Interactive Narrative Design Across Media

Interactive Narrative Design Across Media: Video Games, Interactive Film, Immersive Media and XR is a comprehensive guide for game designers, filmmakers, writers, and creative professionals building stories audiences actively shape. Written with the tone of an experienced colleague rather than a traditional textbook, it combines practical insights with original research grounded in media studies, psychology, and close analysis of interactive works. At its core, the book introduces a new framework for narrative design: the Contact Cycle, adapted from Gestalt psychotherapy, which examines how players enter a game, become aware of choices, commit to them, experience consequences, and return. This lens explores agency as a design tool, intentional breaks in contact as technique, and how giving players space to assimilate experiences deepens emotional connection. Drawing on the authors' extensive experience in game development and filmmaking, plus original interviews with leading designers including Sam Barlow, Meghna Jayanth, Katherine Isbister, and Jill Murray, the book offers theoretical frameworks and case studies spanning Citizen Sleeper, Baldur's Gate 3, Death Stranding, and The Stanley Parable. It addresses the evolving media landscape and emerging technologies while focusing on principles that outlast any single engine or trend—providing both the argument and the toolkit for creators who want to design interactive stories people finish, share, and return to.