Playing in a World of Voices

Abstract: In this Bachelor thesis we navigate the ample world of vocal storytelling. Stories are told in all types of media today, but it all started with voices and narrative—from when poetry was sung and theatrical performances such as opera were amongst the most popular and beloved arts. We lift the ground where voices lie today and take them to their deserved place, from solely being an audial companion in media to a main element in interactive storytelling. Hand in hand with Design Fiction as a chosen design perspective and Research through Design as our research approach, we explore ways of creating an immersive, dynamic experience both creative and academically. We found ourselves in infinite ideations of futuristic scenarios which we wanted to symbolize with a world and characters through voices. With Research through Design, we learn not only by doing research, but through actually designing a functional prototype that grants agency to the person interacting with it. The learning process in building this prototype helped us gain significant knowledge in programming, implementation technique and writing for games, especially considering that we had very little experience with these subjects prior to this project. One could say that we were confident in our audio production skills and came with blind eyes when approaching this theme for the first time. The results of our work lead us to the conclusion that, with the adequate knowledge and methods, voices can function as a main element in interactive media prototypes. Narrative, voice design and implementation techniques combined create a group of powerful tools that can achieve interactive storytelling.