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Hack Your Own Adventure: Turn Your Research Paper/Longread into a Game

[ UUID ] 0fc0043d-1921-473a-ad2f-beb815cc7e4a

[ Session Name ] Hack Your Own Adventure: Turn Your Research Paper/Longread into a Game [ Primary Space ] Digital Inclusion [ Secondary Space ] Web Literacy

[ Submitter's Name ] Natalie Walschots [ Submitter's Affiliated Organisation ] Dames Making Games / Stitch Media [ Submitter's GitHub ] @nataliezed

What will happen in your session?

*Participants will be introduced to the structure of online CYOA-style games as tools through which they can make their data and stories more open, accessible and experiential (also more fun and cool!). They will also get working definitions of interactive narratives, news games and serious games, and have the opportunity to see how these storytelling tools function. (20 minutes)

  • Participants will be led through a short workshop on several free, accessible online tools (Including Twine and Texture), giving them the technical tools to begin making their own digital interactive narratives after the workshop. (15 minutes)

  • Using cue cards, pin boards, markers and other analog tools, participants will craft a working prototype of their own interactive narrative. (55 minutes)

What is the goal or outcome of your session?

The goal of this session is threefold:

  1. to introduce the participants to the potentials of interactive narratives to foster a deeper awareness of and accessibility to the issues that they engage with;

  2. to give participants a working knowledge of interactive storytelling, branching narratives and the way that CYOA game mechanics can be used to educate and engage potential audiences; and

  3. to give participants experience using these tools and this new knowledge to craft and working version of an interactive narrative of their own.

All three of these outcomes serve the same final goal: to make complex data, complicated social issues and multi-faceted stories more accessible via interactive narratives that can be explored from multiple angles.

If your session requires additional materials or electronic equipment, please outline your needs.

A projector that can work with a Mac laptop (USB or thunderbolt connection) is great! If I can get access to some large format paper, a corkboard and pins, and a bunch of cue cards, that is amazing, but the prototyping can be done using a lot of different analog tools and can work with even basic office supplies.

Time needed

90 mins