play, and to get some understanding across
about how these systems are interrelated (cf. Figure 4). An introductory
seminar and instruction were provided. The students, in groups of three,
were then asked to hand in a scripted game idea, and had one week to
complete the task, given only the theme ‘narrative’. They were asked to
give a detailed description of a certain part of their game, showing how
narrative and game play interacted there. The students were aware of the
K. Borg Gyllenbäck and M. Boman
10
fact that the method was new and part of a research project. Six game ideas
were handed in after the first week, and a questionnaire was subsequently
distributed to determine the subjects’ previous knowledge of narrative.
One female and 19 male students participated, between 22 and 29 years
old. Details on two game ideas will be given below, for the purpose of il-
lustrating test use of the method. Details on all game ideas and the re-
sponses to the questionnaire are available in full [23].
The masquerade game
The premise was to make a historical game about the assassination of king
Gustav III at the 1792 masquerade in Stockholm. The goal for the player
was to socially interact (bow, salute, flirt, etc.) to find out who was guilty
of murder. In the real drama, Anckarström was arrested and executed for
the crime. It is not clear how many were involved or who the brain behind
the murder plan was. Inspired by that unsolved murder mystery, the player
had to find out through socializing with the royal court what happened be-
fore the murder, and find the assassin before it was too late. The pitch was
well formulated and the descriptive pictures gave a good idea about the
world. The group used keywords to express the world: Russian war, Gus-
tav III, party, gossip, costumes, etc. The platform for the game was a con-
sole with accelerometer for Playstation 3 or Wii, to support the game play
of social interactions using different kinds of greetings. The surroundings
were the castle, filled with well-known people from the political scene, art-
ists, and the royal court. The drama took place in a traditional environment
with a ballroom, dinner room, park, theatre, etc. The group set up a narra-
tive structure that constrained the game to 24 hours. The player would
wake up in the morning (or night), told by a butler that the player was ex-
pected to meet X. The player’s position was presented dramatically by ad-
dressing the reader of the pitch with ‘you’: “Dazed, you are led through
corridors to finally meet X who tells you about a conspiracy against the
king and they expect you to find out who is behind it”. The player would
gradually get a picture of the conspiracy and be given a chance to change
the outcome, should the player find out who was guilty. In this setting, the
player would also slowly understand what social class he or she belonged
to. The group explained how the perspective would change through three
acts. The player started with a first-person perspective to end up in a third-
person perspective: a way for the player to grow with the character.
Premise/Syuzhet: The murder of Gustav III.
Goal/Fabula: Socializing to find out who murdered Gustav III.
N
arrative Bridging 11
Fig. 5 First iteration of the masquerade game.
In Phase 1, the group developed the rules, relations, and logic of the
diegetic world by choosing action to take place in the castle and at the
masquerade (Figure 5). They thought about all participants that could be
present in the world and how they could all socialize. They used gestures
as the player’s means to find out about who was behind the murder. When
transferring the information developed in Phase 1 to Phase 2 and finding
out where, how, and why the action took place, the group faced problems.
When looking at the causes and effects for the player’s spatiality and inter-
activity, a question arose: Who was the player? Uncertainties regarding
how the player moved about, and where and when to find information
about the assassination, proved hard to deal with. Given the player’s goal
(fabula), how should interactivity be governed? To where could the player
walk? Could the player be near the king? In what ways did other people
pay attention to the player? Did the player’s character have a strong posi-
tion or should it be set as neutral (as in the case of a visitor from the future
just falling into a historical documentary)? For Phase 3, the group had well
thought through the socializing game play, and how to support it with dif-
K. Borg Gyllenbäck and M. Boman
12
ferent technical devices, such as an accelerometer, for the platform Play-
station 3 or Wii. The group also presented a scripted structure for where
the drama should start, the duration of it, and its acts as well as actions.
Fig. 6 Second iteration of the masquerade game.
In a second iteration, the group presented a solution to their problem of
what the player’s position should be. The group had produced a strong
structure with three acts already, and an idea about how to begin the game,
but needed to elaborate on the idea of what the spatiality and interactivity
should be like. Initially the group wanted the player to slowly grow with
the character but this caused problems. The group’s choice of a musician
(Figure 6) allowed them to keep the original premise and goal, to go
deeper into the construction of the spatiality and retrieving interactivity in
Phase 2, and to investigate what spying for game play could look like. The
group chose to narrow down the spatiality to a dinner room, in which they
gathered eleven people. Game play now included to find out who would
attend the dinner, and to see how the musician could manipulate dinner
guests in order to retrieve information. This revealed more details relevant
to game play, e.g., by having one missing guest at the table, and letting the
N
arrative Bridging 13
player hear details about the missing guest. By letting the musician choose
how to follow up on this information, new traces of information about the
murderer(s) would be revealed. The group felt the method pointed out
where the idea lacked flow, and helped them to find the key problem and
fix it. The group regretted that time was short, not least because they were
simultaneously learning more about narrative and about using the method.
