Welcome!

Hi and welcome to Writing for Multimedia - or Interactive Storytelling, if you're doing the games course.

Your teachers are Stefan Schutt (stefan.schutt {at} vu.edu.au) and Dale Linegar (daleoztron {at} gmail.com). Stefan will cover the general story, character and industry stuff, and Dale will be guide your guide into developing a story and machinima using Second Life (this will be your major project).

In this class, you’ll learn how to enhance your design and development career with writing skills. You’ll find out what makes stories and characters tick, how to create scripts and how interactive narratives differ from linear stories. We’ll also building assets in Second Life, making movies from within Second Life - and we'll cover some visual aspects of interactive writing including tips on how to write for the screen. Welcome aboard.

Week 1 :: Introductions. What is interactive media? What is interactivity? What is immersion? :: A history | Technology and times :: What is an interactive media writer? | What skills do they need? | Some project roles.

Generating ideas | Postcards exercise :: How to write: point of view, style and structure, active/passive voices, sentence length

Week 2 :: Script formatting for dialogue. Plotting and story shapes: linear narrative. Hero’s Journey. Three act play.

Week 3 :: Flexible week: create storyboard of linear narrative. Create script of scene.

Week 4 :: Non-linear and interactive stories. Creating characters: character sketches.

Week 5 :: Writing dialogue: pacing, believability.

Creating worlds: fleshing out your idea, Creating worlds cont

Week 6 :: Introduction to Virtual Reality and Second Life. Basic Avatar Design. Location
Reviews - Uploading artwork

Week 7 :: Avatar design, T-shirt design, Prop design

Week 8 :: NGV, Building and scripting objects - Fridge with opening door,
rotating kitchen items

Week 9 :: Building and scripting objects - Furniture with sitting/sleeping
scripts

Week 10 :: Comic Life - recreating stories as comic strips using SL

Week 11 :: Machinima in SL - tips and techniques

Week 12 :: Filming and editing

Week 13 :: Filming and editing

Week 14 :: Filming and editing; presentations