Skip to main content

Storytelling in Serious Games

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover Entertainment Computing and Serious Games

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 9970))

Abstract

This chapter about storytelling and interactivity in storytelling first explains on various serious games examples foundations of storytelling. Then storytelling in Interactive Media with regard to serious games is described. Further the current state of the art on Interactive Digital Storytelling is presented including example experiences, authoring tools and challenges in the field combined with examples of serious games. This chapter closes concluding with open storytelling challenges and opportunities in serious games development and recommending further literature on the subject.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Film available online, e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTNmLt7QX8E.

  2. 2.

    https://www.secom20.eu/.

  3. 3.

    Heider Simmel Interactive Theater: http://hsit.ict.usc.edu/.

References

  1. Abawi, D.F., Reinhold, S., Dörner, R.: A toolkit for authoring non-linear storytelling environments using mixed reality. In: Göbel, S., Spierling, U., Hoffmann, A., Iurgel, I., Schneider, O., Dechau, J., Feix, A. (eds.) TIDSE 2004. LNCS, vol. 3105, pp. 113–118. Springer, Heidelberg (2004). doi:10.1007/978-3-540-27797-2_15

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  2. Akenine-Möller, T., Haines, E., Hoffman, N.: Real-Time Rendering, 3rd edn. A. K. Peters Ltd., Natick (2008)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  3. Ashmore, C., Nitsche, M.: The quest in a generated world. In: Digra International Conference, pp. 503–509 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Aylett, R.: Narrative in virtual environments - towards emergent narrative. In: AAAI Fall Symposium on Narrative Intelligence, pp. 83–86 (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Baran, I., Popović, J.: Automatic rigging and animation of 3D characters. ACM Trans. Graph. 26(3), Article no. 72 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Bares, W.H., Gregoire, J.P., Lester, J.C.: Realtime constraint-based cinematography for complex interactive 3D worlds. In: Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Bordwell, D.: Narration in the Fiction Film (1986)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Brand, M.: Voice puppetry. In: ACM SIGGRAPH International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, pp. 21–28. ACM Press, New York (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Burelli, P.: Virtual Cinematography in Games : Investigating the impact on player experience. In: International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, Chania, Greece, pp. 134–141. Society for the Advancement of the Science of Digital Games (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Burelli, P.: Implementing game cinematography: technical challenges and solutions for automatic camera control in games. In: William, H., Bares, M.C., Ronfard, R. (eds.) Eurographics Workshop on Intelligent Cinematography and Editing, Zurich, pp. 59–63. Eurographics Association (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Burelli, P., Yannakakis, G.N.: Adaptive virtual camera control trough player modelling. User Model. User Adapt. Interact. 25, 155–183 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Campbell, J.: The Hero with a Thousand Faces. MJF Books, New York (1949)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Cassell, J., Vilhjálmsson, H.H., Bickmore, T.: BEAT: the behavior expression animation toolkit. In: Life-Like Characters, vol. 137, pp. 163–185. ACM Press, New York (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Chatman, S.B.: Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film, 1st edn. Cornell University Press, Ithaca (1978)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Chatman, S.B.: Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film. Cornell University Press, Ithaca (1980)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Cheong, Y.-G., Jhala, A., Bae, B.-C., Young, R.M.: Automatically generating summary visualizations from game logs. In: AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Interactive Digitale Entertainment, pp. 167–172 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Christianson, D., Anderson, S., He, L.-W., Salesin, D.H., Weld, D., Cohen, M.F.: Declarative camera control for automatic cinematography. In: AAAI, pp. 148–155. AAAI Press, Portland (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Christie, M., Olivier, P., Normand, J.M.: Camera control in computer graphics. Comput. Graph. Forum 27(8), 2197–2218 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Crawford, C.: Chris Crawford on Interactive Storytelling, vol. 5334. New Riders, Berkeley (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Dormans, J.: Adventures in level design. In: Workshop on Procedural Content Generation in Games, pp. 1–8. ACM Press, New York (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Drucker, S.M., Galyean, T.A., Zeltzer, D.: CINEMA: a system for procedural camera movements. In: Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics, pp. 67–70. ACM (1992)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Drucker, S.M., Zeltzer, D.: Intelligent camera control in a virtual environment. In: Graphics Interface, pp. 190–199. ACM, Alberta, Canada (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  23. El-Nasr, M.S.: Story visualization techniques for interactive drama. In: AAAI Spring Symposium, pp. 23–28. AAAI Press (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  24. El-Nasr, M.S.: An interactive narrative architecture based on filmmaking theory. Int. J. Intell. Games Simul. 3(1), 49–62 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Electric Shadow: World without oil (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Field, S.: Screenplay. Delacorte, New York (1982)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Freytag, G.: Die technik des dramas. Hirzel, Leipzig (1872)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Genette, G.: Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method, vol. 9. Cornell University Press, Ithaca (1980)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Göbel, S., Hardy, S., Mehm, F., Wendel, V.: Serious games for health - personalized exergames. In: 18th ACM International Conference on Multimedia, pp. 1663–1666. ACM (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Gordon, A.S., Roemmele, M.: An authoring tool for movies in the style of Heider and Simmel. In: Mitchell, A., Fernández-Vara, C., Thue, D. (eds.) ICIDS 2014. LNCS, vol. 8832, pp. 49–60. Springer, Heidelberg (2014). doi:10.1007/978-3-319-12337-0_5

