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

4.7
stars
1,276 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

VP

Jul 11, 2020

The course is really good and really educational and i would recommend people about it. Though the thing that i didn't like was that i wanted some more examples for different types of games.

SC

Nov 15, 2015

The instructor carefully illustrates all points necessary for wring a game story. The logic is extremely clear, course materials intact and homework amount is decent for students.

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301 - 303 of 303 Reviews for Story and Narrative Development for Video Games

By Kay S

•

Jan 26, 2025

The lessons are quite basics. The assignments are good practice but the reviewing and feedback are disappointing. The Story and Narrative course is definitely one that should be receiving professional grading, reviewing and feedback. Instead, the ones reviewing our stories and writing are: 1) The very very few and rare students taking the course and reviewing seriously (I got only one of those across 4 assignments) 2) Students who don't care and either give you full marks or zeros across the board without reading nor giving any feedback (I had one giving me zeros, and as I knew it was disingenuous, I reuploaded the very same assignment without changing a word, and then I was given full marks) 3) Bots. Yes, bots. When I had to review assignments, I had 4 in a row come up the exact same gibberish texts and file uploads. 4) AI. Your final submission is literally reviewed by an AI software... that's how much Calarts cares I guess. This makes it incredibly disappointing when you put in the work and want some real insight on it. Furthermore, the grading system is pretty useless. All you need to do to be technically deserving of full-marks, is to complete the assignment, regardless of how good or how bad your submission is. Some submissions I reviewed were incredibly boring and cliché, but when asked if the student submitted all the relevant details, I was forced to give all the points. All of that makes your certificate lose all value and legitimacy. PS: This review comes from a student who wants to specialise in Narrative Design. So you should understand why I'm that thoroughly disappointed in the course.

By Philipp N

•

Nov 15, 2024

The course gives a surface level overview on how to develop stories and narratives for video games, overall it is well paced. However, all exercises in the course are peer-reviewed and riddled with trolls and AI submissions. Grading tool several days, and most peer feedback was worthless (random text, single characters/words). I had to resubmit some submissions as trolls had me fail them for no reason. Due to the bad user experience, I cannot endorse this course.

By Rahaf A

•

Dec 17, 2025

Whyyy there isss noooo certificate !!!!! Now I will lose marks in my MASTER just because of that!!!!!