Independent Study - Storytelling in Virtual Worlds

Storytelling in Virtual Worlds - by/for Nicky Spiva

Texts:
1. Quests: Design, Theory, and History in Games and Narrative by Jeff Howard
2. The Art of Game Design by Jesse Schnell
3. Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Roleplaying by Matt Barton
4. Level Design for Games: Creating Compelling Game Experiences by Phil Co
5. Twisty Little Packages by Nick Montfort
6. Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media edited by Pat Harrigan
7. Designing Virtual Worlds by Richard Bartle
8. Creating Interactive Fiction with Inform 7 by Aaron Reed

Goals: This class aims to equip the student with foundational knowledge about game design and virtual storytelling while also enabling the student to experience the enjoyment of creating virtual worlds - both in the form of text based adventures and more modern RPG modules. The student will question and analyze how stories and storytelling exist in virtual spaces. The student will complete extensive reading, compose 9 blog entries responding to the reading and assignments, and create 3 virtual stories (1 text based, and 2 neverwinter nights modules). He/she will also become familiar with the necessary programs (Inform 7 - a tool designed for writers [not programmers] to create text based adventures, and the NWN module creator) needed to create the virtual stories. Also, this class, or anything like it, is not currently offered at CC so I have to do it in an independent study.

Schedule/Assignments:

Week 1 // Interactive Fiction - Text Based Adventures in Worlds
Reading: Twisty Little Packages, excerpts from Art of Game Design, Creating Interactive Fiction with Inform 7
Assignments: M/W/F - 250 word blog entries, reading reflections; Friday Text Based Game Due; investigate Zork and at least two other text based adventures by Friday; familiarize yourself with Inform 7.

Week 2 // Modern RPG Quest Design
Reading: Level Design, Second Person, excerpts from Designing Virtual Worlds
Assignments: M/W/F - 250 word blog entries, reading/assignment reflections; Friday Neverwinter Nights Module due; play through at least 3 NWN modules by Friday; familiarize with NWN module designer.

Week 3 // Establishing Historical Background
Reading: excerpts from Quests, Dungeons and Desktops
Assignments: M/W - 250 word blog entries (reflections); Wednesday Revision of first NWN module due (I plan to have peers play through my module and send me feedback over the 2nd weekend so I can work on the module MTW). Thursday - begin work on Final project - new NWN module.

Week 4 // Finishing the final project - NWN module. Due Wednesday noon. Blog entry - Reflections on the class as a whole, successes, failures, what to change, and advice for others 500 word minimum due Wednesday noon.



--- tentative syllabus -----

i'm pretty excited what yall think

Is this a class you are creating or taking? Or both? Seems cool regardless. NWN is really good for making RPG campaigns. Heavily influenced by DnD

it's a class that i'm designing and taking started today --- pretty stoked

looks really cool. let us know how it goes.

who's teaching it? how's that work?

its a class that nicky builds the syllabus for on his own. complete independent study i think.

yeah i build the syllabus on my own and do the assignments and what not - i've got an advisor and he helps out and checks up on me.

some Interactive Fiction (IF) I played/read today --- Galatea by Emily Short link (playable online)

and Aisle by Sam Barlow --- linkylink

both of which are pretty experimental, also heard from a friend that ---" 9:05<http://zmpp.sourceforge.net/games/play.php?name=9:05%20%28Adam%20Cadre%29&storyfile=905.z5>, which plays with reader expectations in an interesting way, and, of course, Zork<http://www.xs4all.nl/%7Epot/infocom/zork1.html>, though I guess that one's not so much about storytelling. Wouldn't be any interactive fiction without Zork, though." --- we played zork on COD black ops

Gargoyle<http://ccxvii.net/gargoyle/> serves as an interpreter for a bunch of different formats and is multi-platform so you can read/play the IF adventures.

So jealous of this. What're you working on now?

working on my IF game right now, also bloggin some about the class --- http://newlagoon.tumblr.com/

(im behind a bit now b/c of drive to phoenix for frisbee last weekend)

blog is for class if y'all comment legit stuff that would be cool

Posted on your blog. It all sounds great and I'm really interested to see how it goes. I'm taking a Intro to Cog Sci class that's supposed to be CS/Psyc, so hopefully we'll be linking computer science and how the brain learns.

Anyway, your Aisle game reminded me of this game which is similar in that you basically get different endings every day (culminating in one big ending). The art style, music, and artistic message are all pretty great.

posted on it too. looking good

http://editthis.info/reddit_choose_your_own_adventure/The_Reddit_Adventure

this is pretty cool, getting really huge

that's tight... a portion of my game is up on my website check it