Uploaded March 2019 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
NYU Game Center Lecture Series Presents Clara Fernandez-Vara
The Art of World Building
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Exploring the possibilities of how narrative and games can be brought together is exciting and challenging in equal measure. Part of the difficulty derives from basic misunderstandings about how narrative works in other media, such as the idea of the passive audience, or the obsession with plot structure.
So let us shift our attention to world building, which is the key to integrating games and narrative. Through fictional worlds, we create opportunities for action, exploration and experimentation, which we can turn into game mechanics. As narrative designers, we can also leave gaps for the player to fill creatively, as well as provide tools for players to create their own stories. The opportunities for narrative design are as large as the universes that we can create for our games.
For more from the NYU Game Center, visit gamecenter@nyu.edu
NYU Game Center Lecture Series Presents Clara Fernandez-Vara
The Art of World Building
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Exploring the possibilities of how narrative and games can be brought together is exciting and challenging in equal measure. Part of the difficulty derives from basic misunderstandings about how narrative works in other media, such as the idea of the passive audience, or the obsession with plot structure.
So let us shift our attention to world building, which is the key to integrating games and narrative. Through fictional worlds, we create opportunities for action, exploration and experimentation, which we can turn into game mechanics. As narrative designers, we can also leave gaps for the player to fill creatively, as well as provide tools for players to create their own stories. The opportunities for narrative design are as large as the universes that we can create for our games.
For more from the NYU Game Center, visit gamecenter@nyu.edu
