{"id":4730,"date":"2016-09-18T20:00:15","date_gmt":"2016-09-18T20:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/astoryisnotatree.net\/?p=4730"},"modified":"2020-02-12T21:53:31","modified_gmt":"2020-02-12T21:53:31","slug":"non-linear-design-paper-prototype-1-post-mortem-poster-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/astoryisnotatree.net\/?p=4730","title":{"rendered":"Game Studio: Nonlinear Narratives: Poster Children"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"fullsizerender-2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Poster Children was a flash fiction that resonated with me. But it was actually a design element I could use as an avenue into designing the game, or at least a general outline of what the game could be: I got excited by the idea of using the pictogram\/icon\/abstract style of wheelchair access signs, either in vector (smooth) or pixelated form (both would make for interesting designs, I think), for characters in a flat 2D world \u2013 the background for which is not developed yet; right now I am going with sketchbook-style simplicity.<\/p>\n

So on this visual level there is already a lot of abstraction going on: maybe some kind of incorporation of non-abstract art would make for more depth, the contrast to the pictogram style adding an interesting effect. An idea prompted by the strange, futuristic wheelchair\/scooter\/gadget convention in the story was to use 50s\/60s style advertisement\/magazine\/sales catalog background elements and mix styles in an equally strange way.<\/p>\n

There is something strange to the story as a whole: the way it\u2019s broken up into three disconnected bits, and the fact that we don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on exactly, make for a sense of danger, and give us an impression of the character as somehow lost in the world.<\/p>\n

I want to think about how the game might capture these aspects …<\/p>\n

The segmentation of the story lends itself to non-linear design: the fundamental (narrative) idea I had was to tie the two sections in and outside the convention lobby together spatially (through a passageway\/door?), and connect these as a unit via flashbacks to a dialog scene in the cell.<\/p>\n

\"fullsizerender\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Maybe the dialog could contain game elements, but it could also be straight-forward exposition-type reading, except that I want to focus more on conveying that mood of strangeness (setting the stage for the flash-backs) than on the narrative \u2013 since, really, the narrative itself does not seem to matter too much in the end.<\/p>\n

I am not sure what the story is about then, and I don\u2019t think I can know for sure. I would say though that the central theme is living with a handicap: this is where I see the main challenge of designing this game \u2013 how could I address this?<\/p>\n

(Initial thoughts I had was to think about movement and design this into the game: perhaps the wheelchair characters move horizontally, and other characters vertically, to highlight the differences of movement. Perhaps getting through the door into the lobby is a challenge \u2013 things like this.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poster Children was a flash fiction that resonated with me. But it was actually a design element I could use as an avenue into designing the game, or at least a general outline of what the game could be: I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":4732,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[404,223],"tags":[233,235,236,227,406,407,231],"class_list":["post-4730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nonlinear-narrative","category-game-studio","tag-industry-knowledge","tag-poster-children","tag-flash-fiction","tag-non-linear","tag-game-studio","tag-nonlinear-narrative","tag-mcguffin","wpcat-404-id","wpcat-223-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/astoryisnotatree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/astoryisnotatree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/astoryisnotatree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/astoryisnotatree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/astoryisnotatree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4730"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/astoryisnotatree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13105,"href":"http:\/\/astoryisnotatree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4730\/revisions\/13105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/astoryisnotatree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/astoryisnotatree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/astoryisnotatree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/astoryisnotatree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}