Non-linear stories within games

Non-linear story lines have been used in games for a very long time. There are 3 different types - branching storylines, non-linear level design and sandbox mode.

One example of non-linear game play is a game called Agarest: Generations of War. The various ways of playing the game can be seen in the diagram below - taken from here

As you can see there are various ways of playing through the first part of the game. Which ever way you choose to play you end up at the same point at the end. However, the way you play the game does affect whether you can reach the True Ending.

Design for Webpages

All the initial ideas and sketches are in my sketchbook - I prefer to hand draw those.

To stay up to date on here as well this is my idea: You are a young witch who has decided to make a potion for her friends birthday present. To make it you add various ingredients - which ever one you pick will determine how the potion turns out at the end and if you make a mistake something bad could happen...

Initially I wanted to have just a plain white background with the text and imagery, but in the end that made the pages look too bare. So I added a background that would reflect the 'witchy' idea using gradients - This can be seen below.

For the font selection  I decided I wanted quite a decorative and individual looking font that would match the theme - so something a little 'Halloween'. Below you can see some of the choices I had:

I chose number 4 in the end because I felt that it was the most legiable whilst fitting the theme and looking individual.
The last thing that came up about the template for the webpages was that I felt that everything looked as though it was floating on the page. To resolve this I added a border just to make everything look a bit neater. This can be seen below:

Choose your own Adventure

Online there is no end to the number of 'choose your own adventure' sites. I've gone many of them and have picked out a few of my favourites:

iamcal - They admit straight away that its not the most original idea, but once you've played through it YOU add the next bit of the story. I like the idea because it has the possibility to go on forever.. literally you can go back and add more on whenever you like! Its simple and does what it says on the tin...

fupa - This was created on flash and comes complete with silly little illustrations and doomed endings. Whilst not being very long it was the first flash story that I found and aside from the music I found it very entertaining.

Choose your story - Just an example of a site where you can find stories from many different genres - not just fantasy/adventure. The one thing I found interesting with this site is that with every story there are a series of ratings so you can gage whether it's suitable for you.

Fighting Fantasy

The Fighting Fantasy series are another set of books that my brother and I had as children, these ones though we still have. These are more advanced then the Famous Five ones that I mentioned in the last post. They also, have a very different subject matter delving into the world of fantasy.

I've re-read/played these for this project and found that I don't enjoy them as much as I used to. However, when I was younger I found them very entertaining and at times they were quite scary. The series is a good example of non linear story books - they were created at a time when they genre was booming (in the 80s) and have manged to stay popular and in print to this day.

In keeping up with the 'modern day' the company has now created an iphone app of the first book - it looks brilliant with updated coloured imagery whilst still keeping the traditional look. Unfortunately I don't have an iphone/ipod touch so have been unable to test it out. I would imagine it's a bit faster because you dont have to find the page, which could be good, but in a way you'd lose the nostalgia of holding a book.

Famous Five Adventure Games

When I was younger I had 'The Shuddering Mountain Game', which I had hoped had been kept, but have been unable to find it. It was brilliant! I loved the Famous Five adventures anyway, but being able to play through the story and completing the puzzles made it more exciting.
Unlike other game books, such as the Fighting Fantasy series, this book allowed for 'novices' to read and play without any great difficulty. I think what I liked most about it was all the extras that you recieved to play it - such as the map, compass and dice. This was a good twist to the traditional 'read and pick the next option' - it gave full reader participation and as a child made me feel like I really was doing the adventure.

The last thing I would mention about this book is that it is very different from its modern day counterpart because there was peril - in the new additions they have removed all the puzzles, the challenges and my favourite thing - the dice. It treats the reader like a complete child, which granted the audiance is children, but the lack of challenges makes it boring and rather uneventful. Overall, it would just be better to read the original  novel so you wouldn't have to keep finding the next page.

Online Research

I'm currently working on a project for university called - Non linear story.
A lot of the research I've done has been internet based and I felt it would be best to have an online 'sketch book' for this.

I will also, be posting my development work as this too will be digital and easier to show here rather then using lots of paper needlessly.

Enjoy!