Open AccessInteractive Narrative Design beyond the Secret Art Status: A Method to Verify Design Conventions for Interactive Narrative
Author(s) -
Hartmut Koenitz,
Christian Roth,
Teun Dubbelman,
Noam Knoller
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
matlit
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2182-8830
DOI - 10.14195/2182-8830_6-1_7
Subject(s) - narrative , intuition , computer science , set (abstract data type) , key (lock) , process (computing) , engineering design process , interactive design , multimedia , human–computer interaction , psychology , computer security , engineering , cognitive science , mechanical engineering , philosophy , linguistics , operating system , programming language
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 practitioners are self-trained and often rely on intuition in their design practice. A key element missing from the effort towards a more sustained development and improved professional training is a set of design conventions that fulfill a role comparable to cinematic conventions like continuity editing or montage. Therefore, our research focuses on identifying, verifying and collecting such design strategies. We describe an empirical method to verify candidate design conventions through the evaluation of user reaction to A/B prototypes, which improves upon the trial-and-error process of old.