Analysing text adventures (21/10/2013)

As we won't be presenting our findings from last week's set task until next week, we were told we would be playing text adventure games in order to analyse their mechanics and narratives.

Before all that though, we went over the brief for the module and were reminded that we have until February 2014 to complete everything, thus we shouldn't worry too much.

* The work itself will need to be handed in as a blog with a written evaluation and artefact. The artefact in this case can be submitted in a number of ways. For example, as a book, playable game or other format. In short, similar to my employee's folder for last term's module 'Creative Writing' where my story was set in a gas station.

* The overall story should be no less than 4000 words and can be in the style of a text adventure game or a choose-your-own adventure (CYOA) book. We can make our work more than 4000 words if we wish, but we must make sure the piece is worth reading for that bit longer, and that the added words are relevant to the overall piece.

* Considering I have already had experience creating my own CYOA book in the past, and actually have fancied creating another for quite a while, I may well choose to write my final piece in this genre. Therefore, I should look back at my last CYOA book (Gold Lord) and see what worked and what didn't in order to improve my next book.

* The final piece doesn't need to be completed, if we wish to we can leave it on a cliffhanger. However, we still need to include the thought process on how the whole story would have planned out had the whole thing been written.

* Whatever interactive story we write we must include choices. If we only include a few choices then they must be significant, otherwise they wont impact on the player and the player won't feel as involved in the overall experience.
The choices we include must also be fair and treat the player in the same way. Therefore, I should look online as to how I can make my choices fair and not just cheap deaths e.g. how do I make the choices provided to the player seem fair and reasonable in order to match what the player would do and/or fail at.

* Since they are interactive stories we can, if we wish, include voice acting. This obviously made my face light up and it's an option worth considering.

* We were also provided with some resources we could use to help with our work.

• The website http://brasslantern.org/ is meant to be a great resource for information on text adventures.
• http://textadventures.co.uk/quest is another useful site which I should look at since it allows its users to create their own text adventure games. Thus it may be a resource I wish to use if I go for this option.

* We were then given the following tasks to complete that day. You can see my progress underneath each one.

Task 1:

We are first to play two existing text adventure games and get as far as we can without using a guide. Only after doing so can we use one in order to get as far as we can, thus finding out how such a interactive narrative is written and how the stories and characters pan out.

Obviously we need to play critically and think how, not only the narrative plays out, but also about the mechanics and dynamics.  

Results:

Thy Dungeonman:

Deciding to play a text adventure game I have never played before, I went with 'Thy Dungeonman' which gave no context and dumped me straight into the game. It took me a minute to figure out which commands the game recongised as it didn't let me 'examine' objects. 

The game itself was also meant to be a parody of text adventure games therefore, when I tried to 'take flask' it said that it was bolted to the wall which was bolted to the rest of the dungeon and the castle itself. 

Overall the game was funny, but had problems for me personally. For example, you could only read your current text, thus if you wanted the previous one you had to type in 'help'. Whereas I have played in the past other games that kept all the text on the screen, sometimes even allowing you to scroll back through it.
Also, it may have just been me, but I found the game to be unplayable if I went to Dennis straight away as it would stop me from being able to return to my last location. This occurred every time I tried to play the game. However, if I went South and took the trinket and then to Dennis and gave him it I won the game straight away. Thus making it deliberately a short game that was not meant to be taken seriously.    

http://www.homestarrunner.com/dungeonman.html

Pirate Adventure:

I then tried 'Pirate Adventure' which shared some similarities to 'Thy Dungeonman'. For example, it included humour. However, unlike 'Thy Dungeonman' it actually kept previous text on screen and therefore I was able to play the game slightly more easily.
The only problem I had was trying to move around the environment as I couldn't. Thus eventually I was forced to ask the game for 'Help' and was told that I should 'Climb Stairs'. This was a command that I would have never of thought typing, therefore I was annoyed, but at least I got to continue playing the game.
I ended up getting as far as teleporting to the sandy beach where the game decided to no longer give clear hints on what I should do and how to travel East.

http://www.ifiction.org/games/playz.php?cat=44&game=39&mode=html

Task 2:

Once I have played some games I need to write how the game engages the player within the narrative. How linear / non linear is it and whether or not it is fair or not?

