Introduction:
When I first started to work on this assignment I struggled to come up with an idea. I realized that I decided to work with a specific mode before I had decided on a clear idea. By doing this my process came to many dead ends. I started this assignment over many times as my idea and focus continued to change. Below are some examples of other assignments or notes I have been keeping as I have worked through this assignment. Some of them made it to the final cut while others were false beginnings that I never ended up finishing. I think looking back on my process for this assignment I have realized that my thinking is not linear. In order to prepare better for upcoming projects I realize I need to choose my idea before I jump into trying to create it.
Process Work: 1
Back Story:
It is October 2019. The University of Illinois animal science department has been performing studies on the campus squirrels to uncover the source of their unique behavior. Last night a student lab assistant stayed late to perform their own secret tests on the squirrels. In a freak accident all the mutated squirrels escaped the lab. You wake up and see on Twitter that crazed squirrels are running all over campus.
You have an exam at 9:30am, do you..
Go to class
Skip
Go To Class
Before leaving for class you realize you should pack supplies in case you confront a squirrel. You look around your apartment and decide to grab...
A bath towel
An Umbrella
A box of granola bars
Skip
You fall back asleep to be woken up by a loud noise in your kitchen. You know that your roommates went to class so you are unsure as to what could be out there. Do you
Check
Stay in your room
Explanation: When I first began planning out how my game was going to run I wrote out some of the initial choices on a Google doc rather than directly into Twine. Overtime I realized the more choices I created the harder it would be to type on another document then just directly into Twine which is why I only have a few rough drafts.
Process Work: 2
You wake up at 8:00am. It is a hot October day, 90 degrees to be exact, you decide to go to the gym before class. You can either walk 15 minutes to the gym or you can hop in your car and drive yourself to the gym.
On the way home you pass by your favorite coffee shop. You decide to stop in and order a drink with your resusale cup or decide to save the money and use your Keurig at home.
Explanation: Prior to my current project idea I had contemplated doing a different story that brought the student through a normal day but track their environmental impact based on their decisions. This was the beginning stage of creating this story line but then I decided to switch topics.
Process Work 3:
Originally for my project I had the expectation of focusing my interactive story on the environment. I wanted to create a story that would allow me to track the users decisions throughout their day to day lives and then based on their choices decide what their overall impact on the environment would be. Very similar to a buzzfeed quiz. However, when I sat down to create this story I was very troubled on how to organize it. When thinking of the idea some problems that didn’t arise to me was how I would be able to sort choices. It is very common that in some aspects people could make very environmentally conscious decisions but then suddenly make choices in the next turn that hurt the environment. I realized that for me to be able to create accurate endings I would have to be very tedious with my different paths. When I looked at the time frame I had for this project and my own personal skill set with Twine, I knew I would not be able to make the impact I wanted with that idea. So last minute I decided to do a complete 180.
Making this change in my decision was very overwhelming for me. I was unaware of where I was going to go with my project and I knew I had to have a draft of it completed in a few days. One night this weekend I had gone to bed stressing about the project and had the weirdest dream about the squirrels on campus. Essentially I had dreamed that the squirrels had been experimented on and that is why they had such weird personalities, the next day I jokingly kept telling all my friends about my weird dream. Later that night I sat down to try and brainstorm a new concept for my Major Project, when I decided to recreate my dream. My original idea was so serious and required me to complete so much research inorder for the impact to mean anything to the players. Thus, I decided rather than creating a super serious game I wanted to make something that was more light hearted and goofy.
My game very much resembles a dream as the goal is to try and make it to your exam on time but the obstacles that get in the way are very unrealistic. By far for me the hardest part of this project has been coming up with an idea. I feel as though I very much relate to the struggles of Val in Shipka’s article “Sound Engineering. She talks in depth about struggling to come up with an idea and mode that works best with it. While she had an overall firm grasp on the concept she wanted to work with she had to go through a lot of trial and error on the mode. I on the other hand have continually enjoyed the idea of working with Twine but I had no idea what I wanted my story to be about. I feel as though I let the idea of it being a multimodal assignment get to my head making me feel limited on what different concept I could use for my story.
I feel as though Val had a similar experience when she was struggling to pick how to show the money and power hungry people of America. She knew what she wanted to create but finding the best way to create it and connect with her audience was daunting. I have created a very goofy story but I feel confident that Twine was the best mode to use to display that choice. In class we discussed a wide range of different interactive stories as examples for our project. A common theme I noticed with all the stories was that they all had fantasy like elements. While some did have underlying messages they were displaying with their audience they all had their players enter a unique world when playing the game. I wanted to mirror that in my own interactive story. This game is intended for college students, so I wanted to include aspects and struggles that most students on campus could relate to. By including these problems my hope is that it wraps the students into the game and allows them to want to continue to play to see what happens. Using the squirrels as mutant obstacles I hope pokes fun on how everyone makes fun of the crazy squirrels on campus. While it is an out of the ordinary concept my hope is that it allows a lighthearted unique game for students to interact with.
Explanation: This was my rough draft SOGP for my original idea surrounding the environment. I didn’t understand the purpose of the SOGP yet so this needed to be edited, however I was able to include parts of this version in my final draft.
Process Work: 4
Choices Brainstorm:
Waking up and leaving your lights on when you go to class
Taking the bus vs. driving yourself to class
Ordering coffee and using a reusable cup vs. using a normal cup
Using face wipes rather then a reusable makeup removing towel
Ordering plastic drinks from the bars
Not recycling vs. recycling
Online shopping vs. ordering in store
Using reusable straws
Using K-cups vs. a normal coffee maker
Explanation: When I was first brainstorming ideas for my project I wrote this list in my phone. This was when I was still planning on doing the environmental idea. This is a list of potential choices I could research and use for my project
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