The Art of Storytelling in Games

March 30 2016

How to develop the art of good storytelling in today’s computer games? The diversity of computer games is getting continuously broader: On the one hand, the blockbusters open up new worlds through magnificent special effects. On the other, they tell intimate and personal stories by insinuative, subtle means. Which possibilities do we have ahead for storytelling in games? How do games learn from other media, and what do other media learn from games? To read, see, do – how are the stories influenced by the media’s different properties?

Fritt Ord, Spillpikene and PressFire.no invite the public to a new panel discussion on Wednesday, 30 March.

Programme
From 4.30 p.m.:
We invite the public to an open house, where it will be possible to play a number of storytelling games from The Last of Us and Dishonored, to Gone Home, Firewatch and Her Story. Refreshments will be served.

6.00 p.m.:
Participate in an open discussion with:
- Cara Ellison – former gaming journalist with The Guardian, VICE, Kotaku and Rock, Paper, Shotgun, among others, and author of the book Embed With Games, currently a narrative designer for Dishonored 2
- Dave Mervik – has worked with the LEGO and LittleBigPlanet games, and is currently a narrative designer with the Tarsier Studio for Hunger
- David Skaufjord – director (the sitcom BMI – On Tour), scriptwriter (High Point, with Emil Trier), podcast host, actor, comic strip creator – and gamer

The session will be moderated by Martin Bergesen. The debate will take place in English. Free of charge and open to everyone.

The project Digital Life is being carried out by the Fritt Ord Foundation in collaboration with Spillpikene and PressFire. Visit the website digitaleliv.no to take part in the competition.

The hashtag for the event and the competition is #digitaleliv

News

New Oxford fellow – How Journalists Interview “Monsters and Victims”

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VG journalist Håkon F. Høydal has been awarded Fritt Ord’s journalism fellowship at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford in the spring of 2026.
His project explores what journalists can learn from new trauma research when interviewing both “monsters and victims” in crime and abuse cases.

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What's happening in Georgia?

September 22 2025

Monday 29 September 2025 at 6.30–8 pm at Vega Scene, Oslo

“While art is often relegated to the bottom of financial priorities, it paradoxically becomes the first target of dictators.”

Fritt Ord invites you to a presentation of a hyper-relevant, upcoming documentary film “Untitled” from Georgia and a conversation with two film directors about the political developments in the country in collaboration with Oslo Dokumentarkino, Stray Dogs Norway, Viken Filmsenter and the Norwegian Film Federation. Journalist Ingerid Salvesen is the moderator. For the safety of the filmmakers, we will not mention their names in advance.

“This documentary is not for the faint of heart” New grants awarded in September 2025.

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