A workshop conducted by Dr. Souvik Mukherjee
Videogames have far outpaced other entertainment media worldwide in terms of their extremely rapid growth-rate. In 2008, the videogame Grand Theft Auto IV sailed into the record books after selling 3.6 million copies in 24 hours. For a time considered ‘recession-proof’, the game industry is doing well and the effect is evident in new geographies for gaming culture such as India. With a rapidly growing but still fledgling games industry and a culture, trying to adjust to this new phenomenon, very little nevertheless has been done to explain the medium to both gamers and non-gamers in India. It is eminently necessary to open up the conversation on videogames as a storytelling medium and on how they have a serious impact on culture and society. The lack of awareness of videogame as a medium have caused a lack of global-standard game writing and the use of the medium to carry the powerful message through interactivities. The Indian games’ industry has seen the rise of coders, graphic artists and developers in general, but there is a lack of game writers. Standard literature and creative writing skills do not have any provision for training students in writing for the digital media such as games.
This workshop aims to redress this lack providing a unique opportunity for those who like writing stories and experimenting with new media.
Duration of the workshop: 4 Hours
Entry is by registration only.
Limited seats are available.
Eligibility:
- Age- applicants should be between 17 to 25 years.
- Language- Proficiency in English language
Requirements
- Applicants should have access to personal laptops
- Each applicant has to apply with a written storyline with which the applicant would want to work with, during the workshop. The text should not exceed more than 300 words. Selection of the participants will be based on the content of the story and a personal statement from each applicants.
Submission of application: ongoing
Each application should be sent to
prog@kolkata.goethe.org
Details about the conductor:
Dr Souvik Mukherjee’s book Videogames and Storytelling: Reading Games and Playing Books has been published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2015 and his other monograph, Videogames and Postcolonialism: Empire Plays Back was published in 2017. He has a PhD on videogames and storytelling from Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom and has published and presented on the topic in national and international forums.
He is a regular gamer and irregular writer but do check out his blog and his columns ‘Game Theory’ and ‘Points and Clicks’ in The Times of India on Saturdays. In his non-gaming life, he is an assistant professor in the Department of English at Presidency University, Kolkata.
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