Tag: story

Narratives for Interaction Sharing: Wolf Among Us

The Wolf Among Us is a fascinating narrative game developed by Telltale Games. It is the same game developer that produced The Walking Dead. It brings the players through various adventure and thrilling experience with the main character, Bigby Wolf.

I love the art style produced by Telltale Games. There is no fancy graphic or computer animation, just pure story book graphic style presentation. It creates a mysterious feel for the game and makes the players feel they are going through a story. It blends perfectly with the story that is going to unfold before the eyes of the players.

A huge bulk of the game involves interacting with in-game characters through Bigby Wolf. The things that Wolf said to them is going to affect how they react to him in the future. The decisions Wolf does will also influence the outcome of individual events. I feel that this is one of those games that you will spend hours trying out the different options for the interaction portion to discover different outcomes. The engagement aspect of the game is immersed. The players will feel that they are part of the game, part of the story. They have a personal connection with the in-game characters and feels that the choices they made matter.

 

Narratives for Interaction: Documentation and Progress V

PROJECT OCCUPATION

Goh Cher See | Nicholas Makoto | Zhou Yang

We were looking into the presentation of the story for the game. Due to time constraint, we are looking for a more efficient and concise way to tell our story to our players. We want to bring our message across to them in the shortest possible time so that the game flow will not feel draggy. 

The introduction portion of the game will be cut short. We feel that we do not have enough time to refine the story line to provide a good story telling experience for our players. Therefore, we look into alternative. 

We decided to tell the story through the medium of a file that keep track of the incident. Different parts of the game will be from the different parts of the documents. This is to emphasis the narrative element of the game. The game will be made up of memories kept in the document and unfold right in front of the players. 

This is the finalized game flow of our game. 

The different sound required for the different scenes in the game. 

The key scenes in the game.

Moving Forward:

With the game flow finalized, we will be focusing on materializing the game. The main problems we have is with game mechanics. We are have difficulties in getting in game interaction to run. But we are getting help from gaming forums and relevant people. 

Interactive 2: Documentation and Progress II

21 March 2017

Concept refinement

Current project direction/idea:

Four players will interact with each other as well as the computer to create sound in a dark room. There will be a total of 4 computers, each with four colors corresponding to a certain instrument or beat. Players have to mover near to the computer to trigger faster beats and further to trigger slower beats. The player can switch lanes to trigger a different instrument on another computer.

Project prototyping

We will be researching on patches that can track colors to trigger audio output as a starting point for our project.

This is one of the videos we found on that talks about tracking specific color that will lead to sound.

*Update* We tested out the patch, and it works. The reading was not very accurate because there are a lot of surrounding light that affects it. Once we have a more refined patch, we will be testing it in a place that has limited light. 

28 March 2017

Project prototyping 

Once we get the color tracking system to work (hopefully), we will be exploring and experimenting with a different combination of sounds.

The following are some of the sounds we are looking into.

We feel that using everyday sound to create music is an exciting area we can explore.

Chinese classical music is another aspect that we feel is an intriguing area that we can work on.

04 April 2017

Project prototyping 

Finalize on the audio output. 

Recording of the audio output. 

Booking of room for the project presentation. 

11 April 2017

Final build

Project documentation.

User testing.

18 April 2017

Final presentation 

18 April 2017

Final OSS submission

Narratives for Interaction Sharing: The Walking Dead

Since my project is on creating a narrative based game, I had been researching and looking into games that have the similar components. And I feel that The Walking Dead series by Telltale Games will be an interesting sharing.

It is a zombie survival game. However, it does not priorities the action and problem-solving qualities like many other survival games. Instead, players are exposed to the engaging narrative and character development of the game. Through playing the game, players will grow personal connections with the in-game characters. I feel that Telltale Games did an excellent job in providing the quality story line that keeps the players engage and at the edge of their seats.

During the game, players have to make choices. Some of the choices are pretty straight forward while others will put players into moral dilemmas. To add on to the challenge, there is the time limit for players in making their choices giving them the real-time problem-solving experience. These decisions will later affect the outcome of particular events or the fate of individual characters. Therefore, I feel that it provides the players with a legitimate experience of trying to survive in a world filled with danger.

Narratives for Interaction: Documentation and Progress IV

PROJECT OCCUPATION

Goh Cher See | Nicholas Makoto | Zhou Yang

After discussion, we felt that the cut scenes describing the story is too long and is going to take up too much of our time. Hence, we decided to trim down on the number of scenes involved which will make our story more concise.

The Battle of Malaya which directly led to the attack on Singapore will be cut. The story line of the game will start directly during the retreat of the British into Singapore.

We decided to add in the event of the British surrendering to the Japanese as we feel that this is a crucial point in the history of Singapore. It shows us that we cannot depend on foreign power to protect the sovereign of our country.  

We also decided to focus on refining the endings of our game. The element of the family will be emphasized. Different decisions made by the player during the game will affect the fate of their family members. Any questionable decision made by the player will result in their death. We want to carry the massage that there is no winner or loser in war, just families broken and devastated. 

Revised game flow and the sequence of cut scenes for the story.   

Moving Forward:

We will continue to refine the story of the game. There are still parts that can be more concise to cater to the fact that we do not have much time left. However, at the same time we are making sure the quality of the story will not be affected. 

We are starting to materialize our game by experimenting on the starting portion of the game. We are also testing out different background music and different art styles to fit the overall narrative experience of the game. The game mechanics of the game is also something we are tackling. We are trying to figure out how to run the interaction between the playing character and the in game characters. 

