ITGM 121 A04 Intro to Game Development
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Interactive Story
ITGM 121 A04 Intro to Game Development
Objective
Make Oregon Trail. Or Zork. And don’t let your grue die of dysentery. OK, that’s not really the objective. But the fact that many of you get those references makes me very happy. The goal is this: create a digital nonlinear interactive story using Twine. Your piece can be a branching
Choose Your Own Adventure style story, a MadLibs style absurdist poetry experiment, or with a little scripting a short text-based adventure game. I want you to be creative. Find the possibilities within the limitations of Twine. Create a compelling immersive experience: a Flow experience. What is Flow?
According to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the phenomenology of Flow has eight major components.
1. A challenge activity that requires skills
2. The merging of action and awareness
3. Clear goals
4. Direct feedback
5. Concentration on the task at hand
6. The sense of control
7. The loss of self-consciousness
8. The transformation of time
Not all of these components are needed for Flow to be experienced.
Game designer Jenova Chen in his MFA thesis on the topic goes on to state, “once we have digested the above components and revisited them with a game design perspective, here are the three core elements a video game must have in order to evoke Flow experience.
1. As a premise, the game is intrinsically rewarding.
2. The game offers right number of challenges matched to the player’s ability, which allow him/her to delve deeply into the game.
3. The player needs to feel a sense of personal control over the game activity. As a result, the game will make the player lose track of time and self-consciousness.
To make a game that different people can enjoy, the game itself must retain these three elements, especially to adjust the challenge based on each player’s ability.
While you are not creating a “video game”, keep the concept of Flow in mind as you construct your interactive experience.
Audience
As the designer, it is important that you define your target audience. Kids? Horror fans? Consider your audience in the tone of your writing and presentation of your experience.
Deliverables
The final deliverable will be your functional game or story, exported to an HTML file, and presented on your student webspace.
Parameters
Final projects should consist of around 50 passages that are all linked one way or another (i.e., no loose story threads that players can never reach). I encourage you to explore including images and audio. Use media elements sparingly, and only to support the interaction design.
Similarly, while scripting is not required, I strongly encourage you experiment with code. I will show you some simple tips like including variables in the piece to track items and progress etc.
Regarding content, I don’t want the project to be exclusively a writing project with little attention to interaction or game design. So here are a few options to consider:
Literary Remix:
Choose a scene or interaction from a famous story you enjoy that you’d like to look at from different angles. Alternatively, it may be a story within which you'd like to provide the reader, a key character, or both, some meaningful choice as to what happens, most branches of which don't match the original story. Ask yourself “What if…?” and see what possibilities unfurl.
Original work:
Brainstorm the setting, character, and major theme of an original work you’d like to create. But try to manage your scope. Again, the focus is the interaction design. Perhaps you already have original written material you’d like to incorporate. We can discuss in more detail in class.
Autobiographical Memoir:
Intimately explore an autobiographical moment you are willing to share. This may be the hardest choice since it's the most personal, and interactive writing can offer more direct access to a sensitive experience than other media since you invite a potentially unknown audience to participate in your personal experience. But this often produces compelling experiences, particularly for those who have had similar experiences.
Tools & Resources
You will use Twine to author your story, and you will publish it to your student webspace and submit a copy to the Dropbox.
Timeline
Late work will not be accepted. Missing a deadline will result in a grade of zero for that component of the project.
. Concept Pitch
Informal presentation of your idea to the class, for discussion and iteration.
Due Wednesday, January 17
. Completed Project
Final story or game published to your student webspace.
Due Monday, February 5
Submission
Submit all files to your folder in the course Dropbox by the specified deadline. Name your files according to the instructions in the Naming Conventions document located in the Course
Content area of Blackboard. Additionally, you will publish your project to your SCAD student webspace.
Presentation
This type of work is not suitable for presenting. Instead, we will take some time in class to “play” as many of the projects that time will allow, and make some notes for a follow-up discussion the following class. To facilitate this, please bring headphones or earbuds.
Feedback
After everyone has had a chance to play through all the projects and make notes, we will have a critical discussion about the work. What was effective? Memorable? Did you find typos?
Wednesday October 11 we will set aside some time for peer feedback. Professor feedback will also be given during this time. Detailed feedback will be provided in the Feedback section of the Blackboard Gradebook, typically by the end of the Friday following submission.
Assessment
This project is 30% of your overall grade for the course (concept pitch 5%, final deliverable 25%). The work will be evaluated according to the following rubric.
2024-02-02
Interactive Story