    Google Scholar 

  31. Ha, H.N.: Automatic lighting design. Ph.D. thesis, University of Newcastle (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Höffe, O.: Aristoteles: Poetik. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich (2009)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  33. Impact Games: PeaceMaker (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  34. Jenkins, H.: Game design as narrative. Computer 44, 53 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  35. Jewell, M.O.: Motivated music: automatic soundtrack generation for film by. Ph.D. thesis, University of Southampton (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  36. Jhala, A., Young, R.M.: Cinematic visual discourse: representation, generation, and evaluation. IEEE Trans. Comput. Intell. AI Games 2(2), 69–81 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Kato, P.M., Cole, S.W., Bradlyn, A.S., Pollock, B.H.: A video game improves behavioral outcomes in adolescents and young adults with Cancer: a randomized trial. Pediatrics 122(2), 305–317 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Koenitz, H.: Interactive Digital Narrative: History,Theory and Practice. Routledge, New York (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  39. Koenitz, H., Chen, K.-J.: Genres, structures and strategies in interactive digital narratives – analyzing a body of works created in ASAPS. In: Oyarzun, D., Peinado, F., Young, R.M., Elizalde, A., Méndez, G. (eds.) ICIDS 2012. LNCS, vol. 7648, pp. 84–95. Springer, Heidelberg (2012). doi:10.1007/978-3-642-34851-8_8

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  40. Kriegel, M., Aylett, R.: Crowd-sourced AI authoring with ENIGMA. In: Aylett, R., Lim, M.Y., Louchart, S., Petta, P., Riedl, M. (eds.) ICIDS 2010. LNCS, vol. 6432, pp. 275–278. Springer, Heidelberg (2010). doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16638-9_41

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  41. Lino, C., Christie, M., Lamarche, F., Schofield, G., Olivier, P.: A real-time cinematography system for interactive 3D environments. In: ACM SIGGRAPH/Eurographics Symposium on Computer Animation, pp. 139–148. The Eurographics Association (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  42. Lotman, J.M.: Notes on the structure of a literary text. Semiotica 15(3), 199–206 (1975)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Magnenat-Thalmann, N., Primeau, E., Thalmann, D.: Abstract muscle action procedures for human face animation. Vis. Comput. 3(5), 290–297 (1988)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Marr, A.C.: Serious Games für die Informations- und Wissensvermittlung - Bibliotheken auf neuen Wegen (B.I.T. online - Innovativ) Band 28 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  45. Martinez, H.P., Jhala, A., Yannakakis, G.N.: Analyzing the impact of camera viewpoint on player psychophysiology. In: International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction and Workshops, pp. 1–6. IEEE (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  46. Mateas, M., Stern, A.: Interaction and narrative. In: The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology, pp. 642–669. MIT Press, Boston (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  47. McCoy, J., Treanor, M., Samuel, B.: Prom week: social physics as gameplay. In: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Foundations of Digital Games, pp. 319–321. ACM (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  48. McGonigal, J.: Reality is broken: why games make us better and how they can change the world, vol. 22, p. 400. New York (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  49. Nintendo: Super Mario Land (1989)

    Google Scholar 

  50. Nisi, O.I., Valentina, M.H.: Places, location-aware multimedia stories: turning spaces into places. In: Artech, International Conference on Digital Arts, pp. 72–82. Universidade Cátolica Portuguesa (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  51. Pizzi, D., Cavazza, M.: From debugging to authoring: adapting productivity tools to narrative content description. In: Spierling, U., Szilas, N. (eds.) ICIDS 2008. LNCS, vol. 5334, pp. 285–296. Springer, Heidelberg (2008). doi:10.1007/978-3-540-89454-4_36

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  52. Proust, M.: In Search of Lost Time. Random House, New York (1932)

