Speaker: Clara Fernández-Vara

Date: Sep 13, 5-6pm, EAE Game Studio

Talk title: Narrative Design Beyond Games

Description: There is an increased need for narrative content in interactive media - from voice-recognition devices to augmented and virtual reality. Rather than making the same mistakes, we can look back at what games have done in decades past, since they have tackled the challenges of bringing interaction and storytelling in many shapes and forms. Narrative design is a key discipline in game design, which is now demonstrating its relevance as digital devices are becoming more and more accessible to mainstream users. The talk will cover key lessons learned from narrative design in games, and how they can help us design content in related areas, such as transmedia storytelling, intelligent agents, or advertising.

Bio: Clara Fernández-Vara is a game scholar, designer and writer. Her main research interest is the study of narrative in games and how it can integrate with game design. She is particularly interested in applying methods from textual analysis and performance studies to the study of video games and transmedia artifacts. Clara holds a Ph.D. in Digital Media from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Masters in Comparative Media Studies from MIT. Clara has presented her work at various international academic and industry conferences, such as DiGRA, Foundations of Digital Games and the Game Developer’s Conference. She has worked on experimental narrative games as part of her research, as well as commercial games. Her first book, Introduction to Game Analysis, has been published by Routledge