Results:

With 'Thy Dungeonman' it gave me clear routes I could take, such as North and South and therefore gave me the freedom to navigate at ease. However, it didn't provide clear descriptions or even an objective, therefore despite its freedom of choice and personal narrative e.g. decide for yourself why you are the hero and what you are doing in the dungeon, at times it punished you for doing rational things, such as when climbing a rope it would wrap itself around you and kill you instantly.

Whereas, 'Pirate Adventure' provided me with all my previous inputs which was useful, it complicated commands. It took me a good fifteen minutes to figure out all I needed to do was type 'help' in order to be provided with hints on the words I should type, as was the case with the stairs as mentioned before. 
From what I played of the game it seemed linear, as all I was doing was going forward and not being able to return to the start (my flat).
I would have liked to have continued playing the game as it was getting interesting, but it just wouldn't let me go anywhere despite what I felt to be clear commands e.g. 'Go East'. Thus I felt some what cheated by the game stopping my progress.

Task 3:

We finally needed to map a reasonable section of the games, analysing the narrative form, such as character types, plot types and narrative structures.

The map itself is almost like a giant mind map connecting all the locations and obstacles within the game. We are meant to do this for our own projects as well and therefore this task was worth doing.

Results:

As I was unable to get far in my chosen games, you will find my maps to be less detailed than others unfortunately.

'Thy Dungeonman' map:
As you can see this text adventure is very non-linear.

'Pirate Adventure' map:
Whereas this text adventure is very linear.

Conclusion:

* Overall, today's session was a lot of fun and I got very excited throughout the description of the project as the lecturer brought up many of my favourite examples of the type of interative narrative we were looking at e.g. 'Monkey Island' and 'Broken Sword'.
From playing the two examples of text adventure games today, I have decided to write a CYOA book as that way I will be able to control the narrative more easily, provide the player with more information and relevance to the story and whereas, I will be giving the player fewer choices than a text adventure game (as I can't possibly include everything they may wish to do), I will make sure that the choices available are more impressive, impactful and descriptive. Thus making the player feel as if they really are the hero in the story.

* From a previous CYOA book I read as a child, I remember having a choice at the start of the game in which I had to pick one of three objects before setting off on my journey. Thus I may try to include this feature in my game, so as to give the player a choice at the beginning which will effect the rest of it, thus providing re-playability.
This will be especially useful if I also decide to include multiple paths, though this will depend on my progress and whether or not other module assignments get in the way.

Harvard Referencing: 

• Brass Lantern (Unknown) Brass Lantern. Available at: http://brasslantern.org/ (Accessed: 21/10/2013).
• Text Adventures Ltd (2014) Quest - Write text adventure games and interactive stories. Available at: http://textadventures.co.uk/quest (Accessed: 21/10/2013).
• Unknown (Unknown) Thy Dungeonman! [Game] Available at: http://www.homestarrunner.com/dungeonman.html (Accessed: 21/10/2013).
• Unknown (Unknown) Pirate Adventure / Pirate's Cove. [Game] Available at: http://www.ifiction.org/games/playz.php?cat=44&game=39&mode=html (Accessed: 21/10/2013).

The Seven Plot Types (14/10/2013)

Before the session started we finalised our narratives, making sure they made sense and everyone was happy with them.We recognised, however that we wouldn't find the time to put together a heroes journey unfortunately, and therefore focused on making sure the story made sense.

When we met up together for a second time we came up with an improved narrative which follows.

First Act:

• Starts off telling an ancient story in which a hero saves the kingdom from an enemy army and is given a magical sword by the Queen in gratitude. The hero disappears and is never seen again.
  
