Interactive Storytelling for the Screen

An invaluable collection of essays and interviews exploring the business of interactive storytelling, this highly accessible guide offers invaluable insight into an ever-evolving field that is utilizing new spatial and interactive narrative forms to tell stories. This includes new media filmmaking and content creation, a huge variety of analog story world design, eXtended realities, game design, and virtual reality (VR) design. The book contains essays written by and interviews with working game designers, producers, 360-degree filmmakers, immersive theatre creators, and media professors, exploring the business side of interactive storytelling – where art meets business. Contributors to this book share their perspectives on how to break into the field; how to develop, nurture, and navigate business relationships; expectations in terms of business etiquette; strategies for contending with the emotional highs and lows of interactive storytelling; how to do creative work under pressure; the realities of working with partners in the field of new media narrative design; prepping for prototyping; writing analog and digital. This is an ideal resource for students of filmmaking, screenwriting, media studies, RTVF, game design, VR and AR design, theater, and journalismwho are interested in navigating a career pathway in the exciting field of interactive storytelling.

FOREWORDACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1: GETTING STARTED WE ARE BUILDING A BRIDGE AS WE’RE WALKING ACROSS IT By Ingrid Kopp NARRATIVE DESIGN: A WINDING PATH, A WILD ADVENTURE How to become a Game Designer By Michael Yichao AUGMENTED REALITY DESIGN A brief How-To of Reality Creation By Holden Holcombe YOUR AUDIENCE IS WAITING By Margaret Moser and Esjay Wonderly PLAYING IMPROVISATIONAL THEATRE IN LOS ANGELES By Josh Simpson CHAPTER 2: STICKING IT OUT NAVIGATING THE BUSINESS AS AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCER By Lena Thiele GOB SQUAD Spaces are also Authors with Sean Patten, Berit Stumpf, Sarah Thom, and Simon Will TEACHING INTERACTIVE STORYTELLING AND GAME DESIGN By Gundolf S. Freyermuth THROUGH THE EYES OF The Life and Practice of an Interactive Storyteller By Paisley Smith THE ARQIVE Building a Digital Interactive Storytelling Platform for the LGBTQ+ Communities By Cynthia Wang CHAPTER 3: FINDING SUCCESS SIXTY SECONDS YOU NEVER FORGET Designing a Theme Park Ride By Michael Rüger THE EMPATHY MACHINE Telling Stories with Virtual Reality By Michael Grotenhof SPACE AS INTERACTIVE STORY By Yvette Granata REAL MONEY IN IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCES By Coline Delbare SETTING UP A PLAY SHOP By Yvette Murrell CHAPTER 4: GETTING AHEAD SIX DEGREES OF FREEDOM By Liz Rosenthal THROUGH THE DARKEST OF TIMES Making a Digital Game about the Historical Resistance Against the Nazis By Jörg Friedrich STOP, COLLABORATE & LISTEN By Zachary Vernon BUILDING A TRANSMEDIA WORLD INSPIRED BY SCIENCE By Amanda Tasse INTERACTIVE STORYTELLING: FROM ANALOG TO DIGITAL A Review of Contemporary Case Studies By Carman Ng CHAPTER 5: STARTING AGAIN FLATGAMES Videogame Zinesters and their Autobiographical Story Worlds By Lee Tusman QUEER TIME, PRODUCTIVITY, AND FAILURE IN INTERACTIVE MEDIA By Lark Alder ANY GIVEN MOMENT Developing a Shared Language in Multidisciplinary Collaborations By Carlin Wing and John Dietrich ACTIVISM AND INTERACTIVE STORYTELLING By Grayson Earle COLLECTIVE WISDOM By Katerina Cizek CONCLUSION ABOUT THE EDITORS INDEX

Sylke Rene Meyer is a writer, director, media artist, performer, educator, and co-founder of the performance group Studio206 in Berlin (2007), extended in LA (2019). In 2018, she also co-founded the performance group "Family Room Collective" in Los Angeles. She is a Professor of Creative Writing and theDirector of the Institute for Interactive Arts, Research, and Technology at California State University in Los Angeles. Gustavo Aldana is a musician, media artist, and educator. Their projects have involved the combination of electronic music, interactive visuals, and the creative use and manipulation of myriad forms of digital media as forms of resistance. They are a graduate student in Television, Film, and Media Studies at California State University, Los Angeles.