ABSTRACT
This chapter interweaves observations from the author's experiences on stage and off, as well as the author's journey as a budding scholar navigating the disciplines of game studies, multimodality, and affective sciences. Detroit offers a recent portrayal within a lineage of science fiction media on affective bonding among humans and machines – bearing relevance as debates on artificial intelligence, algorithms, and robot ethics abound. Digital games have long pushed the boundaries of interactive storytelling by harnessing the spatial properties specific to digital environments. Challenges abound in staging quality theater productions as independent organizations. Of key importance is to secure funding and infrastructure for continuous, creative efforts. This calls for acumen in navigating systems of art and commerce. Technological progress without criticality slips into fetishism, the signs of which are seen in multiple spheres of the digital contemporary. Storytelling persists across epochs and particularly resonates in the times of planetary and political tumult.
