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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Story and Narrative Development for Video Games by California Institute of the Arts

4.7
stars
1,208 ratings

About the Course

In this course, you will examine how storytelling acts as a vital mechanism for driving video gameplay forward. Looking at several historical and contemporary games, you will be asked to evaluate and interpret different story styles with the goal of identifying themes and procedures for your own game ideas. We'll examine traditional narrative story processes, such as three-act structure, and how they fit into game story flows and the strategic elements of gameplay. Ultimately, you will learn how to define character, setting, and structure to create a compelling game concept....

Top reviews

CS

Dec 30, 2015

This is my favorite course ever. Dariush teaches in such an engaging way and it shows you how to have a creative yet objective and analyzed mindset for creating a story and narrative for a Video Game.

DA

Nov 6, 2017

This is so helpful. It covers all the essentials of developing a good story, applicable in any form of media, then it focuses on converting the story to a game by adding interactive gameplay elements.

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26 - 50 of 289 Reviews for Story and Narrative Development for Video Games

By Roopkatha B

Aug 2, 2021

This was a great Learning experience to develop and hone writing / storytelling skills. Great exercises for someone who wants to practice, the instructor was pretty great, engaging at the lectures and I felt the overall course is structured in a very achievable format. Thanks to my reviewers as well who provided valuable feedback to write better.

By Brenda J

Jun 3, 2020

It was great and insightful, some of the exercises took me out of my comfort zone so I consider this a great sign when you can enjoy doing something you have not done before, you learn a lot in the process. The peer review is always beneficial and done respectfully, people are very nice and helpful. And the lecturer was great.

By Melody Z

Sep 3, 2019

This course is very well designed and presented with a balanced amount of video and reading. Weekly assignment is a great way to put what I learned into practice. Without assignment, the whole experience wouldn't be consolidated, so I really appreciate the opportunity to do assignment and receive peer feedback from coursera.

By Denisse M L M

Nov 6, 2017

Great course with good information and tips on how to develop the story for your game. I would have preferred if the last two assignments were open on the theme of the game as I don't like shooting games that much, but I had the chance to practice the techniques explained in the course and enjoyed reviewing my peer's work.

By Benjamin B H

Jan 31, 2016

This was an excellent course, and gives a lot of insight and techniques to develop a good and intriguing story. What I liked the most was how the story would be implemented with the gameplay. I recommend this course to anyone that doesn't know how exactly to develop a good story, or is starting with VG design.

By Kim N D R

Jun 14, 2020

I don't really enjoy writing much nor do I have a long attention span. The videos were pretty long for me, but I manage to see it through and still learned a lot from this course. I was also afraid that some of the peer-reviews wouldn't be insightful, but surprisingly most were so I learned from those too.

By Brania N M P

Feb 18, 2023

Magnificent course. I signed up for this because I wanted to develop my own manga story and since this videogame design is similar in terms of: character design, world building, and story development, got myself enrolled and coudn't be more happy with the results and topics we see in the specialization.

By Hawra

Oct 7, 2020

Wow! This took some work! Had to work for it :D I loved that the tutor helped by giving us tips on how to come up with ideas :)

The tutor also gave detailed case study examples which were intriguing to read!

The tutor and structure was super! No complaints whatsoever :D

Would definitely recommend!

By Robin W

Aug 4, 2021

Perfect class! I loved every aspect and detail to the course elements that were told by Dariush Derakhshani! Very clear info and easy to understand. As a writer, the assignments are not that hard to figure out and I'm truly satisfied with everything included in this course! A must take! :)

By WM

Aug 25, 2022

Lectures were broken down in a way that concepts were easily digestable with the use of several examples to drive them home. Assignments were designed in a way that everything built on what preceeded it such that everything done before week 4 made sense in week 4's assignment.

Grateful

By Mitchell B

May 12, 2020

This course was a much-improved step up from the first course. The information felt instantly translatable to the type of work I want to do. Designing character backstories, synopsis, and gameplay overview was fascinating and something that I'll reference frequently in my own work.

By Niam I

Mar 6, 2016

I am enjoying this course a lot. As a storyteller with screenwriting experience, it is interesting to learn of how the story dynamics work in the world of Game Design. Dariush is an engaging teacher and he provides a lot of good material to work with, as well as references.

By Sarah E

Apr 12, 2021

This course hepls me A LOT to bring a proper structere into my story. That was exactly what I needed. In my opinion, Dariush Derakhshani is super competent. His teached methods are well worth taking this course if you are interested in writing a good, consistent story.

By Fernando S M

Nov 24, 2015

This is a good course for both who is starting as for those who already have a knowledge and seek advice and new ideas to develop stories for games.

However, I think that is ideal for everyone who wanted to learn how to communicate for team the idea of the game.

By 高飞

Apr 24, 2018

这个课程非常有趣,而且能够扩展你的写作技巧。不仅仅是制作游戏,有志于成为专业作家的学生也可以尝试学习一下。注意:有少量课程的视频没有中文字幕,中国学生可能会有一些理解困难。

This course is very interesting and can expand your writing skills. Not just making games, students who are interested in becoming professional writers can also try to learn.

By Oleg P

Nov 7, 2015

It is more interesting course that I thought it to be, and the teacher, Dariush Derakhshani, is a very clever and charismatic person. He makes the student thinks for themselves, and the interesting assignments help them to foster their creative abilities.

By Rene

Apr 12, 2021

I really loved how practical this course is! It really gives you a step-by-step guide on how to come up with a story! If I could improve one thing it would be to allow students to create their own stories instead of providing a fixed plot upfront.

By Farnoud F

Jan 30, 2016

This Course helped me a whole lot in process of writing and how to break down the process for better performance. I really liked how easy and well sorted were the Content of the course and how the assignment was purposely designed for that week.

By Joshua v d V

Oct 22, 2018

This course helped me learn the basics of storytelling, and I felt that with only 20 hours spent on this course I have grown a lot in this department. I would recommend this course to anyone who's into storytelling for video games.

By Laurène S

Feb 14, 2017

This is a very interesting course to learn the essentials of creating characters and stories that are captivating for the players, and how to ensure that your story works as a game. I really liked the assignement marked by peers.

By Даниил А

Apr 27, 2021

Great course with introduction to basic knowledge of narrative game design. The tutor, Dariush Derakshani, is really a good speaker. I also especially like that one of the games that were analyzed in the course was Starcraft II.

By Anna K

Dec 4, 2023

I learned a lot of useful techniques here for writing scripts, spines, game briefs, and also a lot of writing in the process, creating and improving story structure. Very cool course, looking forward to starting the next one.

By Jhon S R M

May 25, 2020

I really like the course, the feedback with other people really help, and although its a problem when there isn't sufficient people, in general i think that the course is good.

PS: the teacher is really good, I learnt a lot!

By Bojan P

Jan 27, 2016

This course is amazing for everyone who wants to learn more about story writing and presenting it, which than can be used for video games, but also for anything else as well.

Great course, my best recommendations.

By Alexandra

Oct 21, 2015

I was pretty upset by finding out there will be no Fran at this course, but Dariush is an amazing teacher too! I love how the material presents and exercises and examples are very interesting! 5 stars, no doubts!