Dev Log #1

Welcome to the first dev log! I wasn’t really sure what to call these, but I think dev log is pretty appropriate since I am trying to develop an interactive story.

For the very first dev log, I decided to start off with brainstorming and just trying to come up with ideas, just feeling out what I wanted for this project, and what direction I’m trying to push it into. Below I have attached a screenshot of the notes I’ve made (Fig 1.)

Now since the brainstorming looks to be all over the place, I’ll try and explain each part individually.

What does an interactive story need to have and be?

Interactive stories are much more than just “games” or choose your own adventures. Yes, the definition of what makes an interactive story an interactive story is different for everyone. I decided to lay some things out that I would like to implement in my own. Again, these are my opinions, so yours might be different. On a further note, an interactive story when stripped down to it’s basic components needs (to be/have):

• Fun and enjoyable (needs to be immersive)
• The choices you make have impact and the story surrounding it, this includes environment and other characters
• There needs to be more than one choice (sometimes)
• The player needs to leave satisfied
• Plot (needs to be realistic)

These are some considerations I will be taking into account when I write this story, since this is what I would like to see in a game. Nevertheless, you, the reader, might also agree and disagree with the points made above, and add your own to the list.

Still, I want to be able to create a captivating story that doesn’t only rely on the story telling aspect, but also in terms of gameplay. You want to actually feel like you’re in the imaginary world that has been drawn out for you, you want to be to feel it with all your senses, just like you’re really there.

On the side note, I mention other games that already exist, such as Moon hunters, For the King, Ace Attorney and Minecraft. I probably have numerous hours on all these games, thought I would say some are definitely better than others. If you’re interested in them, you can check out these games here to see/understand what I’m talking about:

• Moon Hunters
• For the King
• Ace Attorney
• Minecraft

Brainstorming a concept

Looking back on the notes, brainstorming a concept can be quite tricky.

“What is an interesting concept that would actually seem fun to play through? If I was a bystander, what topics would be fun to play?”

Dana Huynh (me), at 2 am writing this

It’s hard to really think what people would be interested in, since everybody has their own likes and taste. However, I think everybody definitely has a place for fantasy in their heart somewhere. Something about a world fun of magic, demons, wizards, and random inanimate objects speaking has always had a place for me.

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Select a topic that is taught in elementary school and sketch out a general concept for an edutainment game that would teach this subject.

Handler Miller, C. (2008). Digital Storytelling (2nd Edition, Chapter 11). Focal Press

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This “quote” is under “IDEA-GENERATING EXERCISES” in the Digital Storytelling textbook, which was one of the places I went to first when coming up with ideas for this project, sort of makes sense to look here first.

Still, the textbook isn’t wrong, something such as fantasy is a safe topic, but also I already personally enjoy it, considering I have also played DnD (Dungeons and Dragons) a lot. To ensure this blog post isn’t a big wall of text, you can see me explain what is it, and why it’s a potential concept I can work with by clicking the button underneath .

Moving on to the more “spooky” concept

I don’t know how it happened, but one day on YouTube I stumbled into the SCP foundation rabbit hole. I won’t explain too much of what it is, but if you are interested, just search up “SCP foundation” on google and enjoy your adventures.

It’s essentially a collaborative fiction project, which includes many horrifying, but also funny “monsters” which when explained in whole detail, almost seem real, almost as if they actually exist.

Again, to avoid a long blog post, you can see me explain why the backrooms will be somewhat included in the final project underneath.

But what if we combine these 2 ideas together?

Combining parts from the fantasy world on DnD, with the horror and deception of the SCP backrooms (hence the “What if… Fantasy backrooms?”), this could be something so strange, it’s good. Here, anomies that you encounter could be magical, in addition to troupes taken from fantasy. However, I still have the freedom to fluctuate between genres (which can be great, but also interesting).

But even with that in mind, it’ll still be a game which involves talking to characters, experiencing the environment, and moving through rooms. So how can we make this interesting?

Make it into a mystery game. No but seriously, adding some sort of inventory system with clues not only adds to character interactions, but also can aid in giving the player choices, such that they aren’t able to do something proficiently without that clue/ item. You can also write more encounters, such that they give information to the player. The player can feel immersed, like they are in this world, or that they have an over arching goal to resolve.

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Overall thoughts

Overall, I think a somewhat mystery, horror, fantasy game will be interesting enough to a player, a different world from what they are typically used to (in terms of basic troupes), and would be fun to write on my part. This might have been an ambitious project, but definitely isn’t out of my reach.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this dev log, there is much more to come in the future hopefully this wasn’t a mistake 🙂

– Dana Huynh, also more commonly known as Danish

Editors Note: Dev Log #2 is out! You can find it here :0