Interactive Stories

Narrowing down the style of game, and how I will convey the ShelterBox story, is the topic of this journal entry. Whilst I have some experience of playing games and creating storyboards for videos, and other mediums, I have no experience in designing and creating games. This review into two games that I find both interesting and inspiring will help me to pinpoint the key features in each of these games that convey their story so well. It will also allow me to dig deeper and understand the process behind the creation of these games. 

My Child Lebensborn

My Child Lebensborn is is a story-driven nurture game about the child of an enemy soldier. growing up in post WW2 Norway. The game challenges the user to bring up a Lebensborn child who is a consequence of the actions of war. Tasked with raising the child; bathing, feeding and entertaining during a time when money, food and time are scarce. This game interrogates the complexities of bullying and the difficulties of parenting as the child goes through emotional turmoil through their childhood. 

This game engages the player into the heart of the harrowing story of the Lebensborn and helps to educate you about the lives these children lived. The interactivity places a responsibility on you as the parent to look after your child through bullying and how you both are ostracised from society.

The interactions in this game are simple but highlight the contact with your child and the story itself. The music and sounds add to the gameplay and place an emphasis on the emotions the story creates. This is an important part to this game. This game is intuitive to play and does not require a huge amount of skill. However, the limited time credits each day put a greater focus on the struggles of post-war families and the added issues that affect the Lebensborn. This game is inclusive to a wide variety of users which makes the story highly accessible. 

Key points to take forward:

• Gameplay highlights the narrative 
• Music and sound play a part in channeling emotions
• Intuitive and simple gameplay is key to accessibility 
• Interactivity is there to involve the user in decisions and the story

Florence 

Florence is a game where two people meet, fall in love and eventually drift apart. The game follows 25 year old Florence Yeoh through her daily routines and her relationship with a cellist called Krish. Throughout the story the user feels involved, but helpless as their relationship slowly ends. 

This game is more like a comic book or a story rather than an interactive game. This game does not give the user decisions to make, but rather uses interactivity to immerse the user into Florence’s story. This game is highly emotional and hopes to connect with us all in our own way. Simple mini-games during daily routines; including brushing your teeth, talking or other forms of interaction involve the user in Florence’s story. These mini-games are used as metaphors throughout the game. The interaction on the touch screen relates to the feelings that you are experiencing through the characters. Putting speech bubbles together is like putting words together.

Simple interactive elements, such as scrolling, solving puzzles or pressing buttons, make the game inclusive and more similar to reading a story. This is further enhanced by the hand-drawn artwork that has a feeling of book illustrations. This could be a option for my game development as I have good drawing abilities that could bring the story to life, much like Florence. Colour is also used during the game to portray emotions, whether sad or happy.

Exploring the development process that Mountains Craft studio went through I feel this may be a good option for me to explore further. Once the narrative was crafted, splitting the game into acts and chapters was a clever way to develop the game and tie the narrative together. Storyboarding a whole chapter like a comic strip was their first task and then they reviewed each chapter. Do the frames work together and tell the right story? Here the storyboards were given interactivity to test the mechanics. Physically making each scene from paper and simulating each mechanic allowed constant testing and evaluation. Once each section was defined it was then made into a final digital version. This method could work very well for me as testing the game and reviewing with potential users will allow me to quickly alter the game and gain feedback at the same time. 

Music is also a huge part of Florence and without it the user would not feel the same emotions through the story. The music portrays certain emotions and creates an intimacy that brings the story to life. 

Key points to take forward:

• Use of comic book style narrative to enhance the story
• Small interactive elements that enhance the story and involve the user
• Clever use of colour and an illustrated style to make the game feel natural and familiar.
• Music that brings the game to life.
• Use of storyboarding in the design process to iterate and evaluate each chapter.

One final game I would like to try is Old Man’s Journey. I have not been able to try this game as of yet, however I believe this game will also inspire me in creating my ShelterBox game. I feel that exploring games that interest me and are in a similar genre really helps at this stage as I do not have any experience in making games. Learning both the process and the key features that make these stories so gripping and emotional will be key to my development process.