98809 - Digital Storytelling (LM)

Course contents

This course aims at giving a set of theoretical and practical tools to design an interactive narrative. We will do it through different design approaches, class labs, analysis of case histories and personal experiences.

• Introduction to playfulness and interactive sotrytelling in contemporary media: theoretical fundamentals and in-depth analysis of unconventional products.
• Humanity Centered Design and Design thinking: tools, methods, case studies.
• Narrative Design, Game Design, Level Design, UI Design.

Readings/Bibliography

Mandatory texts for the oral exam

- Alexander R. Galloway, Gaming. Saggi sulla cultura algoritmica, Sossella 2022.

- Antonio Pizzo, Vincenzo Lombardo e Rossana Damiano, Interactive storytelling, Dino Audino 2021.

- Set of papers given in class and uploaded to Moodle.

Supplementary texts

Game culture & Game studies

- Ian Bogost, Play Anything: The Pleasure of Limits, the Uses of Boredom, and the Secret of Games, Basic Books 2016.

- Marco B. Carbone & Riccardo Fassone (eds.), Il videogioco in Italia, Mimesis 2020.

- Valerie Frissen, Sybille Lammes, Michiel de Lange, Jos de Mul, Joost Raessens (eds.), Playful Identities. The Ludification of Digital Media Cultures, Amsterdam University Press 2015. (https://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=524070)

- Hartmut Koenitz, Gabriele Ferri, Mads Haahr, Diğdem Sezen e Tonguç İbrahim Sezen (eds.), Interactive Digital Narrative. History, Theory and Practice, Routledge 2015.

- Mauro Salvador, In gioco e fuori gioco: il ludico nella cultura e nei media contemporanei, Mimesis 2015.

Design & Game design

- Anna Anthropy, Naomi Clark, A Game Design Vocabulary, Addison-Wesley, Boston 2014.

- Maresa Bertolo, Ilaria Mariani (eds.), Game Design. Gioco e giocare tra teoria e progetto, Pearson 2014.

- Donald Norman, La caffettiera del masochista, Giunti, Firenze 2014 / The Design of Everyday Things, Basic Books, New York 2013.

- Jesse Schell, The art of game design: a book of lenses, M. Kaufman, Burlington MA 2008.

- Christopher W. Totten, An Architectural Approach to Level Design, CRC Press 2018.

Game, places & media

- Martijn de Waal, Michiel de Lange, Matthijs Bouw. The Hackable City Cahier #1 #2 #3. The Hackable City: a Model for Collaborative Citymaking. Amsterdam: The Hackable City, 2018. (http://themobilecity.nl/2018/03/23/the-hackable-city-cahiers/)

- Nicola Dusi, Dal cinema ai media digitali, Mimesis 2014.

- Riccardo Fassone, Every Game is an Island Endings and Extremities in Video Games, Bloomsbury 2017.

- Riccardo Fassone, Cinema e videogiochi, Carocci 2017.

- Anton Nijholt (ed.), Playable Cities : The City as a Digital Playground, Springer 2017.

Teaching methods

The course will involves moments of theoretical study, moments of collective work and moments of group work.

Assessment methods

The course can be passed in two alternative and mutually exclusive modes.

1) Oral interview on the mandatory texts. The evaluation will be on: knowledge of different approaches to interactive digital design, ability to communicate , familiarity with the theoretical tools addressed in class, ability to analyze digital products.

2) Prototype of an interactive narrative on Twine, with documentation. The prototype has to be produced individually and delivered at least one week before the exam session. The evaluation will be on: general quality of the prototype, familiarity with the tool used, ability to communicate clearly, the ability to apply the theoretical tools seen in class to the prototype will be evaluated. Mode 2) is intended as an alternative to 1) and its assessment is unquestionable (it cannot be supplemented with an oral interview to improve the grade). Mode 2) therefore does not involve the study of mandatoy texts and, for this reason, those who aspire to very positive evaluations must present a well-finished and high-quality work.

Teaching tools

Google Drive, Twine, Mirò and, when necessary, other free digital tools.

Office hours

See the website of Mauro Salvador