The Blanc: My Interactive Story Proposal

By Sam Ines


For my proposal, I want to create a story about grief. Or is it about self-discovery? Likely both.

Often-times I’ve found that bereavement and renewal go hand-in-hand: One life ends, and another begins – one following the other. Gregor Samsa dies, Greta Samsa is finally allowed to live. Thematic metamorphosis.

But what happens when they’re the same person – the familial pariah; the cockroach, and the beloved daughter; the butterfly all at once? This is the story of one such person.
My story will revolve around a character named “Yes”. They are a blank slate who’s personality will develop and grow as the story develops. Yes is a person who wakes up one morning to find themselves in a place called “The Blanc” – an empty place: a place where “The Lost” come to wander. As Yes, the player will explore this vast space, meeting other Lost among the way.

For me, this is a story inspired by both my grief and metamorphosis into the person I am today. Yes is someone caught in-between: the axis mundi between grief and change. How they develop from there is up to you. This is the story of Yes’s metamorphosis, and it’s up to you to guide them.

This story will take inspiration from interactive media such as Omori, Undertale, and The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories. Like with these games, I would like to make this a story about self-discovery; with the events that happen within acting as vehicles for these discoveries.
Main points of interactivity include choosing how Yes interacts with the other Lost through text conversations and context clues, as well as in how they navigate the Blanc. These interactions overtime, will reveal a past for the players to discover and interpret on their own.

References

Kafka, F., 1915. The Metamorphosis. Leipzig: Kurt Wolff.

Omori. 2020. [Digital Media] Omocat LLC.

Enterbrain Inc. (2011). RPG Maker VX Ace [PC].

The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories. 2018. [Digital Media] Directed by H. Suehiro. Osaka Japan: Arc System Works.

Undertale. 2015. [Digital Media] Directed by T. Fox and T. Chang. Manchester, New Hampshire: Toby Fox.