The parasite game
The title for this game was ‘Life begins as an egg’. It was a single-player
game, and the premise was about a parasite that takes over a body for the
purpose of its own survival. The goal was to infect and affect the body. To
grow, the egg needed to infect different parts of the body, in turn affecting
the carrier in various ways. The group said they wanted to create two nar-
ratives: the life of the parasite, and the carrier’s life, as affected by the
parasite. The game play was to create different reactions, such as stress,
love, and happiness, for different parts of the body of the carrier. The game
had two levels, each divided into two parts. The first level and first part
was for the egg to grow and to take over part of the body that the parasite
made into its headquarters. In the second part, the parasite sent out ‘com-
mando parasites’, equipped with different skills and armor. The equipment
was bought with money earned via ‘parasite points’ that one received tak-
ing over certain body parts. To reach the second level, one had to gain con-
trol over the body parts and then from there control the carrier’s actions
and reactions. The first level had a first- and a third-person’s perspective.
The player should be able to move in a three-dimensional way such as up
and down, sideways, etc. in an open space. Some areas were closed out by
enemies, while others were the immune defenses represented by white
corpuscles. All levels had control points that were difficult to find. This of-
fered exploration, as well as danger, and some points should have stronger
defenses than others. The second part was seen from a third-person per-
spective, controlling the carrier and having access to his or her life, and
understanding what the carrier was about to do in life. At their oral presen-
tation, the group also talked more about their contemplated carrier. It was a
man in the prime of life, having a date with a girl, with whom the parasite
complicated interaction. The group presented pictures from games like
Spore that showed a germ’s life from being a seed to growing into a full
life form. They also showed a picture of a marriage from Sims, a picture of
person with a cold, and pictures of spacecrafts shooting at each other.
Premise/Syuzhet: A parasite that tries to take over a body, to survive.
Goal/Fabula: Infect, control, and defend to survive.
K. Borg Gyllenbäck and M. Boman
14
Fig. 7 First iteration of the parasite game.
The diegetic world was developed by taking a parasite’s world view, by
focusing on its survival and on the completion of different tasks in the
game. The premise and goal were clearly defined as a parasite that wanted
to take over the world for its survival and for the player to infect and as-
sume control of a body. The logic, relations, and rules were balanced and
created a clear picture of the diegetic world (Figure 7). When moving in-
formation from Phase 1 to Phase 2, the two narratives the group had in
mind were not described. The group referred to a parasite’s relation to the
carrier and, through visiting certain parts of the body, how it should affect
the life of the carrier. One thing the group had done was to define the set-
ting of the parasite’s headquarters, but the directions and the targets and
their relations to the carrier had to be elaborated on, if that was the game
they would like to create (the premise). By defining the two worlds (the
carrier and the parasite) in Phase 1 and seeing how the systems related, the
group could see how the causes and effects created conditions and conse-
N
arrative Bridging 15
quences for game play. Seen as targets, the relations between the parasite
and the carrier were not clear, and the group had to move back to Phase 1
to divide the worlds. By running this new information through another
transition from Phase 1 to Phase 2, it got easier to decide where the para-
site was born, what the first target was, what had to be defended, what the
next target was, when the target needed the troops, which the different ef-
fects on the carrier were, and what the parasite should do or use to gain
maximum effects on the carrier. Even if the group would stay with a sim-
ple graphic or a simple narrative (not involving a carrier), they would still
need to decide upon these things in order to fix the targets for the parasite.
Fig. 8 Second iteration of the parasite game.
What happened after the first iteration was that the parasite’s goal to
survive and take over the body got an extra layer and motive for the player
(Figure 8). From the beginning, it was about a parasite’s biological con-
cern to take over a body and to affect a person’s life. The group now de-
K. Borg Gyllenbäck and M. Boman
16
veloped the carrier’s world and made him a rude person at the top of his
career, and that they wanted to see him fail in (i.e., to learn a lesson). What
the group also did by elaborating the two worlds of the parasite and the
carrier was to give depth to the game play. The group could have chosen to
work with game play based on a system where the heart and brain would
have been the hot targets for attacks. Instead, they related the targets to
what the carrier was about to do, in order to let the parasite attack more
subtle systems in the personal life or career of the carrier. The group had
too little time to develop a full system of play, but they did see new possi-
bilities like making the carrier sneeze, fart, have involuntary reflexes, etc.
