IS Entry No. 3: Proposal

1. Premise and Purpose: What is the core concept of your interactive story? What are you trying to do with it?

The inspiration for my interactive story comes from the Buddhist philosophy, The Four Noble Truths which includes: the truth of suffering, the truth of the cause of suffering, the truth of the end of suffering, and the truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering.

My goal for this interactive story is not to indoctrinate or spread religious dogma but rather to offer the player some pragmatic perspective that just so happens to be rooted in Buddhist philosophy. Although I would not consider myself religious, I will preface that Tibetan culture and Tibetan Buddhism share a very intimate relationship, and as a Tibetan Canadian myself, I am aware of my personal biases because of my experiences and worldview. I respect all belief systems and have no intention of questioning or criticizing tenets of any religion. I don’t want this to be interpreted as making any existential claims but rather to encourage the cultivation of basic principles like empathy and compassion, and to overcome the negative human emotions that inflict on our everyday experiences.

I plan to present the ‘player’ with the experience of navigating a mundane routine that many of us can relate to, coupled with events along the way that will test the protagonist’s patience. As the player of the interactive story, they’ll be given the chance to respond to these character-testing cases that I hope will be done in earnest.

2. What are the core story components, such as characters, setting, and basic plot? Why are they interesting and compelling? Who is your player?

The story will consist of a protagonist who will remain nameless in order for the player to assume the role of this character, and their perspective will be told in first-person narration. The plotline will consist of only one “normal” day in the protagonist’s life and the player will be introduced to the secondary characters as the events of the day are carried out. These secondary characters will facilitate the moments in the day where the protagonist is given the option to respond with patience, kindness, and empathy or where they may be tempted to resort to anger and frustration.

The plot line will follow a three-act structure. The protagonist vs the antagonist will, in this case, be the external forces that test the protagonist’s character aka a culmination of all the everyday challenges. The first conflict will begin with the protagonist waking up late for work – this will set the tone of the story as everyone can relate to feeling as if the world is against them. The next several plot events will be the rising action including everyday instances such as having a car cut them off in morning traffic, the barista serving you the wrong order, your boss failing to recognize your hard work, a co-worker getting the promotion you’re after, and then your partner forgetting about your anniversary. At each of the points, the player will be presented with the choice of how they would like to respond. The climax will be when the player is told by a third-person omniscient narrator that the protagonist dies at the end of the day. Regardless of what the player chose the protagonist dies… The player will then be prompted by the narrator asking, “Is there anything you want to do over on your last day? Yes or No.”. This is the opportunity for the protagonist to make changes wherever possible, even knowing that at the end of the day they cannot run from the inevitable death. I hope the player if they had yet to, takes the chance to play through the story again from the beginning of the day with a change in attitude and approach to the misfortune they encounter.

If the player selects ‘No’ to repeating the day and using their second chance, they will be prompted with several questions. Such as:

Did you make the best of this life? Yes or No

Did you recognize the suffering of others? Yes or No

If No is selected, a screen where the backstory of each character is revealed [fades in and out – but they can no longer interact only observe because they’re dead]

No matter what they select, for these questions they will continue on the same path as these are merely points of reflection.

3. What are the interactive elements? How will they be meaningful to the story or concept of the work?

The interactive element in my story will follow a critical path or “string of pearls” sequence so that the critical nodes (the “meat and potatoes”) cannot be avoided. The player will only have autonomy for how the protagonist reacts and responds to each event and secondary character, like the restraints of our real lives. However, if they choose the option that cultivates compassion in the face of adversity, a brief second (“candy”) path about the secondary character will be revealed to give the protagonist an understanding that everyone is dealing with their own problems and allude to how one positive action can start a chain reaction. Each of the choices where they show forgiveness, kindness, and compassion, reveals that it has the potential to change someone else’s path and that everyone is suffering in their own way.

When each critical event evokes negative emotions, the background color of the screen will reflect the growing anger/hatred/greed/resentment and will darken with each scene. On the other hand, when the protagonist does good, the background will remain white and elements in the background will become apparent. This is a metaphor for how anger can be blinding, as these background elements were there all along just not visible against a dark background.

4. How will you implement? What is your current plan for making your story? Do you have all the skills and tools you need, or are you looking for tools?

I plan to use Twine to create my interactive story and implement my interactivity through highlighted text that progresses the storyline. I was inspired by the interactive story “With Those We Love Alive”.

I think that I will implement the background elements entirely through text as well as I want to keep a clean aesthetic to the story so that the mood-background is emphasized, and I know the limitation of my own artistic abilities. I think that I will implement these background interactive elements with different color text that will be placed around the screen away from the main story. For example, *chirp chirp*, will be a clickable link that has some brief text about baby birds preparing to take flight for the first time. I hope to successfully have this writing be more “poetic” to give the effect that the protagonist is viewing the world with “rose-colored lenses”.