Interactive Storytelling Summer 2022

SketchBlog 5 ( Revisions )

I have decided to revise the story and my game a little bit. I said in the last post that I wanted it to be a bit more concise. To do this, It had to change a few things. Firstly, instead of starting as a kid, I decided to make start at 18 right after high school graduation. For a game about life, I thought this would be the best place to start if not the beginning. Secondly, I decided to have a drastic gameplay change in the second half of the game. One of the reasons was because I really enjoy it when games suddenly change the trajectory of the story or the established gameplay to surprise the player. The other reason I did this was it would add another layer of interactivity to the game and reinforce the idea of choices changing the ending.At the end, when the character reached their old age, there is going to be an ” end of life reflection ™ . The choices that the player made will directly impact the answer they can give on the reflection, similar to the depression quest ( http://www.depressionquest.com/). I attached the revised plan for the story!

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atiyyah.ladipo

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6 responses to “SketchBlog 5 ( Revisions )”

  1. Tommy Avatar
    Tommy

    I think that is a reasonable revision! I find with life games that do start in childhood, the childhood part has a little overall effect to the end and the real interactivity that affects your death/quality of life is as a young adult.

  2. danish Avatar
    danish

    I think this revisions is pretty good!

    Though, I might add, some experiences we have as a child, or during childhood, can also impact our lives even as teens or adults. Not saying you should try to include a whole childhood, but if you can add maybe flashbacks, or simple like “oh yeah remember that time in elementary when-“, would add a lot more meaning behind choices, or back story to the MC.

    Keep up the good work though 🙂

  3. paigeockey Avatar
    paigeockey

    I think this is a really interesting idea. I know a few people have commented on including childhood, but I feel like it hits the theme of ‘choices’ to not include it directly in the story. I think although our childhoods heavily impact us and how we make decisions they are also something we do not choose. People cannot choose how they are raised or the circumstances they are raised in. I think starting the story at high school graduation really helps solidify the importance of the choices you can make throughout your game.

    I’m looking forward to it. Good Luck!!

  4. zachary.kernick Avatar
    zachary.kernick

    Usually, when I think of an interactive story I think of outlandish fantasies of that sort but your idea actually really interests me because it very much can relate to us. I look forward to how it is going to turn out!

  5. hayden.ockey Avatar
    hayden.ockey

    This is a really great revision and a good example of reigning in the scope creep a lot of us are struggling with. I could be totally wrong, but doesn’t the board game “Life” also start when you graduate highschool? I think it’s safe to say that’s when you really do “start life” and have to make choices, even if you aren’t completely independent at that point depending on your personal circumstances. I initially had a similar mechanic to your project and Depression Quest where you reflected on your life after reliving key moments. I bailed on the idea in favor of something else that caught my interest, but I still think it’s a really neat thing to explore and I’m glad someone in our class will be presenting a work with that trope!

  6. feihong Avatar
    feihong

    Your revise plan sounds good, I think that is a good one. Especially the second one, I think suddenly change the trajectory of the story can really surprise players and give them more motivations to continue the story as they will be curious about what will be happening with the story continuing. I like your last sentence “The choices that the player made will directly impact the answer they can give on the reflection, similar to the depression quest”, for me I also use this method to let players conduct the story so that would make storytelling immersive.

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