Browsing by Author "Immonen, Mikael"

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    Runo - Encouraging historical thinking through a narrative game
    (2019) Immonen, Mikael; Fewster, Derek; Median laitos; Department of Media; Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu; School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Junnila, Miikka
    Historical thinking is a relevant tool for understanding modern society. As a popular form of interactive entertainment, historical video games may aid in encouraging it in a unique manner. This thesis explores encouraging historical thinking through the design of a narrative game. In the context of this thesis, historical thinking is defined as understanding history as a process instead of as a collection of facts. Narrative games are defined as first-person games that emphasise narrative exploration as their primary type of gameplay. The thesis has two parts: the creation of a video game concept, Runo, and this written text. The game concept is an on-going, multidisciplinary collaboration that is still largely unfinished. As such, this thesis is a practice-led research conducted to provide means for implementing the design goal better with further iteration and to provide helpful knowledge for other practitioners. The literature review about the subject shows that games may excel in highlighting the contingency related to historical processes especially via enabling the playful exploration of counterfactual scenarios. However, some game types are more suitable for this than others. Furthermore, the review explores the capabilities of narrative games for conveying ideas and emotion through their primary narrative devices: game mechanics and environmental storytelling. Then, through critical reflection on the current design of the alpha version of Runo, the research finds that while narrative games may not be the optimal genre for exposing large-scale historical processes, they can offer an individual, intimate perspective to them. To encourage historical thinking, narrative games should aim to provoke historical resonance early, make use of narrative layering and feature less linearity. These observations would confirm the suggestions of other scholars.