• The story then jumps 100 years to the present. The current king wants the magical sword that the hero once possessed. He sends the blacksmith's son on a quest to find this item.
• The boy leaves on his quest. He finds himself in a dark forest during a storm. He looses his footing and slips down into a rivine. However, a skeletal hand shoots out and grabs him, pulling him into a cave, saving him. 
• After being shocked by the living skeleton's appearance, the boy soon recovers, introduces himself and, after some banter the Skeleton shows his crystal. It explains that the crystal will help the boy find the sword as it will send him back in time in order to relive the past. However, he is warned to use it wisely as it cracks with each use. 
  

Second Act:

• The boy travels to his first time period where he is trained as a solider by the skeleton, in order to use a sword.
• The boy then travels to a second time period where he is now in charge of a regiment that has to lower an enemy's gate.
  
• Whilst using the crystal for his final time period, it breaks in half just as the boy is meant to lead a whole army. Thus, with the crystal no longer of use, he loses hope as he believes he can't be the hero.
  

Third Act:

• The boy finds the courage to lead the army when he realises that he never actually the crystal's insight and that it was all his own doing. Thus he leads the army to victory. 
• Winning the final battle, he is presented with a sword by the queen from the past which reveals the crystal in the hilt. The skeleton also reveals that he is in fact the king who was killed in the past.
  
• The hero is then teleported back to his own time and is congratulated by his friends and family. 
  

Time travel works as long as you set in stone the logic. As long as you keep with this logic then you can get away with some of the paradoxes created, even if some would otherwise show up. Whereas, if you do break set rules then the audience will complain and have problems with your narrative.

The Seven Plot Types - The Quest:

For the rest of the day we were split into two large groups and, in my group's case were asked to research the seven plot types. Next week we will then present our findings to the other group and that will be our session.

Having researched what each one was, we then decided on the subject we would talk about for next week.
I was assigned to write about 'The Quest' which in a nutshell is about characters who set off in order to complete a task which is often difficult. They must face great challenges and obstacles in order to complete their goal.

The idea of 'The Quest' has been used for many years. From fact to fiction here are a few examples that relate to one another.

* The search for the Holy Grail:
A story that has been past down for years. The idea that men set forth in search of a holy object, for years on end, is just outstanding. Also, that they would sacrifice much for a common course and, although face perilous trial after perilous trial never stopped, even if it meant traveling to distant and unknown lands is impressive.
Other stories in the past have also shared similarities in this structure and include the 'Tales of Hercules', the story of 'Jason and the Argonauts', and even the high sea adventures of 'Sinbad'.

* 'The Chronicles of Narnia' and 'The Lord of the Rings':
These stories told of the littlest of heroes who would travel the world in order to accomplish their quest, often taking a long time to complete them, as was the case with the search for the Holy Grail.
Despite Frodo's size or the children's ages in the Narnia Chronicles, they all showed great courage and, with the help of their friends, completed tasks bestowed on them and defeated great evils. Thus linking closely to the ancient biblical tale of David vs Goliath.
Both of these first examples were written during times of war, but set in worlds of fantasy to provide escapism. Although, written for children these books still reflect the times they were written in thus, although surrounded in fantasy they told political themes and battles similar to those going on whilst they were being written e.g. the fight against good and evil could be interpreted as the Allies v.s. the Nazis.

* 'Dungeons and Dragons': 
A pen and paper game influenced by such fantasy works as J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings' novels. D&D was created in order to bring people's imaginations to life and allow them to take part in grand adventures. Personally I have played the game for three years now and from doing so have felt as if I have been a part of other worlds and gone on fantastic journeys, just like some of my favorite fictional heroes. I have also learnt from playing for so long a number of new story telling techniques and ways to portray the characters I play, thus improving my narrative skills.
In fact, some adventure books heavily influenced by my previous example, also exist which allow readers to take part in adventures of their own and  therefore choose their actions. Even I invented my own 'choose your own adventure book' when I was young which had the player basically playing as a dwarf in a scenario almost identical to the story of 'The Hobbit'. It was fun to make and hopefully I may end up creating another in the future. 
Fun fact: Vin Diesel, who is one of the most coolest actors in history played Dungeons and Dragons for twenty years in his youth! Thus, his main character Melkor was the main inspiration for the popular character Riddick as both kill monsters and can see in the dark. He also wrote a foreword in one of the published books for the game.

