Research

This phase is currently in progress, as I’m having a little trouble finding meaningful sources. Will update shortly.

UPDATE: I’ve since decided to tap into the resources that were shared in the Virtual Worlds class. These have been very helpful in expanding my knowledge about environmental storytelling, embedded and emergent narratives, game spaces, spatial design, and architectural theory. I will continue to tap into these resources as I move forward.

I have also had the opportunity to play both “What Remains of Edith Finch” and “Gone Home” for the first time, which has provided me with a lot of insight and inspiration. I hope to take aspects from each game’s storytelling and design approaches and implement them in different ways in my thesis project.

Academic Paper

Game Design as Narrative Architecture by Henry Jenkins

Mood board

Dream Review

WIRED, July 5, 2022

Reeca Soriano is an apparent multi-hyphenate who has yet to explicitly define herself. “I don’t like to be put in boxes,” Soriano says, “especially when I’m constantly trying to figure myself out.” But if there’s one thing in this particular moment in time that she’d like to be known for, it’s “a storyteller.”

Her recent project, Elen’s Mind (a working title), is an example of Soriano’s storytelling prowess. “I actually don’t think speaking and writing come as naturally to me as others. That’s why I find different ways to express the stories I want to tell – either through photos, wordless, music-backed videos, or in the case of Elen’s Mind, an interactive, virtual experience.”

The experience tells the story of a woman heavily inspired by Soriano’s grandmother, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in 2018. We don’t exactly see the woman – or any other kinds of living characters for that matter. But we get a sense of who she is, what her life was and is like, and who her family is through the carefully placed objects around the house that you, as a user, get to freely explore.

Soriano likens the experience to a first-person exploration game that relies heavily on environmental storytelling to shape a meaningful narrative. “As a person who doesn’t often like to define or explain myself, I really liked the idea of using the environment to be both detailed and implicit. I’m not explicitly writing out the story I have in my head because maybe I don’t want to share that. But I am being intentional about the details to convey pieces of the story I have in mind. And then it’s up to the user to put those pieces together and interpret the story however they want.”

With that said, there are still a number of general themes that Elen’s Mind beautifully conveys: memory, faith, loss, grief, family, and heritage. “This story was first and foremost created for my family and me, based on my own experiences with my grandma and my own questions about where I’ve come from. But I also hope this story resonates with all people and families, especially those afflicted by Alzheimer’s, and minority and immigrant families whose stories don’t often get told.”

Elen’s Mind is a fantastic piece of work that uses art, technology, and storytelling to tackle subjects like Alzheimer’s and family in a way that many haven’t. The experience will be free to download on Reeca Soriano’s site in the coming months.