PREMISE:
Renowned yet reclusive horror author, Bryce Wyne, just wants to hide away in his lonely manor, writing in peace. However, this peace is shattered as Bryce gets pulled into a horror story of his own, waking up one day as his greatest fear: a bat! Bryce must find a way to return to his home by overcoming his other greatest fear–making new friends. As he meets his next-door neighbors and soon-to-be mentors, the bats who live in the cave under his manor, Bryce starts to learn all about the amazing things bats can do. Even more importantly, Bryce starts to feel connected to the bats’ tight-knit, social community, and has to decide if wants to confess the truth that he is not a real bat, but actually a human-turned-bat. Bryce learns to overcome his fear of bats (and making new friends), while he struggles with a new dilemma of whether he truly wants to turn back into a human again, especially if it means he will never see his bat friends again. After his confession, the bats rally behind Bryce and try to use their global network of bats to find a solution, while reassuring Bryce he is still a beloved member of their community, even as their next-door, human neighbor. Although the bat network cannot find a solution, Bryce decides to accept his fate, triggering the transformation back into a human. With newfound friendships now in place, Bryce establishes a bat sanctuary on his property, and dedicates the rest of his writing career to teaching people about bats!
MAP:
PROJECT PLAN:
- Complete the premise and mapping V.1 – 10/19-10/20
- Write V.1 draft on Twine – 10/20
- Outside Zoom playtest V.1 and gathering feedback – 10/20
- Revisions for V.2 – 10/20
- Class, non-Zoom Playtest V.2 – 10/21
- Revisions for V.3 – 10/21-10/22
- Write more of V.3 draft – 10/22-10/23
- Outside Zoom playtest V.3 – 10/24
- Revisions for V.4
- Write more of V.4 draft, if needed – 10/25
- Class, non-Zoom Playtest V.4 – 10/26
- Revisions for V.5, any needed story edits – 10/27
- Final Playtest V.5 – 10/28
- Final edits, if needed – 10/29-10/30
- Final submission – 10/30
- Final reflection – 10/30-10/31
POTENTIAL CHALLENGES:
- Do I need to narrow down the story, because too many scenes (not quite a short story)? I don’t want to create too much work but I still want to give my player a journey to go along.
- Does the story have enough branches that give the player enough feeling of agency? I want the players to have the same start and end, but I really like Krystal’s suggestion that depending on how the player chooses to interact with the other bats (based on human vs. bat instincts), how easy it is to transform back differs. Does the story read too much as a novel, not a game?
- A good name for the game?
