99082 - Digital Storytelling (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

The course aims at providing the necessary skills to design, plan and produce contents for digital media. At the end of the course students know: - the fundamentals of digital storytelling; - the narrative structures and the different forms of storytelling in the digital media ecosystem; - some practical tools to create narrative based projects.

Course contents

This course aims to provide a comprehensive set of theoretical and practical tools for designing interactive narratives. These objectives will be achieved through diverse design approaches, practical labs, case studies, and hands-on experience.

• Introduction to playfulness and interactive storytelling in contemporary media: Theoretical foundations and in-depth analysis of unconventional works.
• Humanity Centered Design and Design Thinking: Tools, methods, and case studies.
• Core disciplines: Narrative Design, Game Design, Level Design, and UI Design.

Readings/Bibliography

To take the oral exam, students are required to study:

• TWO out of the three texts from the "Mandatory texts for the oral exam" list provided below.
• ALL the papers uploaded in PDF format to the "Letture aggiuntive per l’esame orale" section on Virtuale.
  

Mandatory texts for the oral exam

• Anna Dahlström, Design & Storytelling. Usare le storie per ideare, progettare e vendere prodotti e servizi digitali, Apogeo 2021.
• Alexander R. Galloway, Gaming. Saggi sulla cultura algoritmica, Sossella 2022.
• Antonio Pizzo, Vincenzo Lombardo e Rossana Damiano, Interactive storytelling, Dino Audino 2021.

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.
• Amanda C. Cote, Gaming Sexism, NYU Press 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.
• Hartmut Koenitz, Gabriele Ferri, Mads Haahr, Diğdem Sezen e Tonguç İbrahim Sezen (eds.), Interactive Digital Narrative. History, Theory and Practice, Routledge 2015.
• Christopher A. Paul, The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games, University of Minnesota Press 2018.
• 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

• Anton Nijholt (ed.), Playable Cities : The City as a Digital Playground, Springer 2017.
• Martijn de Waal, Michiel de Lange (a cura di), The Hackable City. Digital Media and Collaborative City-Making in the Network Society. Springer, 2020.
• 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.
  

Teaching methods

The course will include sessions dedicated to theoretical study, class-wide discussions, and group work.

Assessment methods

Students may choose between two mutually exclusive exam formats, which are open to both attending and non-attending students alike:

1) An oral examination based on two of the three mandatory texts (plus the supplementary readings uploaded to Virtuale).

Assessment criteria:

• Knowledge of the different approaches to interactive digital product design.
• Clear communication skills.
• Familiarity with the theoretical tools covered during the course.
• Digital product analysis skills.
• Critical thinking and independent judgment.

2) An interactive narrative prototype built with Twine, accompanied by design documentation. 

The project can be completed individually or in pairs and must be submitted via Virtuale at least seven days before the exam date.

Assessment criteria:

• Overall quality of the prototype.
• Proficiency with Twine.
• Clear communication skills.
• Ability to successfully apply the theoretical tools covered in class to the project.

Please note:

• Although Option 2 involves a creative project, students must still demonstrate a solid understanding of the course's theoretical framework within the work itself.
• Consequently, students aiming for top marks must deliver a well-crafted project of high quality from both a methodological and structural standpoint.
• Further details regarding the project guidelines can be found on Virtuale, specifically in the dedicated slide deck.
• The final grade for Option 2 will be communicated during a brief oral discussion scheduled during one of the official exam sessions. This discussion is solely for sharing feedback and grades; it does not involve testing the student on the reading list, nor can it be used to negotiate or improve the grade of the project, which is final.

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Exam where AI is permitted and regulated

The use of artificial intelligence is allowed as support for writing and revising code in Twine. Its use is strongly discouraged for the creative component and for writing the documentation, unless it is followed by careful and thorough review. For ethical reasons, its use for generating images is discouraged.
Anyone who uses it in any form is required to declare this at the end of the documentation, explicitly describing the methods of use and the outcomes in a critical and informed manner.

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Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities

It is necessary to contact the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en) with ample time in advance: the office will propose some adjustments, which must in any case be submitted 15 days in advance to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of these in relation to the teaching objectives.

Teaching tools

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

Office hours

See the website of Mauro Salvador