The Hidden Art of Transmedia Storytelling Across Cinema and Video Game

Various forms of digital media such as computer game have borrowed greatly from cinematic art and expression in terms of its world building and narrative structure [1, 2]. Cinema and video game share similar screen, character and time-based properties. They are time-based because they have time dimension in duration and structure. Time itself is invisible and intangible. Time-based media employs the dramatic art of storytelling and content design sometimes with hidden effects invisible to untrained eyes. Despite these characteristic similarities, cinema and video game as both time and character-based media do function and entertain differently. Narrative and experience design can be invisible and relevant to the creation and experience of cinematic storytelling and video game. This article aims to offer an extended perspective of transmedia storytelling [3, 4] by discussing both the differences and also the hidden similarities of cinema and game specifically on the topic of tension building. In storytelling media and video game, the hidden arts and design continue to do their invisible magic tricks and their hidden contributions are as importantly as the design of visual spectacle and sound effects. As the consumer market is embracing more and higher picture resolution and format, it is the art of the visual as well as the unseen storytelling that work together behind the scene to create the magic.