* 'Star Wars':
Sharing similarities to my second example ('The Chronicles of Narnia' and 'The Lord of the Rings'), 'Star Wars' is a film still beloved today as, not only did it capture the spirit of adventure and intrigue with a whole new setting and worlds we had never seen before but, it also (like my other examples) showed the smallest of heroes in the form of Luke and a small band of Rebels taking on an entire Galactic Empire. 
One example of why this movie works, is underlined by this quote provided by my lecturer from the director of 'Star Wars', I'll let it speak for itself.

"You focus on the human story first, and then you begin to create this world that everybody inhabits, and playing with the lowest person in this hierarchy, I created droids. And that is really how they came about. I was looking for the lowest person on the pecking order, basically like the farmers in Hidden Fortress were." - George Lucas.

* 'Indiana Jones' and 'The Goonies':
Other fantastic example of quests seen in film are 'Indiana Jones' and 'The Goonies' as the characters set out on dangerous journeys and, although face moments of desperation always return to their quest, whether it be an older archeologist fighting Nazis for ancient artifacts, or kids seeking hidden treasure. Both these films always get the audience excited as they remind them of adventures they used to have as kids when trying to reenact scenes from their favorite fantasy books such as 'The Chronicles of Narnia' and 'The Lord of the Rings'. Subsequently, from watching these movies children will be influenced to seek adventure and play like the characters from these films, I know I did.

* 'Dragon Age' and 'Mass Effect':
From history to books, to pen and paper and on screen in cinemas, we have had numerous examples of quests. However, previously they were always either purely visual, but non interactive. Or interactive, but relied on your own imagination that whilst is till being used today, can clash with the imagination of others depending on how they imagine it to look visually. Therefore, video games were a positive introduction addition for the telling of quests as, not only were they visual, but they were also interactive.
Great quest examples in video games include Bioware's 'Dragon Age' series that has the player select their race and class and take part in adventures set in a gritty fantasy world, and the 'Mass Effect' series that has you play as a human traveling the galaxy and trying to stop a greater threat from emerging.

* 'One Piece': 
A TV series that follows a group of pirates seeking fame, wealth and power in the form of a treasure known as the One Piece. What it is, no one knows but, the journey itself seems to be the main focus and reward as demonstrated in the series so far. Thus, this is similar to my first example of the 'Holy Grail' since many of its heroes discover life lessons and more about themselves from their personal adventures that they have whislt on their journey.
Even though you would expect a series to complete its main quest sooner than later for it to be more accessible to new comers, the series started airing in 1999 and has continued to air into 2013 with roughly 616 episodes to date! (And to think, I'm only on episode 40 something...)

  
Harvard Referencing: 

• Burne, J, E. Morris, W. Henry, D, J. (1895-96) Galahad Grail [Online image]. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Galahad_grail.jpg (Accessed: 14/10/2013).
• Boone, M (2010) Adventures in YA Publishing - Writing Inspiration: Seven Types of Plot. Available at: http://childrenspublishing.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/writing-inspiration-seven-basic-plot.html (Accessed: 14/10/2013).
• Hirsh, E (2012) Mass Effect Cover [Online image]. Available at: http://www.gamingvlog.net/tag/mass-effect-1-cover/ (Accessed: 14/10/2013).
• Lucas, R (2011) Dragon Age Screenshot [Online image]. Available at: http://pixelatedgeek.com/2011/02/top-5-aspects-dragon-age-2-looks-to-improve/ (Accessed: 14/10/2013).
• Milles, C (2012) Indiana Jones Screenshot [Online image]. Available at: http://www.blakesnyder.com/2012/09/07/the-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-beat-sheet/ (Accessed: 14/10/2013).
• Maderna, V (Unknown) D&D Player's Strategy Guide - Getting Into Character Picture [Online image]. Available at: http://digital-art-gallery.com/picture/4523 (Accessed: 14/10/2013).
• Paul, Ghanger (1979) Cave of Time - Book Cover [Online image]. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cave_of_time.jpg (Accessed: 14/10/2013).
• Struzan, D (1985) The Goonies Poster [Online image]. Available at: http://www.impawards.com/1985/goonies.html (Accessed: 14/10/2013).
• Unknown (2013) One Piece Logo [Online image]. Available at: http://fullwallpaperhd.com/one-piece-logo-wallpaper/ (Accessed: 14/10/2013).
• Unknown (2012) The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - Book Cover [Online image]. Available at: http://www.mysocalledsensorylife.com/?tag=the-chronicles-of-narnia (Accessed: 14/10/2013).
• Unknown (Unknown) Quest Wikipedia. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest (Accessed: 14/10/2013).
• Unknown (Unknown) The Lord of the Rings - Book Cover [Online image]. Available at: https://forbiddenplanet.com/92949-lord-of-the-rings-book-1-fellowship-of-the-ring-tolkien-cover/ (Accessed: 14/10/2013).
• Unknown (Unknown) Star Wars Poster [Online image]. Available at: http://www.thatsswell.ca/nerdom/star-wars-cast-on-twitter/ (Accessed: 14/10/2013).

