When brainstorming for narratives that could work potentially as a good interactive, I focus on the aspect of Interactive Narratives that intrigues me the most: The branching of the story based on player’s choices, seeing how your choices matter and how you are the determinant on the outcome.
With that I came up with two entirely different areas of focus I could go to: Somatics and Mystery.
Ideation 1: Somatics
This was inspired by a session touching on “Somatics” – understanding of human relationships “the body perceived from within” e.g. subtle yet systematic communication. I was spurred by building awareness of others around you, gaining empathy and intuition.
The focus is less on what is somatics, it is more on human interaction and picking up subtleties in communication e.g. regarding how one is feeling. Sometimes, when we interact with others, we might be oblivious to how they feel, our words and actions might affect others in ways we might not know as much.
Possible ways to execute:
- Character(main or secondary) could be in a plight that we often don’t experience/know little about
- Garner real-life stories as source of inspiration – Several friends in healthcare industry talked about impacting others’ lives by the little things you do (this could perhaps be a way to raise awareness too)
- Focus on the differences in interaction and how the different body language an mean differently – respond accordingly
- Response can mean alot of others, can make or break a person – may affect development of others – perhaps if you didn’t say this, this person would not feel this way etc.
- Ethics
- Focus on the building on relationships – characters will need to be strong, relatable and one that audience can empathize with/feel sentimental towards
- Possible headstart from local context: Excessively competitive environment, unable to keep up / Ageing population / Being left behind by society
Ideation 2: Mystery
Vastly different from my other idea. Focus on Mystery/The Unknown/Thriller. Plunging the player into an situation where they do not know what to expect next, letting the player make careful decisions that determine survival/death.
Possible ways to execute:
- Focus on Environmental Storytelling
- Cryptic questions and clues
- Bring in ethics?
- Possible headstart: Werewolf game http://www.playwerewolf.co/rules/ – This game is a well-known game, and no it will definitely not be a remake of this game. Instead some takeaways that could be good to think about – not knowing what is happening and why, fear of unknown, fear of being next, and how if this is real-life what would people do to ensure their own survival (reveal human nature)?
- Inspiration: Until Dawn, The Room
Technicalities
Point-and-click adventure game/interactive movie – First-person perspective, puts you in the shoes of the character, helps you immerse more
Content:
- Hopefully a simple yet layered narrative that can stick with the viewer, thoughtful
- Branching narrative
- Not in your face, subtle – hopefully with subtext
Medium:
- 360 VR video (with choices)
- Or just videos
