Narrative projectJamie Cooper - Beaumont

Story typesLineare: lineare is a storyline that follows one specific route and can not be changed by choices within the game made by the player.

Games such as call of duty use this type of story which makes the campaign not very replayable but the game also backs up the campaign with multiplayer content which makes the player want to come back to the game.

Disadvantages :

no replayability

Player may quit

Advantages:

sees all content

Branching : this is a story line which has multiple endings which the outcome is decided by choices the players have to make within the game.

Games such as the stanley parable use this story type this gives the game a much larger playable time and also allows the player to feel submerged into the game’s world as they are freely allowed to make decisions that affect the outcome of the game.

Disadvantages :

May not sees all content

Some player experiences better than others

Advantages:

Replayability

Some control

Emergent: this story type is one that is a completely new experience with each session within the game .

Games such as minecraft and ARK survival evolved use this story type this gives the game close to infinite replayability but removes a lot of the submersion making the game require challenging game play to be entertaining.

Disadvantages :

Very simple if any story

Very difficult to produce good stories

Advantages:

Replayability

Complete control

Every game playthrough is unique

What makes a game good

Every game has its effect on the player, some games more than others, this entirely depends upon how well the game executes its story and gameplay. Most games now a days are more focused towards producing a multiplayer game with strong gameplay instead of a strong story. What is the effect of this? This causes the game to lose some of its immersion but gains a sense of more replay ability, this means that the player can play the game for longer periods of time without getting tired of the game. But this is not a flawless solution in the aim of selling games as even though games such as call of duty lack a strong story and have great gameplay it completely ruins any sort of strong emersion into the game. This is mostly because these game have very linear stories that take complete control from the play making it feel like the player is just being dragged along instead of being a part of the world that the story shows. Some game also aim to have stronger stories and good gameplay this makes very immersive and usually follow a branched story line which allows the player to choose options from situations within the game which gives the player a stronger sense of control and also removes that feeling of being dragged along. Branch type story games give the players some control of the game but still does not give them complete control unlike emergent stories which give complete freedom to the player pretty much allowing them to write the story themselves but this purposes the issue of producing a bad story. branch and emergent storylines in games both have the negative effect of sometimes giving less of a good experience than some of the other game plays and also means the player may not go through all the content completely while games with the linear story makes it so that the player sees all the content within one play through. In conclusion the majority of games that aim for a strong story use the branch story type which gives the player more control but also removes some of the replay ability due to the sickening feeling of replaying parts of the game repeatedly but also gain more immersion from the stronger story than it would have if it was using a simple linear story line. Other games that focus on gameplay more than story often use linear or emergent story types as it allows them to make a simple less immersive story but stronger more replay ability game. When relating it to games I can relate the linear story type with the call of duty franchise they give a single motion story but gives the feeling of being dragged along with the story. For the branching story type I can relate it to the Stanley parable: This game does very good a job in terms of storytelling and gives a strong sense of freedom to the player and the separate endings make the player want to replay to find the other endings. For emergent story types I will relate this to ARK: survival evolved, this game gives the player a much greater sense of freedom compared to the other two types allowing the player to do whatever they wish to do and gaining a lot more replay ability due to its lack of story focus.

Imagination and story generation

From the first image I like the feeling of tension and horror Igives of which makes me think thoroughly about books such as IT by stephen king . the second image makes me think of an alluring trap in which the characters will be captivated by .The third image contains a sense of mystery to it making me ask questions about it which makes me want to learn more about what's happening in the image. All three images together make me think of media such as Skullduggery pleasant written by derek landy and scooby doo produced by joe ruby and ken spears.

Mind map 1

dark

haunted

ghostrevenant

undead

demons

Satanic activity

pentagrams

Old Mansionhermunculi

rams

history

Creepy portraits

decrepit

Fear of the unknown

graffitiWarning graffiti

war

Ancient magic / beliefs

trains

heist

Ancient carvings

devil

monster Ghost train

chrashes

action

necromancy

Mind map 2

Alurring

trap

mystery greed

richesA person's pastThe past of a place

danger

spikes

boulders

Swinging axes

wire

confrontationresolution

infestationinvasion

Return of an ancient race

rats

illness

Black death

aliens

murderPied piper of hamelin

path

goal

unforeseen

guidance

god

omnipotentOmnipresent

benevolent

Mind map 3

mystery

murder

drowning

labour

fishing

sailing

Stormy weather

sharks

Hidden treasure

Ship worker

Ship maintainer

Sailing instructor

Lost person

zuesShip wreck

man

greed

envy

treasure

relashionship

Art type

photo

painting1980s

oceanalantice

Potential Story ideas1. You are a group of teenagers who enter a haunted house and discover terrifying things inside.

2. You are an investigator who stumbles upon the case of a mystery murder , your job is to find out who did this unsolvable crime.

