General Project Information
Premise: The idea is to craft an interactive narrative so the user's choices slowly unveils the story's plot. The user starts with very little information and as they make decisions start to understand the story world. The unique part about this story, making it compelling for an interactive format, is that the narrative will be written like a dramatic novel set in the past, with romance elements, for most of the book. However, the user will get hints throughout that something is amiss. Finally, at the end of the narrative it is revealed that it is actually a science fiction story and the user is a being created by people and kept in an isolated environment for testing. The sudden switching of genres should make for a good twist and if the narrative is crafted in such a way that the truth can be hidden while hinting throughout it will be most effective. While there will be important story nodes which must be engaged by the player, there will be multiple ways to get there and various side stories to involve the player and help them live in the world. I would also like to have multiple versions of the ending so that the players choices make a difference to the outcome.| Purpose: | Entertainment. Unique way to write a novel-like narrative. |
|---|---|
| Genre: | Science Fiction/Historical based romantic drama |
| Intended Medium: | Text Adventure Game |
| Platform: | PC program. |
| Intended Audience: | Adults who like classic narratives or RPG games. |
NARRATIVE DETAILS:
Overarching Plot:
You are a young child in an orphanage run by nuns and the I would like the setting to be much like Jane Eyre in terms of time period but have an environment like Italy. You and your best friend make the best of your situation growing up under hard circumstances, the head nun is cruel and has a litany of unreasonable rules. There are entire areas of the orphanage none of the children are allowed to explore and you are not educated.
You and your friend disobey rules and they end up getting injured and passing away. Later as you grow up you get rebellious resenting the strange loss of your friend, and that you didn't get to see her/him before passing. You venture in to town and meet your love interest who encourages you to get to the bottom of the mysteries surrounding your life. Eventually you uncover that everyone in the town including you are an experiment and it is actually in the far future. Your response to this is up to the user.
Characters:
- Protagonist: Young child which you can input some descriptor information making them male/female and changing feature and personality.
- Head Nun: Your main information and quest giver at the start. This character guards the secret of the end and acts as the main antagonist.
- Love interest: This person will influence the character to explore the world.
- Young empathetic nun: This character is conflicted and while they have a soft spot for your character and will give you hints at the secret they are still bound to their duty in not telling you about your real history.
- Best Friend: Another child at the orphanage that the player forms a bond with and is doomed at a point in the story causing the protagonist to question their world.
- Various Townspeople: There will need to be numerous characters written to keep the story engaging and to engage in side stories. Needed characters will be added as the plot details develop.
WORK FLOW:
Difficulties:
The hardest part is coming up with succinct narrative arcs and ensuring that they all end up resolved and leading the protagonist toward the conclusion without revealing too much information. There will also be a lot of historical research needed to keep the book grounded in reality. I may also want to research plausable technologies for the ending.
Technical options:
- Using C++ with the narrative written in files directly.
- Place the story elements in a database and use python and mySql.
- Use a web interface using html, CSS and Javascript.
Work Estimate:
- I would like to have most of the background research and the main plot nodes in detail first by the time the script is due. This will be programmed linearly and I will identify areas where branching makes sense.
- Then once all branches and side-stories are written I will add these options to the program and create my flow charts.
- Finally, I will need to expand the story, setting and character descriptions and dialogue to make the story compelling. This part will need little restructuring of the interactive story flow.
Extended Goals: If I have time adding images will definitely help keep readers engaged and help flesh out the environment. However, given the difficulty of writing a narrative of this size and programming the interaction may leave little time for aesthetics.