Feature: 'GDCTV: Wiring Narrative into Play: a Practical Primer'

Gamasutra is proud to present GDCTV, a new section showcasing streaming high-quality video content of some of the notable sessions of this year's Game Developers Conference. In this latest session, in a format that includes streaming video with accompanying slides, we bring you industry veteran Hal Barwood's 2005 Game Developers Conference session on how to better integrate narrative and story into gameplay. The LucasArts veteran (Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis) addresses how to use story elements to inform game structure, and the talk is described on the GDC site as follows: "Even as developers continue to debate the utility of storytelling in games, narrative proliferates. Stories and storytelling are everywhere. Few titles are unaffected. And few titles take full advantage of the many possibilities narrative offers. The purpose of this discussion is to illuminate what narrative elements bring to single-player game design, how to maximize their value, and how to integrate them successfully into play structures. Examples are always the best explanations, so much of the discussion will focus closely on a number of successful published titles, celebrating triumphs and offering some alternative ideas to obvious and not-so-obvious shortcomings." You can now access the current GDCTV streaming lecture for 'Wiring Narrative into Play: a Practical Primer' (a brief, free registration process is required if you have not previously registered.)