Storytelling in mobile games and its impacts on the game experience

It can be said that digital games are a new medium in that they offer experiences and pleasures based in the interactive and immersive possibilities of digital technologies. With the digitalization and latest developments brought by the 21st century, users' game habits have evolved. Smartphones and tablets have become a gaming platform in addition to computers and consoles. As of today, digital games can be classified on 3 different main platforms. These are personal computer (PC), game console (PS4, XBOX, Nintendo) and mobile games. With the widespread use of smart phones and increasing time spent on mobile in recent years, people's interest in other gaming platforms has decreased. Therefore, the age range of mobile players has expanded, and mobile games have diversified day by day. While games take up more time and more space in our daily lives, it is today known that digital games are more than just a leisure activity. Storytelling has been actively used in many areas from marketing to identity creation in recent years. With the digitalized world, storytelling has also been digitalized by keeping up with this transformation. As a result of combining storytelling with digital games, games containing narratives that surround the player with the feeling of being drawn into a new world and involve them in the story with interaction have emerged. These "story-based games" offer more than a game, change the understanding of the game with the narrative it contains, and promise an extraordinary experience to the player. Especially when this rise and storytelling in mobile games are combined, mobile games containing rich narrative, which are frequently preferred by mobile players, have emerged. It has been seen that there are few studies in the literature on how the experience offered by games containing narrative differs from the game experience offered by games that do not contain stories. Although there has been a noticeable increase in story-based mobile games in recent years, the number of academic studies dealing with these games is also noteworthy. Moreover, there are no studies in the literature about the effect of storytelling on mobile games on gaming experience. In this study, how storytelling affects the gaming experience in mobile games is discussed. It was investigated in which ways the game and post-game experiences of mobile games telling the story differentiate from mobile games without narrative and what caused this difference. In this context, literature studies were conducted in the context of mobile game, storytelling and game experience concepts and past studies were examined. Then, the game experience elements were examined through the game experience questionnaire discussed in the game. In order to exemplify the effect of storytelling on the gaming experience in mobile games, an experiment was conducted with 32 participants from the Digital Game Design student. Participants who experienced two different games, one with a story and the other without, then completed the Game Experience Questionnaire / GEQ to measure these experiences. When the data obtained from the completed questionnaires are compared using the Dependent Sample T Test, it is revealed that there is a significant difference between the two experiences. The experience questionnaires of the two games were analyzed through tables and graphics, and the effect of the story elements in the game on the experience elements during and after the game was interpreted. The main output of this study is to reveal the effects of narrative elements in narrative games on the game experience. In addition, this study aims to provide a clearer understanding of the experience that games provide to individuals by examining the narrative in terms of game experience elements for both academicians and game developers. Keywords: digital game, mobile game, storytelling, narrative, game experience, game experience survey.