Even though this information was found early on, its importance became
evident to the group only in the second iteration.
Results
Looking at the key elements of narrative bridging—the media, premise,
goal, and syuzhet—the interplay in the diegetic world can have a strong
impact on game design. In our prototype tests, the syuzhet was supported
by defining the media, which in turn enabled control of the information re-
quired to reach a good outcome; the latter being defined through the prem-
ise and goal. In all of the game ideas produced in the test period, six in to-
tal [23], the groups moved back to develop the diegetic world to create
stronger motives, restricting their narrated objects and attributes to create a
stronger game play. The groups here used the means, conditions, and con-
sequences from the choices that the user could make and gave them a
deeper meaning. This says something about how the narrative practice can
manipulate cognitive patterns to create meaning, and about how the con-
struction of the method supports this process. In general, the proponents of
ideas that did not exploit the diegetic world faced problems when trying to
plot the information, using the syuzhet principles, in establishing the spati-
ality. This in turn affected the interactivity, as ideas did not use walk-
throughs or maps, and did not convey meaning. The groups using tem-
plates with an already familiar structure, such as the historical drama in the
Masquerade game, or the human body (with its heart, brain, limbs, etc.) in
the Parasite game, got quick access to both the spatiality and the interactiv-
ity. What made them move back to model the diegetic world was that the
character had to be developed in order for the player to see what conditions
and consequences the diegetic world produced. In the Masquerade game,
an inconsistency was detected in the second phase, and the element of spa-
tiality as a condition and consequence of the activity could not be created,
N
arrative Bridging 17
as in answering the question “How do I approach the king?”, for example.
This led the group back to the question of how to either elaborate on the
character, or to revise their premise or goal (Figure 9). In the Parasite
game, an inconsistency was detected in the second phase too, and in this
case the narrative was made more complex so that actions affected not
only a body, but also the cognitive features of the carrier (Figure 10).
Fig. 9 Detection of inconsistency in the Masquerade game.
Fig. 10 Detection of inconsistency in the Parasite game.
All groups naturally felt time was too short for handling the emerging
complexity of their systems. All the inconsistencies detected would proba-
bly have been found, sooner or later, time permitting. But the fact remains
that the method gave an immediate response to the idea in a time-
constrained design process, thus enabling early detection of anomalies. By
prompting a division of the systems and their elements, the method sup-
ported teams in presenting and understanding their own design as well as
the complexity of the media. The three phases provided teams with a vo-
cabulary so that they could follow each other’s reasoning, track inconsis-
tencies and resolve these. By using the graphics prescribed by the method,
the idea could also be drawn on a wyteboard, for others to inspect.
K. Borg Gyllenbäck and M. Boman
18
Without explicit intrusion, the method provided groups with hints on
where to go, and directed by the premise and goal, the groups could then
take design decisions from there. Rapid prototyping was supported directly
through the control of causal chains that the syuzhet principles offered.
Asking why, where, when, and how is nothing new, and neither is dividing
and defining the media-specific attributes. What is new is the division into
three phases, where the first phase offers a possibility to overview the logic
and relations. The definition of media in the second phase then checks this
overview and contributes new information to the work, such as maps,
elaborated characters, and walkthroughs. For instance, the method could
force the Masquerade game to go into depth by modeling the social inter-
action between the king and the player’s avatar. If the king were not to like
the music, for example, the troubadour would have to find a new song
quickly or risk being thrown out. This would introduce values into a data-
base of songs, to provide a balance to the game play and its mechanics
around the king’s taste of music and his moods. Recalling the musician’s
goal of finding the murderer in time, choosing the wrong music would re-
sult in a causal chain leading to a failed goal. The narrative process defin-
ing the king’s taste in music could have been put into text, or in a cut scene
(influenced by the canonical structure from film), but narrative bridging
yields enough control so as not to require such information handling. This
explains why one group said it helped them avoid ‘cut scenes’ and ‘text’,
and instead render the story material within the game [23]. This is evi-
dence of how the method supports the motto: “Do not show, involve”,
meaning to let the player take part of the narrated world by interacting with
it instead of reading about it.
