Monthly Archives: August 2025

Life is Strange

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(Square Enix, 2022)

Digital literature has evolved as a format of storytelling to encompass interactive and multimedia formats where narrative and technology can combine to create engaging stories. Digital literature explores narratives that are interactive, participatory and facilitate role-play (Miller, 2019). The video game, Life is Strange: Remastered Collection is an episodic narrative-driven game which can be catagorised in this way. This format blurs the role of the audience as both reader and player. The player is placed inside the world where the story unfolds and invites them to interact and make decisions which shape the outcomes of the narrative to some extent. With a blend of branching dialogue, cinematic visuals and a signature time-rewind mechanic, Life is Strange challenges the rules of storytelling and highlights the potential of video games as a form of digital literature.

Life is Strange was originally released in 2015 however the game developers at Square Enix and Deck Nine released a remastered version in 2022. This remaster helped to bring the graphics and textures up to date with the current technological advancements. The game has a strong fanbase and as such this remaster was not about changing the story but rather updating the presentation so that the game could remain relevant, immersive and accessible in the current gaming landscape. It also allowed for a cohesive collection with the subsequent games in the series. 

The game’s emotional storytelling is a major strength. The strong character development helps to address the complex themes of friendship, identity and loss. The game is presented in a beautiful hand-painted art style that places emphasis on expressive facial animations and is enhanced with a beautiful score written by Jonathan Morali. The atmospheric compositions complement the game’s emotional narrative and themes. These in depth elements create an immersive atmosphere that enhances the emotional weight of the narrative and draws players into the world of Arcadia Bay. 

One of the key elements that drives this as a piece of digital literature is the ability to make choices within the game play. An example of this is explored early in the game where the protagonist, Max, is exposed to a situation where a character is bullying another character. The player can choose to intervene or allow the bully to continue. The choice impacts the relationship between Max and these other characters for the remainder of the game. A unique feature within Life is Strange, is the implementation of a time-rewind mechanic. This allows players to experiment with different choices and see the consequences unfold, deepening their engagement. 

Cut scenes are another storytelling element that add strength to this narrative format. The use of cutscenes allows the game to transition seamlessly from game play into cinematic sequences which depict critical story elements of the plot. This feature can be used to, ‘explain the passage of time, changes of setting, or the introduction of new characters’ (Alexander, 2011).  In the narrative of the game, cut scenes are used early in chapter one to discover the ability to rewind time during a confrontation in the bathroom where Max witnesses a friend’s death. The cinematic cut scene allows the time to be rewound and the secondary character to be saved in that moment. 

The game does have some weaknesses within the context of digital literature. Whilst there is a lot of autonomy over the game play through decision making processes, there are still fixed events and a linear story which progresses through chapters. For example key story elements such as major character deaths, and progression through chapters are fixed. The branching narrative style creates a sense of agency over choices but they often return to a closed ending that is linear and static. A truly immersive piece of digital literature would perhaps use the choices to definitively alter the endings of the game. 

Life is Strange demonstrates the capabilities of video games as a form of digital literature by blending storytelling, player agency and multimedia design. The narrative encourages deep emotional connection as players build the character development with their own participation in game play. The combination of rich narrative, atmospheric music, beautiful visuals and a branching narrative structure create an immersive world that players can connect with. The game not only entertains but also highlights how interactive media can explore narrative in a way that traditional texts cannot.

References 

Alexander, B. (2011). The new digital storytelling: Creating narratives with new media. ABC-CLIO. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csuau/reader.action?docID=678297&ppg=20

Deck Nine, & Square Enix. (2022). Life is Strange: Remastered Collection [Video game]. Square Enix.

Miller, C. H. (2019). Digital storytelling: A creator’s guide to interactive entertainment. Taylor & Francis Group.

Square Enix (Publisher). (2022, February 1). Official launch trailer – Life is Strange: Remastered Collection [PEGI] [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5S8-7xCaTI&list=TLGGNGAPOFBuBEwyNTA4MjAyNQ

Vooks: Storytime brought to life

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(Vooks, 2025, 0:32)

 

One increasingly popular digital literature format for younger audiences is the animated digital storybook. These stories are, ‘conveyed to an audience through the skillful use of media’ (Alexander, 2011).  Animated digital storybooks are a hybrid of video, narration, animation and written text, offering children an experience that combines reading with audiovisual storytelling. Vooks is one such platform that animates children’s picture books. The program was initially offered as free for educators during its early years, it has since transitioned to a discounted model for teachers, with some titles also available free on YouTube. According to Huan, “animation can engage children and sustain their motivation as an effective learning tool’ (2020). Animated digital story telling is an example of how digital media can be used to enrich the reading experience for children. 

Vooks’ catch phrase is ‘storytime brought to life,’ (Vooks, 2025) which reflects their objective of increasing children’s engagement with picture books. They offer a curated selection of popular picture books as well as texts written specifically for their platform. Examples of popular titles include the Curious George series by Margret and Hans Rey and Llama Llama Love to Read by Anna Dewdney. Each story is animated, professionally narrated and has the addition of light background music. 

