Creating screen stories with game engines: challenges and opportunities for students and researchers working collaboratively across disciplines

ABSTRACT

In recent years, the increased take up of game engines in the context of emerging and traditional screen media production has fostered innovation across formats. Game engines present an opportunity to author immersive projects that draw upon the expertise of experience designers, game developers, screenwriters and other creative practitioners; however, questions arise as to the ways that individuals from different backgrounds might work together effectively on these projects given the varying ‘poetics’ of their fields. This term, used by Ian MacDonald in the context of screenwriting practice, refers to ‘the rationalisation of a mode, or a paradigm, of practice; a collection of perceived norms that make sense together, for those involved in developing a screen idea, in that time and place’ (2013, 3). This article explores the development of two screen works created using Unreal Engine, so as to outline the challenges for multidisciplinary teamwork in this area. This article will argue that the successful realisation of these projects called for the development of common ground around this new mode of practice, one fostered through a sharing of boundary objects (Star and Griesemer 1989), expertise and through listening to participant concerns.

KEYWORDS:

• Screen production
• virtual reality
• game engines
• collaboration
• storytelling

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Toftedahl and Engström conducted a survey of games available through the online STEAM platform in December 2018, finding that the two most identified game engines used were Unreal Engine (25.6%) and Unity (13.2%) (2019, 8).

2 Walking simulator games often include mystery or horror elements. A range of examples can be found at this website: https://gamerant.com/best-walking-simulators/.

3 Discord was originally created in 2015 by Jason Citron and Stan Vishnevskiy from the games studio Hammer and Chisel. Whilst creating their own game Fates Forever, they saw the need for a chat client that would allow players of games to communicate with friends whilst playing games online. See: https://discord.com/company#:~:text=So%2C%20in%202015%2C%20Stan%20and,touch%20with%20their%20various%20communities.

4 See https://discords.com/servers/tags/neurodivergent.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kath Dooley

Kath Dooley is a screen practitioner and academic based at the University of South Australia. She is the author of Cinematic Virtual Reality – A Critical Study of twenty-first Century Approaches and Practices (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021). Kath adopts both creative practice research and critical methodologies and is an experienced screen educator. She has created VR works that have screened at national and international festivals, such as Impact: Beyond the Night Sky, (2020), which was nominated for an Australian ATOM award, and screened at the FIVARS festival in Toronto.

Susannah Emery

Susannah Emery is a game designer and lecturer at the University of South Australia. She received a Chancellor’s commendation for her recently completed PhD on the use of serious games to educate and promote social change. Susannah is an International Women in Games Ambassador and is committed to promoting diversity in the games industry. Her games have won and been shortlisted for international and local awards including Henosis (Odd Critter/Beer Labs), which was released on Nintendo Switch and PC, and won the first South Australian Screen Award in 2021.