The Newborn World : guiding creativity in a competitive storytelling game

Abstract

This paper presents The Newborn World, a co-located multiplayer game for mobile devices with a focus on storytelling. The game has been designed following patterns of analog games that prompt players to tell stories, and uses digital representations of cards and tokens for interaction. The collaborative nature of storytelling is interspersed with competitive elements such as hidden goals and secret voting for best story. The paper exposes several design decisions for balancing goal oriented and freeform play, competition and collaboration, as well as elements that constrain or foster players’ creativity.