Hour 21: A Film and Interactive Media Blog

There are countless examples of the coming of age story throughout cinema history, from Star Wars to Forrest Gump. Films that try to reach the realm of human experience, films whose heroes and heroines go through a journey of exploration to come out on the other side a transformed individual. In other words the coming-of-age tale represents a journey from ignorance into understanding.             This certain story structure is so innately part of the human experience that audiences are almost unaware of its existence. It pervades  unconscious thought so regularly that audiences seemingly except this storytelling device as a central part of the movie going experience. Films such as The Matrix and Star Wars  expertly explore and define this idea of the coming-of-age story. In both of these films the heroes grow as it were, from an ignorant child to an enlightened adult. In both  cases the heroes are already grow...

 The Prince of Persia the Sands of Time trilogy is not only a view into effective game storytelling and design, but  also is a another example of how immersion is not always reliant on player choice. These games instead show that narrative can be just as immersive an avenue of game design as that of the open world . Though what makes these game experiences so unique is not their reliance on narrative, but instead their ability to tell the story through both game design and their focus on player immersion through emotional investment in the games characters.             Throughout the trilogy the Prince is referred to as just that, the Prince of Persia, yet this Prince with no past or name to speak of will emerge as a character who is as emotionally engaging and interesting as any of his contemporaries. Some though may argue that the Prince's story is not really his. As with most video game characters the Prince was gi...