Talk at the "UBIGAMES, Conference in Digital Game Design and Develpment", University of Beira Interior. 5 June 2014

1. Videogame Narrative
Nelson Zagalo, University of Minho
Covilhã, Portugal 5th June 2014
UBIGAMES, Conference in Digital Game Design and Develpment

2. Nature is made of interdependency, the principle that rules all network
systems.

3. In all these years, our brains co-evolved along with language,
and with the process we now call storytelling, which probably is
the most elaborated “technology” in transmission of information
ever created by humans and for humans.

4. A very simple structure, but a
structure that fully activates our brain
chemistry, activating the basic
components necessary for the
understanding and retention of
information.

5. Storytelling is a communication model, and one the best ways of
understanding the world around us, because it allows us to understand the
Other, feel the Other, and feel for the Other, and thus enrich the power of
the social web through a simple process of communication.

6. Game
Narrative
Story
Form
Linear
Non-linear
Interactivity with the narrative game
Multilinear
Emergent

7. Literature - we read (ideas described
symbolically of) what happened.
Film - we see (ideas displayed of) what
happened.
Videogame - we do (actions that become
ideas) happen.

8. Brenda Romero, Gaming for understanding, at TEDxPhoenix (2011)
Learnign about Middle Passage at schools
We Play, We Do, We Become

9. Mechanics on Middle Passage
Families in Africa Boat to take people to the US
New World , board game improvised
by Brenda Romero

10. “empathy and sympathy start not in the higher regions
of imagination, or the ability to consciously reconstruct
how we would feel if we were in someone else’s
situation. It began much simpler, with the
synchronization of bodies: running when others run,
laughing when others laugh, crying when others cry, or
yawning when others yawn. Most of us have reached
the incredibly advanced stage at which we yawn even
at the mere mention of yawning - as you may be doing
right now! - but this is only after lots of face-to-face
experience.”
(De Wall, 2009:51)
the bottom line of storytelling

11. The Marriage, (2007), Rod Humble
“The circles represent outside elements entering
the marriage.
The size of each square represents the amount of
space that person is taking up within the marriage.
The transparency of the squares represents how
engaged that person is in the marriage. When one
person fades out of the marriage and becomes
emotionally distant then the marriage is over.
The game mechanics are designed such that the
game is fragile. It’s easy to break. This is deliberate
as marriages are fragile and they feel fragile, I
wanted to get this across.”
http://www.rodvik.com/rodgames/marriage.html
playing with world representations

12. “On the surface, the point of
Passage is to open as many
treasure chests within the
allotted time. But that's not
what Jason Rohrer's award
winning game is really about.
What it is really about is love,
the passing of time, saying
goodbye to youth and
freedom, grief - ultimately life
itself.”
http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/
Passage, (2007), Jason Rohrer
playing with world representations

13. “As a mother, it's your job
to keep your little tyke in
the safety of the
homestead until they
have enough experience
to survive the monster-
infested woods. Don't
expect any gratitude,
though. The brat will
continually try to give you
the slip and escape into
the wild. After a while, like
many a parent, you may
well be tempted to let it
go find out the hard way
what the world's really
like.”
www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/560920
A Mother in Festerwood, (2011)
de Austin Breed
playing with world representations

14. “Austin Breed has created a split-screen tale of a couple separated by, well, distance.
You follow their separate, daily routines and at night get to pose one of two questions
while they chat on the phone. But will their eyes start to wander? What would you do?
Find out!”
www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/556828
Distance (2010) de Austin Breed
playing with world representations

15. "One Chance is a game
about choices and dealing
with them.
Scientist John Pilgrim and his
team have accidently
created a pathogen that is
killing all living cells on Earth.
In the last 6 remaining in-
game days on Earth, the
player must make choices
about how to spend his last
moments. Will he spend time
with his family, work on a cure
or go nuts?"
www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/555181
One Chance, (2010), AwkwardSilence
playing with world representations

16. “Gray is a riot - quite literally. In this
cerebral, experimental game, you
play the part of a lone dissenter,
trying desperately to win a
seemingly never ending horde of
rioters over to your cause. It seems
like a helpless task but one by one
you manage to woo the rioters
until eventually you have the
majority following you. But what
does any self-respecting rebel do
when they are a member of the
majority, well in this game, they
switch to the other side of course,
and repeat the whole process
again but from the opposite
direction.
Gray raises some interesting
questions about the individual and
the possibility of one person
changing the course of history.”
www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/495076
Gray, (2009), Greg Wohlwend
playing with world representations

17. http://www.kongregate.com/games/mindfulxp/connections
Connections, (2011), mindful xp
playing with world representations

18. “Every day the same dream is a slightly existential riff on the theme of
alienation and refusal of labor. The idea was to charge the cyclic
nature of most video games with some kind of meaning (i.e. the "play
again" is not a game over). Yes, there is an end state, you can "beat"
the game.”
www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/540741
Every Day the Same Dream, 2007, Paolo Pedercini
playing with world representations