Units

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Sample subject outline - Semester 1 2013

Note: Subject outlines often change before the semester begins. Below is a sample outline.

Rationale

NB: Information in this Unit Outline is subject to change prior to commencement of semester

The role of the writer/image-maker/information designer is central to the success of any significant project in interactive media. Effective interactive writing demands a grasp of conceptual and information design, the nature of interactivity, and the tensions between interactivity and traditional narrative.

Aims

This unit aims to develop your understanding of the creative and analytical roles of writers, artists, conceptual designers and information designers in New Media productions. It will extend this understanding into practice through the application of relevant skills.

Objectives

On completion of this unit, you should be able to:
1. understand traditional narrative components in game design;
2. analyse and apply non-linear and interactive narrative structures;
3. create original game narratives in appropriate script formats;
4. apply theoretical issues associated with the visual medium of digital game narratives;
5. apply theoretical issues associated with branching story structures and interactive narratives;
6. identify and analyse game structures;
7. apply techniques of information design to structuring (non)narrative content;
8. recognise and use key information design concepts in a formal presentation.

Content

This unit addresses content such as:
Play and Ludos, Narrative, Story, Character, Plot, New Media, Visual narrative, Linearity, Non-Linearity, Branching, Navigation, Interactivity, Hypertext, Interactive Fiction, Games, Reader as Writer, Visual interaction, Storyboarding and Sequential imagery, Script formats, Flow Diagrams.

Lectures and tutorials cover topics such as traditional narrative (how stories are told and constructed across a range of media, including novels, graphic novels, live theatre, and film). This unit will isolate key building blocks of linear narrative such as character, turning points, acts, and so on in order to reconstruct them for interaction and agency in the game - ludos context. Lectures will also explore the nature of interactivity, how it may be applied to narrative, and represented in a script. Examples, from traditional pantomimes to multi-path stories, will be used to demonstrate core ideas such as branching structures, games and flow diagrams and the opportunities and apparent limits of the application of interactivity to narrative.

Approaches to Teaching and Learning

Lectures will describe and demonstrate conceptual issues while tutorials will provide the opportunity for group discussion of concepts and principles explored in the lectures, as well as group and peer critiques of project work during milestone reviews for formative assessment.

Assessment

LATE ASSIGNMENTS
An assignment submitted after the due date without an approved extension will not be marked. If you are unable to complete your assignment on time, you should submit on time whatever work you have done.

Faculty Assessment Information
To access the Creative Industries Faculty Assessment Information see the Blackboard site for this unit. FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
You will receive formative feedback on your progress in this unit during tutorials and discussions throughout the semester. Weight: 0%

Assessment name: Narrative Storyboard
Description: (Summative and Formative) Storyboard. You will create a storyboard made up of a set number of images based on given themes. You are to utilise a range of Narrative Techniques suitable to the telling of that story.
Relates to objectives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 7
Weight: 30%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: Early Semester

Assessment name: Interactive Story
Description: You will write a proposal describing how you could develop your ten frame storyboard into an Interactive Story, Game or Hypermedia Fiction. Consider multi-path and multi-form structures for your story. You may offer an illustration of Interactive Pathways (flowchart) to help describe the structure of your work. Length: 800 words minimum.
Relates to objectives: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7
Weight: 20%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: Mid Semester

Assessment name: Proposal for Interactive Title
Description: (Formative and Summative) Proposal for Interactive Title. You are to write a detailed formal proposal outlining the form and content of an Interactive Project.
Relates to objectives: 2, 3, 5, 7, 8
Weight: 50%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: End of Semester

Academic Honesty

QUT is committed to maintaining high academic standards to protect the value of its qualifications. To assist you in assuring the academic integrity of your assessment you are encouraged to make use of the support materials and services available to help you consider and check your assessment items. Important information about the university's approach to academic integrity of assessment is on your unit Blackboard site.

A breach of academic integrity is regarded as Student Misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties.

Resource materials

Recommended Reading

There is no prescribed text book for this unit. Below are a series of recommended texts and references. Extra references will be supplied in class. Many references are available only on the Web; URLs to these will be published on the class Blackboard web site.

Recommended

Aarseth, E. J. (1997). Cyber text: perspectives on erotic literature. Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins University Press

Borges, J. L. and A. B. Ruch (1995). The modern word Jorge Luis Borges, The garden of forking paths. The Modern Word

Calvino, I. and W. Weaver (1997). Invisible cities. London: Vintage

Calvino, I. and W. Weaver (1999). If on a winter's night a traveler. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace & Company

Crawford, C. (2003). Chris Crawford on game design. Indianapolis, Ind: New Riders

Hayles, N. K. (2002). Writing machines. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press

Laurel, B. (1991). Computers as theatre. Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley Pub

McCloud, S. (1999). Understanding comics. New York: Paradox Press

McCloud, S. (2000). Reinventing comics. New York, N.Y: Paradox Press

Manovich, L. (2001). The language of new media. Cambridge, Mass; London: MIT Press

Murray, J. H. (2000). Hamlet on the holodeck: the future of narrative in cyberspace. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press

Salen, K. and E. Zimmerman (2004). Rules of play: game design fundamentals. Cambridge, Mass; London: MIT Press

Risk assessment statement

There are no out of the ordinary risks associated with this unit.

Disclaimer - Offer of some units is subject to viability, and information in these Unit Outlines is subject to change prior to commencement of semester.

Disclaimer - Offer of some units is subject to viability, and information in these Unit Outlines is subject to change prior to commencement of semester.

Last modified: 05-Oct-2012