3. You are a fisherman in the seas who comes face to face with the gods themselves and must survive their wrath .

4. In the year 2024 mankind has significantly developed due to the recent connection with intraterrestrial life until one day chaos strikes the world when who you thought was your allies begin to show their fangs . your job is to put an end to the madness to either reunite the species of to return mankind's freedom .

5. The year being 1608 alchemy is discovered bringing mankind into a new era . a young man begins to go his adventure to prove himself to the world with trouble following behind him.

A group of teenagers enter a old abandoned house in the search for adventure , when one of the members are separated from the group.

The lonely teenager encounters a bemouthe set of armor moving crookedly on its own. The teenager is then chased by the creature until they escape its grasp.

The teenager then begins to wander the hallways of the horror filled place in search for the rest of the group to make sure they are safe and can leave the hellish place.

While on the search for the rest of the group the teenager wonders upon a hatch within the ground , deciding nothing could go worse they decided to explore it , the hatch lead to a dark basement with a satanic symbol on the floor.

The teenager leave the mysterious room to find the group in the hallway , in an attempt to not sound cowardly the teenager urges the group to leave the mansion using excuses to try and pray them away from the cursed place.

start disruption settle discovery resolution

Story break down

Environment reference pictures

Environment description

The hallways :A large crooked house with intricate ,long ,decorated hallways , covered in portraits of the previous owners which give you an eerie look no matter where you go .

The basement : A dark ,decrepit basement covered in blood and religious items, a large pentagram lies upon the floor taking up the majority of the room . the only light filtered into small beams coming through the vent in the corner.

Character referenceMain character Haunted knight armour The beast

Style research

When it came to art style I began to look into more of a cartoon like art style as I have recently gained an interest with it but I still began to look at older and newer styles that have been presented in graphic novels.

Character bio- main character

stephanie : a young woman who lives in south boulevard , she is known for being a tomboy and very cunning, she usually wears hoodies and jeans , since a young age she has been adventures ,only wanting to explore . as she moved through life she was strongly bullied for her boyish behaviour , she left highschool to be home tutored after one year due to it , living with only a few friends she hopes discover what it is that makes the old house so alluring.

- side character

Laura : is a light hearted girl with many oddities about her , she has been best friends with Stephanie for many years . supporting her through tough times they stick together like two peas in a pod . she went to the same primary school as stephanie and was of her friends from a small group , living only minutes away she has always stayed in touch with her and hanged out with her.

-side character

Joe : joe is a tall slender man who dresses in jeans and shirts and is Laura’s best friend . joe is idiotic joker who is always fooling around . He often hangs around with the two and goes with them for the ride.

- monster

The beast : an abominable creature found in the basement of the house , its origins is unknown. The creature resembles the shape of a human contorted in the most horrific of ways.

- monster

The armor : a haunted set of armor found patrolling the eerie hallways ,its origin also unknown .

Brief story description

A group of young teenagers have decided to search an old abandoned house in the search of adventure and in return have come across something that should not have been found , with one of the tennagers seperated from the group they experience terrifying experiences. After the terrors they have witnessed their only goal is to find out what is going on and how to put an end to it. With only hope that they will survive...

In depth story descriptionA group of teenagers decide to explore an old abandoned house that had been empty for centuries following their own curiosity. The group of teenagers enter

together but shortly after entering stephanie is separated from the group. The lone teen wondered around the terrifying house in hope to find the rest of the

group, on her endless search she stumbles upon an old set of armor , ignoring it she began to walk away , as she turned to walk away she heard creaking coming

from the armor , with a swift movement she dodges its falling blade .she let out hard breath and with a quick escape she leaped down a hole in the second floor,

following the terrifying experience she is determined to find the rest of the group and then escape. With a hurt leg from the fall she began to stumble around the

eerie hallways , after searching for a while she stumbled upon a mysterious hatch, lured in by curiosity of the house she entered the basement not knowing what

was to come. When entering the basement she was swallowed by a dark abyss, with a quick search in the darkness she spotted a gleam of light coming out of the

corner of the room. Quickly pacing over to the light, with each step she heard a squelch , in the corner of the room was a small vent ,barely open, she slowly

levered open the rusted vent illuminating the room. Spinning around on the spot she was welcomed by a mortifying site, the floor was soaked in blood and in the

centre of the room lay a large symbol, she slowly tried to escape the room trying to avoid touching as much blood as possible. As she begins to take large steps

towards the hatch she spots a shadow shift in the dark corners of the room ,she began to tremor ,what had happened here ? and what was its goal? Fearing that it

may be another monster she fled the room ignoring the blood, scuffing her knees as she rushed up the stairs she begins to sprint down the hallway. As she ran she

could hear the sound of something sharp scraping against the wall and bones cracking, with each crack a shiver flew down her spine. She ran endlessly with no

intention to stop, she ran and she ran and the sound followed … but then it stopped, and so did she. She took a small amount of time to get her breath. She

continued to walk down the hallway with wary of what might have followed her, she walked for fifteen minutes down what seemed to be an endless corridor until

she reached a large room. With a quick glance around she spotted an old oil lamp next to the entrance. Taking a match from her bag and striking it against the side

of her leg she lit the lamp. The lamp illuminated the entire room. she began to search around the grand room. When suddenly she began to hear a dripping

sound,debating weather to run she took a deep breath and she began to explore the source of the sound. What she saw struck her with great despair, as she

looked up what she found was one of her friends strung from the second floor the top of their head missing. She dropped to her knees and wept.

