Alternative Reality Games to Teach Game-Based Storytelling

Abstract

This assignment was designed as a final project for a class entitled “Storytelling in Interactive Media and Games.”  In order to focus on the collaborative nature of a shared story between game creators and players, we sought a more low-tech form of game, namely the alternate reality game.  The paper outlines both the theory behind the assignment and initial steps in guiding the students through it.  We focus on assigning roles to game creators to organize a large team, and the “Achievement” sheet which both suggests media for the students to use and point values for the use of those media.