Writing and designing immersive stories: books, articles and other resources
Image from the article, "27 Ways To Tell A Story in VR" by Sam Saxton
BOOKS ABOUT WRITING & DESIGNING SPECIFICALLY FOR XR
Crafting Stories For Virtual Reality, Melissa Bosworth & Lakshmi Sarah
Story Structure and Development - A Guide for Animators, VFX Artists, Game Designers, and Virtual Reality, by Craig Caldwell
https://www.ebooks.com/en-dk/95773308/story-structure-and-development/caldwell-craig/
In the Blink of a Mind — Prologue, by Jessica Brillhart
https://medium.com/the-language-of-vr/in-the-blink-of-a-mind-prologue-7864c0474a29
Evette Vargas Wants to Set Standards with the Scriptwriting
BOOKS ABOUT WRITING FOR INTERACTIVE & GAMES
Video Game Writing From Macro to Micro, Marek Walton / Maurice Suckling
The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design, Dille / Platten
https://emshort.blog/2017/07/11/the-ultimate-guide-to-video-game-writing-and-design-dilleplatten/
Video Game Storytelling, Evan Skolnick
https://emshort.blog/2017/07/04/video-game-storytelling-evan-skolnick/
The Game Narrative Toolbox, Tobias Heussner, Toiya Kristen Finley, Jennifer Brandes Hepler & Ann Lemay
The advanced game narrative toolbox
Writing for Video Games (Professional Media Practice), Steve Ince
Character Development and Storytelling for Games, Lee Sheldon
Hamlet's Hit Points, Robin D. Laws
https://www.amazon.com/Hamlets-Hit-Points-Robin-Laws/dp/0981884024
Slay the Dragon - Writing Great Video Games, by Robert Denton Bryant & Keith Giglio
http://www.slaythedragonbook.com
Possible Worlds in Video Games - From Classic Narrative to Meaningful Actions, by Antonio José Planells de la Maza
http://press.etc.cmu.edu/index.php/product/possible-worlds-in-video-games/
Developing Creative Content for Games, By Greg Johnson
Video Game Storytelling - What every developer needs to know about narrative techniques, by Evan Skolnick
Interactive Stories and Video Game Art: A Storytelling Framework for Game Design, by Chris Solarski
BOOKS ABOUT WRITING FOR MOVIES, TV, COMICS & MORE
Story, by Robert McKee
https://mckeestory.com/books/story/
The Anatomy of Story, by John Truby
https://emshort.blog/2019/04/02/the-anatomy-of-a-story-john-truby/
Understanding Comics
Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey Into Story, by John Yorke
http://arubabooks.com/search/into-the-woods-a-five-act-journey-into-story/
BOOKS ABOUT WRITING STORIES IN GENERAL
Developing Story Ideas, by Michael Rabiger
https://www.amazon.com/Developing-Story-Ideas-Michael-Rabiger/dp/1138956236
The Negative Trait Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide To Character Flaws, by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi
https://writershelpingwriters.net/negative-trait-thesaurus/
The Positive Trait Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Attributes, by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi
https://writershelpingwriters.net/positive-trait-thesaurus/
ARTICLES
‘’VR Glossary’’
Designing great mixed reality games, AR Critic
https://arcritic.com/2296/designing-great-mixed-reality-games-part-1/
Designing Branching Narrative, Paul Nelson
https://thestoryelement.wordpress.com/2015/02/11/designing-branching-narrative/
Self-Training in Narrative Design, Emily Short
https://emshort.blog/2019/01/08/mailbag-self-training-in-narrative-design/
27 Ways To Tell A Story in VR
https://medium.com/@samsaxtonart/27-ways-to-tell-a-story-in-vr-bda425e694cb
A practical guide to game writing
https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/134542/a_practical_guide_to_game_writing.php?print=1
The Beginner’s Guide to VR Scriptwriting & Storytelling
https://vrscout.com/news/vr-scriptwriting-beginners-guide-writing-unframed/#
Writing for VR: The Definitive Guide to VR Storytelling
https://vrscout.com/news/writing-vr-definitive-guide-vr-storytelling/
The Storyteller’s Guide to the Virtual Reality Audience
Virtual Reality needs talented writers
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/writersroom/entries/9b263473-5eb2-4009-a9e0-08ddc880a8fa
NPR’s guide to building immersive storytelling projects