From a literacy perspective, Vooks is a cross between literature and passive media. The visual modality supports meaning-making, particular for visual learners who find it difficult to engage with traditional text picture books. The use of narration adds tone, pitch and rhythm which help children with their reading practice in areas such as fluency. This multimodal storytelling can help develop comprehension and engagement. 

Once a story has been selected, it plays automatically similar to a video. This highlights one of the key limitations of the program. Due to the automated page turning and the narration, children have limited opportunities to control the pace or actively construct meaning. Traditional picture books provide the opportunity to control the pace, which allows time for asking questions and pausing for discussion. These crucial conversations foster a deeper understanding of the text and increase comprehension.  Animated storybooks run the risk of simply becoming entertainment unless a parent or teacher is able to facilitate deeper connections through constructing meaning and encouraging comprehension. Without support the active engagement activity turns into a receptive activity which can raise concerns around screen time and literacy skill development. 

Vooks does attempt to address these concerns. Gong & Levy suggest that animation can enhance children’s engagement by making stories more fun, however it is crucial to capture their attention to the text plays in their reading (as cited in, Arslan-Ari & Ari, 2021). Vooks incorporate the text from each story book, ensuring it is always visible on the page as well as highlighting the text in sync with the narration. This strategy of highlighting can help encourage tracking however younger children in particular, may still focus primarily on the animations (Arslan-Ari & Ari, 2021). Vooks also address the need for adult facilitation of activities by providing supporting resources for educators including lesson plans and discussion guides. Vooks emphasise that their program is complementary to print rather than a replacement. 

Vooks can be seen as a middle ground between other examples of digital story telling that focus on different key elements of narrative. Programs such as Storyline Online, focus less on animation and place more emphasis on the oral presentation and the use of famous celebrities to create engagement. Comparatively, media such as the Inanimate Alice novel experience, incorporate interactivity and user decision-making as a key feature that are used to promote active engagement with the story. There is a fine line between telling an interactive story and giving the reader too much autonomy over the story, this is where some interactive programs blur the line between story and game, turning the ‘audience into a game player’ (Yip, 2022).  Vooks is more visually engaging than the simple readings of Storyline online, but less interactive than programs such as branching narrative digital storytelling present in Inanimate Alice. 

Vooks and similar animated storybook programs represent a significant shift in how we define and deliver literature to young readers. Whilst the stories on Vooks are not interactive, their multimodal approach can support children’s engagement, comprehension and can make the stories more accessible for young readers. When used effectively with adult scaffolding, these digital texts can be a positive tool to integrate with literacy development. 

 

References 

Alexander, B. (2011). The new digital storytelling : Creating narratives with new media. ABC-CLIO, LLC.

Arslan-Ari, I., & Ari, F. (2022). The effect of visual cues in e-books on pre-K children’s visual attention, word recognition, and comprehension: An eye tracking study. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 54(5), 800–814. https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2021.1938763

BradField Narrative Designs Inc. (n.d.). Inanimate Alice [Website]. https://inanimatealice.com/

Huan, R. (2021). Evaluating Child Engagement in Digital Story Stems Using Facial Data.
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.

SAG-AFTRA Foundation. (n.d.). Storyline Online [Website]. https://storylineonline.net/

Vooks. (2025, March). Vooks Explainer Video 2024 (60 s) [Video].Vooks.https://www.vooks.com/

Yip, D. K. M. (2022). Between passive viewing and active choosing in storytelling. Human factors in communication of design (Vol. 49, pp. 65–69). AHFE International. https://doi.org/10.54941/ahfe1002037

 

 

ETL533 – Digital story proposal for Assessment 2

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Topic – a semi-biographical story about the notable Bushranger, Matthew Brady. 


(Artist unknown, ca. 1826)

Platform – Canva Website

Rationale:

The digital story I am proposing is a semi-biography of the Australian bushranger, Matthew Brady, including factual information,  as well as fictional diary entries that will provide an engaging experience for students. I have chosen Matthew Brady as the focus of my story because I have conducted extensive research into his life, as he is my ancestor, and I have a personal and deep interest in his story.

​The digital story is aimed at a Stage 3 audience, with links to the History unit titled The Australian Colonies (NSW Education Standards Authority [NESA], n.d.). This unit explores colonial Australia in the 1800s, and though it does not specify bushrangers, students are required to investigate the lives of people in Australia’s colonial past. Australian bushrangers played an integral part in the development of colonial life and the significant events of the time. The idea is that students will engage with the example digital story and strive to create their own biography and journal for someone of the colonial era.  

​I have chosen to use Canva as my platform as I have some basic knowledge of the program already and would like to use this opportunity to solidify my application of this in a classroom setting. The platform is user-friendly with built in features which will make developing my digital story simple and provide students with an example of how they may use features in their own creation of digital stories. The NSW Department of Education has approved Canva as a platform, (2025), making it easy to integrate into the classroom with limited restrictions from administration.

