Creating screen stories with game engines: challenges and opportunities for students and researchers working collaboratively across disciplines

ABSTRACT In recent years, the increased take up of game engines in the context of emerging and traditional screen media production has fostered innovation across formats. Game engines present an opportunity to author immersive projects that draw upon the expertise of experience designers, game developers, screenwriters and other creative practitioners; however, questions arise as to the ways that individuals from different backgrounds might work together effectively on these projects given the varying ‘poetics’ of their fields. This term, used by Ian MacDonald in the context of screenwriting practice, refers to ‘the rationalisation of a mode, or a paradigm, of practice; a collection of perceived norms that make sense together, for those involved in developing a screen idea, in that time and place’ (2013, 3). This article explores the development of two screen works created using Unreal Engine, so as to outline the challenges for multidisciplinary teamwork in this area. This article will argue that the successful realisation of these projects called for the development of common ground around this new mode of practice, one fostered through a sharing of boundary objects (Star and Griesemer 1989), expertise and through listening to participant concerns.