Week 9 — Story in the World
GAME 1303 · Tuesday, October 20, 2026 · 9:00 AM – 1:50 PM
Games are bad at telling stories and extraordinary at implying them. Today you build one room that tells a story, with a hard limit of 60 words.
This week at a glance
| Block | Time | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Lecture | 9:00 – 10:15 | Design topic + engine features |
| Exercise | 10:30 – 11:45 | Ex 6 — Story in the World — 2 pts, submitted today |
| Lab | 12:00 – 1:50 | Work on your semester project |
Before class
- Think about one room in your game and what happened there before the player arrived.
- Narrative track: this exercise is your primary design artifact. Plan for it to be substantial.
Lecture topics
| Section | Topics |
|---|---|
| 001 — Unity 6.x | DialogueTrigger and text beats · Trigger volumes for narrative · Timeline for scripted moments |
| 002 — Unreal 5.8 | Data Tables for dialogue · Trigger volumes for narrative · Sequencer for scripted moments |
Exercise — Ex 6 — Story in the World
A room with three meaningful objects, under 60 words of text, tested on a stranger.
Open the version for your section:
Worth 2 points: one for Implementation (it builds and runs, the feature works), one for the Design decision (a deliberate, defensible choice beyond the defaults). Due at the end of the class period — late work earns the Implementation point only.
Lab goals
- Apply environmental storytelling to your own game.
- Game Design Doc — due Week 13, and section 4 (Levels) should be filling in by now.
Due this week
| What | When | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Ex 6 — Story in the World | end of class | 2 pts |
Run the matching tab of the course checklist before you submit. Every box on it is a graded criterion.
Next week
Ex 7 — Screen Flow. Bring your own game — you'll be building its real UI, not a sandbox.