Group narrative (7/10/2013)

Put into a group of four we started to put together our group narrative that you can read below.

It takes inspiration from 'Studio Ghibli' movies and 'The Lord of the Rings'. We modeled the layout of the story as a three act structure, though we plan to make it a Heroes Journey when we are done, providing we find the time.

First Act:

• Two blacksmiths, a father and son don't see eye to eye as the father wants the son to inherit the business, whereas the son wants to be a hero like the one he is told of in his stories. 
• The king wishes for a sword from an abandoned castle, the father can not leave as he is creating weapons for the army, therefore the king commands the son to go in his place to fetch it as the son has courage. And, whereas the father has more strength he doesn't have the courage to say no to the king. The son, although told to go, is also curious about the outside world he hasn't seen, thus it is his curiosity that also sends him off.
• On his way the son crosses through the remains of a great battle and discovers a talking skeleton who joins him on his travels. Thus the skeleton represents what the son could become and tries to drive him away from temptation / the things the dead solider did in his lifetime and regrets. The skeleton also has a crystal in his hand which bestows wisdom and insight into future events.

Second Act:

• The skeleton uses the crystal to teach the boy how to fight through past battles. During which the son takes part in a battle that shows him the horrors of war and that he isn't ready for such things. Likewise, the skeleton remembers why he enjoyed fighting.  
• Having lost the battle the blacksmiths son is showed how to fight by the skeleton who tells him he was the king's brother. He also explains that, although he lost the battle he also survived and and can come back from this.

Third Act:

• The crystal smashes and therefore they lose their insight and have to fight a monster on their own.
• After defeating the monster the son returns home with the sword and a new understanding from the lessons he has learn't throughout his journey. 

We then decided to come up with some further ideas over the weekend and meet up again next week in order to add to it.

Leading Figures - Propp's Character-led Narrative and The Heroes Journey (7/10/2013)

To start of with we watched a very interesting presentation called 'Leading Figures - Propp's Character-led Narrative'. We did this so as to learn two new ways of telling a story/narrative.

Vladimir Propp looked at the archetypes used in stories throughout the ages in order to understand how the characters affect the story. After all, different types of characters drive the narrative e.g. a lawful character will behave differently to a chaotic one, whether it be in their mannerisms, methods used, sayings etc.

We went on to look at an example of the 'hero'. Two that are similar to one another are the Prince in 'Sleeping Beauty', and Luke Skywalker from 'Star Wars'. Both are young adults that go on a journey to save a princess and receive help from mentors that provide them with power. This being the fairies magic from 'Sleeping Beauty' and Obi Wan Kenobi's knowledge of the Force in 'Star Wars'. 
The hero's role is to achieve the story's goal and act as the viewpoint for the audience. The story may tell the events from others point of view, but otherwise the story centres on the hero.

