Category: Narratives for Interaction

Interactive Narrative Sharings

Sharing 5

https://www.nawlz.com/

Nawlz is an interactive comic book that can be read online. I find this extremely fun to read.

Sharing 6

La Linea Interactive is a youtube video that allows the viewer to select the choice. The buttons were link to the other videos.

Sharing 7

Honda “the other side” is no longer available. However, there is a demo on youtube.

Sharing 8

I find this game extremely interesting. By introducing the visual of an 80s cartoon into a platform game, the studio has created this unique blend of nostalgia and interactive platformer.

Interactive Narrative_Game Review

There are 3 available games for the class to try out and review. Journey, Her Story and Firewatch. I would like to talk about Journey in this game review.

Journey is an atmospheric, adventure game that has no combat and game over state, which at first sounds like a terrible idea. However, what Journey exceeds at were the storytelling. The background of Journey revolved around an ancient race that went extinct, leaving only the player in this beautiful, daunting and isolated world to find exactly what happen to them.

The players objective were to walk around the world looking for ways to traverse the environment using the game mechanic that were being taught to the player when they first started the game. Journey did a great job on giving subtle clues to the player on which object to interact with, For example, object that the developer want the player to interact with were normally red in color, and contrast that with the yellowish desert, the results is a game with beautiful visuals and at the same time, gave a clear indication on what they are supposed to do.

Other than the game mechanics, the impressive part was that the narrative were all done without using a single word. There are no words or voices in Journey (other than the interface), yet players would understand the story without any problem! Journey would also show the player that language is not the only way to express an idea, but with clear visuals and direction, a picture is worth a thousand words.

I was astonished by the game Journey. It is a good example for all developers and investors that not all games have to be gory and bloody. A simple, earnest game like Journey can create an experience that would transcend time and touch the heart of players regardless of their background.

 

Interactive Narrative Sharing 4

Link – http://assets.wwf.org.uk/custom/foodstory/

World Wildlife Fund had made a website educating people about the food that we eat. By eating less and wasting less food, we in some ways were able to help people from all over different countries. The interface on the website were simple to navigate and interesting as well.

Reflection: Garden of the forking paths

The Garden of the Forking Paths was a compelling read. Being a fan of parallel universe/time-travelling fiction, I find that some elements in the story itself was confusing, however it was extremely fun and enticing towards the end.

Some actions of the main protagonist were bizarre, action such as killing Doctor Albert. It was strange to think that killing his friend Albert would be the best option to reveal the location of the artillery park. However, it would make sense if all the other possible decisions converge and occur simultaneously in this scenario.

The more logical actions would be having Tsun going to Albert’s house as a friend, chatting about Ts’ui Pen’s novel and labyrinth, with Albert alive at the end and providing a shelter for Tsun to hide.

In the second scenario, Tsun could have come to Albert’s house as an enemy after seeing the similarities of his friend’s name and the name of the artillery park, killed Albert without a single conversation and succeeded in revealing the location of the artillery park through the media.

However, in the story itself, Tsun came to Albert’s house as both an enemy and a friend, after exhausting all the possible option to reveal the location of the artillery park, killing his friend who had the same name as the park itself was the only way to achieve the goal. It was funny how the outcome was the combination of the two most logical actions for Tsun to execute and it would further emphasis on the theme of infinite possibility the narrative brings up.

I really enjoyed the narrative elements in The Garden of the Forking Paths, even when the actions of the protagonist were strange at times. The lack of logic in the narratives further invokes the audience to think of a possible outcome and timeline of the narration.

Interactive Narrative_Plot

For this exercise, I wanted to tell a story of a simple, personal adventure of a normal personal. Having let them go on a spiritual adventure to find themselves and how they have grow and developed in this journey. I have taken a small amount of inspiration from different media, e.g Ni no Kuni, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.


 

Idea 1

“Lost & Found”

Act 1

The story of a young boy who ‘lost’ his cat.

Act 2

Set off on a small adventure to find his cat.

Conflict – face off multiply challenge to continue on his path to find his cat.

Climax – The realization that his cat has passed on.

Act 3

Got over the fact that his cat was dead, the adventure was just his hallucination, a metaphor of the process of losing your loved one.

Idea 2

1- year vacation

Act 1

The story of a middle man leading a monotones life, working hard and ignoring his family. The total amount of off days he had accumulated have reached 365 days, 1 year.

Act 2

The boss have given him a compulsory 1 year vacation, to bring his family along to have fun.

Conflict – Fought with his family due to differences in ideology and lack of understanding.

Climax – Left his family behind to go to work.

Act 3

Reconnect with his family, getting to know his family again after all the years of ignoring them and working.

Interactive Narrative Sharing 2

My project topic is quite similar to this game. A Taiwanese game set in Taiwan, with their local element and story. I feel extremely inspired by Detention as they are not afraid to show off their culture. Being a point and click horror games, I feel that I could have taken some elements from this game itself.

Interactive Narrative_Topic Idea

1st Topic Idea

20 Blockbuster Movies You Probably Didn’t Know Were Filmed in Canada

Before I further explain my idea, I would like the reader to click on the link. My first topic idea would be to highlight the problem film makers nowadays faces. In the link, we can see that there were lots of american stories not being made in America itself, but Canada. The same could be said about Singaporean film, Singaporean film maker do not like filming in Singapore! I would like to explore Singapore and note down some scenic location that could be use in Singaporean film, compiling them into a sort of narrative for the audience to experience.

 

2nd Topic Idea

On my second topic, I would like to make a point and click game that revolves around different stories, which will converge at some point and affect each other stories. The player would have to make difficult choices and allowing them to chose their own path in the game.