contemporary.screen.narratives.2012
Post on 07-Sep-2014
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Hi everyone, hope you’re enjoying the conference I’ll start by quickly give you some context to my presenta=on I work as a Games & Transmedia Strategist for Dubit, a digital entertainment studio and research agency My role creates a bridge between the RESEARCH and GAME DEVELOPMENT teams One day I’m doing games tes=ng, next day I’ll be working on game design or involving audiences in media co-‐crea=on approaches
Oh yeah, and I get to play a few games…
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Last year I wrote a MASTERS thesis based on a game produced for the BBC This game was MUDDLE EARTH – a casual quest-‐based virtual world aimed at children – developed by Dubit, for whom I work This presenta=on is based on the study of this game
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This was essen=ally a study of game produc=on, and followed the adapta=on journey of the Muddle Earth IP from a children’s book, into a BBC TV series, and finally into a game. As both game development professional and academic researcher I wanted to explore how games research could contribute to game produc=on and to the design of beVer games. The main objec=ves of this study were to understand the processes of adapta=on from other media into games, in the context of cross-‐media strategies; and par=cularly explore what happens to narra=ve in its journey from paper to screens to games. How it’s con=nued, how it is transformed, how it is integrated into ludic structures by inspiring game mechanics…
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• Johnson’s circuit of culture proposes four main interac=ng areas for media studies – the best way to understand a text is to cover all areas
• Most Game Studies have typically focused on textual analysis and player studies
• But produc=on has oZen been overlooked – frequently due to a lack of coopera=on between game producers and game academics
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I was really happy when I read the CfP for this conference, whose objec=ves were to:
• trace connec=ons between the narra=ves of contemporary screen media and their contexts of produc=on
• explore ways in which stories and their on-‐screen telling are informed by contemporary industrial and technological condi=ons
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The body of academic research on adapta=on of texts from other media into games and vice-‐versa is s=ll modest.
Empirical studies of games as adapta=ons, where researchers interview producers and have access to design and produc=on documents are even rarer. But in order to study media texts it is essen=al to understand their contexts of produc=on.
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The research looks at the text and its production, drawing on: • empirical data from game-‐playing • interviews with producers • the analysis of design and production documents and
conversations – had access to the project hub
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The usefulness of narra-ve theory • In a recent ar=cle in Gamasutra, a game cri=c defended that only 20% of games
should tell stories – I don’t want to get into the ludology vs. narratology debate, but even though computer games are indeed games, many of them do try to tell stories too – especially when they are adapta=ons of exis=ng stories or part of wider transmedia IPs where narra=ve is important
• Krzynskwa: narra=ve theory useful – in this case to understand how transla=on into a different medium transforms the narra=ve
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The process of adapta=on is analysed with a special focus on the ways in which the hypotext narra=ve underwent modifica=ons at the levels of character traits and func=ons, plot structure and effects (humour).
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The TV series • Previous adapta=on – Jackanory -‐ virtually a transcrip=on onto TV –
human narrator telling the story with CGI characters – high fidelity to the book
• This version of Muddle Earth was not described as an adapta=on, but instead as a cartoon ‘based on’ the book
• The objec=ve here is to describe the main transforma=ons and factors behind these
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About Games • A computer game is a game, so it’s obvious that there is a ludic
dimension in the ME game – goals, resources, skill, scores, and so on • And because it is an online mul--‐player game where you can see and
contact other people, is clearly a social dimension to playing – of the player opts to be ‘social’
• Narra-ve is an important link with original IP – narra=ves acquire heightened importance in contemporary transmedia contexts – I’m not saying narrar=ve is the most important dimension (aZer all games are games), but one that deserves aVen=on
• Narra=ve in games – especially authored narra=ve -‐ is situated at the intersec=on of mainly the ludic and representa=onal dimensions – games tell stories by being played – in games we move from story-‐telling to a mix of story-‐telling and STORY-‐PLAYING
• LET’S THEN SEE WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ME NARRATIVE IN THE GAME – HOW IT CONTINUED AND CHANGED FROM ITS SOURCE TEXTS
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• Game adaptations of narratives from other media are based not just hypertextually on their source texts
• but also intertextually on other games and games conventions, on technological resources and constraints
• Besides textual inAluences, game adaptations are also strongly shaped by ‘extratextual’ conditions of production (budgets, technology, editorial guidelines, established industrial practices and perceptions / conceptions of target audiences.), all of which inAluence the ways in which game adaptations translate existing narratives.
• I’d like to propose the term EXTRATEXTUALITY to encompass the analysis of this type of factors – the non-‐textual inAluences on the text
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This diagram provides grater detail on the series of intertextual and extratextual factors that influenced the produc=on of the ME game • In the whole process Brand consistency was essen=al to maximise benefits of
cross-‐media and transmedia IPs – seamless consump=on, meet audience expecta=ons: readers, TV watchers – and gamers!
• Which means that it is essen=al to keep a good level of consistency with the source texts and their narra=ve in a transmedia context – this does not mean pure fidelity, but adop=ng a good level of brand consistency, and using the source narra=ve as inspira=on for narra=ve as well as ludic structures in the game
• How do we define ‘good consistency’ is another ques=on – one for my next project looking at how we can involve audiences in the design of game adapta=ons and as part of wider transmedia stories
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