Storytelling for immersive transmedia experiences.
The third workshop in the series got us to explore the ways in which game design could be applied to storytelling. We wanted there to be a participatory and interactive aspect to our story experience and we asked Mark Eyles to lead us into this new terrain.
For our third workshop in the series we had the pleasure of Mark Eyles leading us through the possibilities for integrating story telling and game play. An important concept for us and Mark was able to guide us through a potted history of game design giving us some valuable ideas to play with. I think everyone was challenged to think about the shift from a linear, author led form of story telling to one in which every player brings their own creativity to the game.
The group worked on the design of our project and there were some really interesting developments. Especially in relation to the differing ways that ‘magic’ might be employed, the use of puzzles, the different kinds of interactivity we might want to add to the experience we are designing. Nonetheless, we didn’t lose sight of the importance of character and we spent a lot of time thinking about how each of the writers might create an interactive element to their character development.
Mark Eyles was Head of Design at Rebellion with over 20 years working as a designer, producer and manager in the games industry, a lecturer at the University of Portsmouth in games design and recently winner of the TIGA Person of the Year Award for his contributions to the games industry, teaching of game development and his work. He also wrote scripts for 2000 AD and Sonic the Comic, made holograms and has worked on board game designs for Hasbro, held the first Women in Games Conference and founded the Advanced Games Research Group at University of Portsmouth.