Topic to Tale: Combining Narrative-Focused Design Methods to Increase Understanding of Narrative Importance in Serious Games

Abstract

Narrative plays a key role in serious games when it comes to player experience and learning, and likewise studies have found a compelling narrative to improve player investment. Yet despite the benefits, narrative in commercial games tends to lag in quality, and in serious games tends to only serve contextual purposes. Creating a truly interactive narrative is challenging due to various mechanical and practical constraints, and the pedagogical dimension added in educational serious games only increases complexity.

Methodologies proposed in the past, such as Narrative Serious Game Mechanics (NSGMs) and iterative learning cycles, show potential but are limited by the scope they respectively address. I have combined the best aspects of various such methods to alleviate these limitations. I created a prototype game, which was refined through focus groups, and expanded into two versions: One containing the proposed Narrative-to-Game and Game-to-Narrative mechanics, and one baseline containing conventional narrative techniques. To evaluate the relative influence of the proposed method on player experience and learning behaviour, the two versions were compared through a survey study.

Ultimately, the study failed to produce sufficient results to conclude an improvement in learning efficiency or player experience, due to various limitations. However, both the proposed methodology and baseline methodology are shown to facilitate learning behaviour. While it thus cannot be concluded that the proposed methodology performs better, there similarly are no sufficient results to reject it. Further research is required.