Interactive Narrative Design - Week 1
23/9/2025 - 29/9/2025 / Week 1
ChenYuhan / 0378131
Interactive Narrative Design/ Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylors University
Week 1
ChenYuhan / 0378131
Interactive Narrative Design/ Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylors University
Week 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INSTRUCTIONS
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LECTURES
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Fundamental storytelling principles & elements
1. Character
2. Setting
3. Plot
4. Conflict
5. Theme
Plot Development
1. Exposition
2. Rising action
3. Climax
4. Falling action
5. Resolution
Interactive Narrative Structures
1. Linear
2. Branching
3. Hub-and-spoke
4. Emergent
5. Sandbox
An interactive narrative is a story in which the audience actively shapes the plot through their choices, actions, or participation.
1. Agency: the audience has influence over what happens.
2. Nonlinearity: the story does not always move in a straight line;
choices can create branches
3. Immersion: the audience feels involved as an active participant rather than just a passive spectator
WEEK 1
In the first class, we mainly focused on several stories.
1.
What is your favourite narrative piece and why?
My favorite work is Interstellar. I love works with a grand worldview and delicate emotions. The exploration of the unknown of the stars and the profound interpretation of "love" undoubtedly left a deep impression on me.
Did you identify with the character(s)
I totally agree. The characterization is genuine and imperfect:
Cooper: He's not a stereotypical hero. His pain at leaving his children behind, and his regret at seeing his daughter grow up and miss out on everything, are incredibly real. His motivation is always "going home," not simply saving the world.
Murphy: Her emotional transformation, from feeling abandoned by her father and resentful to ultimately understanding and reconciling, is compelling.
Do you resonate with the message / theme
Yes, the core theme is incredibly resonant.
It's not just about interstellar travel, but also about love as a transcendental connecting force. This imbues hardcore sci-fi with a powerful human touch.
Did you enjoy the interactivity
The "interaction" here can be understood as the audience's intellectual interaction with the story.
Rather than explaining everything clearly, the film requires the audience to actively think about and understand scientific concepts (such as wormholes and black holes) and piece together the fragments of the timeline and nonlinear narrative on their own.
Do you like the worldbuilding
Its worldbuilding is top-notch, solid, and well-delivered to the main themes:
Near-future Earth: Depicting a resource-depleted, technologically backward, and agriculturally focused dystopian society, it provides a compelling and justifiable motivation for space exploration.
Alien environments: Miller's planet's time dilation, Mann's icy plains—each planet offers a unique and deadly natural environment that becomes a direct plot obstacle.
Were the visuals / audio immersive?
Hans Zimmer's score, using organ music, creates a sense of solemnity and loneliness reminiscent of a religious epic. The roar of the spacecraft and the silence of the planet (Miller's Planet) all contribute to the intensely immersive atmosphere.
2.
Office worker discovers a mysterious black hole that lets him steal.
Decision points:
Use the hole for good or selfish gain?
Stop after small theft or go bigger?
Outcomes: caught, trapped, escapes, turns altruistic.
In the first ending, he didn't discover the black hole and lived a peaceful life.
In the second ending, he stole the money and ran away, living a wealthy life.
In the third ending, he entered the black hole and traveled to another world as a brave warrior.
In the fourth ending, he became a good man and used the black hole to clean up the world's garbage.
In the fifth ending, the black hole grew larger and larger, swallowing up the world.
3.
The protagonist is an interstellar explorer, exploring undiscovered planets. From the outset, she discovers something amiss: a native human population. The core conflict is that the people on this planet reject the Federation, inherently arguing with their differences. However, through interacting with them, the protagonist comes to appreciate their endearing qualities. A key branch is the protagonist's initial attitude toward the natives, which determines the outcome of the exploration. Another key branch is whether the Federation chooses to conceal the communication, which determines the entire story's outcome. If the story is too long, you can choose to only focus on the key plot points.
FEEDBACK
This class systematically introduced the basic concepts, structure, and implementation methods of interactive narrative design, covering the entire process from theory to practice. It emphasized the importance of audience participation in modern storytelling and pointed out its potential applications in various media formats, such as games and interactive films. The professor patiently guided us through any areas we struggled with, and the extensive game and film content made the class even more engaging.
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