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“Rules of Engagement” Synopsis The “rules of engagement” synopsis is a high-level overview of the user engagement aspects of the transmedia narrative written from the user’s perspective. It should provide a “hands-on picture of the experience, including what users will be confronted with, what they expect to have to agreeContinue Reading

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The human-centered design approach emphasizes an approach that focuses on designing information systems that enhance the “activity and dominance of the user” (Cooley, 2000, p. 66) and complement the human user’s skills rather than ignoring or actively rejecting them. This aligns nicely with the goal of most transmedia narratives to fosterContinue Reading

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I’ve uploaded a brief (20 slide) PowerPoint presentation that provides a quick overview to processes for engagement, interaction and narrative design for transmedia narratives. Transmedia narratives an overview View more presentations from Peter von StackelbergContinue Reading

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User Control of Characters    While it may be tempting to design a transmedia narrative so that users can play the role of a major character, research has shown that the audience response to that approach is generally negative. A study of the British television series Spooks and its associatedContinue Reading

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The decision of how tightly user actions (agency relationship) are linked to the transmedia narrative is one of the most significant decisions a transmedia narrative designer will make. User input can take a variety of forms, from the control of avatars in games to user communication via social networking inContinue Reading

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Choosing to develop a transmedia narrative means giving the author all or most of the control over the narratives’ flow and meaning. Reader control is severely limited because the narrative’s coherence can be compromised by the reader’s desire to take the story in a direction that the author’s version ofContinue Reading

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The discussion of “interactivity” in transmedia narratives covers a broad range of concepts that can confuse as much as clarify the issues of transmedia narrative design. In order to clarify the different concepts associated with “interactivity” and their relation-ships to other elements of transmedia narratives, the terms “user engagement design”Continue Reading

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Significant objects are the second type of existents (Ryan, Storyworlds Across Media, 2011). To qualify as a plot-significant object, an object must have a substantial impact on the story’s plot. The One Ring in The Lord of the Rings trilogy is an example of a significant object. Without the ring,Continue Reading

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The posts in this blog are based on portions of my thesis “Creating Transmedia Narratives: The Structure and Design of Stories Told Across Multiple Media”. I have posted a PDF of the full version of the thesis on SlideShare. You can download it from there. Now that I’ve finished myContinue Reading

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A variety of story structures are possible with this storyworld framework. For example, Freytag’s Triangle (with or without flashbacks) (see Figure 1) can be represented with this storyworld framework. Selecting existents, events, and settings from some point in the story time’s past makes it possible to create flashbacks and flashContinue Reading