Sticky Ends: Employing Thinly-Sliced Narratives in Serious Games for Mobile Platforms

Abstract

Angry Birds. Clash of Clans. Cut the Rope. What do these three titles, arguably some of the most popular mobile games, have in common? On the surface, they lack a coherent narrative structure, being driven only by simple, perhaps even addictive, mechanics. This is typical for games designed for the mobile market, given average play sessions of 5-10 minutes. In contrast, many serious games are adopting narrative structures from console and computer games to contextualize the interventions they deliver. While useful on these platforms, techniques such as interactive music, open world exploration, AI driven characters, and rich graphics are not necessarily appropriate for mobile devices, which are limited both technically and in terms of user expectations and usage time. These limitations present problems both with initial engagement and with sustaining meaningful narrative arcs over many usage sessions, especially when it comes to games for health, which often involve narrative as therapy or as a catalyst to prompt behavior change. Given that serious games must compete against other apps for a user's attention, an understanding of how to package narratives in small slices of time is necessary. The AppHappy Project, an experimental design group composed of individuals from the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Game Lab, addresses this through evocative storytelling and community elements in its upcoming title, the mobile adventure game Journey to the West.