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A Model for Analyzing Diegesis in Digital Narrative Games

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Interactive Storytelling (ICIDS 2019)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 11869))

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Abstract

Effectively communicating information about the diegetic boundary of a story world is critical to interactive narratives in games. It is crucial to the player’s ability to reason about how the game establishes and limits their options for interaction. However, games have proven difficult to apply traditional models of diegesis to, due to their interactive nature. Having a model for analyzing diegesis in interactive storytelling games could prove beneficial for the examination of communication between designer and player. In this paper, we present possible foundations of such a model, using film theory and the Interaction Model for Interactive Narratives as a lens. We define constructs and components that can be used to identify, isolate, and examine elements of a narrative game that define its diegetic experience and, through four case studies, demonstrate the utility of the model in analyzing the effects of diegesis and include observations on how to improve communication about diegetic boundaries between designer and player.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Khoury College of Computer Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Erica Kleinman, Elin Carstensdottir & Magy Seif El-Nasr

Authors
  1. Erica Kleinman
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  2. Elin Carstensdottir
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  3. Magy Seif El-Nasr
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Erica Kleinman .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Rogelio E. Cardona-Rivera

  2. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Anne Sullivan

  3. University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    R. Michael Young

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Kleinman, E., Carstensdottir, E., Seif El-Nasr, M. (2019). A Model for Analyzing Diegesis in Digital Narrative Games. In: Cardona-Rivera, R., Sullivan, A., Young, R. (eds) Interactive Storytelling. ICIDS 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11869. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33894-7_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33894-7_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-33893-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-33894-7

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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