Build It to Understand It: Ludology Meets Narratology in Game Design Space
the International DiGRA Conference, June 16th - 20th, 2005, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (http://www.gamesconference.org/digra2005/overview.php), (2005)Abstract
Building experimental games offers an alternative methodology for researching and understanding games, beyond what can be understood by playing and studying existing games alone. Through a simultaneous process of research, artmaking and product prototyping in the construction of the interactive drama Façade (Mateas and Stern 2000, 2003), new theoretical and design insights into several game studies questions were realized, including in the hotly debated question of ludology vs. narratology. This paper describes some of the ways that building games can inform researchers about what game scholarship should be focused on and why, ways that building games can offer new perspectives on existing forms and genres, and some advantages of building publicly playable games. For some designers and theorists, interactive story wor...
