Industry Practice - Interactive Fiction Research (27/09/24)
In this lesson, we were introduced to our project brief. We are tasked with creating our own interactive fiction game that takes you discusses and shows the mental health challenges faced by young people today. This brief requires us to explore issues and effects that mental health has on young people through text and a compelling story. The game should aim to have a 5 - 10 minute duration and must be suitable for ages 14+.
To create this game, we will be working in teams where we'll be required to form our own studio and assign roles to the individuals in our team. We haven't met our teammates yet as this week we focussed on understanding the interactive fiction genre. To better understand this, we discussed the key characteristics;
- Text Based Narrative
- Choice Based
- Puzzles and Challenges
- Rich Storytelling
- Varied Literary Genres
To help us understand this genre even further, we were tasked with playing some interactive fiction games on itch.io and noting down what made them enjoyable and what could've made them better.
Hollow Victory is a short simple game where you speak to your demon ex in prison.
What I enjoyed:
I enjoyed how simple the art style is and this is the main thing that caught my eye when I was searching for games. The bars fading around his face helps puts that character into focus. The facial expressions of Xael are amazing and I really liked his smug look when he's teasing the main character. The background itself mainly consists of greys while the character has purple and pink that helps make him pop against the background.
What could be improved:
Due to it being a short game, the storyline isn't really that compelling. There's some dialogue at the start that gives a little context to events mentioned by the characters but nothing too specific. There's multiple endings which I found cool but the game abruptly ends with some text that details which ending you got and nothing more. I think it would've been better to have like some sort of splash art of what happens during that ending to make completing the game more satisfying and exciting.
Independent Research
For our independent research, we were tasked with playing 3 more interactive fiction games. I chose to write about some favourites I've played in the past as well as hermitage which I recently purchased as part of a recommendation from a friend.
In hermitage, you play as a book store owner who is never seen leaving the store. With the help of certain individuals, book and the news. you piece together bits of information to solve many strange and mysterious cases.
I haven't fully completed the game as it's a pretty lengthy game so this review is of my first impressions from the first case.
What I enjoyed:
I loved the Lovecraftian horror theme and aesthetic they have going on and the use of dull and muted colours to create a spooky sort of atmosphere. The deduction elements are pretty cool and the cult/ Cthulhu theme is interesting. The comic book style images that pop up when you open the characters thoughts tab is a nice interaction. The game also uses sound effects to convey the characters surprise and discoveries.
What could be improved:
For me, I found that it felt incredibly slow pace and it struggled to keep my interest for long periods of time. The characters themselves weren't very expressive either unless they were uncomfortable or unnerved during the conversation. Sometimes the translation is a little strange as the game was originally made in Chinese.
Telltale's walking dead is set at the start of a zombie apocalypse in Georgia. You play as Lee Everett, a convicted criminal who was on his way to prison until the vehicle crashes into a zombie resulting in the death of the cop. Lee finds a young girl, named Clementine, whom he quickly becomes the guardian of as they journey together to Savannah to find Clementine's missing parents. Alongst the way they team up with different people trying to survive the apocalypse. They face zombies, cannibals and frequently face their own internal conflicts which result in betrayal and in some cases death.
What I enjoyed:
Telltale's art style is unique and easily recognizable as they attempted to recreate the style of the comics it was based on using bold outlines and cell shading making it stand out. I've always enjoyed the visuals as they used muted and 'dirty' colours which created the perfect aesthetic for their apocalyptic theme. I found the story compelling as it started off by dropping hints of the apocalypse during the car journey as it showed several ambulances and police vehicles driving past. Lots of commotion could also be heard over the police radio before it was turned off. It didn't take too long to dive straight into action and after every moment of calm there was always an action packed encounter shortly after which really helped to keep me interested. The characters themselves were well written and I find myself getting attached to the most of them especially Lee and Clementine. I got annoyed at characters when they made stupid decisions and I was upset when some characters made stupid decision and betrayed me. Telltale makes use of excellent voice acting and background music which really helps set the scene. A notable example of this is at the end of the story where Lee is slowly dying and you take on Clementine's perspective. This part made me so emotional that I cried.
