Interactive Fiction

Narrative

Isa Murray

Envision

Express

Digital Art

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Coding

This project aided me in the growth of my digital artistry and coding skills. I feel my writing skills were also reinforced with the incorperation of literary assignments and the prioritizing of game narrative in the design of the game. I am proud of my result from this studio as I had never experienced game design from a narrative standpoint, and feel that the focus on the narrative concept greatly aided my direction and artistic prowess when tackling this project.

Still is a game designed with an unreal engine within a world inspired by the comic Stand Still Stay Silent. This game focuses on realistic visuals joined within simple game mechanics such as stealth and sound interpretation and an intertwined story narrative covering an adoption of existing media. Feedback was incorporated through mid-reviews, and Still was submitted to Scream Jam 2023. This project focuses on intriguing visuals and an in-depth story element while retaining the dynamics and intractability of a normal game.

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Charlie Miller

express

Collaborate

giving and receiving feedback

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concept development

In this studio, we worked on fiction writing and coding. I wasn't here for the first two days of the studio when I got to the studio we were learning how to code in Tracery. Once we had learned the basics of Tracery we used it for idea generation. We each printed out the sentences that tracery had created and put them on the wall as inspiration for our stories. As well as the sentences we put other sources of inspiration on the wall. I decided to write a story with a similar premise to the movie The Lighthouse. We then wrote an outline, and a dialogue sample, and created a mood board for our future projects. For the final project, I partnered with Zahra and India to create a twine project that used aspects of all of all of our ideas.

I started this studio very unconfident in my writing and not wanting to share in group discussions. Each week with the readings I would try to share at least once or twice. By the end of the studio, I had been sharing more than I usually would during a discussion. I also learned the importance of collaboration and feedback. Throughout the studio, we would review other's work and give each other feedback.

Studio Narrative

Hunter Stillwell

Collaborate

Express

Writing

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Giving and Receiving

The Haunting Barrel is a choose your own adventure horror game where the player explores a maze while being haunted by a possessed gun. The player must grapple with the temptations of the gun while solving puzzles and looking for clues to escape the maze. There are multiple endings, where the player can choose to escape the maze, purge the gun's curse, or succumb to its power.

I learned a lot about writing in this studio, particularly how to build suspense in a story and develop its characters with descriptive language and dialogue. I also got some very helpful experience with giving and receiving feedback via our peer review sessions/desk crits. These skills will be very helpful going forward, both with being more clear and descriptive in my writing and while collaborating on projects.

Feedback

Gabriel Murray

Gabe Murray and Gabe Murray

Coding

Expression

Engage + Persist

The Servant is a choose your own adventure about the insane and lost souls. This project was created for Scream Jam 2023, an event where people choose the best horror game made from many submissions. The adventure was specifically only around horror which gave many ideas and stories for this project. Nevertheless, the final game idea was where you have find and solve puzzles to obtain a jar which can be used to trap souls. However, you had to deal with an insane person who was trying to kill you. You had a choice to lock up or kill this person which would decide your fate in the end. To complete this puzzle the players would have to practice puzzle solving while feeling fear wherever they went. This brings a scary feeling while learn new information.

In this studio, two of my goals were writing and coding which I accomplished in many ways. These included writing a whole chart out for my story while also included all the choices you could make. In the flow chart, I wrote out a description for each area and moment in the game such that the players could imagine certain feelings. While doing this project, I also had growth in my expression and patience. This increased both the time I could work and how well I could change how my users feel. In the future these skills may come to use when I want to plan out a project and try to connect with users

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Writing

Coach Comments

Chris Perry and Isa Murray

This session, Isa focused on digital art and developing a horror game through empathy, curiosity, and imagination. To do this, he created a short video game that explores the horrors of being a blue-collar worker in an exploitative environment, and needing to clean up other people's monsters. He created this game in Unreal Engine on his own, apart from the environmental assets, and wrote a short script of a radio interaction that provides context and world-building for the player without being too expository. Isa seems to have the initiative to have done this entirely independently. In the future I would challenge Isa to expand out of his comfort zone, and lean into the themes and resources made available to him through the studio. Keep at it, Isa!

