Filed under: Consultancy
CIN has been invited to evaluate possibilities to add value in educational games for kids. The publisher Natur & Kultur is one of the bigger company in Sweden in traditional book publishing. In 2010 N&K expanded their products into the digital sphere: e-books and interactive media. In this process CIN has been involved to evaluate what possibilities we have to improve on the work they already has initiated.
Being the UK game industries trade association TIGA has an impact on both on relations to state bodies and different actors in the industry. In order to promote educational efforts in the industry and a best practice that can make the industry excel TIGA has now initiated a preferred training supplies guide. This guide include organizations that has the capability to assist the industry in various areas. And of course, when it comes to development of interactive narratives CIN is the preferred choice.
“Dr. Richard Wilson, TIGA CEO, explains the rationale for the new service:
TIGA research shows that UK games businesses spend on average 6.6 per cent of turnover on training and 91 per cent of UK games businesses provide training for their employees.
…
Our preferred training suppliers have a range of skills including leadership and management development, interactive narrative design, 3D technology, art and anatomical design, VFX, presenting and conflict management.
Trainers include: The Leadership Factory, Scott Eaton, Escape Studios, Elizabeth Rivers and Creating Interactive Narratives.”
Read the whole newsletter here.
Filed under: Article
Michael Thomsen recently published an article in The Escapist about spoilers in games that we think are an interesting piece.
“It’s hard to know the exact the origin of the term “spoiler.” The idea that learning some plot points in advance can ruin a work seems at least somewhat absurd. The Godfather is no less rich for knowing Michael will eventually take his father’s place. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is no less charming and puzzling when you know Gannon will arrive at the end.”
Our colleague Peter Zackariasson has made a minor contribution.
I think we all can agree with the truism that a film is a film, and a game is a game. But, when it comes to making a film out of a game, or vice versa, it seems like people tend to forget about the differences between the media.
“Resident Evil – afterlife” is the latest example of a game made into a film. The story is about a woman (played by Milla Jovovich) who has to evacuate humans so they won’t get infected by a virus, and turned into zombies. The problem with Resident Evil is that the director wants to please two different kinds of audiences – gamers and movie lovers – making him create something in-between.
Fork and knife are really good companions. The fork grabs a steak, and holds on to it, while the knife cuts through. Without the fork the knife would only make the steak move around on the plate and lots of time would be wasted. And without the knife there would only be a fork in the stake status quo.
The same applies to narrative and game mechanics when designing a video game. Like a fork, the narrative grabs the player in order for the mechanics to do its job. But if you create game mechanics and afterwards try to create a narrative that will fit these mechanics, then you will face problems. (more…)
Filed under: Reflections
Within film there is an expression among scriptwriters saying: ”Don’t tell, show”. This means that you should avoid telling what a character is feeling; instead you should find ways to express it by showing the feelings, not to make the audience disassociate with the film. Within video games there are no such advices, but it certainly would need to develop its own version of this expression.
In order to expand our service offerings to improve narrative contents in the game industry we now offer the service to review manuscripts. Having more then 15 years of experience from film, TV and interactive media we will provide feedback on narrative aspects and possibilities of translating the manuscript to gameplay.
For quality assurance we can offer a free short sample review on your manuscript. Please contact us for more information.
This was published at Village Gamer
MiGS has just announced that Narrative Bridging: A CIN workshop will be taking place immediately after the Montreal International Game Summit. The two day workshop takes place November 10 and 11 at the Hilton Bonaventure Hotel and will focus on developing advanced interactive narratives using Narrative Bridging. This will give the participants tools for designing interactive narratives for video games and show the mechanisms that motivate the player to action in the game world. The focus will be on Narrative Bridging and model and control design. After the workshop the participants will understand how the narrative creates incentives for the players to form strategies in the game world and how to accommodate for that in the narrative design.
Filed under: Workshop
We will give a workshop at the MIGS conference in Montreal, Nov. 10-11. the information is now up, so sign up now!
In this workshop, participants will learn how to develop advanced interactive narratives using Narrative Bridging. This will give the participants tools for designing interactive narratives for video games and show the mechanisms that motivate the player to action in the game world. The focus will be on Narrative Bridging and model and control design. After the workshop the participants will understand how the narrative creates incentives for the players to form strategies in the game world and how to accommodate for that in the narrative design.
In order to increase our exposure we have joined TIGA, an organization that supports game developers and associated business in the UK.
“TIGA exists to represent and to serve the interests of games developers and associated businesses. TIGA’s vision is to make the UK the best place in the world to do games business. We focus on three sets of operational activities: political representation, generating media coverage and developing services that enhance the competitiveness of our members.”