Script types

Passive:

A passive script is the typical type of script used in hollywood movies and theoretically a single minute of movie time covers an entire page of script this would make a 24 hour game cover at least 1200 pages .Passive scripts are mainly not used in the game industry because the majority of games are nonlinear due to being interactive media. These types of scripts are useful in terms of cutscenes but is very useless when it comes to interactive narratives.

Active :

An active format script is made entirely to display active format dialogue , this is the type of dialogue that is seen in interactive media in video games . this type of script in layout the same as a spreadsheet divided up into several parts (actor,cue,context,inflection,location,area,effect , filename). The actor section states whose role it is , the cue shows what causes the action or the speech to be said , inflection gives an example on how it should be portrayed ,effect shows what it should seem like to the viewer and file name gives the speeches file name making it easier to find later .

Passive script

The beast : *scraping*

Stephanie : *gasp*

Stephanie began to sprint down the hallway to escape the terrifying beast

Stephanie : *panting*

Stephanie ran with no intention to stop fearing that the sound of the beast was getting closer and closer … But then it stopped , and so did she. She took a quick moment to catch her breath still ,cautious of what might be there. She began to continue walking down the hallway...

Active script

Actor cue context Inflection location effect File name

Stephanie Running down hallway

The beast chased Stephanie with unbelievable tenacity

horrifying Hallway --- ---

The beast scraping It scrapped its claws against the crooked walls as she ran through the hallway

creepy Hallway --- scraping.mp3

Stephanie gasp With every scrape a shiver went down her spine

Shock and disconcern

Hallway --- gasp.mp3

Stephanie Sprinting down hallway

As she ran she feared that the creature was getting closer and closer

In fear Hallway --- ---

Stephanie silence The sound of the creature stopped and so did she

Surprised hope and scared

Hallway Like it just vanished without a trace

Ambient.mp3

Storyboards initials

These are my storyboard initials , I began these by selecting what I classed as key moments in my story map and then began to visualize the scene. After this I had to decide which ones I wanted to animate so I decided to do the second third and fifth. The next steps I took was to begin adding colour and shading to the cells and then Ito decided which affect I should apply to the animation to make sure that I would not make a mistake when I was producing the finals

Storyboard finals

These are my storyboard finals I first separated each of my initials into their own file and then I began to refine the outline . after this I began to add color and shade . when it came to animations I thought about them before I began to finalize them , I made sure that anything I wanted to animate was on a separate layer.

animationWhen it came to producing animations I began by choosing 3 of my cells that were at the start middle and end of my narrative so that it did not seem to unbalanced between images and text. I then began to choose in which way I wanted to animate and then I began to develop them . I did this by select certain aspects from the cell and then began to animate them , in this cell i decided to animate the blood falling and also the light flickering in the background , I did this by creating several layers with the blood on and then lined it up so it looked like it was falling I then began to edit the timeline making each layer turn off and on in order on different frames to create the illusion of movement.

Twine progress 1

When learning twine I began by adding different passages and learning how to link them together to begin producing a branching story. This was done by writing a small line of code in one passage “[[you try to face the unknown creature|bravery]]” which presents a button on the webpage which will take you to the different passage

Twine progress 2

After learning to create passages I began to write out my story turther while also keeping if statements and variables in mind , this allowed me to think about how I could apply different options through variables such as if the player decided to lose an item in the story or not allowing them to do a certain action.

Twine progress 3

Finally I learned how to use a style sheet . this is a type of passage that determines the look of all the pages on my twine . in the style sheet I decided to go with a horror theme so I decided to change the text to red and I also scaled up the text as it seemed too small . for the background I changed it into an image I made using photoshop which followed a horror theme

Narrative review

Over this project I was asked to make an interactive story using a new program called twine which had illustrations and followed a branching storyline .in the project I first began by looking at several types of stories , after this I began to produce ideas using 3 images which I then began to develop initial story ideas . I then chose one of the initial and began to develop it more until I generated a final linear story . the story had to be a branching storyline so I began to generate a story map which would show the alternate paths . after this I began to develop my character designs so I began by playing with different body types and then I began to finalise them adding colour and adding more detail.

I found this project much easier than the ones in the previous year , I believe that when it came to learning the new program I learned it very quickly and was able to use it properly in a short amount of time . I believe I could have improved more on the quality of my story and illustrations as there are still mistakes that I think I could resolve if I had a bit more time .

in the end I believe I was able to improve more at organising myself and at producing animations. This project gave me what I needed to motivate myself to be more creative than I was in previous projects . if I was able to redo do this project in the future I would aim to improve my quality of work to make it more appealing to the readers .