Abstract

Due to how young the game industry is, clear guidelines for how narrative game design should be structured have not yet been formed. This paper delves into the idea of the Hero’s Journey, a classic premise within storytelling and how it does and does not work when applied to the video game format. To help research this idea, I created a narrative heavy video game called Processing in Purgatory as a part of my thesis and used it as an example while exploring each step of the Hero’s Journey. What becomes clear is that video games have two separate hero’s journeys due to needing to create a journey for the player and the player character, who are connected yet are two separate entities. This balance of journeys often leads to the player’s interests being put first and, therefore, the more story heavy elements that keep the player away from gameplay longer to be redacted from the game. Many steps of the Hero’s Journey also don’t fit in because of this, mainly steps having to do with doubt or rejection like the Refusal of Return. While games do follow the broad strokes of the Hero’s Journey, they create their own unique form of narrative that must be considered when creating a game rather than trying to fit it into a preconceived version of storytelling.

Semester/Year of Award

Spring 2025

Mentor

Michael Hartman

Mentor Department Affiliation

Computer Science and Information Technology

Access Options

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Honors Scholars

Degree Level

Bachelors

Department

English

Presentation

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1KaE_K7bUL24_HGJGXaRnWnmlQIVSFgAFDU4vONngCGg/edit?usp=sharing and https://writerintheory.itch.io/processing-in-purgatory-proof-of-concept

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