The program for the Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment is slowly being uploaded. There are plenty of papers I’m keen see on gaming,participatory design,virtual environments &pedagogy,narrative,conversational agents and so on,but the most applicable to cross-media entertainment is the following:
Pulp Gaming:Taking An Episodic Approach To Interactive Entertainment
Robert J GriggEpisodic gaming is an emerging approach to game design and distribution within the interactive entertainment industry. To date,however,there have been only few commercial examples and these have demonstrated mixed outcomes concerning the viability of the approach. Industry-leading publishers and developers emphasize their positive support for the successful possibilities of episodic gaming,but currently there is no proven method or business model for the production of episodic titles. There has also been minimal formal research,leaving episodic approaches to games relatively unexplored. This paper examines episodically structured games and current literature about the episodic game industry with the aim of further defining what makes an episodic game title. The paper aims to formulate research questions for further research in the area with a view to the development of both business and design models for the episodic approach in the interactive entertainment industry for today and the future.
What he is talking about is one of the primary concepts (and indeed creative heritage) of cross-media entertainment:episodic creation and delivery. I look forward to hearing what Robert has to say.
