Playing Stories – Fall 2012 – 6424
https://www.dropbox.com/s/73t2bzxgsm2imdt/Addiction%2C%20Relapse.exe
Basically a rehash of my previous project, but centered around the theme of drug addiction. Use the arrow keys to move around as you try to make your way to the next level. Grab the pill bottles at your own risk; some have more adverse effects than others. Additionally, talk to the figures and see what happens.
Music Used: Alt-j – Tesselate
So I want my game to center around the simple theme of drug addiction and relapse.
My goal is to have at least 7 levels. In each level, you control a character I can only describe at this point as a drug addict, moving through various environments trying to find your way through the next. There will be moving obstacles in the form of pills/ pill bottles, as well as other objects which will help aid you on the path to “rehab” (don’t know what they will be yet). The character will have a health bar, and with every pill/ bottle you hit, your health decreases. The “helpful” objects, when collected, will increase your character’s speed so it’s easier to move through each level.
Your character starts out slow as molasses, and the environments and objects start out as completely blurry and distorted, and as you progress through each level the images become more and more clear so it’s easier to find out what you can collect and what you’re supposed to avoid.
The final level, where everything is crystal clear, will have either some giant obstacle or an obstacle disguised as something helpful, which, upon contact, will restart you at the first level, thus demonstrating a “relapse.”
I don’t know how much of this I should reveal, but there’s only one way you can exit the game.
Link to previous game, not 100% finished but still has most of the mechanics I want to incorporate: https://www.dropbox.com/s/p4l2ykzsj2e790d/testfatty2.gmk
https://www.dropbox.com/s/p4l2ykzsj2e790d/testfatty2.gmk
So I understand it’s very, VERY crudely done at the moment, especially that last level, lol. Hopefully you get the gist of it. Arrow keys to move. Veggies are good for you.
I’d like to revamp this A LOT for my final project, by adding a point system for the veggies/ a health bar that decreases every time you hit one of the sweets. It may even transform from something whimsical to something a lot more dark, but keeping the same mechanics.
Currently experiencing actionscript problems/ a few other technical things, so I have no finished product at this time. Ideally, the little girl will be materializing over and over at random spots in the backdrop, and giving the bottle to the homeless man will make her go away; thus, game over.
Will hopefully have everything fixed by Thursday.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nw7mfjh3nrue6tm/EthanAndTheThing.zip
Enjoy.
Sorry for the huge delay on this:
1. You are the last remaining male of a rare aquatic species. Your goal is to mate with the last remaining female in the hopes of breeding to continue your species’ existence. To do this, you must woo her with sweet-talk (many cheesy marine-related pickup lines will be used). Will you succeed?
2. So basically, you’ve encountered this weird humanoid creature, and you aren’t sure whether it wants to befriend you or kill you. How it reacts depends on the things you say to it.
1) Waiting for Godot
There’s a lot to be said for the possibilities of humor in even the most mundane of events, such as “waiting” for someone (who never actually shows up in this story). It’s one of those instances where I feel the plot doesn’t matter as much as the dialogue of the characters does; this makes for a great parallel between this story and Hemingway’s.
2) Hills Like White Elephants
Secretly depressing and incredibly minimal, this story very cleverly deals with abortion without actually mentioning the word. The way the female interacts with the hills themselves (turning her gaze toward them whenever her partner raises the intensity of the conversation) is very interesting, almost like they have some sort of therapeutic value to her. It’s very reminiscent of other Hemingway narratives where the actions sort of take a backseat to the dialogue.
1. The Hubcap
The beginning setting is an ordinary city street. The player takes the role of a hubcap that has just fallen off a car. The player can choose how to position the hubcap (it could stay in the road where an unsuspecting car may hit it, it could move to the sidewalk right where people are walking, it could be hung on a nearby storefront, or thrown through somebody’s window, etc.) Different types of people will be seen walking down the adjacent sidewalk, who might interact in different ways to the hubcap depending on where it places itself. Some people may even take possession of the hubcap (a curious child? an art student looking to get some use out of it?) and more (or less) options open up depending on where it gets taken. The end goal is for the player to experience the unexpected journey of an unusual object.
2. Alien
You are a top-rank intergalactic soldier from the planet Tujia. You are in the midst of an immense war spreading across several planets. Terrified, but unbeknownst to your commanding officer, you have fled to Earth to seek refuge. You believe there may be a person on the planet who has studied Tujia in-depth and possesses knowledge on how to end the war, but in order to find this person you must interact with many different people. Some may be frightened by you, others impressed or intrigued by you, and most people will not understand you (your language is unlike anything ever heard on Earth). You will have to learn from their reactions to figure out how best to communicate. As the player, you will only be able to control what the alien says or physically does; emotions may change depending on whom you interact with, which can influence your options. Your decisions might also prompt the creation of obstacles; for instance, government officials may start to chase you if you have caused too much of a disturbance, or your commander may notice your absence if you fool around for too long and send units to try and bring you back to your war-torn home.
In the CYOA analysis, the “progression towards linearity” of which the author speaks is something that puzzles me as well. In my opinion, this progression, in conjunction with the video that demonstrates a player completing a Call of Duty mission without shooting a gun illustrates a decline in the freedom that interactive branching narratives grant the “players”. In our ongoing quest to simplify technology (i.e. packaging multiple applications into smaller devices) it would seem that manufacturers/designers favor the best possible result instead of further developing other results. And that has its own pros and cons depending on the intended audience. It would make sense to me that the minds of younger audiences are set on “winning”, whereas more mature audiences are curious to see everything laid out.
“The Garden of Forking Paths” gives a very abstract concept of time that may seem convoluted in how it is presented, but surprisingly obvious underneath. The existence of multiple universes and timelines, the majority in which we as entities do not exist, makes sense given the multiple choices one can make and how that shapes their own personal universe. This is vividly demonstrated when Tsun kills Albert, drawing out entirely new possible futures for the both of them – a timeline in which Tsun exists and Albert does not, and the one in which neither of them do – of course, this recollection is headed towards the latter.