Genre and the Game: About Genre in Videogames

Subject is not scheduled Not scheduled

Code Completion Credits Range Language Instruction Semester
300MOZVV credit 1 30 seminar hours (45 min) of instruction per semester, 3 to 8 hours of self-study English winter

Subject guarantor

Name of lecturer(s)

Contents

Students of the workshop will be introduced to the topic of videogame genre and its form and to the contemporary ideas of selected game developers regarding this topic. Why is the genre in videogames different than the one in film? What does it mean? What is influenced by the player’s experience and how is this approached by the creators of this medium themselves? And how does player figure in it all? On chosen examples we will discuss what are the components of videogame narrative and how can this narrative use film storytelling tools. But not only that – we will also analyse what are purely videogame narrative tools and how they can be utilized for genre storytelling and how the game developers, masters and beginners alike, work with this in the future.

Workshop takes place on 11 November 2022.

Start: 9:30

Duration: half day (4 hours)

Room: U2

Place: Film and TV School, The Adacemy of Performing Arts in Prague, Smetanovo nabr. 2, 116 65 Prague 1, Czech Republic

Lecturer: Tereza Roller

Workshop will be in English.

Learning outcomes

The goal of the workshop is to give students the opportunity to analyse and understand the differences between the film and videogame genre. They will be analysing the points where these two spheres overlap as well as the areas where both genres go their unique and separate ways.

Prerequisites and other requirements

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Literature

ALTMAN, Rick. A Semantic/Syntactic Approach to Film Genre. Cinema Journal.

1984, 3(23), 6-18. Dostupné z: doi:http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0009-

7101%28198421%2923%3A3%3C6%3AASATFG%3E2.0.CO%3B2-O

BATEMAN, Chris, ed. Game writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames. 2. New York,

NY: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021. ISBN 978-1-5013-4896-9.

HOCKING, Clint. Ludonarrative Dissonance in Bioshock: The problem of what the

game is about. Click nothing: design from a long time ago [online]. 2007,3 [cit.

2021-01-28]. Dostupné z:

https://clicknothing.typepad.com/click_nothing/2007/10/ludonarrative-d.html

SERAPHINE, Fréderic. Ludonarrative Dissonance: Is Storytelling About Reaching

Harmony? In: Frederic Seraphine [online]. 2016 [cit. 2020-07-04]. Dostupné z:

http://www.fredericseraphine.com/index.php/2016/09/02/ludonarrative-

dissonance-is-storytelling-about-reaching-harmony/

SCHREIER, Jason. Blood, sweat and pixels: the triumphant, turbulent stories behind

how video games are made. 1. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2017. ISBN

9780062651235.

TRINGHAM, Neal Roger. Science fiction video games. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press,

Taylor & Francis, 2015. ISBN 978-1-4822-0388-2.

YIN-POOLE, Wesley. It turns out 9 out of 10 Mass Effect players were Paragon

[online]. In:. [cit. 2021-01-28]. Dostupné z:

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-02-22-it-turns-out-9-out-of-10-mass-

effect-players-were-paragon

Evaluation methods and criteria

Short analysis of a selected videogame title through the prism of the topic we will be discussing at the workshop.

Note

Registration closes the day before.

Contact person: Tereza Roller, e-mail: doskov01@st.amu.cz.

Further information

No schedule has been prepared for this course

The subject is a part of the following study plans