Coach Comments

Chris Perry and Kody White

This session, Kody focused on developing their media literacy and giving and receiving feedback. During the class readings and discussion, Kody was able to draw new connections between the themes and narrative of The Yellow Wallpaper, and incorporated his understanding into his own horror stories and final project. To do this, he was an active participant in class discussions, and explored the historical context for the stories we read in order to inform his understanding of the author's creative intent. During this studio, Kody met with a consistent group of peers to exchange feedback and edits on their final project. Both the feedback he gave and received was more consistent and built upon previous discussions of his work, which allowed him to seek more specific and relevant feedback. Having like-minded individuals to form a creative support network allowed Kody to develop more thoroughly explored themes in his final project. Great work this session, Kody! Keep it up!

studio narritive

Kody White



Engage&Persist

media literacy

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giving and receiving feedback

In this studio, I focused on creating a game in Twine. I

used the writing-heavy workload to focus on my world-building and

concept-development skills and created a story that featured complex

themes and intriguing dialogue. The game was intended to be played by

anyone but featured elements of body horror and gore. Because I had

worked with Twine before, I did not do much to improve my abilities in

using the software, but I was still able to practice my html

understanding.


I wanted this studio to be a time to practice my

writing and story development abilities, and I think I did practice- but

I'm not sure if I improved much. I know I am very critical of myself at

times but I feel disappointed that (at the time of writing) my story

for my game is not what I wanted it to be. This can probably be remedied

by practice and setting less extreme expectations for myself. I feel

positive that I can continue to improve my storytelling hopefully, but

I'm not sure what I should be doing better. Mostly this studio has been

making me think about how I approach the creative process in a maybe not

so positive way. not sure.

In this studio, I focused on creating a game in Twine. I used the writing-heavy workload to focus on my world-building and concept-development skills and created a story that featured complex themes and intriguing dialogue. The game was intended to be played by anyone but featured elements of body horror and gore. Because I had worked with Twine before, I did not do much to improve my abilities in using the software, but I was still able to practice my html understanding.

I wanted this studio to be a time to practice my writing and story development abilities, and I think I did practice- but I'm not sure if I improved much. I know I am very critical of myself at times but I feel disappointed that (at the time of writing) my story for my game is not what I wanted it to be. This can probably be remedied by practice and setting less extreme expectations for myself. I feel positive that I can continue to improve my storytelling hopefully, but I'm not sure what I should be doing better. Mostly this studio has been making me think about how I approach the creative process in a maybe not so positive way. not sure.

Narrative

Will Fosnot

Engage and persist

Envision

Writing

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Reading & media literacy

Luis' Mission is a choose-your-own-adventure text game that takes place during World War II in Paris, France. In the game you play the character Louis who is a member of the French resistants. To begin the game you receive a letter from a fellow resistance member instructing you to meet a group wanted British Spies that were caught in Paris and bring them to the demarcation line just beyond Bourges, France. Throughout this mission, you are presented with different decisions to make. These problems will test your knowledge and survival skills. Based on the decisions you make over the story you will either successfully return the spies back home or you will be caught.

 Throughout this studio, I have grown in story building through different exercises that tested my ability to develop characters. Whether that be through writing or improving and acting; These story-building skills have allowed me to grow creatively by quickly getting story ideas out in turn forcing me to focus on more iterations. In Addition to story building, I have also grown as a programmer. Throughout this studio, we have worked with the coding language html. I have applied coding knowledge to different outlets like Twine. This allowed me to focus on story building and less on confusing codes.

Narrative

Wyatt Gold

Engage & Persist

Collaborate

Concept development

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Writing

The Haunting Barrel immerses players in a chilling choose-your-own-adventure experience. Trapped in an abandoned maze, you're pursued by a malevolent, possessed gun. Alongside the ever-present threat, players must resist lurking temptations and crack puzzles to find a way out. The game boasts a variety of endings, both hopeful and grim. Every choice counts, so navigate with caution and strategy, hoping to find the path that leads to life.

I think I grew in many ways during this course. I significantly improved my writing skills, particularly in describing scenes and a variety of 'sets.' I aimed to create empathetic characters relatable to readers and myself. Although my final story lacked these elements, I believe I have improved in this aspect. While writing, I initially attributed characteristics to the gun but eventually discarded that idea as it didn't make complete sense. Another goal was to excel at giving and receiving feedback. Despite feeling somewhat taken aback initially, I embraced all the critiques and weaved them into my story as effectively as I could.

Slide show

India Benzan

Studio Narrative