Interactive Narrative Design Across Media

Video Games, Interactive Film, Immersive Media and XR
1. Auflage 2027
ISBN: 978-1-032-93387-0
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 344 Seiten, Format (B × H): 178 mm x 254 mm, Gewicht: 453 g

Interactive Narrative Design Across Media: Video Games, Interactive Film, Immersive Media and XR is a comprehensive guide for game designers, filmmakers, writers, and creative professionals building stories audiences actively shape. Written with the tone of an experienced colleague rather than a traditional textbook, it combines practical insights with original research grounded in media studies, psychology, and close analysis of interactive works.

At its core, the book introduces a new framework for narrative design: the Contact Cycle, adapted from Gestalt psychotherapy, which examines how players enter a game, become aware of choices, commit to them, experience consequences, and return. This lens explores agency as a design tool, intentional breaks in contact as technique, and how giving players space to assimilate experiences deepens emotional connection.

Drawing on the authors' extensive experience in game development and filmmaking, plus original interviews with leading designers including Sam Barlow, Meghna Jayanth, Katherine Isbister, and Jill Murray, the book offers theoretical frameworks and case studies spanning Citizen Sleeper, Baldur's Gate 3, Death Stranding, and The Stanley Parable. It addresses the evolving media landscape and emerging technologies while focusing on principles that outlast any single engine or trend—providing both the argument and the toolkit for creators who want to design interactive stories people finish, share, and return to.

Zielgruppe

Professional Practice & Development and Professional Reference

Autoren/Hrsg.

Pokrovskaya, Nata

Outkine, Anton

Fachgebiete

• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Professionelle Anwendung Digitale Animation
• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Professionelle Anwendung Digitales Video
• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Informatik Virtuelle Realität, Erweiterte Realität

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction

Chapter 1. The Evolution of Media and Audience in the Interactive Age

Chapter 2. Interactive Narratives Across Media

Chapter 3. Interactive Film

Chapter 4. Video Games

Chapter 5. Immersive Experiences

Über Autor(innen)

Nata Pokrovskaya is a narrative designer and writer in interactive storytelling since 2016. She directed award-winning interactive films, VR and UE-animated projects, co-authored White Mirror (Alpina, 2019), Russia's first interactive-storytelling textbook, and shipped World of Tanks: HEAT at Wargaming. Now co-founder of indie studio Lateral Summer, she researches interactive narratives as possibility spaces and develops her first story-driven game, merging sci-fi, horror, 80's, and Robert Frost's poetry. This is her second book on the subject.

Anton Outkine is a narrative designer, writer and psychology student fascinated by the human condition and immersion, working in interactive storytelling since 2016. He directed award-winning interactive films, VR and UE-animated projects, worked as narrative designer on Pathologic 3, and co-authored White Mirror (Alpina, 2019), Russia's first interactive-storytelling textbook. Now co-founder of indie studio Lateral Summer, he is developing his first story-driven game, a sci-fi psychological horror. This is his second book on the subject.