Graduation and lots of questions

Hellooooo everyone!



It has been a while since I posted anything here.
I am currently in my last year of a course called interactive performance design. And it's graduation time.

 So, what am I going to do? How do I want people to recognise me after I'm done with school. I've always been fond of creating worlds and environments. So perhaps that's something I could use! I am also working as a freelance concept artist in the game industry so that particular skillset (do you call it a skillset?) might come in handy.





Immersive games in particular are things that I like. Being sucked in into a world, that's really something!

That's what I would love to achieve. To make people feel like they're really there. Games like thatgamecompany's journey do a great job. Telling a story with just images and sound. No spoken word or dialogue. That's hard to do right! Will I be able to pull that off and how am I going to do that?


 So Journey, super immersive. Lovely design and mood. The Story is a bit linear but alright! It's a one person experience though. Alright there is another player on the other side of the great big internet who plays together, and shares the so called "journey" with you. But it's just not the same as being in one room with that person.


Wouldn't it be great if you could share those experiences with even more people. In the same room? Being pulled under into a world with a group, like with some pen and paper roleplaying games. Where decisions you make as an individual or as a team can mean the end of your entire party or even the end of the world. 

 But can this be done without a game master? Can I make a game with a branching storyline that changes based on the player's choices.


Can I face people with tough situations? Grab the treasure and leave the rest of your party to face that horde of angry genetically manipulated crododiles, only to find out that there is an even bigger crocodile standing behind a rock, waiting to smash you to bits?
Or face those nasty biters as a team, kick that big crocodile down a cliff, share the treasure and live happily ever after! 

Did your friend hurt his knee? But did you get a nasty cut on your elbow and there is only one bandage? Who's going to get the bandage? Who deserves it more? What are the concequences if I take that bandage for myself? Will my best buddy die from an infection just because I can't stand the sight of blood?

 What if I create a game for 4 people, and player 3 dies in the first 3 minutes of the game because the team decided it was a good idea to use player 3 as a bait for the alien sniper that had absolutely no second thoughts about shooting him. Would it result in merry laughter? or a mad player 3 because he had absolutely no intentions of dying and thought it would be a good idea just to work as a team.

What if Isildur threw the ring into that fiery volcano right away. His decision had big concequences for the rest of the story. Because if he did throw it it wouldn't be worth writing 3 books about it.

 Can I make a game in which players can work as a team to achieve their goal. But also make their own individual choices. Can my story turn people into excellent teamplayers or backstabbing monsters. And can I pull people out of that screen and make them discuss decisions while still being immersed in the game.

Face those concequences!


But here comes the thing with a questionmark on the end.
How am I going to do that? How can I pull people into a world I made up? How can I make people discuss their choices and show them what they've done?

and one of the more important questions is:  Do players need the visual aspect of a game to interact with eachother and make those choices? Or can they do without? 

That's a whole lot of words on digital paper. And all these questions raise even more questions in my head! So this first post might seem like a bit of a chaos. In my next posts I'll try to tackle one little bit at a time. Because all these questions are a little too much for my brain!  to handle.  I hope this first post about my graduation project made any sense.

There are a few games that work with branching storylines. Like the telltale games. (those are really good) and many more games.

I'll make a post about that really soon. Because I think it's important to look at how other people tackled these questions.

Thanks so much for reading!