A Quick Guide to Designing for Augmented Reality on Mobile (Part 1)
9 Types of Visual Storytelling on Mobile
https://gijn.org/2019/01/02/9-types-of-visual-storytelling-on-mobile/
3 common augmented reality mistakes
https://medium.com/@davecancode/3-common-augmented-reality-mistakes-6ff5c08fa3cf
The immersed audience: how theatre is taking its cue from video games
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/may/20/how-theatre-is-taking-its-cue-from-video-games
Playable Stories The immersed audience: how theatre is taking its cue from video games
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/may/20/how-theatre-is-taking-its-cue-from-video-games
Game writing pitfalls and opportunities, Extra Credits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RzIDj0FGH0
What I Learned Making 5 ARKit Prototypes
https://medium.com/@nathangitter/what-i-learned-making-five-arkit-prototypes-7a30c0cd3956
The future of dialogue in games
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-future-of-dialogue-in-games/
PAPERS & THEORY
The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative
https://emshort.blog/2019/07/02/the-cambridge-introduction-to-narrative-h-porter-abbott/#more-39439
Storytelling in Video Games: The Art of Digital Narrative, by Amy Green
Curating Simulated Storyworlds, by James Ryan
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1340j5h2
https://emshort.blog/2019/05/21/curating-simulated-storyworlds-james-ryan/#more-39471
Towards a Theory of Choice Poetics
Writing and Design Methods that Negotiate Narrative and Player Agency
Dynamic Syuzhets: Writing and Design Methods for Playable Stories
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-71027-3_3
Open Design Challenges for Interactive Emergent Narrative
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-27036-4_2
From Narrative Games to Playable Stories: Toward a Poetics of Interactive Narrative
https://www.jstor.org/stable/25663007?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
Rethinking agency and immersion: video games as a means of consciousness-raising
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1076/digc.12.3.167.3225
Empathy in Wonderland
Choice poetics by example
https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/70930315_Peter_Mawhorter
PODCASTS & TALKS
Script Lock (podcast series)
The three pillars of game writing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNNXdoj7cCQ
The Nature of Order In Game Narrative, By Jesse Schell
Inspired by the idea of universal patterns that humans gravitate towards, Jesse Schell presents an inspirational and inspiring talk to replenish your narrative toolbox.
AI-driven Dynamic Dialog through Fuzzy Pattern Matching. Empower Your Writers!, by Elan Ruskin
Writing for interactive and immersive worlds comes with its own challenges. How can you build a system that gives power and flexibility to your writer? The first part of the talk is inspiring and good for all people interested in immersive narratives. The later part of the talk, really dives into the technical landscape of how to implement this in code.
Sandbox - a podcast exploring new forms and functions of storytelling
Roundtable discussion: design challenges & best practices for spatial computing, from the 2018 L.E.A.P. Conference
How to write interactive narratives for games - Interview with Jon Ingold from Inkle Studios
https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/article/how-to-write-interactive-narratives-for-games/
Script Lock, Max & Nick Folkman
https://scriptlock.simplecast.fm
Adapting the “Hierarchy of Understanding” Method for Games and Other Forms, by Christy Dena
Collections of resources
A collection of Blogs on Narrative Design and Game Writing blogs
https://emshort.blog/2019/06/18/narrative-design-related-blogs/#more-39419
Self-Training in Narrative Design - what do you need to learn, and how might you learn it?
https://emshort.blog/2019/01/08/mailbag-self-training-in-narrative-design/
16 Best Screenwriting Sites
https://nofilmschool.com/best-screenwriting-websites
Apple's guides to creating AR Experiences
https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2018/805/