Conclusions and further work
The three phases of narrative bridging provide a backdrop against which
teams may detect inconsistencies in design for interactive media, as well as
find ways of resolving those inconsistencies. By using the graphical depic-
tion of design as devised by the method, ideas can be sketched more easily,
and the graphics and terminology together form an ontological basis for
the design teamwork. Grünvogel criticized formal models for forcing de-
signers into standardized workflows [14], but our initial empirical tests
suggest that narrative bridging mimics the creative processes in design in a
non-intrusive way. Narrative bridging also stresses the narrative as a proc-
ess to be treated as at least equal to game play and mechanics when it
comes to balancing logic and relations to create meaning. It renders the
N
arrative Bridging 19
syuzhet, as a system, superior to style. In the prototype tests, all groups re-
visited their first description of the diegetic world. This was triggered by
not being able to answer what someone in the game at hand encountered
and where. The method then called for new information to be created in
the diegetic world, sending groups back to Phase 1 before scrutinizing
their game design again in Phase 2; producing walkthroughs and maps, as
well as conditions for interactivity. Another important issue brought forth
in the prototype test was the use of templates and strong structures, includ-
ing game-specific structures, like labyrinths and puzzles. At first sight,
those strong structures provided an illusion of being worked out when pre-
sented, but in taking a closer look via narrative bridging, most of those il-
lusions burst.
It must be pointed out that the test subjects constituted a homogenous
group of students (without a control group), and that more empirical work
is needed. In preparation for such work, the instructions on how to use the
method have been streamlined. An unexplored research strand is to go
deeper into the user’s means to character creation, looking at avatars, for
instance. In the prototype testing, no group created avatars. Narrative
bridging can support character creation, however, and future tests will pro-
vide design teams with such assignments. Future studies will also go
deeper into the method’s interrelating elements, where the causes and ef-
fects, and the conditions and consequences, are constructed. A future goal
is to try and map the motivational junctions in a construction by simulating
and analyzing a variety of games, as well as constructing new games to
take the research beyond the strong market forces which govern industry
output. Not only film influences the development of digital games. Engi-
neer-driven cultures and software engineering, e.g., agile development,
also affect the conceptualization of digital games, using concepts like
genre, target groups, and fun factor [8]. Finally, since the empirical tests
reported on here were completed, several validation efforts have been
made within the realm of game dramaturgy. The method was used in three
consultations for game development companies, two for personal computer
games and one for a mobile phone game. No formal validation of the re-
sults of these consultations have yet been made, but these experiences pro-
vided several clues as to how the method could be employed within a
competitive commercial game design environment.
References
1. Ryan M-L (2001) Beyond myth and metaphor: The case of narrative in
digital media. Game Studies 1(1).
K. Borg Gyllenbäck and M. Boman
20
2. Ryan M-L. (2006) Avatars of story. University of Minnesota Press.
3. Aarseth E (2003) Playing research: methodological approaches to game
analysis. Digital Arts and Culture Conference, Melbourne, Australia.
4. Aarseth E (2004) Genre trouble: narrativism and the art of simulation. In
P Harrigan and N Wardrip-Fruin, eds., First Person: new media as story,
performance and game, pp. 45–55. MIT Press.
5. Frasca G (1999) Ludology meets narratology: similitudes and differences
between (video)games and narrative. Parnasso 3:365–371, 1999. In Fin-
nish. English version available at www.ludology.org.
6. Bordwell D (1985) Narration in the fiction film. Methuen.
7. Frow, J (2005) Genre. Taylor & Francis Ltd.
8. Chandler, MH (2008) The game production handbook. 2nd ed. Jones &
Bartlett Publishers.
9. Chandler D (2000) An Introduction to Genre Theory. http://
www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/chandler_genre_theory.pdf.
10. Boman M, Johannesson P, Bubenko J (1997) Conceptual modelling.
Prentice Hall.
11. Hunicke R, Leblanc M, Zubek R (2004) MDA: A formal approach to
game design and game research. In Proceedings of the challenges in
game AI Workshop, AAAI’04, AAAI Press.
12. Church D (1999) A language without borders. Game Developer, August.
13. Jarvinen A (2008) Understanding video games as emotional experiences
in The video game theory reader 2, chapter 5. Routledge.
14. Grünvogel SM (2005) Formal models and game design. Game Studies 5.
15. Löwgren J, Stoltenman E (2004) Thoughtful interaction design. MIT
Press.
16. Mateas M, Sengers P (2000) Narrative intelligence. In Mateas M, Sen-
gers P, eds, Narrative Intelligence, pp. 1–11. John Benjamins Publ Co.
17. Gärdenfors P (2004) How homo became sapiens—on the evolution of
thinking. Oxford University Press.