 

Narratives for Interaction: Documentation and Progress III

PROJECT OCCUPATION

Goh Cher See | Nicholas Makoto | Zhou Yang

We did research on the relevant parts of the history of the Japanese Occupation of Singapore that we want to present in the game. Throughout the research, we learned about events and happenings that we were previously not aware of. One of the examples will be the Battle of Malaya. We always see the Japanese invasion of Singapore as a stand alone event. However, before the attack on Singapore, the Japanese and British fought a series of battles in Malaya. These are parts of the history that were often overlooked when people take about the Japanese Occupation of Singapore. Therefore, we hope to include these parts forgotten history into our game. 

The plan of including the Battle of Malaya into the narrative part of the game. 

We mentioned on the previous post regarding the ending being influenced by the choices made by the players during the game. We are hoping to show how the ending of the game affected the lives of the people of the present time in the game. For example, a character is alive because of a decision that the player made during the game. He/she gets to live to present day Singapore, and he/she feels the impact of the painful memories. Through these emotional struggles shown by the victims of the war, we hope the players can understand and reflect on the effects of war and the loss of freedom on people.

Therefore, we are looking at the possibility of including a portion of the narrative on a scene about the memorial service at the Civilian War Memorial. We hope that this will make the players feel the significance and the impact the Japanese Occupations had on the lives of many Singaporeans and their future generations.

We also started looking into the gameplay elements of the game. We feel that it will be challenging for us as we have limited knowledge on game engines and time is of the essence. We are planning to create some simple yet meaningful game mechanics which allows the players to have an engaging gaming experience. We hope we will be able to work some magic with the limited resources and knowledge we have. 

Moving Forward:

We will continue to refine the story line as we feel the flow is not in sync with what we have in mind. At the same time, we will be gathering resources to start building our game. We will look into tutorials and relevant materials needed to get the ball rolling.  

Narratives for Interaction: Documentation and Progress II

PROJECT OCCUPATION

Goh Cher See | Nicholas Makoto | Zhou Yang

For this project, we decided to focus heavily on the narrative aspect of the game as we want our players to understand the pain and suffering our forefathers went through during the Japanese Occupation. Therefore we decided to pay close attention to the cut scenes and the story flow of the game. At the same time, we are also careful not to turn the game into merely a narrative story but neglecting the game elements of the game. 

The front portion of the game, we are planning to run two-time lines at the same time. The game will be switching between modern time and the period during the Japanese Occupation. We want to emphasis that the happenings in the past will have its effect on the present. 

For the ending of the game, we intend to allow it to be influenced by the choices that the players made on the earlier stages of the game. We hope that through implementing this type of game play, it will allow the players to have a personal connection with the game. We want to make them feel the choices that they made in the game matters. 

Moving forward:

As the rough structure of the game is settled, we will be moving towards materializing the game by working on the game art and mechanics. We will continue to refine story line so it can best reflect the message we want to sent to our players without feeling too draggy. 

Narratives for Interaction Sharing: This War of Mine

This War of Mine is a wartime survival game that constantly reminds you the cruel and unpredictability nature of war. In the face of war, there are no regards to society statuses. Everyone are exposed and prone to any forms of mishap, sometimes even death. There are no heroes, just people doing everything they can to survive.

Throughout the game, you will be faced with various events that challenge your moral understanding and decisions. You can choose to save someone from the bandits but risk your life. On the other hand, you can choose to hide and be safe from the danger while the person suffers. There is no right or wrong, just how much you gain and learn from the experience.  

Besides making a difficult moral decision, the mental conditions of the survivors that are with the main character that the player is controlling also play a key role in deciding their fate of surviving in the war-torn condition. The player has to manage the feelings of his comrades or risk falling out among his people. I feel that this is an interesting inclusion to the game which adds a human element to it. It allows fictional characters to appear as real people with human emotions and problems. Through interacting with these characters, it allowed personal connections to be formed as the player does not view these characters as merely in game figures but as real human beings.   

The Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges

For me, The Garden of Forking Path is a unique story. The front part of the story talking about Yu Tsun, a Chinese-German Spy, planning and carrying out his escape plan after his cover was blown is somewhat of an unrelated event to the entire story. Though, it served as the buffer for the main bulk of the story to unfold. It did, however, cause some confusion for me during my initial understanding of the text.

The main idea of the story explored the concept of time. It made me think about time more than just a form of measurement in mathematical context. It tried to bring across the idea of time being relative. It formed the basis of a network of possible futures made up of an infinite number of possibilities. These possibilities are all link with one and another. Every point in the context of time has the capability to be the starting point that will lead to an infinite outcome. A slight change in any part of the flow, it will result in a domino effect, affecting all the subsequence possibilities.  

This leads me to realize that our life is also affected by the possibilities happening due to the decisions we made and also the decisions we did not make. For example, today you may choose to go to the library and meet someone you that you can relate to. However, you might never meet that person if you choose not to go to the library and do something else instead. The decisions of going and not going to the library will each leads to a different network of possibilities that will branch out infinitely with the flow of time.

I feel that this is a relevant source of inspiration that we as designers can use to enhance an interactive narrative related project. The possibilities created by the availability of choices allows us to create layers within our narrative. Within each layer, there will be potential for more possibilities, creating an interesting and engaging narrative experience. With a fixed progression happening in most of the narrative, in which the flow of it is fixed and sometimes predictable, the availability of choices creates a non-linear storytelling experience in a linear context.