The 'villain' on the other hand is the goal for the hero to bring down, whether they be beings or a self reflection of the hero. Therefore, as before the two examples this time were Maleficent from 'Sleeping Beauty' and Darth Vader from 'Star Wars'.
It's interesting to look at villains because in traditional fairy tales the villains are often female, whereas in modern stories they are often male.

The 'Doner' is someone who supplies the hero with what they need in order to continue their journey, whether this be magic from 'Sleeping Beauty' or the Millenium Falcon from 'Star Wars'.

'Helpers' also exist in order to provide the hero with support, comic relief etc. Therefore, the animals in 'Sleeping Beauty' act as her friends as she has no human friends her age. And, in 'Star Wars' Luke is assisted by the droids who not only have the plans for the Death Star, but in R2's case actually assists Luke in the trench run of the Death Star. Other characters include Chewy and Han Solo who in the latter case could be seen as what Luke could have become had he had the freedom he never had before, thus almost being an alter ego.

Usually the role of the 'Princess' is to be passive, therefore it is a breath of fresh air when Princess Leia from 'Star Wars' is proactive and fights back.

The 'Dispatcher' as the name suggests, dispatches the hero on their journey. Sometimes not being a part of the journey themselves e.g. Obi Wan Kenobi who asks Luke to join him on his journey to return the droids to the rebellion.

The 'false hero' and 'false villain' are two sides of the same coin. This being, for example Lando from 'Star Wars' who, although betrays his friends ends up also saving them (The false hero). By making the character also appear a hero which you didn't expect them to be, you make them more interesting to read/watch.
Likewise, the 'false villain' in this case is Darth Vader who defeats the Emperor and stops him from killing his son Luke.

We were then asked to split into groups and look at other narratives from films or games, analysing the characters in them and their roles.
Therefore we chose 'Die Hard' and got the following results.

• The Hero: John McClane as he is the hero trying to stop the terrorists.
• The Villain: Hans Gruber as he is the terrorist's leader.
• The Doner: The terrorist who John kills in the lift, thus getting his machine gun, radio and bombs. 
• The Helpers: There are multiple helpers in the film including the cop who provides John with encouragement and information about what the police are doing outside. Also, the Limo driver who gets John to the building.
• The Princess: John's wife as she needs to be rescued at the end of the film. She then turns into a helper when she evacuates the hostages at the end. 
• The Dispatcher: In a way John McClane is the dispatcher, as he sets himself the task of dispatching the terrorists and calling the cops. 
• The False Hero: The FBI agents who are only out for themselves and take reckless actions.

We then went on to talk about 'The Heroes Journey' in another presentation which is adapted from Joesph Campbell's book 'The Hero With a Thousand Faces'.

Campbell thought women were not the heroes in stories as he felt they already had great wisdom, thus it was men who needed to accomplish something. Often the hero tends to have parents that are either dead or absent and, although they believe themselves to be of low birth, discover that they are something far greater. One example could be Harry Potter whose parents were killed and yet, after years of abuse he discovers he's a wizard.. 

We then went through each step of Campbell's 'The Heroes Journey' using 'Star Wars' as an example.
The steps are as follows. 

