Developing our Environment in a Structureless World

Road to Vladiryisk is meant to be a game that simultaneously exists as a concept as well as as a solid embodiment of a story. Generally what that means is that through the use of different mediums this game will transcend boundaries that define it as a game. First and foremost the game will exist in the format you can see above whcih is a Twine. Making a game in twine already offers a lot of options as it can have statistics, several endings and several formats; the only thing that has to remain consistent is that this remains a text based adventure. Because of this obligatory narrative structure we focus on introducing the character and allowing the audience to see them from a distance, taking the usual God like role of the player, observing and occasionally taking action (as per example the first interactions in the twine where you must adequately survive the night). 

This type of story is not particularly special in itself, what we tried to do as a team to make it special is the way we formatted the writing and adding additional illustrations so we can subtract from text in an attempt to not make this experience tedious for the player. During critiques we have observed a trend where generally players would enjoy the story but would find it hard to keep playing as it felt too much like a sea of text, too inconsequential and far from a crafted experience. In order to minimize the amount of text, or rather, in order to make the player not realize how much information they are actually consuming, we separated text into small chunks in strategic moments. The moments could be categorized in the following way:

1. ACTIONS
   1.  In order to get the next part of the story you will have to click on words like "whistle" or "walk". After doing something you usually gain a result therefore by clicking a word that implies an action it makes the player feel like there is both an element of time as well as an obligation on their part to continue the journey of the character. Since the character in this game is a 3rd person experience it is important to note that as a player you are not as obligated to feel empathic with the text whcih makes it more important for actions like these to draw the player back in, reminding them they have an influential role in this story, pushing the character forward, forcing them to keep walking through a storm or take a rest when burdened by a heavy weight. 
   2. Sound usually goes hand in hand with these elements as they really enforce the idea that the action did in fact take place even though you as the player did not physically see it. 

1. SUSPENSE
   1. During very specific parts of the story it is important to use cabalistic events with an element of time or repetition. These in turn will create suspense which may be for comedic purposes or for serious events. An example for this in game would be the walking segment. When walking, particularly in the context of a snowy barren land, you don't exactly know where you are walking. In order to recreate that sentiment, instead of just saying "he is walking" we use the structure of twine and write the word "step" which then opens another option for "step" only placed in a different location or written a bit different than last time. This creates a similar feeling of lost and questioning "if I keep going...what will happen?". 
   2. Suspense is very important if used well along an element of time. Repetition is good until it become boring or overused, there is a specific amount of times you want to do something depending on how invested the player is by that point. An example of this is MGS3 Ladder Climb. At this point in the game you have beaten a very tedious boss battle, the player is tired but highly invested in the story and character. Here they must climb a ladder and they do so for roughly two minutes. These two minutes, if they existed separately from the game, would likely be very boring and make no sense but in combination with a song and the thrill of winning and reaching that point, climbing a ladder for two minutes is actually a tranquil moment that allows for the action to settle in and prepare the player for the next stage. Similarly in twine one has to be careful when using such an element that is so time consuming as the question may diverge from "what will come next" to "when will this end". 
2. IMAGE
1. Using images in twine is very effective though also arguably quite lazy if not well incorporated with the background or narrative. For us it was a bit hard to achieve the aesthetic we wanted as we lacked the coding experience for it but we tried our best. Images are very good at telling a story and serve as great tools to tell something without actually telling it. Again, a simple action like walking or running can be shown in an image and the text alongside it does not have to also be "running" as that would be redundant. Images in twine have to be used cautiously as they can strip away meaning from the words. A beautifully described scenery would not be as exciting if also accompanied by an image of it, on the other hand, a specific element from the scene pictured and framed well might subject the player with more interest. This also easily becomes an object to click and find out more about revealing thus more text that the narrator perhaps did not even think they wished to read. 

Overall, through the use of these arguably classic Twine methods pushed to a further creative bound, we tried to create a space, an environment in which all actions of the game take place and make sense. It isn't described all the way through, but because of actions, because of movement forced through text or the click of a button, the player understand depth in the scene. Sometimes depth is best understood when there is no line to define it, just the feeling that it is there. 

A Little on Future of the Game

We will further expand on this twine and try to fix the aesthetic features that have been holding us back. The story is generally well written but it needs a couple of tweaks, particularly using the strategies outlined above to be a bit shorter in the sense that there isn't a chunk of text always being displayed as you move on through the story. We want to focus more on embodying the actions through the way the text is displayed and we want to try and structure the overall game better within the window as right now it is quite bothersome to keep scrolling up and down. 

For the continuation of the game we will develop a physical environment depicting the village our main character will stumble over. The link will be accessed through the twine but we will also provide it separately within our next devlog. 

Notes:

This is a project created by a small team for ATELIER III in OCADU 

Quoted Project Brief:

This fall in Atelier III we will explore spatial story telling approaches across a range of media technologies.

Working in self-selected teams of 3-4 you will create a short story that you will develop and flesh out via a range of conceptual and computational approaches. From branched narrative, social shared story worlds, 3D virtual world and exhibition presented on a publicly accessible website each group will develop their core story across the semester using these spatial approaches.

Team is made up of: 

Alfonso B, Evan S, Iris A, Sana Y