DTC 354 - Digital Storytelling

Hypertext & Hypermedia

To Do This Week

read/explore:

Journal

Hypertext — hyperlinks connecting documents — opens up new ways to write, think and connect with others in networks. Hypertext created the web, spawned new forms of art and ways of presenting knowledge.

A digital story can be made of hyperlinks that follow a linear sequence, like pages of a book. But what about multilinear networks, random access and user interactivity — computer properties that break away from strictly linear sequencing? Digital games certainly use narrative forms and there is a rich history of literary fiction that have game-like qualities. Can the computer do for storytelling what it has done for gaming? What kind of stories work best in digital form?

Explore With Those We Love Alive by Porpentine listed above. Be patient, things start to happen the more you explore. Journal about how the work is a story and how it is not story. Is there a coherent story world? What keeps you imaginatively engaged? Do you detect a plot and character development? How does the navigation structure bring you into the story? Is linear sequencing clear, vague or unimportant?

In Class

Video/Audio Narrative assignments DUE Thursday March 26

In-Class Videos

Works

Notes

What is the relationship between the world simulation, interaction and plot?

Ian Bogost

System operations are like the familiar narrative shell of game play: kill aliens, find gold, capture treasure, etc. Movie plots — romance, adventure, thriller — all have system operations. “protracted, dependent, sequential, and static” — universalising structures. Grand themes.

Unit operations are the small repetitive actions — steps in a process — that carry on the game play towards the larger plots. “succinct, discrete, referential, and dynamic”

The Terminal (2004): theme of characters waiting — for love, recognition, or for a visa. How theme of waiting interacts with characters, setting creates meaning. Episodic micro-narratives (unit operational) rather than plot-oriented.

Twine and Unit Operations

With Those We Love Alive: We don't know the goal of the game. We are thrown into unit operations. Giving choices for the player/reader to traverse a world. A mental model of a world develops over time. Engaging the imagination and building suspense.

  1. Set the scene. Where are we at start? The task to explore/discover the story-world.
  2. Connect spaces (links allow traversal of spaces) — surprises along the way.
  3. Place obstacles, objects, characters and other narrative details.
  4. Set some challenges (narrative conflict) along the way to reaching goal (game play).
  5. Add narrative or poetic detail, evoke a world or character.
  6. Make a way out, end point(s) or goal(s).

Hypermedia Narrative (15%) - DUE APRIL 16

Digital stories created for a computer environment can include non-linear navigation, direct access to data, variables, conditionals, interface design, random and parallel processes, hyperlinks, timed events, sound, image, video, and other forms of user interaction or agency. Unlike a traditional printed story, a hypermedia narrative can respond to the choices, actions, and attention of the reader/user.

“Hypermedia” refers to linked media. A hypermedia work may guide a user along a mostly linear path, or it may branch, loop, fragment, or open into a network of story elements. Some works are primarily text-based. Others combine text with sound, graphics, symbols, animation, photography, video, or interactive interface elements. Repetition, variation, discovery, and choice can all become part of the storytelling experience.

In this assignment, you will create an interactive story meant to be explored or experienced by a reader/user on a computer screen. Your project may be made in Twine (the downloaded desktop version only, not the online version) or you may build your own interactive project using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. If you build your own project, you may use AI tools such as ChatGPT or Claude.ai to help you brainstorm, plan, troubleshoot, or generate code, but you are still responsible for understanding, shaping, and crediting the work you submit.

Your project can include game-like elements such as exploration, puzzles, scoring, inventory, or simple goals, but it must function first and foremost as a story experience. The reader/user should encounter characters, events, situations, memories, environments, or conflicts that unfold through interaction. In other words, this is not simply a game mechanic demo. It is an interactive narrative.

Project Possibilities

Your narrative may be:

Requirements

What Matters Most

Goal

This assignment is an opportunity to explore storytelling as a computational, interactive, and multimedia form. Think of it as a contained experiment or prototype that could become the foundation for a larger final project. The strongest projects will not simply present content on a screen, but will use interaction, structure, and media to create a distinct narrative experience.

Student Hypermedia Stories

ChatGPT or Claude.ai

Use AI tools to generate HTML/CSS pages. Create your own web hypertext and hypermedia (image, audio and video) story.

Twine Intro

Twine Resources

Twine Stories for Inspiration