P2: The Future We Deserve

Interactive Fiction/Narrative Game DYSTOPIA!

WARNING: I’ve had students tell me to tell future students to think short story not novel. Make it small !

This will be an Interactive Fiction/Narrative game in which you will create understanding in the player as they move through space and experience story. Gone Home, Oxenfree, Creatures Such as We and With Those We Love Alive are all strong examples of story-driven play, 80 Days only less so because of the strong resource management mechanic (but if you can pull off both story and another type of play, good for you.) Your games can be pure text or include images, sound etc.

The theme for this project is a dystopia: what happens if a negative behavior we see continues? Mad Max is a great example (wasting water) but also Hunger Games (economic inequality) and Maze Runner (biological weapon making).
You must use key elements of story: character, setting, pace, etc. http://eleganthack.com/the-shape-of-story/

This video from GDC from the maker of 80 Days has a LOT of good insights in it. http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1021774/Adventures-in-Text-Innovating-in

You will make your game in

Twine http://twinery.org
Example http://slimedaughter.com/games/twine/wtwla/ (do an image search for twine empress game!)
Tutorial http://aliendovecote.com/twine101/#/
An introduction to Twine
Inform7 http://inform7.com
Games/examples http://inform7.com/learn/complete-examples/
Tutorial Videos: Learning Inform 7 — Part 1

Inform7 for Programmers: http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php/Inform_7_for_Programmers

It must be cross-platform and playable without you there to explain it.
Example games https://www.choiceofgames.com/category/our-games/ (all free if played on web)

Check ins

Premise & Map (See Stories in Space)
Playable first draft (great talk on narrative paper prototyping)
Playtestable “close to final”
Delivered to be graded.

Deliverable includes a process document blogpost and a link to the IF. If you want us to play first, put the link at the beginning, if you want us to read the process first, put it at the end.

Publish your game and writeup to our class blog.

Free Twine game hosting: philome.la (Links to an external site.)

Premise will be a short paragraph describing:
* Setting: both dystopia and actual place, with a map.
* Role(s): i.e. what characters can your players be.
* What journey will players take to get understanding this dystopia, and how it happened. How does the plot unfold?
* What understanding will they arrive at? (what are you persuading them to understand/feel)

Rubric:

Effectiveness: get players to care [more] about the topic you are championing. (25%)

Playtesting (20%)

Interesting choices with consequences. (20%)

Extend and honor the medium in a way that serves the story (20%)

Documentation (15%)

Example from Fall class: http://philome.la/fcolomboart/unplugged (Links to an external site.)

Recommended:
Listen to this podcast! It’s way easier than playing through parser fiction http://rcveeder.net/clash/ (start with #1, or at least listen to Dinner Bell and It.)

If You Didn’t Kill That Zombie, Maybe I Won’t Either http://53eig.ht/19B2XzC
Using data to create moral complexity in games.

Story In Space