What could be Improved:
Some areas in the game had really dark backgrounds and it made it hard to see where I was going and what I could interact with. There were a few time skips that just felt too fast paced and it kind of felt like the story was being rushed along.
Monster prom is a game where you pick a character to romance and you spend six weeks building up your stats and spending time with that character to accumulate enough hearts to ask them out to the meteor shower.
What I enjoyed:
At the start, you can pick one of 4 characters and you can change the names and pronouns of that character to suit your preferences. The art style is extremely visually appealing and the characters are super expressive. Their entire pose as well as facial expressions change depending on their feelings. There's also some dlcs and unlockable content that gives these characters different outfits and you can randomise them so you never know which character sprite you are going to get. There's so many endings and secret endings that each time you play you are almost guaranteed to see a conversation you've never had before. At the end of the game, there's a little piece of art that shows depending on which ending you've got and this even includes all the secret endings which is nice to see. The art and endings you've unlocked are also kept in the gallery that you can view from the main menu.
What could be Improved:
Monster prom is a stat based game and sometimes it's hard to determine what choices correspond to which stat which can lead to feeling a little annoyed if u pick the wrong option. There is no save option or option so if you start a game, you have to either finish it or forfeit your progress. There is also no option to view the previous dialogue so if you accidentally skip ahead you can't go back.
In this game, you play as Julia ,a journalist and recently turned vampire, in the city of New York. You're constantly treated like a nobody, a simple pawn in a game of chess and you always have this looming sense of doom chasing you. You are taken through and taught the various ranks in the vampire government and are never acknowledged as you're towards the bottom of the ranks. That is, until, the New York's anarch leader suffers a gruesome end. The vampire council, needing someone they can easily dispose of if they messed you, appointed you to investigate the situation
What I enjoyed:
The art style is muted, dull and soft which suits the characters and vibes of the whole story and really helps to convey the feeling of doom you're supposed to get. I liked the whole interrogation and night times conversations you can get with the characters. I like how you get multiple chooses of who you can interact with at night as well.
What could be improved:
Sometimes I found it hard to understand and keep track of all the vampiric government terms even with the dictionary as there's so many of them. When the characters are conversing, they don't change facial expressions at all making it a little boring visually. Unlike other games in this franchise, there is no vampire hunger or beast mechanic making this game quite boring in comparison. The story itself takes way too long to get into and overall is just incredibly slow paced. The 'good ending' isn't even that good as it shows Julia slowly loosing sense of herself whilst impressing the council whilst the ,bad ending, involves Julia making up with Dakota, her girlfriend, and being more true to herself. In my opinion the 'bad ending' is better that the 'good ending'.
Overall, I think what I mainly enjoy in an interactive fiction game is the art style and how expressive the characters are. Having the characters sprite change to indicate their feelings is such a cool way to get immersed in the game. A good story and pace is always important too because you don't want your players feeling rushed or getting bored.
Reference List
Arrowiz, 2021. Hermitage: Strange Case Files [online]. PC. Germany: Giiku Games. Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1225820/Hermitage_Strange_Case_Files/ [Accessed 27 September 2024].
Beautiful Glitch, 2020. Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp [online]. PC. Barcelona: Beautiful Glitch. Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1140270/Monster_Prom_2_Monster_Camp/ [Accessed 27 September 2024].
Draw Distance, 2020. Vampire: The Masquerade - Shadows of New York [online]. PC. France: Dear Villagers. Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1279630/Vampire_The_Masquerade__Shadows_of_New_York/ [Accessed 27 September 2024].
Ekkoberry, 2023. Hollow Victory [online]. PC. California: Itch.io. Available at: https://ekkoberry.itch.io/hollow-victory [Accessed 27 September 2024].
Telltale Games, 2022. The Walking Dead [online]. PC. Los Angeles: Skybound Games. Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/207610/The_Walking_Dead/ [Accessed 27 September 2024].
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