Interactive Narrative Project: Research

Well if I want to create a really interesting interactive narrative I have to find existing and find out what makes it tick!

Looking on the web and playing videogames I found some good examples of interactive narrative that I think will benefit my final outcome:
Magnolia: www.magnoliathemovie.com/#

I think this is a really interesting interactive narrative because of the way it plays as if it’s a trailer, the song at the start of the flash video really fits the piece once you realise the story of each characters, which is activated by hovering over each character. Thankfully the video loops because I didn’t realise how to interact with the video at first which is a bit stupid. I think that it should have been a bit more obvious but still a nice feature. The text on the bio is the wrong colour because it makes it really hard to read in some cases. I think the video clips were chosen wisely because once you read each bio you realize the intricacies of each character and how they are all connected which means the story has a good non-linear narrative. The genera for this narrative I think would be a dram because of how each character is facing an internal conflict as well as being a protagonist and a antagonist. I think creating an interactive narrative like this would be easy but still classy.

Mass Effect:
This is another really interesting way of creating an interactive narrative but using a different medium other than video. This game really explores a whole new idea of storytelling by giving the player complete control of the main character, I mean you control not only his body but the way you want the other characters in the game to react to you and you get given options on what to say if a character asks you a question. The great thing about it is that it pushes the way a story is told by letting you create it your way, letting you have the ultimate creative game experience on the market. To get this experience right you have to have a deep and interesting narrative which thankfully this has in bucket loads. Due to the fact that this interactive narrative is a game, this increases the special awareness element because it give you the creative freedom to view any situation from any angle which in films and animations sometimes can be limited to a set viewpoint. In conclusion it’s a really compelling game that has set the bar for creative interactive narratives in the gaming industry.

Here is a video showing you the features of the game:



HIT ME :
This is a great little interactive narrative by Ben Smallman... well its not really a narrative but its interactive qualitys are intreaguing and it has deffinatly given me some ideaz on interactive techniques that i could produce in my interactive narrative. I think its a great way to fuse still pictures with moving images which is probably something i should consider doing that in my project. Over all a very clever little flash game.

Here is the site if you wish to see it: http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/hitme