Building a Better Story World

Ever want to know what goes into crowd-sourcing? Does finding an audience's desires make you trepidatious and excited? Understanding what audiences desire is critical to all story world development, but it's particularly important when dealing with interactive design. Steele Filipek is here to share his experience with crowd-sourcing and other forms of interactivity if you'd like to jazzercize your realm of imagination to narrative universe success!

Building out your interactive story? Concerned about how audiences are going to engage with it? Allow Steele Filipek (and Commander Shepard) to guide you through the three forms of agents who take part in your interactive narrative universe: the stand-ins for your audience, the individuals who control those stand-ins, and the entire audience itself!

We've covered a lot of ground in traditional storytelling and story world design, but now we're shifting gears to interactive design. From video games to social media to branding campaigns to crowd-sourcing, all interactive media function on the same basic five elements. Join Steele Filipek as he uses The Last of Us, Naughty Dog's classic horror game, to help examine the foundational ways that lead to the intersection of narrative and gameplay, as well as the creator and the audience.

There is at least one way to make your story world exciting for every audience member to jump into, time and again. Listen in as Steele Filipek uses an amazing sci-fi film to showcase how you can do this for your own work! Three prompts and thirty minutes will give your world an exciting launching pad to story universe success!

You're going to need to put your story world through the ringer to make sure the narrative, characters, fun, and all that other good stuff feel right. How do you make sure that it's all in alignment? Find out, as Steele Filipek takes you through three exercises to see just how well your story world is doing for your characters and your audience, with a case study that is ecto-inspired!

It's a tale as old as time, albeit without singing dishware and a prince that's turned into a beast. There's a classic that's venerated by critics since time immemorial, or a smash hit that you just can't stand, or a box office bomb that gets you thinking, "Why/how did this get made?" Understanding and being able to describe your thoughts on such things will ultimately make you a better creator, as you'll be able to know what to avoid when crafting your own story world! Join Steele Filipek as he details three story worlds that have their detractors (and defenders!) as he provides tools for helping to work through what doesn't work for you, and why!

Almost everybody wants to write good dialogue, but where do you begin? Listen in as Steele Filipek, your lovable host, details three case studies and three ideas about what your characters say, how they say it, and why. With those tools, you'll be able to build out your story world elegantly and craft a nifty turn of phrase!

Music - icons8.com, specifically https://icons8.com/music/author/ilya-marfin

Audio Effects - freesound.org

What happens when you put two things side-by-side? You get audiences to compare them! Juxtaposition is an easy, clever, and fan-friendly way to help build out your narrative universe. How? Let producer and writer Steele Tyler Filipek take you on a journey through the story world of 2005's Children of Men in order to showcase how you can elegantly use contrast in order to highlight the wonder of your imagination.

Music - icons8.com, specifically https://icons8.com/music/author/ilya-marfin

Audio Effects - freesound.org

How do you craft difficult or detailed information from your story world in a way that engages audiences? There are any number of ways, but this episode deals with a three-step format for creating compelling expository content, both for narrative universes and standard stories! Join Steele Filipek, a gruff private eye, and a framed cartoon rabbit as they showcase this fun way to inspire audiences!

Music - icons8.com, specifically https://icons8.com/music/author/ilya-marfin

Audio Effects - freesound.org

You've asked. Steele has heard. Here is a technique for building a mythology for your very own story world. It's not the only way to build such a thing, of course, but considering it's been the foundation for over a dozen Starlight Runner clients, you might consider giving it a shot if you're struggling to codify your narrative universe!

Music - icons8.com, specifically https://icons8.com/music/author/ilya-marfin

Audio Effects - freesound.org