The Glass House: Creating and Maintaining Investment in Stories through Interactive Narrative
Date
2024
Authors
Pettyjohn, Dayne
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Victoria
Abstract
The Glass House is a board game built with the focus of researching how to create and maintain investment in stories through interactive narrative. There are several elements of effective interactive narratives including theme, mechanics, meaningful choices, balance, and motivation. Interactive narratives should have a strong and cohesive theme, with mechanics that align with that theme. The narrative should contain meaningful choices so that players feel like their impact on the world matters. The challenges within the game should not actually be balanced, but instead contain the correct amount of imbalance to ensure a rewarding experience. The narrative must also compel players to care about the story to motivate them to move forward in the game. Furthermore, successful interactive narratives must employ transportation immersion, which is the process of figuratively transporting players into another world. Players must buy into the world of the narrative, and therefore become invested in the story.
The Glass House also involved playtests. Participants played through an Alpha version of the game and gave feedback, which then had to be translated into actionable steps to improve player experience and investment. Those next steps include art, simplified mechanics, and narrowed themes for replayability.
Description
Keywords
interactive narrative, board game, investment, writing, playtest