The Hero and the Prize: Mythic Structure and Narrative Incarnation in Quest Design

By: Joshua Black
Supervisor: Michael McCoy
Masters of Interactive Technology degree conferred March 24th, 2007
Thesis / Project completed: March 21st, 2007 

This thesis approaches the problem of creating entertaining and compelling quest design in digital games.  Researchers and designers have both advised that quests should allow players to incarnate the game's narrative. This project implements this advice with a quest/level for the computer game Half-Life 2.  The narrative for this quest derives from the Hero's Journey as expressed by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1948) and Christopher Vogler in The Writer's Journey (1998).

The results of this research show a significant correspondence between the emotions of the players at particular points of the level and the associated stage of the Hero's Journey, suggesting an involving play experience.  They also show enjoyment of the level as a whole.  However, the scope of this project is not broad enough to be conclusive, encouraging further research in both the use of narrative in quest design and the usefulness of the Hero's Journey as a design tool.

Download entire thesis (.pdf)