    Google Scholar 

  53. Ranon, R., Urli, T.: Improving the efficiency of viewpoint composition. IEEE Trans. Vis. Comput. Graph. 20(5), 795–807 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  54. Realtime Associates Inc.: Re-Mission (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  55. Schäfer, L., Stauber, A., Bokan, B.: StoryNet: an educational game for social skills. In: Göbel, S., Spierling, U., Hoffmann, A., Iurgel, I., Schneider, O., Dechau, J., Feix, A. (eds.) TIDSE 2004. LNCS, vol. 3105, pp. 148–157. Springer, Heidelberg (2004). doi:10.1007/978-3-540-27797-2_20

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  56. Serious Games Interactive: Global Conflicts Palestine (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  57. Shacked, R., Lischinski, D.: Automatic lighting design using a perceptual quality metric. Comput. Graph. Forum 20(3), 215–227 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  58. Spierling, U.: Implicit creation non-programmer conceptual models for authoring in interactive digital storytelling. Ph.D. thesis, University of Plymouth (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  59. Spierling, U., Szilas, N.: Authoring issues beyond tools. In: Iurgel, I.A., Zagalo, N., Petta, P. (eds.) ICIDS 2009. LNCS, pp. 50–61. Springer, Heidelberg (2009). doi:10.1007/978-3-642-10643-9_9

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  60. Stanzel, F.K.: Theorie des Erzahlens. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  61. Szilas, N.: IDtension: a narrative engine for interactive drama. In: Technologies for Interactive Digital Storytelling and Entertainment (TIDSE) Conference, pp. 183–203. Fraunhofer IRB Verlag (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  62. Szilas, N.: Interactive drama on computer: beyond linear narrative. In: AAAI Fall Symposium on Narrative Intelligence, vol. 144, pp. 150–156 (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  63. Tomlinson, B., Blumberg, B., Nain, D.: Expressive autonomous cinematography for interactive virtual environments. In: International Conference on Autonomous Agents, Barcelona, Spain, p. 317 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  64. Viera, J.D., Viera, M.: Lighting for Film and Electronic Cinematography. Wadsworth Publishing Company, Belmont (1993)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  65. Wages, R., Grützmacher, B., Conrad, S.: Learning from the movie industry: adapting production processes for storytelling in VR. In: Göbel, S., Spierling, U., Hoffmann, A., Iurgel, I., Schneider, O., Dechau, J., Feix, A. (eds.) TIDSE 2004. LNCS, pp. 119–125. Springer, Heidelberg (2004). doi:10.1007/978-3-540-27797-2_16

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  66. Weiss, S., Müller, W., Spierling, U., Steimle, F.: Scenejo – an interactive storytelling platform. In: Subsol, G. (ed.) ICVS 2005. LNCS, pp. 77–80. Springer, Heidelberg (2005). doi:10.1007/11590361_9

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  67. Widjajanto, W., Lund, M., Schelhowe, H.: A web-based authoring tool for visual storytelling for children. In: 6th International Conference on Advances in Mobile Computing and Multimedia (MoMM), pp. 464–467. ACM (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  68. Wouters, P., Van Oostendorp, H., Boonekamp, R., Van Der Spek, E.: The role of game discourse analysis and curiosity in creating engaging and effective serious games by implementing a back story and foreshadowing. Interact. Comput. 23(4), 329–336 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  69. Michael Young, R.: Creating interactive narrative structures: the potential for AI approaches. In: AAAI Spring Symposium. Narosa Publishing House (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  70. Young, R.M.: Story and discourse: a bipartite model of narrative generation in virtual worlds. Interact. Stud. 8(2), 177–208 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Antonia Kampa .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Further Readings

Further Readings

We recommend Lee Sheldon’s 2013 book “Character Development and Storytelling for Games” for game designing and writing because the highlights the fundamental importance of characters and storytelling for all types of games. “The hero with a thousand faces” (Vol. 17) by 2008 by Joseph Campbell, New World Library combines the insights of modern psychology with Joseph Campbells unique understanding of comparative mythology and is a good book with many insights into storytelling as well as Henry Jenkins’s book “Game Design as Narrative” in Computer, 44 from 2004. On Interactive Digital Storytelling we recommend two books: “Chris Crawford on Interactive Storytelling” [19] by Chris Crawford is a second edition from 2012 in New Riders updating his fundamental thesis and understanding of Interactive Storytelling. Koenitz’s 2015 book “Interactive Digital Narrative: History, Theory and Practice” [38] in Routledge provides a broad overview of current issues and future directions in the multi-disciplinary field of Interactive Digital Storytelling, it covers history, theoretical perspectives and varieties of practice including narrative game design and it assembles the voices of leading researchers and practitioners in the research field.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Kampa, A., Haake, S., Burelli, P. (2016). Storytelling in Serious Games. In: Dörner, R., Göbel, S., Kickmeier-Rust, M., Masuch, M., Zweig, K. (eds) Entertainment Computing and Serious Games. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9970. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46152-6_19

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46152-6_19

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-46151-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-46152-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics