Short Story Novel Creative Assignment: Turn a Story into a Video Game Project

This short story or novel creative assignment is an excellent final project that has students turn a story into a video game! Students will explore story elements like characterization, setting, plot, conflict, and more with these 8 engaging assignments that can either be used individually or as a final short story or novel creative project!

Included in the video game short story novel project:

➡️ To The Video Game Developer: Students write a letter to a video game developer to persuade them to make their novel or short story into a video game. This assignment will allow students to practice letter writing format and demonstrate their understanding of plot, character, and conflict.

➡️ Select Your Players: Students will choose two characters from the story to be playable (controlled by the gamer) and one non-playable (controlled by the game). They will examine each characters' backstory, strengths, and weaknesses.

➡️ Design Your World: This assignment allows students to consider the setting descriptions from their reading and determine how that will translate on the video game screen!

➡️ Game Time Interview: Students transform themselves into a game developer and answer interview questions that demonstrate their understanding of the main character, theme, and plot.

➡️ Video Game Box Cover: Students design a video game box cover to get gamers to the store to buy the video game adaptation of the short story or novel.

➡️ Storyboarding: Students explore the plot of the story by creating a storyboard that game developers create to show the levels of the game or an important scene.

➡️ Game Conflict: Students consider the type of conflict that will develop in the game and examine the impact that will have on the players and the mood and tone of the game.

➡️ Video Game Composer: Students make choices about the music of the video game adaptation of their reading. They will choose three songs that connect directly with the content of their reading.

Also included is a one-page rubric for easy marking!

What teachers are saying about this video game short story novel project:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a great resource that can be used with almost any novel or short story. Great graphics and content. One of my favourite on TPT so far!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ My students LOVED this project. They were excited about the 8 elements of this project and enjoyed turning their short stories into video games. I let them choose from the 5 short stories we read in that unit, and they came up with some great projects. It was a really good measure of their understanding of various short story elements.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ My 8th Graders did a short story unit on "scary stories" for the Halloween season and LOVED being able to take the scary stories and turn them into video games. I had been struggling to find ways to engage the young men in my class and as many of them are gamers-it really kept them engaged.

Looking for more assignments to use with any reading? Click below

→ 50 Assignments to Use With Any Novel or Short Story

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