This class really pushed me to build on my narrative annd story telling skills which was something I was interested in but not really good at. Particularly, the last few projects focussed on non-linear story telling which was really interesting to me: the idea of including interactivity in story telling and story building. The class also taught me a lot of different tools that can help generate a lot of new ideas using very random input information, along with tools to build simple narrative games (Bitsy and Twine.
Twine Passages: I made 107 Twine Passages linked non-linearly as I tried to create a scavenger hunt game. I used my own illustrations and photography for the passages with visuals
Autobiographical Character: The main character of the games has qualities of my autobiographical character (age 20, loves chocolate, bows, and arrows, good with numbers, the superpower of reading emotions, pet llama, love for puzzles and riddles). The best friend who is a side character also embodies a mix of real and fantastical traits inspired by me.
World: The game is inspired by my derive and uses the same rules of turning (right or left whenever the character sees an out-of-state car. The main locations in the game are loosely based on the sites I came across in my derive (The playground, Art Store, College, Supermarket, and a Fancy House). I have also tried to keep the states of the cars authentic referring to the map I made during my derive which shows the states the cars were from.
Travesty Generator: I used the Travesty generator by typing out long passages for the different locations in the game (The Supermarket, the abandoned house, the college, and the playground) and then edited it down such that it made sense. The process actually added interesting details to these descriptions, and I got out some interesting phrases worded better than what I originally had.
Googlism: I generated details of all these locations through Googlism and got really interesting and creative facts and phrases that I then crafted into sentences before running it through the Travesty Generator.
Crowdsourcing: I collected responses for the Scavenger Hunt List. Each person was asked to give me one object for the list and the only information they were given was that the object would be situated in a Scavenger Hunt Game and would be found by the character in the game. I developed the game and the location of the object based on the responses I got. I also collect responses for the different spaces they would want to see in the interior of the “fancy house” and used the responses as a starting point to create the space the character will explore.
n+7: I used the generator for my introductory "clue" that explains the rules of the game. I editted it down such that it made sense and was relevant to the game and it actually gave me sme interesting nouns and phrases that worked better than what I had typed out myself, which was more dry and regular.
Transcription: I used the transcription tool to transcribe the longer descriptions of places and the clue as I found it easier and more intuitive to collate all the details verbally, instead of trying to type them out. I also used otter.io to come up with a broader story arc which I used as the starting framework as we did with the fairytale dictation and the bitsy game.
Oblique Strategy Cards: I used the cards: 1. Imagine the piece as disconnected events 2. Remove ambiguities and move to specifics 3. Give the game away. 4. Think of the radio 5. What are sections sections of? Imagine a caterpillar moving. 6. Faced with a choice, do both. Even though the first and fifth cards are in a way contradictory, they both really helped me organize my Twine passages and not get confused which was what was initially happening since my game is extremely branched and looping. The first one helped me think of each clue-object section as one disconnected event and the fifth one help me build the sequence within each of those events and then connect and loop them all together. The second oblique strategy card gave me the idea of naming the streets instead of just saying street and path again and again. The 3rd oblique strategy card was really interesting and I was thinking of how I could implement it without actually giving away all the mystery so it prompted the idea of naming the dog “Cookie” which is also the final mystery object on the list. For the fourth card, it was really interesting how one of the responses I got was an old radio and also mentioned it, so the two came together in making it one of the objects on the list. Finally, the 6th one really shaped the basic type of the game: since I did my first two assignments based on the Quiet Year World, I wanted to challenge myself to base this game on the derive, but I also wanted to build some kind of puzzle/scavenger hunt game because I personally love puzzles and so I decided to combine the two, instead of trying to pick one.
Voicebox - Predictive Writer: I used this tool to come up with the title of my game (The City Voyage: 2015) using the Thanksgiving History dictionary. This captured the theme and tone of the game really well and in an interesting mysterious manner.
Anagram Generator: I used this to come up with the names of all the streets. I took the names of the places on the Classic Monopoly Board that I remember playing when I was little (Old Kent Road, Euston Road, White Hall, Vine Street, Fleet Street, Leicester Square, Oxford Street, Bond Street, Piccadilly, Mayfair) and generated the following anagrams: Dear Old Knot, Tornado Sue, Halt While, Tense Rivet, Leftest Tree, Careless Requite, Deer Foxtrots, Netted Orbs, Placid Icy, Fray Aim Av.