Process of Gamestorming & Story Design
What worked best was freely brainstorming scenarios based on real challenges I have seen in digital media labs, such as equipment shortages, group conflicts, and unexpected technical problems. These gave me a strong foundation for building a story with authentic tension. What didn’t work as well was when I tried to design game mechanics before solidifying the story. This made the design feel forced until I refocused on narrative first.
If I had to repeat this process, I would start with “framing” earlier — clarifying audience, subject matter, and learning objectives before diving into details. That would have made the ideation stage smoother and more focused.
Understanding Narrative Games
In the first week, I explored narrative games such as Egypt: Old Kingdom (my mentor game) and two additional games, Spent and Gods Will Be Watching. These experiences helped me understand how narrative games can teach through different forms of tension.
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Egypt: Old Kingdom used resource management and historical systems to teach through complexity and perspective-taking. I had to balance food, population, and culture, stepping into the role of an Egyptian ruler.
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Spent relied on real-world empathy, placing me in the shoes of someone trying to survive a month on limited income. Every choice carried weight, and success often meant sacrificing something important.
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Gods Will Be Watching emphasized moral dilemmas with no perfect outcomes. Hostage negotiations or survival scenarios left me questioning what “success” even meant.
Comparing the three, I found that my mentor game focused on systems and long-term decisions, while the two shorter games pushed more immediate and emotional responses. This contrast showed me how narrative games can vary widely in structure and impact, from historically grounded systems to bite-sized empathy experiences.
Framing My Narrative Learning Game
Audience: My intended audience is undergraduate students in media/communication courses, especially those working on group projects in digital media or film production.
Subject Matter: The game will focus on teamwork, communication, and problem-solving in the context of completing a media production project.
Learning Objective (Mager Format):
Given a media production scenario with limited time and resources, the learner will allocate tasks among a small team to successfully complete a short video project, with at least 80% of deadlines met and minimal conflict among teammates.
Problem Leading to Topic: In my experience, students working on creative projects often struggle with time management, resource allocation, and team communication. These problems can derail projects and cause frustration. A narrative game simulating this environment could help learners practice these skills in a low-stakes, interactive way.
Results of Ideation Exploration
In my ideation phase, I brainstormed multiple possibilities, including simulations of client negotiations, classroom management, and historical storytelling. What worked best for developing ideas was starting with challenges I had personally experienced or observed. These gave me an authentic base for narrative conflict.
When I went back to align ideas with my framing, I realized some of my early ideas were too broad or didn’t connect directly to teamwork. Narrowing the scope to a single week-long student film project made the story more manageable and aligned tightly with my learning objective.
The idea I decided to start with was a media production teamwork narrative game that challenges players to balance resources, personalities, and deadlines to complete a project.
My Story Idea
Summary:
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Conflict: A student film crew has one week to finish a short video project for a festival submission, but equipment shortages, personality clashes, and unexpected challenges (like weather changes or lost footage) create barriers.
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Game Goal: Successfully complete and submit the project while keeping the team motivated and meeting deadlines.
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Major Elements:
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Characters: Director (the player), Cinematographer, Editor, Sound Tech, Actor.
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Settings: Editing lab, studio, outdoor shoot locations.
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Events: Equipment failure, actor dropping out, disagreements over creative vision, tight deadlines.
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Intended Emotions: I want players to feel urgency (time pressure), empathy (understanding teammates’ struggles), and satisfaction when the project comes together despite obstacles.
Decision Types (Hiwiller):
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Resource Allocation Decisions → balancing time and equipment use.
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Moral Choices → pushing a stressed teammate vs. letting them rest.
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Trade-off Decisions → cutting scenes to meet deadlines.
These decision types connect directly to the game’s learning goal because teamwork in production always requires prioritization and compromise.
Self-Check & Practice Reflections
Through this exercise, I learned that defining learning content requires balancing ambition with feasibility. Ideation worked best when I generated a wide range of ideas first and only narrowed them later. If I had to repeat the process, I would build the framing details sooner, so I could filter ideas more efficiently.
The story idea I developed is just the starting point, but it shows me how narrative structure, decision-making, and emotions can combine to support learning. Comparing my mentor game with Spent and Gods Will Be Watching helped me see how very different narrative strategies (historical systems, empathy, moral dilemmas) all lead to meaningful learning. My own design aims to blend those lessons into a grounded, real-world context: a narrative learning game that challenges players to succeed through teamwork under pressure.
📚 References (APA 7)
Clarus Victoria. (2018). Egypt: Old Kingdom [Video game]. Clarus Victoria. https://store.steampowered.com/app/646570/Egypt_Old_Kingdom/
Deconstructeam. (2014). Gods Will Be Watching [Video game]. Deconstructeam. https://www.deconstructeam.com/games/gods-will-be-watching/
McKinney & Urban Ministries of Durham. (2011). Spent [Browser game]. Playspent.org. https://playspent.org/
Gee, J. P. (2007). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy (2nd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan.
Hiwiller, J. (2016). Players making decisions: Game design essentials and the art of understanding your players. CRC Press.
u/arikX5. (2019). I Should Go [Reddit post]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/fktz3l/i_should_go/
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