CAG! 88 – Make Your Story as Awesome as a Game, with Eli Neiburger and Dave Carter

Video games in libraries, what cartoonists can learn from video games, and more!

We’ve all heard the dig: a book starts with a map, and many readers immediately tune out. But there are plenty of stories about the excitement gamers felt when opening up the big Zelda or Metroid map in Nintendo Power Magazine. What’s the difference here?

How might our approach to storytelling change when we study a good gaming experience? I’ve talked with a game designer about this on the Lean Into Art Cast, but this time I’m joined by David Carter, Librarian at the University of Michigan’s Computer and Video Game Archive, and Eli Neiburger, Associate Director of IT and Production at the Ann Arbor District Library and author of Gamers… In the LIBRARY?. Together we’ll explore how storytellers might steal from games to give their readers that “epic win face.”

Links mentioned in this episode (thanks to Eric Klooster for collecting the links!):

• Apple IIGS
• Pac-Man
• Cobra Commander
• The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!
• JS Mess
• Centipede
• Pong Home Console
• AADL Summer Game
• AADL Lego Content
• Animal Crossing
• Goldeneye
• Life Force (Salamander)
• Isabelle, the Animal Crossing twitter account
• Achewood
• 1,000 true fans
• Scenes from a Multiverse
• Tumblr
• Zita the Spacegirl
• Zita the Spacegirl Breakfast
• Pretty Little Liars 
• Shaq Fu
• Combat
• Kool-Aid Man
• Star Wars Arcade Game
• Ms. Pac Man
• Marble Madness
• The Legend of Zelda
• Kid Icarus Codes
• Grand Theft Auto
• Bioshock
• Gravity Falls
• Pokemon
• The Nintendo Power Line
• Kerbal Space Program
• ELotH:TES
• Might and Magic II
• A Fire Upon the Deep
• War in Middle Earth
• phpBB
• Skylanders
• Quest for the Rings
• Xonox
• The Bechdel Test

Comics and Book Recommendations:

• Ganges
• Castle Waiting
• The Cartoon Introduction to Economics
• Terminal City
• To Be or Not To Be

Live streams every other Wednesday at Comicsaregreat.tv and on Google+!

Audio hosting provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing. This episode was recorded live at the Ann Arbor District Library.

Follow Jerzy, Eli, and Dave on Twitter!
Jerzy on Google+
Find us on Google+
Support the show and get a PDF comic!
Subscribe through iTunes
RSS