Contemporary Media and Fiction

English 230: An undergraduate course for 60 students
Fall 2022 at the University of Victoria
lək̓ʷəŋən and WSÁNEĆ Territories
TWF, 1:30-2:20pm
Taught by Jentery Sayers (he / him)
With Babak Ashrafkhani, teaching assistant
Office hours: W, 12-1pm; Th, 12:30-1:30pm
jentery@uvic.ca

Prompt 4

During Weeks 9, 11, and 12, we discussed how action is a medium and also what it means for stories to have interfaces. How do stories turn input into output? What role does feedback play in narrative? How are mechanics expressive?

This prompt asks you to share your knowledge of action and interfaces by demaking a game, playtesting it, or expanding its lore.

Aim

Your response to this prompt should demonstrate how games compel their audiences to act, if only by pressing a button or selecting an option in a menu. We’ve talked a lot about choice and satisfaction in this context. Choice: What actions or “verbs” do games afford players? Does less choice result in boredom? Do too many choices result in confusion? Where do we find variety in a given game, and where do we find repetition? Satisfaction: To what degree are desirable outcomes attainable? How uncertain are the outcomes, and how predictable are they? Across story and mechanics, what’s the right type of difficulty for you as a player or reader?

Format

You’ve three options for this prompt. Please pick one.

  1. Demake. This option asks you to turn Celeste into a text game. Imagine you’ve a friend who is interested in Celeste’s story but will not play platformers. You decide to give them a gift: you use Twine to demake a chapter or two of Celeste into a series of linked passages with choices and multiple paths through the narrative. One of your friend’s favourite games is With Those We Love Alive, so maybe you use its style and format for inspiration. Either way, your hope is to pique your friend’s interest in Celeste by rendering its story more accessible, if not more satisfying, to them. You use the Twine app to make your game or build in it in your browser. Once you finish demaking a chapter or two of Celeste, you give the text game to your friend along with a letter that’s about 300 words long. Your letter tells them: 1) which part of Celeste you demade into text, 2) why you selected that part of Celeste to demake, 3) how your text game uses action or an interface to communicate part of Celeste’s story, and 4) what about the text game you hope is accessible and satisfying. Your friend (perhaps an actual friend!?!) is your intended audience, so your writing is informal and follows the conventions of a friendly letter. You integrate games terminology into your letter such that your friend, who doesn’t play platformers, understands it.
  2. Playtesting. This option asks you to provide the makers of With Those We Love Alive or Celeste with feedback on choice and satisfaction in their game. Pick one of these games and then imagine it hasn’t been published yet. The team behind the game employs you to share your experiences playing the game (lucky you!), with attention not to bugs or quality assessment per se but rather to your overall satisfaction with the choices the game affords and how it affords them. They also ask you to select a 5- to 15-minute slice of the game for the sake of focused and deliberate play. Use either 4-5 minutes of video or about 750 words to give them your feedback on that slice. Maybe you underscore how the game tracks your decisions and nudges you to follow certain story beats. Perhaps you attend to what the game renders attainable or unattainable. Or you could highlight when the game’s mechanics are expressive or rewarding. Whatever the path, they’re eager to hear more about how their game articulates action and mechanics with story and experience. Which choices in the game struck you as especially important, and how satisfying were the actions you could perform? The game’s team is your intended audience, and they’re hoping for descriptive feedback (not suggestions for improvement). You can assume they’re familiar with games terminology and, of course, the intricacies of their own game.
  3. Fanlore. This option asks you to interact with With Those We Love Alive or Celeste by expanding the lore for one of its characters. You’ve studied both games in this course, and we’ve discussed how each has important characters or NPCs who shape the story. Yet the backstories of these characters may be opaque to us. Now’s your time to change that. Use whatever format you prefer to give fans of Celeste or With Those We Love Alive more backstory for one NPC. Perhaps you share that backstory through a journal entry (written by the NPC), a text exchange (between the NPC and someone else), a phone conversation (ditto), a photograph (by or of the NPC), social media (involving the NPC), or . . . (See what the Celeste team did with Theo’s Instagram account, for example.) Whatever your approach, my advice is to keep it simple and avoid scope creep (i.e., doing too much with what little time and resources you’ve left in the term). Please use about 300 words to briefly describe your new backstory for the NPC. Your written description should tell fans of the game: 1) which NPC you selected, 2) why you selected that NPC, 3) how your backstory for that NPC enriches the experience of the game, and 4) what about your backstory you hope is satisfying for fans. The game’s fans are your intended audience, so your writing and fanlore can be informal. You can also assume they’re familiar with games terminology and, of course, the intricacies of the game.

Do not publish your response to this prompt online. (We’ll talk more about fair dealing in class.)

Audiences

A friend (imaginary or real) is your audience for Option 1, “Demake.” The game’s team is your audience for Option 2, “Playtesting.” And fans of the game are your audience for Option 3, “Fanlore.”

Twine

If you’re new to Twine (for Option 1 or even Option 3), then I recommend consulting Julie Funk’s tutorial, which I circulated in both Brightspace and the class notes.

You can upload your Twine game’s HTML file to Brightspace.

Assessment

I will assess your response to Prompt 4 based on the following criteria:

You will receive one mark for each of these four criteria, which will be tallied (.25 x 4) to result in your grade for Prompt 4. I will use UVic’s grading system for assessment, according to this rubric: “exceeds and raises expectations” (A+), “exceeds expectations” (A, A-), “exceeds some expectations” (B+), “meets expectations” (B, B-), “meets some expectations” (C+, C), “meets few expectations” (D), and “no submission.”

Since this is your final assignment, you will not have an opportunity to revise it. Thanks for understanding.

What to Submit

Your response to Prompt 4 should be a Twine game (an HTML file) accompanied by a 300-word letter (Option 1), 4-5 minutes of video or about 750 words (Option 2), or fanlore (any format) accompanied by a 300-word description (Option 3).

You should submit it via Brightspace. Look for the “Prompt 4” assignment. Feel free to submit more than one file. If I cannot access the file or its format, then I’ll let you know.

Please include references somewhere in your submission (in the comments or at the end of a Word document, for instance). Here are citations for the two works at hand:

Email me if you’ve any questions about making, formatting, or uploading any of these files. I don’t want you to spend much time on the technical particulars, especially if you’re just wondering what I can access or download.

When to Submit It

Please submit your response to Prompt 4 via Brightspace by Tuesday, December 13th at 1:30pm. If you would like a 48-hour extension (no questions asked), then please request it by email. I cannot extend the due date beyond Thursday, December 15th at 1:30pm. Thanks for understanding.