Date of Graduation

5-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Curriculum and Instruction

Advisor/Mentor

Fredrick, David

Committee Member/Reader

Connors, Sean

Committee Member/Second Reader

Goering, Christian

Committee Member/Third Reader

Lopez Szwydky, Lissette

Abstract

Videogames have emerged as a globally influential storytelling medium, as evinced by the success of story-driven games like Undertale, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and The Last of Us II. This medium needs creative writers who can learn to think like game designers. But, recognizing that not all creative writers will pursue a career in game design, this project studied the impact of thinking like a game designer on the way creative writing students approach their craft. Drawing on a variety of videogames and genres, this project focused on the potential of world-building and player choice to shape students' approach to creative writing.

Working closely with Amy Matthews, a member of the English faculty at Fayetteville High School, I guided students through a 3-week unit on the principles of game design. Students worked through a modified version of Dr. Trent Hergenrader’s Collaborative Worldbuilding, drawing maps and assigning buttons to videogame controllers while deciding the genre, scope, and tone of their shared worlds. Guided by genre-specific questions from James D’Amato’s The Ultimate RPG Game Master's Worldbuilding Guide, students were encouraged to see their characters as pieces of larger, integrated fictive worlds. The impact of thinking like a game designer on these student writers was measured through a set of surveys conducted before and after the 3-week unit, and by Matthews’ assessment of the students’ writing over the remainder of the school year. Both Matthews and the students remarked that the latter realized the importance of knowing the details and histories of their stories’ settings. When authors know this, it makes their stories believable, even if not every detail is explicitly relayed to the reader. This project explored the relationship between these non-linear, interactive fictional worlds and more traditional, linear genres, encouraging students to think about how videogames can transform their approach to writing across all genres.

Keywords

Collaborative Worldbuilding; Creative Writing; Arts Integration; Game Design; Secondary Education; English Education

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