Intersubjective Pivots in Interactive Digital Narrative Design Learning

Abstract

Interactions between players and designers during IDN authoring are an undervalued source of information about the authoring process. This paper analyzes a corpus of player-author interactions from an online workshop. We classified feedback types and IDN design features, showing player reflections during authoring influenced the peer designer’s work. Some types of feedback correlated positively with the overall growth of a design partner’s IDN, while other feedback types correlated with story content. When players suggested authoring techniques or other subjective experiences playing through the emerging IDN, their partner’s designs expanded structurally (nodes and branches). When players shared negative evaluations, the partner’s design did not grow. In comparison, player reflections that were cognitively oriented led to increases in story settings, while player affective expressions led to more character dialogue. Effects include increases in both IDN narrative elements and structure. Some effects correlate with participant gender and native language, although not with race/ethnicity. The study results offer insights about intersubjectivity - what is on novice player-designers’ minds as they wrestle with interactive digital narrative authoring. IDN pedagogy can, thus, benefit from designer-player collaboration as students experiment with technical authoring tools, develop and employ relevant vocabulary, and interpret a player’s feedback. Additionally, the Authoring-Other Exchange System employed in this study provides a framework and novel measures for future research and pedagogy.