1. The Departure: Shows the ordinary world in order to show contrast for when things go wrong.
2. The Call to Adventure: The hero often doesn't decide to go on an adventure, but is instead asked to. 
3. The Refusal: The hero refuses the call to duty usually for a good a reason, such as responsibility.  
4. The Acceptance of the Call: Something big happens that makes the hero change their mind.
5. Supernatural Aid and/or Talisman: Often the hero doesn't know what they will receive or perhaps its purpose, but when they do it helps them greatly throughout their journey.
6. The Crossing of the First Threshold / Entering the Unknown: The hero crosses over from their normal world and into one that is alien to them. Thus being a challenge of its own as the hero has to adapt to a new environment.
7. Threshold Guardians: Individuals who impede or try and stop the hero from getting to their destination. Usually this is the heroes first obstacle as it often seems impossible to get past them.
8. Allies/Helpers: The individuals who help the hero cross the first threshold.
9. Belly of the Whale: A representation of the hero getting the furthest away from their normality and being in great danger. Often being the villain's base. 
10. Meeting with the Goddess: The 'goddess' represents enlightenment to the hero, but doesn't necessarily mean from someone just female. It also forms a new type of knowledge for the hero, whether it be love, power or something else.  
11. The Road of Trails / The Dragon Battle: A great obstacle set before the hero to conquer, perhaps a trap they are in or a great battle.
12. Temptation from the Path: The hero is promised the easy way out, or great power from someone who tests their morality, thus also making them more human. 
13. Atonement with the Father: The hero atones/ makes amends with either their family or father figure. Often takes place during a death and showing responsibility through the interaction.
14. Apotheosis: Usually in act 3, often the hero is recovering physically or mentally from their journey and the trials they have been through. This step also shows the end of the allies/helper's journey and therefore wraps everything up.
15. Ultimate Boon: Often the thing the hero has been journeying for is destroyed. 
16. Refusal to Return: A mirror of the departure, the hero thinks about not returning to where they came from as they have been through so much.
17. The Magic Flight / Rescue from Without: The hero is rescued by a ally/helper.
18. Crossing of the Return Threshold: The most difficult part of the hero's journey as they must integrate back into normality. And, when asked about it find it hard to describe.
19. Master of the Two Worlds / Freedom to Live: The hero's freedom to now take on multiple roles from the returned equilibrium. For example, what they were before their journey, or the hero they became.

George Lucas once said he used Campbell's 'The Heroes Journey' as a framework for 'Star Wars', so that was interesting to hear. The lecturer even recommended we try and read the original script for Star Wars as it goes further into the thinking and believes of the characters, thus making it more obvious and important to why they do what they do.
Also Homer's book 'The Odyssey' was one the lecturer recommended. 

From listening to the lecturer, I realised why my creative written lecturer from last year was asking me to try and write characters before hand in order to more easily build a narrative using the ground work of the characters' personalities. 
Therefore, from figuring out the character and their goal you can start to really flesh out a story and the characters that will join the main protagonist on their journey. 

Vladimir Propp is mentioned a lot in the books in the library, thus if I wish to know more about him I could take out one of his books.

Now, we are to create an abridged narrative of our own creation using the Three Act Structure or The Heroes Journey as a guideline for next week.

First session (30/9/2013)

'Narrative for Games' has been given its own blog rather than being added to last term's 'Creative Writing' as it is very different to that module. This module focuses primarily on writing for video games and not books as the other module did. This is drastically different and will become more apparent as this module continues.

We first discussed what is narrative? It's not only the story, but its also the characters, dialogue, pictures, locations etc. In short, narrative is anything that follows from something else e.g. action/reaction. It's all about one event being followed by another.

Throughout the module we will be constructing structures, skills, tools, roles and other such resources for creating our own narrative for games.

Video game narrative is very different to say a movie's narrative as a video game is interactive and therefore the characters' actions are the players. Thus it is important that the narrative matches the game play, after all, in 'Grand Theft Auto 4' the protagonist is trying to get away from a life of crime, but this focus is broken when the player can choose at any time to just go on a murder spree before carrying on this same unaffected story.
Also, if the characters actions don't match how the player has been playing e.g. the characters become overly aggressive or vise versa, then this can also confuse the player and distance them from the game play. Thus, it is important that what the player does in the game play reflects what their character does during cut scenes or other non interactive moments.

The game 'Missile Command' was all about how there are no winners in a nuclear war. Despite the player shooting down all the missiles they clearly won't be able to defend all of them, and thus will end up losing, but not before sacrificing other cities whilst their focus is on one primarily. This underlines that sometimes sacrifices have to be made in wars, and not everyone can be saved. 

We then had to split up into groups and pick four examples of narrative that we loved.
You can see my group's choices below.

• Final Fantasy 6 - Jim: "The characters made the game as each one had their own back story and clear motivations."

  

• The Pokemon Games - Chris: "You make up your own narrative after you leave home in order to become a Pokemon master."

• Bastion - Bonnie: "Whatever the player does it is narrated to them, thus making the player feel as if everything they do is relevant."

