Foundations and Frontiers
| Module title | Foundations and Frontiers |
|---|---|
| Module code | EASM199 |
| Academic year | 2025/6 |
| Credits | 30 |
| Module staff | Dr Amy Cutler (Convenor) |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 11 |
| Number students taking module (anticipated) | 16 |
|---|
Module description
This module will introduce you to the fundamental principles of interactive digital storytelling across disciplines, industries and technologies. You will be introduced to concepts such as computation; simulation; spatiality and environment; interactivity, choice and multi-linear narrative; virtuality; immersion; audience agency, play and performance; experience design and many others.
The critical ideas will be interwoven with creative experimentation and technical training in different tools, approaches and media. This ranges from storyboards, design documentation and interaction flows through to authoring simple prototypes in software such as Twine, Inklewriter, Ren’Py, Stornoway and Bitsy, as well as industry standards such as Unity and Unreal Engine.
Module aims - intentions of the module
Through a series of seminars and practical workshops, this module will grow your proficiency in a range of tools and build your critical framework for working with diverse storytelling technologies. You will develop both analytical and technical abilities and will develop your own skills portfolio alongside your exploration of story-led interaction across hybrid platforms. This encompasses video games, interactive fiction, interactive film and television, interactive journalism, transmedia and web-based works, hybrid theatre practice, digital heritage interpretation, immersive and locative sound work, live experience design, ‘serious games’, robotics and what are collectively termed the ‘immersive creative industries’ (VR, MR, AR and XR), amongst others.
The weekly topics will provide opportunities for hands-on experiments with different challenges of the design process involved in authoring responsive, interactive, and complex narrative experiences. This module will provide an introductory foundation to a range of storytelling practices for students to steer their learning into specialist options (Term 2) and the subsequent sustained independent storytelling project.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. Demonstrate advanced knowledge of key critical concepts in the history of interactive narrative, including ergodic, procedural, emergent and participatory storytelling
- 2. Synthesise skill sets of the disciplines which powerfully shape the contemporary interactive storytelling industries, from literary studies to game theory and user experience design
- 3. Craft writing utilising the unique spatial, procedural, and aesthetic affordances of interactive storytelling
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 4. Examine and analyse the devices of effective and impactful interactive storytelling, including the role of immersion, agency, and transformation
- 5. Critically dissect issues of representation, reality, culture, identity, interpretation and experience in narrative design across texts and platforms
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 6. Demonstrate professional skills of digital portfolio building and presentation of work suitable to diverse pathways in the industry
- 7. Demonstrate an advanced ability to appropriately use digital technologies, understand their formal conventions and their theoretical frameworks in order to produce critical and creative work
Syllabus plan
The module will balance practical workshop-style seminars with readings on key ideas which shape the realities of the contemporary interactive storytelling industries. Students will learn new elements of craft and technique, organised to provide insights into the different pathways in the field; this will provide the necessary foundation and critical and practical toolkit for students to make choices for Term 2 options as well as their final project development.
Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that it will cover some or all of the following topics:
Definitions of Interactive Storytelling
Agency and Choice-Based Narrative
Multi-Platform Storytelling
Mixing Realities with AR Tools
Spatiality and Environment
Newsgames and Serious Play
Literary Gaming and Digital Fiction
Generative Media, GenAI, and Ethics
Experience Design in the New Narrative Industries
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | 278 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled learning and teaching | 22 | 2 hour seminars x 11 |
| Guided independent study | 99 | Independent research: 9 hrs weekly reading, playing and viewing of online resources |
| Guided independent study | 154 | Independent writing, designing, and practical development |
| Guided independent study | 25 | Assessment prep: formative and summative (incremental portfolio) |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly exercises and presentation of work | Equivalent to 1500 words total | 1-7 | Tutor and cohort feedback via seminars |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio assessment | 80 | Incremental assessment demonstrating key critical and practical elements. Equivalent of 3000-5000 words total | 2, 3, 6, 7 | Feedback sheet with opportunity for tutorial follow-up |
| Case Study | 20 | Presented or written; equivalent to 1000 words | 1, 4, 5 | Feedback sheet with opportunity for tutorial follow-up |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio assessment (80%) | Portfolio assessment (80%) | 2, 3, 6, 7 | Ref/def period |
| Case Study (20%) | Case study (20%) | 1, 4, 5 | Ref/def period |
Re-assessment notes
Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.
Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 50%.
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
You can expect to encounter a wide range of types of digital texts and experiences on this module, including games, articles, and hybrid media and film such as Bear71; further reading lists and guidance will be provided, but some indicative texts follow below:
- Marie-Laure Ryan, A New Anatomy of Storyworlds: What Is, What If, As If (Ohio State University Press, 2022)
- Hartmut Koenitz, Understanding Interactive Digital Narrative: Immersive Expressions for a Complex Time (Routledge, 2023)
- Janet Murray, Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace (MIT, 2017 2nd edition)
- Noah Wardrip-Fruin ed, First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game (MIT, 2004)
- Jenny Kidd & Alke Gröppel-Wegener, Critical Encounters with Immersive Storytelling (Routledge, 2019)
- Katherine Isbister, How Games Move Us: Emotion by Design (MIT, 2016)
- Astrid Enslinn, Literary Gaming (MIT, 2014)
- Nick Montfort, Twisty Little Passages: An Approach to Interactive Fiction (MIT, 2003)
- Judith Aston et al, I-docs: The Evolving Practices of Interactive Documentary (Columbia University Press, 2017)
- Kelly McErlean, Interactive Narratives and Transmedia Storytelling: Creating Immersive Stories Across New Media Platforms (Routledge, 2018)
- Anna Anthropy, Rise of the Videogame Zinesters: How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Drop-outs, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form (Seven Stories Press, 2012)
- Ian Bogost, Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames (MIT, 2007)
- Bobby Schweizer, Ian Bogost, and Simon Ferrari, Newsgames: Journalism at Play (MIT, 2010)
- R. Lyle Skains, Never-Ending Stories: The Popular Emergence of Digital Fiction (Bloomsbury, 2022)
- Anastasia Salter and Stuart Moulthrop, Twining: Critical and Creative Approaches to Hypertext Narratives (Fulcrum, 2021)
Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources
- MIT Docubase https://docubase.mit.edu/
- The Interactive Fiction Database https://ifdb.org/
- Interaction Design Foundation https://www.interaction-design.org/
- Itch.io https://itch.io/
- Echoes https://echoes.xyz/
- GDC Vault https://gdcvault.com/
- Neocities https://neocities.org/
- Steam https://store.steampowered.com/
- VR/AR Association https://www.thevrara.com/
- International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling https://link.springer.com/conference/icids
- The Electronic Literature Organisation https://eliterature.org/
| Credit value | 30 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 15 |
| Module pre-requisites | None |
| Module co-requisites | Interactive Storytelling Project (EASM203) |
| NQF level (module) | 7 |
| Available as distance learning? | No |
| Origin date | 26/03/2025 |
| Last revision date | 25/04/2025 |
