Story and Simulations for Serious Games: Tales from the Trenches

How to create a simulation where participants have a sense of freedom and personal control while still maintaining the structure necessary for an effective story is a difficult task indeed. This book examines how to create an engaging, effective story (necessary to teach participants), while relating practical considerations of building a simulation. It also looks at stories as classic ways of teaching and gathering knowledge and considers other theories of interactive narrative design such as synthetic story creation and management and participant-generated story experiences. It also discusses enabling technologies in artificial intelligence, synthetic characters design and development, speech recognition technology, 3D modelling, and the future of story-driven games. Story Driven Simulations reviews the existing efforts in this field as well as focusing on the recent efforts of Paramount Pictures and The Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California, where this expert author team created successful simulations for the U.S. Army, Department of Defense, as well as other educational simulations.

*Learn to create a new kind of gaming experience that will broaden the audience for entertainment games and simulations by engaging game users at an emotional rather than a purely visceral level.

*Learn to engage players in more memorable, effective experiences that can deal with far more complex and demanding skills such as management, leadership and crisis decision-making.

*Features a unique mix of theory and application providing practical advice using real-world examples from recent military research and development projects

Terry Borst is a Writers Guild of America member with credits in feature films, episodic television, and videogames, including the award-winning WING COMMANDER III and WING COMMANDER IV, and Microsoft's space adventure game FREELANCER. He has also taught screenwriting and multimedia design at UCLA, USC, the College of Santa Fe, the Banff Centre for the Arts, Moorpark College and various conferences and workshops.

Terry Borst is a Writers Guild of America member with credits in feature films, episodic television, and videogames, including the award-winning WING COMMANDER III and WING COMMANDER IV. He has also taught screenwriting and multimedia design at UCLA, USC, the College of Santa Fe, the Banff Centre for the Arts, Moorpark College and various conferences and workshops.

INTRODUCTION; PART ONE: STORIES; PART TWO: CHARACTERS; PART THREE: STORY STRUCTURE CASE STUDIES; PART FOUR: GAME DESIGN; PART FIVE: EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT; PART SIX: BUILDING THE IMMERSIVE ENVIRONMENT; PART SEVEN: STORY DEVELOPMENT CASE STUDIES; PART EIGHT: THE FUTURE OF DISTANCE LEARNING; PART NINE: THE FUTURE OF STORY DRIVEN GAMES; CONCLUSION