18. Salen K, Zimmerman E (2003) Rules of Play—Game Design Fundamen-
tals. MIT Press.
19. Fullerton T (2008) Game design workshop—a playcentric approach to
creating innovative games. Morgan Kaufmann.
20. Crawford C (2003) On game design. New Riders Publishing.
21. Crawford C (2005) On Interactive Storytelling. New Riders Publishing.
22. Juul J (2005) Half-real—video games between real rules and fictional
worlds. MIT Press.
23. Borg Gyllenbäck K (2009) Narrative bridging—a specification of a mod-
elling method for game design. M Sc thesis, Stockholm university.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
Article
Full-text available
Article
Thoughts on Interaction Design explores the theory behind the field of Interaction Design in a new way. It aims to provide a better definition of Interaction Design that encompasses the intellectual facets of the field and the particular methods used by practitioners in their day-to-day experiences. It also attempts to provide Interaction Designers with the vocabulary necessary to justify their existence to other team members. The book positions Interaction Design in a way that emphasizes the intellectual facets of the discipline. It discusses the role of language, argument, and rhetoric in the design of products, services, and systems. It examines various academic approaches to thinking about Design, and concludes that the Designer is a liberal artist left to infuse empathy in technologically driven products. The book also examines the tools and techniques used by practitioners. These include methods for structuring large quantities of data, ways of thinking about users, and approaches for thinking about human behavior as it unfolds over time. Finally, it introduces the idea of Interaction Design as an integral facet of the business development process. First book to provide a solid definition and framework for the booming field of interaction design, finally giving designers the justification needed to prove their essential role on every development team Provides designers with tools they need to operate effectively in the workplace without compromising their goals: making useable, useful, and desirable products Outlines process, theory, practice, and challenges of interaction design - intertwined with real world stories from a variety of perspectives.
Book
The authors of Thoughtful Interaction Design go beyond the usual technical concerns of usability and usefulness to consider interaction design from a design perspective. The shaping of digital artifacts is a design process that influences the form and functions of workplaces, schools, communication, and culture; the successful interaction designer must use both ethical and aesthetic judgment to create designs that are appropriate to a given environment. This book is not a how-to manual, but a collection of tools for thought about interaction design.Working with information technology -- called by the authors "the material without qualities" -- interaction designers create not a static object but a dynamic pattern of interactivity. The design vision is closely linked to context and not simply focused on the technology. The authors' action-oriented and context-dependent design theory, drawing on design theorist Donald Schön's concept of the reflective practitioner, helps designers deal with complex design challenges created by new technology and new knowledge. Their approach, based on a foundation of thoughtfulness that acknowledges the designer's responsibility not only for the functional qualities of the design product but for the ethical and aesthetic qualities as well, fills the need for a theory of interaction design that can increase and nurture design knowledge. From this perspective they address the fundamental question of what kind of knowledge an aspiring designer needs, discussing the process of design, the designer, design methods and techniques, the design product and its qualities, and conditions for interaction design.
Book
The purpose of this interactive storytelling project is to create a storytelling application that breaks the linearity of traditional storytelling. The application will allow users to create interactive stories that require dynamic input and interaction from player-users during the creation as well as the storytelling process. Interactive storytelling has been on the rising in the past few years, particularly with the acceptance of Player Generated Content into the mainstream entertainment market. But, none of the software currently available is able to capture the true essence of interactive storytelling that this project aims to achieve. Therefore, this project will aim to create an application that is capable of telling interactive stories that requires user participation and an authoring tool, which allows users to express their creativity by authoring the stories of their dream. The end result of this project has created a prototype of such application that is capable of both with room for improvement. COMPUTER SCIENCE
Book
Our ability to think is one of our most puzzling characteristics. What would it be like to be unable to think? What would it be like to lack self-awareness? The complexity of this activity is striking. Thinking involves the interaction of a range of mental processes - attention, emotion, memory, planning, self-consciousness, free will, and language. So where did these processes arise? What evolutionary advantages were bestowed upon those with an ability to deceive, to plan, to empathize, or to understand the intentions of others? In this compelling work, the author embarks on an evolutionary detective story to try and solve one of the big mysteries surrounding human existence - how has the modern human being's way of thinking come into existence? He starts by taking in turn the more basic cognitive processes, such as attention and memory, then builds upon these to explore more complex behaviours, such as self-consciousness, mindreading, and imitation. Having done this, he examines the consequences of 'putting thought into the world', using external media like cave paintings, drawings and writing.