#interactiveproject

If the corona pandemic can spread worldwide, then so can hope as well. Let’s challenge the spread of the new coronavirus by instead sharing encouragement and appreciation! 

Cranes for Hope is a digital interactive project where you can show your initiative, share hope, and follow the project’s global spread and development. Learn about how you can contribute to the project on the project’s website and follow Cranes for Hope on social media for updates.

So this week’s talk from Francis O’Neil was really interesting, particularly as a previous graduate who completely understand the journey from the Interactive Media module and into the big scary world of business and bringing her ideas to life. 

Sometimes I feel a bit like this about my projects:

But Francis made it less scary and even though she was talking about App development specifically, so much of the development was useful when considering my own project. 

What struck me was the huge sums she was initially quoted to build her app compared to the cost when she found a freelance developer to do it. This highlighted perfectly just how important research and finding a range of quotes is rather than going for the first one. 

This is something I have built into my own business model. Going for a smaller developer also gives you more creative control which is always appreciated when we can get it! 

I also had an interesting discussion with Brian who suggested using the game as a platform to crowdfund for the wider project. While this sparked my interest and I also thought about giving the game an episodic nature, I also thought about using the development and website as a tool for crowdfunding.

I was struggling a lot this week with the business side of things. Asking how long it’ll take to build my game felt a bit like asking how long is a piece of string. It depends on so many factors that it became a bit overwhelming and terrifying.

In part, this is because it is about so much more than a class project. This is something I really want to do and build so this was the time to plan out how I would do that in reality. 

The solution I have right now is to get chatting to some developers and gauge both in time and therefore cost where my game sits. I was hindered a bit by not having a clear enough idea of the story part of my game but in true last minute fashion, that idea has formed over the past couple days. At least enough to clarify my pitch finally. So while the business model may not be quite there come pitching time next week, by proposal it should be clearer and that weight on my shoulders might lift a bit. 

A wee project update this week because progress is slow and I’m in the depths of story development so it is continuously changing. 

Speaking of change...my previous decision to do more of a choice based game is morphing into an adventure horror game. I both love and hate horror games (mostly because I’m just too much of a wimp to play a lot of them) but some can be so creative and tell stories in far more captivating ways. 

What I think was missing from the setting I was building for this game was tone. Everything about the world lends itself to a dark atmosphere but I don’t think I was pushing that far enough. I want to use this and make it darker and more twisted than it maybe would have been otherwise. In The Observatory, they worship Goddesses, led by a man named The Lens who is supposed to have an ability to speak to the Goddess Veloria. However, we are in an apocalypse so nothing is quite as controlled or civilised as it seems and many of the followers have taken this faith into their own hands, twisting it in different ways. 

As the main project is not horror in itself but definitely has horror elements, having a horror game as an accompaniment could be a different take on it. 

With that being said...here are some visuals I’ve been looking into to try and capture how it might look. 

The above are from Outlast which although I’m not looking for something as big as this, the underground atmosphere and pretty gory characters is the style I’m interested in. 

Next, is Layers of Fear, a big influence for my game. The way it deteriorates using not a lot more than setting to convey the player character’s perception is really clever. This is an element I’d like to play with to represent the deteriorating state of the player in a more subtle manner. 

Finally, I have these really cool red ominous images that use one colour really effectively to create atmosphere. I found these on pinterest so unfortunately they don’t seem to have one source as they were everywhere from multiple accounts but this illustrates an idea I may introduce. By using a limited colour palette, it could capture a certain tone more effectively in a simple way. I think red is too intense but it definitely a concept I’m thinking about further. 

I don’t want the horror to be necessarily as explicit as that of Outlast or The Evil Within but more of a shift in atmosphere like Layers of Fear. Alongside an already dark and underground setting, I hope it’ll put the player in that unsettled state where decision making becomes harder. 

I’ve also decided to simplify the story element, using one player character in a more discovery role/experience that is more interactive than something like Dear Esther, but still focuses on exploration and decision making (e.g. choosing to believe one person over another) instead of specific puzzles.

So a slight update on where I’m at project-wise. 

Do I have a title yet? Not really.

Here’s the shortlist though: 

- Overseers

- Absolved: Surviving Subland

- Seeing The Truth 

- The Broken Path

All very different, I know. Feel free to put in a vote. It’ll definitely be more clear as the story comes together so I’m not worried about it. 

I’ve been battling with concept for a couple weeks now. I roughly knew world and form the scope was growing and growing and becoming a bit out of control. Having had a play around with the program Twine (thank you so much Cara Ellison, your lecture was so fun and fascinating), helped me experiment better with structure.

Along with the influence of Angry River which I talked about in my last post, I have the following concept...

In a dystopian Edinburgh, humanity has been forced underground to hide from monstrous bio-mechanical machines that stalk the streets above. These monsters are the result of prosthesis gone wrong, taking over those they inhabit and turning them into mindless machines. Down below, in Subland, people are split into three main segments, Underburgh, Buckie and The Observatory. The Observatory contains a religious sect called Neo-Occulists who prophecise the descent of the Goddess Veloria who will come and save them from humanity’s technological nightmare, rewarding them for being true believers. However, they predict her evil twin Eldamara will attempt to deceive and destroy them first.  I’ve done some hefty world building and lore writing this week which will help add substance to this world and influence the player’s decisions and determine what information they find.

Play as either a survivor in Subland, arriving at The Observatory for the first time looking for sanctuary, or a resident of this segment when a stranger appears. 

Will you support their beliefs as the survivor?

Will you trust the stranger and allow him into your community? 

Could their connection be the key to discovering more about the Gods?

While this is quite a decision based game, it won’t have a huge amount of branches (partly due to time restriction) so instead I want to focus on the discovery elements and give the player plenty to find and discover about the world along their journey. I think this will add more to the characters and weight to the choices they make. 

In terms of platform, I have an extended post on that from last week but to recap, it hasn’t changed. I still think PC/Mac either through Steam or a browser is the best fit as the game will stem directly from a website based on the wider story world. This keeps the interactivity to the same platform which makes for a more seamless transition. 

So, my to do list: 

- Develop the two player characters

- This will help determine the story for each of them 

- Which in turn identifies how many non-player characters I’ll need 

- Then I can develop those 

- At this stage I will should have enough information for my pitch (adding the business elements to this as well) 

-  I’ll be ready to write it into Twine

It’s a lot...I’ll need plenty coffee. 

From discussions in this weeks class around Art of the Heist and Why So Serious, to the intricacies of creating narratives across multiple platforms while reading Andrea Phillip’s Guide to Transmedia Storytelling (highly recommend), it seems I’ve unlocked my project!

The level of interaction and meaning that can be created for readers and audiences in a transmedia story is both exciting and a bit scary for a new writer. But it also has so much flexibility to create as much or as little and add as you go that I think that’s worth reminding my ambitious brain sometimes and realising it is possible for someone with a budget of 0. 

Isn’t frustrating when the film, book, or game you were so invested in ends? You go through that heartbreak and temporary hole in your life where that world and those characters used to be. This is why I want my story to be transmedia. I want there to always be more to be involved in, more to know about characters, more to do in the world, more to explore. I would agree with Phillips when she expresses society’s shift towards transmedia as our form of consuming stories in the future. It's all about our ‘too much gene’ I mentioned in my last post. We always want to discover more and I want to create it.