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Jennifer Allaway (Senior Game Writer, Monolith Productions)
Location: Room 2006, West Hall
Date: Monday, March 20
Time: 2:10 pm - 2:40 pm
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits Pass
Topic: Game Narrative
Format: Lecture
Vault Recording: Video
Audience Level: All
Sociological storytelling is where the story's focus in the game narrative centers on the inherent struggles between larger societal forces—usually told through the lens of characters who must deal with the impact of this struggle. It is character-driven but not about the characters. It's about the struggles and forces that are bigger than any one person. And they can lead to extremely satisfying narrative experiences.
In this talk, Jennifer Allaway lays out the benefits of approaching game narratives with this lens, analyzes games that are great examples of sociological storytelling, and delivers practices that guests can take home with them and try in their current games.
Attendees will learn the benefits of sociological storytelling to game narratives, and methods by which to implement it in their own narrative practice.
This is for anyone working on game narrative—though this talk will be especially useful for games in the conceptual and pre-production phases of development, where the most impact of sociological storytelling can be planted ahead of time.