2023/03/13 by Hartmut Koenitz · 1 voice · 3 citations
Health Professions · Social Sciences · Computer Science · #Digital Storytelling and Education #Digital Games and Media #Artificial Intelligence in Games
paper · doi:10.4324/9781003106425
openalex publication_date 2023/03/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
This remarkably clearly written and timely critical evaluation of core issues in the study and application of interactive digital narrative (IDN) untangles the range of theories and arguments that have developed around IDN over the past three decades. Looking back over the past 30 years of theorizing around interactivity, storytelling, and the digital across the fields of game design/game studies, media studies, and narratology, as well as interactive documentary and other emerging forms, this text offers important and insightful correctives to common misunderstandings that pervade the field. This book also changes the perspective on IDN by introducing a comprehensive conceptual framework influenced by cybernetics and cognitive narratology, addressing limitations of perspectives originally developed for legacy media forms. Applying its framework, the book analyzes successful works and lays out concrete design advice, providing instructors, students, and practitioners with a more precise and specific understanding of IDN. This will be essential reading for courses in interactive narrative, interactive storytelling, and game writing, as well as digital media more generally.