Non-Linear narrative

What is non-linear narrative?

Non linear narrative is a fragmented/cut narrative technique, it is sometimes used in literature, film, hypertext websites and other narratives. In non linear narratives, events are portrayed in a non chronological order, the events do not follow in a direct manner or pattern that they are featured in.

HTML narratives

In the modern society hypertexts have become great forms of narratives as they have the potential to create non-linear forms. They allow the user to interact with the story through links, images, audio’s and videos.

An example of a hypertext narrative is Public Secret:

Public Secret shows the reality of being imprisoned in California’s Criminal Justice System through text and audio. It’s a non-linear narrative as there is no exact beginning or end. It consists of multiple subtopics that do not force the audience to make their next selection based on what their previous was.

Chris Crawford and interactive storytelling

Christopher Crawford is a computer game designer and writer. He is known for the creation of The Journal of Computer Game Design, and the organization of the Computer Game Developers' Conference.

The starting point for Crawford’s interactive-storytelling came back in 1983 when he realized that when “games finally matured as a medium of artistic expression, they would have to be about people, not things.”(Crawford) Crawford felt that games shouldn’t be just based around ‘things’ they should have significant interactions with people.

He was really strong about his ideas of games interacting with people and so came up with a simple idea for a game that was based on interpersonal interactions. The game was called ‘Gossip’. In this game, all the player does is talk to people on the telephone and talk about who likes or dislikes whom. The game consists of eight characters on the screen. This game was a commercial failure as ‘Gossip’ came out just before Atari (video game industry) collapsed. However Crawford continued to further his concept and design more games e.g ‘Trust & Betrayel’ and ‘Le Morte D’Arthur’. These too were not completed because of commercial failure and the lack of funding.

As Chris Crawford says,





Interactive storytelling allows you to go through a process whilst changing and choosing the outcomes.

Gossip
Chris Crawford on Interactive Storytelling: Chris Crawford

“storytelling is a process, a dynamic process that you can intervene in, alter, play with, and thereby interact with.”

FLOWCHARTS & WIREFRAMES

Module: Authorship & Interaction
Ba (Hons) Graphic Communication Design
University of Westminster

Bhavika Gajipra