STUDY ON VISUAL CUES IN CREATING NARRATIVE IMMERSION WITHIN VISUAL NOVEL DANGANRONPA: TRIGGER HAPPY HAVOC

• Main Author: Putri Miranny Dewi, Novia
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/50815
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

As one of favorite recreational activities of people all around the world, digital gaming is also incorporated as means to fill Indonesians' leisure time. Adventure genre, which includes visual novel as its subgenre, has garnered most of their attention. Utilising Player Immersion in Computer Game Narrative (PICGN) questionnaire to measure player's narrative immersion level in three favorite visual novel games of the subgenre's enthusiasts, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc emerged as visual novel with highest narrative immersion level across three factors taken into consideration: curiosity, comprehension, and empathy (Dewi, 2020). The finding has become this research's basis to identify and to map visual cues present in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and to study visual cues' influence in creating player's narrative immersion. Visual novel theory (Lebowitz and Klug, 2011), facial expression and body language theory (McCloud, 2006), cinematic techniques theory (Brown, 2016), visual narrative theory (Carroll, 2009), and Narrative Immersion theory (Qin, Rau, and Salvendy, 2006) are formulated into this study's foundation upon qualitative analysis using Compositional Interpretation method developed by Rose (2011). Based on research conducted, visual cues identified and mapped in visual novel Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc incorporate every single variation of facial expressions, body language, and cinematic techniques available to induce curiosity, comprehension regarding its narrative, and empathy to the characters involved in the gameplay, thus creating high level of narrative immersivity.