Happy Birthday, CSU!

Time flies when you’re having fun, doesn’t it? It’s already been one year since Cutscene University opened its virtual doors to the world, and I couldn’t be prouder everything we’ve accomplished so far. In the past year, we’ve put up over fifty articles across a hundred pages, totaling a whopping 175,000 words (that’s roughly two novels, for those of you who don’t think in word count.) We’ve touched on forty full years of video games, ranging from 1981’s Donkey Kong (Nintendo) to 2021’s 12 Minutes (Annapurna Interactive), and hit every era of gaming in between. Along the way, we’ve learned the basics of storytelling in our Narrative Analysis section, and we’ve explored the strengths and weaknesses of some of our favorite games in our StoryScan section. We’ve also done a deep dive on the Legend of Zelda series in our Game Studies section, exploring the plot, characters, and themes in six of the most recent releases. Taken together, these essays prove how much video game stories have to teach us and how much we can learn from them.

In the year to come, we plan to continue both our Narrative Analysis and StoryScan essays, maintaining our dual focus on teaching general concepts while exploring individual game stories. There are still countless games across consoles and eras that we have yet to touch, including some of our absolute favorites, and new games are changing the way we tell interactive stories every day. We look forward to continuing our studies, and we hope you’ll join us on our academic journey. Your views and comments are what keep us going, and we wouldn’t have made it this far without you.

With sincerest thanks,

Liz Kelly, Founder of Cutscene University