MM-415 Interactive Digital Narratives (Autumn 2026)
- ECTS Credits:
- 7.5
- Responsible department:
- Faculty of Engineering and Science
- Course Leader:
- Andrew Niels Perkis
- Lecture Semester:
- Autumn
- Teaching language:
- English
- Duration:
- ½ year
Table of contents
The course is connected to the following study programs
Teaching language
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of the course, the student should
- know the principles of an IDN and how to design and implement an IDN creating an immersive media experience.
- understand the concept of digital storytelling and immersive narratives
- be able to use creative writing to design a storyboard for a narrative for a given scenario
- be able to understand and conceptualize an IDN
- be able to apply XR technologies to implement an IDN using professional 3D modelling tools and real-time game engine technology
- be aware of the concept of Quality of Experience and how to apply this to an IDN
- be able to work in a collaborative environment in a trans disciplinary way
Contents
This interdisciplinary course addresses how principles of textual, visual, oral, and place-based storytelling challenge and enhance the conceptualization, construction and experience of digitally created worlds connecting to real-world places, locations, and landscapes. The underlying focus is the belief that technology and narrative create a feedback loop, with one mediating the other. The course will be based on iterations of ideation, conceptualization, and prototyping using an Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN). An IDN is a narrative expression in various forms, implemented as a multimodal computational system with optional analog elements and experienced through a participatory process in which interactors have a non-trivial influence on progress, perspective, content, and/or outcome (Hartmut Konitz - 2023).
The course will start with a section defining what we mean by digital storytelling and a narrative. We will use the definitions to investigate how to create a storyboard to later be able to use technology to implement an IDN based on the storyboard. The second part will be based on the studio principle where a problem will be presented, and the studio work will use the IDN to create prototypes (instantiations) of narratives related to the problem. The studio will be run in collaboration with students from NTNU, Universidad del Atlantico Medio (UNAM) and University of Las Palmas Gran Canaria, where it is expected that you form groups and work together using online tools.
Teaching and learning methods
The course combines face-to-face lecturing and supervision, web-based learning resources and studio based teaching. The lecturing will introduce creative writing which will be used in the studio based teaching guiding the design of the IDN. In the studio based teaching students will work on designing and implementing an IDN for a given problem in collaboration with students from NTNU, Universidad del Atlantico Medio (UNAM) and University of Las Palmas Gran Canaria.
More information is given in Canvas at the beginning of the semester.
Estimated student workload: 200 hours.
Examinations
Project portfolio with reports and presentations. The assessment given on the project portfolio may be individually adjusted. Graded assessment.
Information about the content of the portfolio will be given in Canvas by the start of the semester. There will not be arranged a postponed exam for the portfolio.