Writing Interactively

Module title	Writing Interactively
Module code	EASM200
Academic year	2025/6
Credits	30
Module staff	Dr Robert Sherman (Convenor)

Duration: Term	1	2	3
Duration: Weeks		11

Number students taking module (anticipated)	16

Module description

Despite its reputation for multimedia spectacle and computational complexity, written language remains central to interactive story design. In this module you will practice writing in a wide range of different contexts connected to interactive storytelling, developing a diverse skillset and professional portfolio of samples that will demonstrate the power of language to communicate with audiences, team members, employers, funders and more.

Using a range of simple software tools and creative techniques, you will not only explore the unique nature of writing for interaction, but its continuities and similarities with good writing in any form.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The module aims to introduce you to the wide range of contexts within which writing is used for interactive narrative design, beyond the simplistic stereotypes of ‘writing dialogue for video games’. The module centres on the principle that even in an age defined by multimedia production and generative AI, written language produced intentionally by a human being remains one of the most effective communicative tools for creative design. Indeed, writing in this form is considered as design practice, interpenetrated with the other design practices on such interdisciplinary projects.

To this end, the module aims to produce students who are confident using written language in ways that not only contribute directly to narrative through a distinctiveness, subtlety and well-developed voice, but which are adaptable to the many communicative requirements of interactive design, including vital skills in communicating design intentions to team mates and pitching to funders, clients and publishers.

As an industry-facing module, we aim to recreate the conditions under which writing for interaction takes place in professional projects: team-focused environments in which writing will be only one of the components of the finished work, and is often the component that is placed under the most challenging and shifting constraints. To this end, the module aims for you to:

• Get comfortable with challenge-led, constraints-based learning that emulates real industry conditions;

• Work iteratively as part of a team in which feedback and iterative revision are natural parts of the creative process;

• Critique and work with real-life examples from a range of industries, including the work of the tutors themselves;

• Develop a portfolio of samples that can contribute to professional goals beyond the course.

This module does not require any existing technical knowledge and would appeal to creative writers interested in interactive storytelling.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

1. Demonstrate a range of advanced technical and creative skills in writing for different contexts connected to interactive storytelling across industries;
2. Examine uses of writing across professional exemplars of interactive storytelling and critique it with reference to a range of theoretical and conceptual principles;

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

3. Operate flexibly, professionally and creatively as part of a diverse team in which constraints, dynamics and goals may change frequently;
4. Modify your creative work in an iterative fashion in response to feedback and the shifting needs of project work;

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

5. Produce a professional-quality portfolio of writing work suitable for diverse career pathways across industries;
6. Demonstrate an ability to use language to effectively communicate, advocate and promote project work to a range of stakeholders.

Syllabus plan

Each week on the module will focus on a different writing context within interactive storytelling, allowing students to build a theoretical and practical skillset represented by their growing portfolio.

Topics covered week-to-week will vary with delivery, but may include:

• Exposition, plotting, characterisation and worldbuilding through writing;

• Writing design documents and project pitches;

• Incidental, ambient, environmental and descriptive text;

• Balancing instructive and expressive text;

• Producing paratextual and non-diegetic materials including writing for interfaces;

• Writing to strict constraints;

• Learning when not to write, and working in conjunction with other media;

• Monologue, dialogue and scripting speech;

• Writing for choices and branching narrative;

• Writing for emergent and systemic designs;

• Story and plot structure in diagrammatic form;

• Modular and database-driven writing, including context-free grammars and procedural generation;

• Working with generative AI.

Each week will centre around two hour-long sessions, building on self-led work including:

- Theoretical and critical reading;

- Engagement with interactive experiences, creative writing and other exemplars;

- Individual writing exercises and practice.

Students will not be required to learn any code for this module, but tools and techniques introduced will include film-style scripts, branching prototyping tools such as Ink and Twine, database-driven content creation in spreadsheets and various documentation formats.

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	Two 1-hour seminars/workshops per week (x11)
Guided independent study	99	Independent research: Approximately 9 hours 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 creative exercises	Equivalent to 1500 words total	1-6	Tutor and cohort feedback via seminars/workshops

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
Writing Sample #1	10	500 words	1, 2, 4, 5, 6	Feedback sheet with opportunity for tutorial follow-up
Collaborative Brief	10	500 words	1, 3, 4, 6	Feedback sheet with opportunity for tutorial follow-up
Portfolio of Samples	80	Six samples of 500 words each (3,000 words total)	1, 2, 4, 5, 6	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
Writing Sample #1	Writing Sample #1 (10%)	1, 2, 4, 5, 6	Ref/def period
Collaborative Brief	Individual writing sample (10%)	1, 3, 4, 6	Ref/def period
Portfolio of Samples	Portfolio of Samples (80%)	1, 2, 4, 5, 6	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

Indicative reading (further reading lists will be provided):

- Writing For Games: Theory & Practice (Hannah Nicklin)

- Writing For Interactive Media: Social Media, Websites, Applications, e-Learning, Games (Timothy Garrand)

- Procedural Storytelling In Games Design (Tanya X. Short et al.)

- Game Writing: Narrative Skills For Videogames (Chris Bateman)

- Narrative Design: The Craft Of Writing for Games (Michael Breault)

- Bird by Bird (Annie Lamott)

- Steering The Craft (Ursula K. Le Guin)

- Three Uses Of The Knife (David Mamet)

- Narrative As Virtual Reality 2: Revisiting Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

- Kentucky Route Zero (Cardboard Computer)

- Blast Theory (http://blasttheory.co.uk)

- 80 Days, Overboard! and Expelled! (Inkle Studios)

- Bee (Emily Short)

- A Normal Lost Phone (Accidental Queens)

- Her Story and Immortality (Sam Barlow)

- Stone Harbor (Liza Daly)

- Scents and Semiosis (Sam Kabo Ashwell)

- Patchwork Girl (Shelley Jackson)

- Emily Short’s Interactive Storytelling (http://emshort.wordpress.com)

- Portal and Portal 2 (Valve Software)

- The Last Express (Jordan Mechner)

- Photopia (Adam Cadre)

- Tacoma (Fulbright Games)

- With Those We Love Alive (Porpentine Charity Heartscape)

- Summit (Phantom Williams)

- Zombies, Run! (Six To Start)

- Disco Elysium (ZA/UM)

- Fallen London (Failbetter Games)

- A range of AAA videogame titles including Call Of Duty, the Witcher and Assassins Creed series and others.

- The Electronic Literature Collections (https://collection.eliterature.org/)

Key words search

Interactive, Game Design, Video Game, Game Studies, Writing For Games, Interactive Fiction, Text Games, Narratology, Narrative Design, Creative Production, Scriptwriting, Videogame Writing

Credit value	30
Module ECTS	15
Module pre-requisites	None
Module co-requisites	None
NQF level (module)	7
Available as distance learning?	No
Origin date	10/04/2025