I don’t have this idea as fleshed out as I would like it to but the idea is pretty simple. You have very minimal control over this lifeless stuffed animal and this child and world interact with this little bear, often treating it as alive. The choices you make are subtle and do not directly control the stuffed animal because it is of course lifeless. I would love to have interesting illustrations for this story that I make myself but I currently don’t have any that are worthwhile using.
Mr. Bumpy Lumps is sitting quietly on a shelf in a bright pink room. Black glass eyes stare widely at the open door and a huge grin is set on his face welcoming anyone who enters the room. Far off in the distance the indistinct murmurings of a little girl’s voice can be heard from somewhere outside of the room. The window above the shelf is open and a strong wind begins to seep into the room.
>> The wind tips Mr. Bumpy Lumps over off the shelf.
>> The wind shuts the door.
>> Nothing happens.
This wouldn’t really be an enthralling story but I thought it might be a unique way to approach a story.
For my second idea I was possibly thinking of taking the context of the choices completely out of the story. So the reader would choose a bunch of seemingly random choices at the beginning and then the story is revealed and as they read on they can see how their choices made a difference in the story. In a way it is playing with the idea of taking the control out of the readers hands in which interactive stories are known in giving. I did not think that visuals would be necessary for a story like this and I am also at a loss at what the story would actually be. Off the top of my head it would be a story of a little girl who has lost her teddy (I like teddy bears okay!! Gosh!) and goes around this unearthly city in search of it. She interacts with a multitude of characters during this search and the reader unknowingly does stuff to them since they were not given the choice in context.
CYOA: As far as the readings went I tried to briefly look at all of them but I was most attracted to CYOA most likely because it was not a white onslaught of pdfs. As a visual person I was very grateful for the straightforward and simple visuals that accompanied the text and made it easier to read because of the brief breaks. The reading itself I thought was mildly interesting and I felt as though it covered it’s bases as far as history and thoughts altogether about interactive stories. I also thoroughly enjoyed the animations and galleries of the visual choice paths. It was fun to see the choices taken out of the story and plotted in an appealing way.
