Environmental Storytelling

Level: Beginners

Location: St. Pölten UAS - A.1.12 Seminar Room (Building A) & June 24th – 25th B.0.12 Future Lab (Building B) & June 26th – 28th A.1.04 Computer Room (Building A)

ENVIRONMENTAL STORYTELLING is a method of communicating a story via the space available, be it a video game, a film set or any other digital environment. In this course, we will talk about how to set up the conditions needed to communicate the story through the environment, as well as how to incorporate it into the space.

To help you apply what you've learned, we'll be analyzing existing video games to see what makes them tick.
You will also learn how to use AI to create content for the environment and get familiar with the tools involved.

The goal is for you to create and design a digital space and tell a small story within it.

Course Contents:

• Storytelling elements in games
• Worldbuilding (theory & practice)
• Environmental storytelling
• Visual storytelling
• Environmental Storytelling Guidelines
• Generating Dialogue with AI (replica)
• Generating Pictures with AI (night café, chatGPT)

Lecturers:

Lena Baumgartner

Lena Baumgartner is a Junior Researcher at St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences. Her research interests, as well as areas are separated into two branches: HCI and game design. UX and usability are her main strengths in regard to her daily work life, closely followed and enhanced by creative input through her expertise in narrative, environment and level design. She teaches 3D modelling and animation in the digital game production course.

Stefanie Größbacher

Stefanie Größbacher is a Junior Researcher in the Media Computing Research Group at the Institute of Creative\Media/Technologies (IC\M/T) at St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences. She is researching in the fields of usability engineering, graphic design, user-centered design and human-computer interaction.