• The Last of Us -Myself: I love the narrative for this game and was able to talk to the group about it. For you see, the protagonist Joel is not really a hero, he's rather an anti hero because looking back on his actions they are in fact selfish, yet human. As you play the game you grow attached to Elle, the girl you are protecting, thus your actions whilst protecting her also match Joel's, as she reminds him of his dead daughter. Everything he does for her is brutal, yet very human and thus when you look back on his selfish decisions you can only agree that you would do the same. Our lecturer agreed with my choice saying that the game presented characters who were neither completely good nor evil. In fact, they were just characters trying to survive and therefore doing harsh things to protect the ones they loved.

The lecturer then discussed the three act structure with us, using 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'Star Wars' as examples. For example, Luck Skywalker says he can't leave the farm where he lives and works but, when he finds his aunt and uncle dead, he is motivated to leave.  

We then regrouped and were asked to pick a movie and figure out its three act structure. Therefore, our group chose 'Shrek' as we thought for a family movie it would be easier to predict. However, this was not the case as our group had conflicts on where each act went.
We eventually made this list.

Shrek:

Act 1:

• Shrek is happy living on his own in the swamp. 
• Lord Farquaad wants all the fairy tale creatures gone and living in Shrek's swamp. Thus, Shrek leaves to see Lord Farquaad. 

Act 2:

• Shrek is told to go to the Keep and rescue the princess, in return the fairy tale creatures will be removed.
• Having had a relationship building with the princess, the two break up.

Act 3:

• Donkey convinces Shrek to stop her wedding and tell her he loves her. 
• The princess and Shrek get married and live happily ever after.

Later, I decided to work on two more examples in order to see if I could repeat the process. You can see my work below.

Indiana Jones: The Raiders of the Lost Ark:

Act 1:

• Big opening in which Indy runs away from a boulder.
• Indy discovers the Nazis are after a treasure that is connected to an old love of his.

Act 2:

• Indy rescues Marian and takes her Egypt.
• Marian appears to have died and Indy is sad.
• Marian tuns out to be alive, but the two are trapped in a tomb by the Nazis.
• The two escape and make off with the Ark of the Covenant.

Act 3:

• All seems well as the two seek safety on a boat. 
• Boat is boarded by Nazis and Indy follows.
• Indy is reunited with Marian and after the Nazis kill themselves with the Ark they escape. The ark is then put into storage and never opened again.

King Kong (2005):

Act 1:

• Crew journey to Skull Island.
• The heroine on board is taken by King Kong and the crew follow after.

Act 2:

• Crew confront Kong on a giant log and fall into a riving.
• All seems lost as the crew are killed one by one by giant insects. 
• Crew are rescued but the hero decides to continue to try and rescue her.

Act 3:

• Kong is captured and brought back to New York.
• Kong escapes and fights fighter planes on the Emperor State Building before dying.

Harvard Referencing:

• Krueger, F (2008) Atari Missile Command Released for iPhone - and it's as Good as Ever [Online image]. Available at: http://www.appcraver.com/atari-missile-command-released/ (Accessed: 30/9/2013).
• Unknown (2013) Last of Us Poster [Online image]. Available at: http://thelastofus.wikia.com/wiki/Ellie (Accessed: 30/9/2013).
• Unknown (2012) Indiana Jones Poster [Online image]. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Raiders.jpg (Accessed: 30/9/2013).
•  Unknown (2012) Poke'mon box art - Red Version [Online image]. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pok%C3%A9mon_box_art_-_Red_Version.jpg (Accessed: 30/9/2013).
• Unknown (2011) Shrek Poster [Online image]. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shrek.jpg (Accessed: 30/9/2013).
• Unknown (2008) King Kong Poster [Online image]. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kingkong_bigfinal1.jpg (Accessed: 30/9/2013).
• Unknown (Unknown) Bastion Art [Online image]. Available at: http://steamcommunity.com/app/107100 (Accessed: 30/9/2013).
• Unknown (Unknown) Final Fantasy VI Wiki [Online image]. Available at: http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_VI (Accessed: 30/9/2013).