 

References

Artist unknown. (ca. 1826). Sketch of James McCabe, Matthew Brady, and Patrick Bryant [Sketch]. State Library of Tasmania. https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/B/Matthew%20Brady.htm

NSW Education Standards Authority. (n.d.). History K–10: Stage 3 – The Australian Colonies. NSW Government. https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/hsie/hsie-curriculum-resources-k-12/hsie-k-6-curriculum-resources/the-australian-colonies

NSW Government: Education. (2025). Technology 4 learning: Canva in education.  https://t4l.schools.nsw.gov.au/resources/professional-learning-resources/canva-for-education.html

 

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries: A Transmedia Experience

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Pride and Prejudice, written in1813 by Jane Austen, was aimed at upper-middle class women of that era. However, its audience has grown larger than someone of that time could have imagined. With adaptations ranging from graphic novels to film and television series, and in this case, a YouTube web series. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (2012-2013) created by Hank Green and Bernie Sue, reimagines the classic novel and explores it through the lens of digital media. Presented in the format of video blogs, the series follows a graduate student named Lizzie Bennet as she shares stories from her life.  The series ran for one hundred episodes however, there were a number of spin-offs across twitter and tumblr, which created a participatory element to the program. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is a clear example of a piece of transmedia digital literature that adds value to the original texts as it adapts them for young adult audiences.
The vlog format transforms the classic novel into a first-person confessional style series that is aimed at a younger audience and was particularly relevant to that early YouTube era. This format made the experience more intimate and personal for the audience than traditional text could. This approach works well for younger audiences who are familiar with social media, thereby making the text more accessible and relevant. The adolescents of today are born into a world of digital media; they have, ‘grown up surrounded by digital tools’ (Hovious, Shinas, & Harper, 2021). These tools can be utlisied to make traditional literature more engaging and accessible for students in today’s tech generation. However, there is a trade-off when using these digital formats. One trade off that fans of the traditional written text may find the fast-paced, informal style is less satisfying than the traditional format and sacrifices some of the nuances of the time period in which the novel is originally set.
The story outlined in the 100 episodes, whilst engaging and fun, is only scratching the surface of the transmedia design of the series. Transmedia refers to digital environments that encourage readers to, ‘seek out content, explore information in different contexts, evaluate ideas across formats, and interact with other readers’ (Lamb, 2011). The Lizzie Bennet Diaries achieves this through the multi-platform, multimodal approach to the story. By providing additional information through the narrative voice of supporting characters and encouraging audience participation in comment sections across social media. Characters such as  younger sister Lydia Bennet, were given their own social media accounts, there were Twitter posts, GIFs, and YouTube vlogs from their perspectives. This additional information supported the overall experience of the audience.
Fans at the time who followed the story across platforms experienced a layered, multi-voiced narrative that extended from the main episodes to create a complete retelling of the classic novel. In this way, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries blurred the line between literature, television, and social media performance. The modernisation of Austen’s themes also resonated strongly with young adults. Issues like career pressures, student debt, and social media oversharing replaced Regency-era concerns about marriage and inheritance, while still keeping the spirit of the original novel alive.
The series was multimodal as the narrative was told through not only the spoken words but through the visual cues, editing techniques, costume role-plays, and the additional media content. The narrative voice of Lizzie was crucial in drawing the audience into her world, and the confessional format made viewers feel more like the characters were friends rather than just characters within a text. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries illustrates the flexibility of digital platforms in adapting traditional texts. Instead of condensing Austen’s narrative into a single vlog, it spread the story across multiple channels and platforms. This fragmented yet interconnected design reflects the way young adults already consume media; through scrolling, clicking, and jumping between platforms
The complexity of this multimodal format creates some issues around viewers engaging with the whole content of the story. With the multi-platform nature of the digital literature piece, casual viewers were more likely to miss the nuance of the different perspectives and additional information found across twitter, tumblr, and the spin-off vlog series. Were this a viewers only experience of Pride and Prejudice, the fragmented story telling results in missed information and context that a reader may find more clear in the traditional text format.
This example whilst on the list provided in the course, is particularly interesting in that it is still engaging more than a decade after its release. In 2022, Ashley Clements, the actor who played Lizzie, fanned the flames of the original audience by creating an engaging rewatch of each episode on the anniversary of its release. She provided behind the scenes anecdotes, interviewed other actors, and gave a deeper look into the making of the original web series. As for the content of the story, when addressing the relevance and timelessness of Jane Austen’s original work, we can refer to the Netflix adaptation directed by Euros Lyn, which is set to release in 2026. This story transcends time and continues to resonate with readers across generations.
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries shows that classic stories can thrive just as strongly on YouTube as they can on the page.
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References
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Hovious, A., Shinas, V. H., & Harper, I. (2021). The compelling nature of transmedia storytelling: Empowering twenty-first-century readers and writers through multimodality. TechTrends, 26, 215–229.  v     https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-020-09437-7
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Lamb, A. (2011). Reading redefined for a transmedia universe. Learning and Leading with Technology, 39(3), 12–18.