Transmedia and Interactive Narrative

Transmedia and Interactive Narrative

Abstract: In this seminar we will present three PhD research projects currently underway in WAIS in the area of transmedia and interactive narrative. All three have been accepted as papers to the International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling (ICIDS’18) that takes place in Dublin next month. The three projects are: 1) Multiplayer Interactive Narrative Experiences (MINEs): A type of multiplayer interactive storytelling, in which each player may experience their own distinct narrative. Here, we explain what these narratives are, describe the design of a system to support them and explore some brief examples of the stories that are possible. 2) Authoring Interactive Digital Narratives: An experiment performed using one story across three different type interactive writing tools. This was done to explore the impact a tool has in shaping a story and to observe how each affected the authorial task. 3) Models of Alternative Reality Games (ARGs): Transmedia Storytelling involves telling stories across multiple media channels. This method presents problems for researchers in that it is difficult to understand the structure of a transmedia story and how the story unfolds over time. We present a way of describing such stories using examples of several ARGs and explore the affordances of this technique. Biodata: Callum Spawforth is a PHD student in the Web and Internet Science group at the University of Southampton, UK. His main area of research is Multiplayer Interactive Storytelling, exploring the possibilities for interactive fiction featuring multiple participants. His research has also touched on understanding interactions in multiplayer games and authoring systems for sculptural hypertext. Callum did his undergraduate degree in Computer Science here at the University of Southampton, and is one of the organisers for the Southampton Game Jam. Sofia Kitromili is a Web Science PhD student at the University of Southampton looking into authoring digital storytelling and how the practise is reformed through different platforms. She is currently looking to investigate the notion of storytelling through an authorial perspective with a locative literature tool using cultural heritage collections as a case study. Ryan Javanshir is a Web Science CDT PhD student. His research lies in the area of transmedia storytelling, looking at how we can better understand how narrative unfolds across media. He is also interested in game design and the surrounding ideas that can be transferred over and applied to transmedia design.