Making digital adventure games: a conversation with Mark Yohalem

Abstract

This article presents a conversation with Mark Yohalem, an award-winning computer game story-writer, co-founder of Wormwood Studios, and a highly regarded attorney. Using Yohalem’s successful adventure game Primordia as a point of reference, the interview covers such topics as how player agency differentiates interactive media from traditional storytelling; the history and evolution of adventure games; the relationship of trust, affection, and collaboration between designer and player; the role of fan communities in game development; digital games within the context of politics of struggle; and adventure games in relation to diversity, gender, identity, race and ethnicity.

Keywords:

• Video games
• new media labor
• digital game storytelling
• creative industries
• game design

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jeffery Klaehn

Jeffery Klaehn holds a PhD in Communication from the University of Amsterdam and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Strathclyde. His interviews with comic creators have been published with the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, Studies in Comics, ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies, and the International Journal of Comic Art. His research interests include social theory, media, power, public communication, comics, art, pop culture, the creative industries, writing, storytelling, and digital games. He has edited and co-edited seven books and his work has been published with the European Journal of Communication, International Communication Gazette, Sociology Compass, Journalism Studies, Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, Synaesthesia: Communication Across Cultures, Media Theory, New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing, First Person Scholar, and other journals. He resides in Canada.